HOW TO GET IN A TOP 25 SCHOOL

The first thing you should do as a high school freshman is to make learning & good grades a priority. You’ll need to spend 80% less time fiddling with your phone and more time learning and growing. That means sitting at the front of the class (to eliminate distractions from other kids), asking questions to the teacher to probe deeper on the subject, then doing all homework and extra credit to earn strong grades. Don’t give in to the peer pressure that you are “kissing up” to the teacher or working too hard in your studies or not drinking enough beer. That time will come in the future, and you’ll be able to afford much more than beer. Those that make fun of you now will be fixing your car or cleaning your beach house in the future.

The main goal and ingredient you should strive for is “high numbers”. Excel in all your high school classes, get fantastic grades and crush the ACT’s / SAT’s.

However, you need to do MUCH more than that to get into a prestigious college.

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Your chances getting an offer to a elite university during “regular decision” are roughly what others with high scores are: about 5% for regular decision — that’s 1-out-of-20 students who apply. Most everyone applying to these schools have high GPA’s. What will differentiate you from the other 95% are your “non-numerical” assets.

1. Everyone is in a club or team. So what? Were you the leader? What did you accomplish? How did those accomplishments change you and help you grow? They don’t compare the number of clubs or teams (football versus glee club), they want to find out how that shaped you and help you grow. Are you mature enough to even mention that, or are you going to just talk about the “actions” of the team/club? (We won 10 games or I led 12 meetings — so what?). Or are you going to tell a story about how four years of chasing excellence taught you valuable lessons.

2. Did you really help your community or was it just a college app stuffer? They don’t want to know that you served 100 meals a week for ten weeks at the soup kitchen, they want to know how you affected the soup kitchen’s customers and how that affected you. In your essay, tell them about the homeless boy “Miquel” you met and how you would sit with him after serving the meal and played a game of tag afterwards, getting him to finally smile and laugh, and how that made you feel…

3. Your letters of recommendation. Did the teacher say “Johnny came to class everyday and got an ‘A’ in my course” or will they say “Johnny made my class better. Because of his enthusiasm and ability to weave in other enlightening concepts into the lectures, he raised the level of his peers and made our hour together each day into a delightful symphony of learning.”

4. Alumni interviews matter. Duke (and most Ivy League schools) have alumni interview the vast majority of applicants. It’s 16% of your “grade”. If you don’t impress, you don’t get in. The Dean asks us to identify passionate, thoughtful and interesting people and to cut through the clutter of numbers and discern the real applicant. They never ask us to rate how “smart” we think they are, but how “thoughtful and interesting” we think they are. Can they be a catalyst among other thoughtful and interesting classmates if we select them? Here are two examples from a couple years ago of students that I interviewed. Both had a weighted GPA of over 4.2, SAT’s over 1550 (out of 1600), were officers in clubs at school, played varsity sports, helped those less fortunate and were very aware of Duke and its programs. All key factors, but are they interesting and could they be a catalyst?

During the alumni interview, after learning about their backgrounds and interest in Duke, I eventually ask them “Name 4 people who ever lived that you would like to have a meal and conversation with.”

Here are 2 very different replies:

“JOHN” applying to study electrical engineering 1) Barack Obama, because he was the President. 2) Beyonce, because I love her style. 3) Tom Brady, because he’s a Super Bowl hero. 4) Flea, the lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers because I like his songs.

“MARY” applying to biomedical engineering 1) Nietzsche, a controversial German philosopher. She said that she wasn't a fan of his, but wanted to debate him on this thoughts about God and our relationship to a higher power. She had her arguments lined up and was ready for the mental battle. 2) Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, who was best known for rediscovering the ruins of the ancient city of Petra in Jordan. She wanted to ask him how he was able to bring word of the lost city to the Western world and remarked that 85% of Petra still lies undiscovered. She wanted to meet Johann at the outer wall of Petra, with some lunch and drinks, then continue exploring with him after the meal. 3) Jesus Christ, in the middle of his ministry. She wanted to ask him if he came down to earth to start a new religion and have everyone worship him, or was he an enlightened human self-aware enough to try to prove to the world that by leading a life of humility, feeding the hungry and helping the poor would unleash divine powers within you. She reminded me Jesus never said “Worship Me” but did say “Follow Me” implying that if we were humble and lived a life of service, divine powers would be unleashed within us. She wanted to ask Jesus specifically that if she followed “Christ consciousness” and lived a life helping others, she could also become enlightened and unleash her intrinsic divine powers and perform miracles like he did. (Wow!) 4) Leonardo da Vinci. She wanted to meet him in his art studio in Florence, Italy and have him give her a tour, pointing out his helicopter designs hanging from the ceiling and the unfinished painting of a woman named Mona. She’d really wanted to ask him about their “relationship” and why she was smiling like that.

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Both of these students are terrific but I found Mary to be exceptionally interesting, and told the Duke Admissions Committee why in my review.

Mary got accepted. John did not. In fact, 95% of applicants didn’t get in, but Mary had something special that she honed over 4 years in high school.

Now I don’t see the whole application package for these students, and don’t know what other data and recommendations they contain, but Mary followed the pattern I mentioned above of the kind of students Duke (and the Ivies) seem to accept. Besides being a great student, Mary was engaged, passionate and interesting.

So in your time left before applying, I’d suggest to travel more, stay up on current events, read 10 interesting books, watch 20 TED talks, and put down your phone to have 500 adult conversations with your parents and neighbors to discuss what is going on in your community, state and world. Hone you thought processes to become more mature and worldly, so you can respond to “key” college admission questions like Mary did as well as write a REALLY interesting essay.

Besides getting good numbers and being involved in sports and clubs and serving the community, become interesting and you’ll have a better shot of getting invited to join a bunch of other really smart and interesting students at a great university. Start now as a young teen to grow as much as possible before your college applications are due.

Good luck!

By Randy Hadelman