How to make college admissions more fun: Apply to a college with a 100% acceptance rate and write "You want a personal statement? I lost my virginity to a vacuum cleaner!" When the admission rate drops to 99%, congratulate yourself. You made a difference.
boatcaptin14 I have no idea what you're talking about. The video is marketing to parents because they've got money, the kids don't. That's usually why they're going to college to enhance their ability to make money after graduation.
"The 1 secret colleges don't want you to know" "Colleges are hating this guy, find out why" "Get I into an Ivy League school with this easy trick" lol.. Plz
I'm a senior in HS, and I actually find this to be an accurate description. I wish I'd seen this my freshman year and realized how important it would be to get a 4.0 and 2300+ SAT. I definitely would have done a few things differently because I would have been way more aware of how my actions might affect my future.
true I used to think that freshman year and sophomore year were not that important for college so I didn't try my hardest, how I have a 85 GPA and wish I knew beforehand that those years were so important
Exactly. I knew that doing "well" in school was important, but I didn't know how truly competitive getting into college is today and how "well" you actually need to do to get into the top schools.
@@MrBrendalovesunicorn It became more competitive since the 1980s because more young adults entered the population and thus the elite Colleges attracted more applicants than ever before. State and Community Colleges became less attractive as time passed. However in the early 2000 state and community became more revived,
Great SAT scores good recommendations Essays of high calibre and a great attitude are also necessary to impress the top notch Universities in North America and beyond.
I want to add that donating money or knowing people on the "inside" really does make a difference. My uncle who got rich in real estate donated a lot of money to Harvard, his alma mater and was good friends with someone in the admissions office. He flat out told me. You're going to Harvard, forward your application to this specific person, they're going to approve you no matter what your grades and SAT scores are. Bam, they sure did and they gave me a FULL RIDE, yep scholarship. College is a joke. Not only that, they treat family of big donors like royalty. I didn't try half as hard as most of those kids, jerked off, barely went to class. Conversations went like this "you missed the mid-term? Omg what are you going to do?" "Oh it's cool, I'm legacy. I'll take it next week." When you hear kids going around campus saying they're "legacy" that means they have a relative who graduated from there and is now a big donor. You basically get special treatment. And yes I took full advantage of the special treatment. You would too!!! They made "exceptions" for me all time. Kids would hate on us exclaiming "these fucking legacy kids get to do whatever they want." Yep we sure did! Many people know this dirty little secret. I think it sucks to be honest. College is a joke. I became successful and incidentally it had nothing to do with my college education. I wish I'd skipped college to be honest.
@Intelligence Injection no you did not became succesfull - If you are not as rich as your uncle or found a company.You are in that %99 which will die without making a substansial impact in this world.Because the important thing is your abilities.If your only ability in this world is that your family is rich,you can say that ı am living my life just for fun.
The another great thing is that all game-changers came from a kindf of hardship(moslt financial) and builda legacy.If rich doesnt start to teach their kids about poverty and make them experience it,the innovators founders and other people in %1 are always be famous and remind that : Only you matter because if that's a lie,why do most game changers comes from poverty ?
Wow. I guess I'm royally screwed then. What am I? Not athletic, not an expert. I don't get outstanding grades. I guess that makes me worthless. Community college here I come.
charlene mitchell Not true. I have a friend who has low grades and is not athletic but he is very smart, classy, and socially apt. I wouldn't be surprised if he becomes a CEO one day. Grades aren't everything.
Community colleges are better than Universities. Universities hire professors based on the research income, not the teaching standard. Thus, students get some nuclear physicist from Russia who can barely speak English failing every student in the school. Universities being privatized are only in it for the money, to barely put any money into the student and to suck them dry with debt. Look at all the big schools, they have pretty impressive sports teams don't they? Coaches of those University teams making upwards of 5 million annually. Yea, that's a good use of an educational establishment's profits.Truth is you'll get a better education more than half the time at community colleges, because community college hire based on faculty needs and not research dollars and at a cheaper cost as well. No reason to go to a university unless you aim on being a surgeon, or a lawyer. Everything else is accomplished through self-employed entrepreneurship, vocational training, or internship.
You better not go at all! FACT; Half of All graduates don't get jobs! That's a fact! RU-vid it! Go to a trade school or ups (or employer like that) who will pay for U to go to school!
Also remember--at least in CA--don't know the rules elsewhere, that if you graduate from a community college--you are first pick for the state universities. Meaning, if you could not get in to, say UCLA, but graduate from a local JC with decent grades, they MUST let you in as a junior--and you saved money and had better teachers your first two years. Consider that AND--remember this for all of you chasing a GED. If you did NOT graduate high school you can enter a JC WITHOUT a high school diploma--I had a top Professor with a Ph.D and no high school diploma
This is the longest advertisement I've ever seen in my life. Get your scores up, get your grades up, join extracurriculars, but not too many, and be happy with the colleges you chose. Good luck to everyone.
I'm going to be honest: I was one of the 167 people who "disliked" this video. Why? Because it's a 28 minute video that could have easily been chopped down to five: "get your child's SAT scores as high as possible. How? Buy my book. Get your child a specialization and it'll be easier. Find more tips by buying my book." Most of the advice in this video was vague rather than specific; instead of telling people "Do this to improve your chances of getting into college," it's instead "These are the hard truths about college admissions" coupled with more than one shameless plug about his book. If you're an expert on something and you want to direct people to a book you've published or a blog post you've written, putting a link to the Amazon page for the book or a link to the blog is fine. But there were two additional advertisements for his book within the video, as well as another one at the end. Frankly, college is just college. It doesn't really matter where you go, in my opinion. I'm at a public university, which is technically my dream school; it was the only one I applied to and the one I knew I wanted to attend, however, it ended up being the best decision of my life because my major department is one of the best anywhere. Public universities have their good points, too, especially since the tuition tends to be cheaper while the quality of the professors remain relatively the same across the board. I doubt the professors from Harvard or Princeton could have done a better job teaching me and inspiring me than the professors at my school have.
I agree with your statement. Another thing that really peeved me was how he kept mentioning his credentials throughout the video rather than stating them in the introduction. Moreover, I think his statements weren't that specific. I stopped the video not even halfway into it not because I didn't like the truths I was hearing. I just didn't like the way he presented his ideas.
Because you're TOTALLY not advertising and being a selfish brat and dising people's stuff while promoting yours so why should I even think about buying your product or for that matter trust what you say about ANYTHING. I HATE PEOPLE LIKE YOU YOU MAKE THE WORLD A BAD PLACE OR AT LEAST WORSE THAN BEFORE.
So I know a few admissions officers from top tier Ivy Leagues and other good colleges, and what I can tell you is that, at least at those schools, the admissions process is holistic. Admissions officers aren't looking for reasons to throw your application out, rather they are looking for reasons to let you in. One of the biggest mistakes people make is thinking that scores make or break them. If they are un-fantastic, the rest of the application has to be better. If they are fantastic, the rest of the application doesn't need to be fantastic but still show a person not wholly focused on grades and scores. Furthermore, admissions officers don't look for the people who start early because they think they're rich, people who "start early" haven't started early, they are just the people who know have consistently worked hard to achieve what they want to achieve, and not someone who realizes junior year that they want to go to Harvard. While we are using personal cases to justify our arguments, I have seen one kid get into a top tier university because he was a good athlete. Furthermore, I do not have fantastic grades or test scores, and I am not a mega-specialist, or at least not one who brings money or reputation. I play one sport, never varsity. I don't play an instrument. I have been a member of my school's tech crew since seventh grade, but of the mega-specialists you listed, tech theatre is not a speciality that brings reputation or money. I am not rich, and I didn't have a great start to high school. Yet, I got into one of the best universities in the United States. For anyone who is really interested in what they need to do to get into college, get started on the writing portions of the application quickly. There are plenty of kids who score 2250 on the SAT and have a 3.8 GPA, but there aren't a lot of kids who have your voice, so make it a good one. Also, talk to an admissions officer, not some youtube video which may have "inside knowledge" of the process. I am wholeheartedly against trusting what you see from websites and publications because those are ads for the college. But talking to the actual admissions officers at the colleges you want to go to is the best way to find out what you need to do. There are no cards to play unless you play them wrong. If you're right for the college, you're right, and if you're not, you're not. Reducing it to the ultra-narrow minded process that this video reduces it to only serves to put you at a mega-disadvantage.
"If you're right for the college, you're right, and if you're not, you're not. " ? Really? These admissions folks are some sort of fortune tellers? Where is the test to see if they should have let in Y whom they rejected, instead of X whom they accepted? Of course there is none, nobody even tries to hold their feet to the fire on this. So if the admissions people at the Ivies are trying to let people in, why do they reject 90% of the applicants -- most of whom are at least pretty good and would do fine on campus? What is a "reason to let people in"? One could be the essay, but surely they know that this can be bought too, far more easily than test scores. There's no security around who writes the college essays. Could be parents, could be a paid professional. If there's an interview, they could see how well it connects to what is written in the essay I guess, that's about all.
@@artichoke60045 well I know somebody who got rejected from all ivies and got into MIT and Stafford, schools look for specific things in students. ITS NOT JUST ESSays , it's extracurriculars, test score and reccomendations. Yale has a thing for leaders,Mit looks for problem solvers, while Princeton is more academic but they all try to find diversity too. Grades show work ethic,essays shows personality, recc shows how others view you. That's how they do it
+Aaron Lynn depends how cheap you want the college to be. For the national ones you need a B2 lvl of german but they are like only 800$ per semester. On the other hand you have those more expensive ones that offer german classes while you're there and classes in english. Some are like 5000-6000$ a year I think but I can't guarantee. You'd have to check this information If you have a dual citizenship with a country that belongs to EU you get a discount for the first option so a semester is only about 350-400$ per semester but again classes are in german so you'd need a certain degree of knowledge
JamesonWhiskey810 It's funny because I got into my college easily because I was well rounded with amazing grades, work experience and clubs so you can be quiet now.
You want to get into college? 3 things: 1) Good grades 2) Good standardized test grades (high SAT and ACT) 3) Rigor - take hard classes (a 4.0 with 4 AP classes is better than a 4.0 with no AP classes)
You lost all credibility when you said Columbia College is an Ivy League school that you got in. Columbia University is an Ivy League school. Columbia College is a small liberal arts college in South Carolina. It has an acceptance rate of 79%.
CyberPhilosopher Columbia college is the college within Columbia University...yes, you are correct that there are multiple Columbia colleges (Chicago and South Carolina), but keep in mind that a University has separate colleges too (Columbia University has Columbia College and their School of Engineering) :)
I wish I was told the following before I went into college: College isn't a place to learn; it's a place to compete. If you don't ALREADY KNOW the material BEFORE you get into college - you don't have a chance. My teachers, family, guidance counsellors, etc. all led me to believe that college is this magical utopia where people come to learn critical thinking skills. This couldn't be further from the truth. My first class coming in, the professor pops a pile of "basic questions" that all of the kids eagerly answer within seconds. I, on the other hand, I'm left completely clueless. The professor then slams the book down and says, "this is why you're the best of the best, I see no reason to go through the introductory chapters, we're having a pop quiz as soon as tomorrow." It's at this moment I realize that I'm with a bunch of dynasty kids who already knew the entire first semester. I didn't stand a chance and had to drop out. I did manage to pass my midterms despite being so far behind, but I literally had to work 12 to 16 hour days, each day, just to achieve a mere C average. I was burnt out by the time I reached the finals. My energy depleted midway through a key exam and my mind went blank. Let this be a lesson to everyone, college isn't an institution of learning, it's a place where "ringer kids" demonstrate their expertise in the public eye. It's one giant stage. Sort of like "tryouts" for the NBA, NHL, NFL, etc. I'm still confused to this day how I got accepted into that elite college in the first place. . .
Watched this when my kid was a sophomore and now she's a member of the class of 2021 at an Ivy League school. I couldn't agree more with the advice. Like it or not, he's right.
Yeah this is clearly a rip off lol. He tried to trick people into thinking he went to Columbia University but got the wrong seal. what a liar! its so obvious that he is just being a salesman
Well, I had a terrible SAT score and got into top schools 14% and lower, so they definitely look at applications way more holistically than you might think
@@alicedog368 I mean, it completely disproves the statement that if they see an application with a certain score, they just throw it in the trash. If this is a given: "They throw all applications out if they are below X score"--> BUT they didn't throw one application out (mine) which was below a certain score, the statement "all applications are thrown out if they are below a certain score" is false, even if the only application they did not throw out is mine. Simple logic 👍🏼
Thanks for the tips. I will be a senior this coming fall. I don't come from a upper or middle class family. So I hope that these tips will help me get into a good college to make my mother proud since her other 2 kids didn't go to college.
This guy is speaking the TRUTH. I learned all of these lessons later on in my college years through trial and error and an Education Seminar that I happened to take by chance. However, by then, I felt it was kind of late. I think the best advice is to figure out what you're an expert in as early on as you can and look for opportunities and READ whatever you can about this hobby and begin to build a story. Your story.
Rule #2 is why I'm glad I started my search in middle school, took the SAT (without the results being permanent) around the same time, and am learning how to fill out an application as a sophomore.
This is silly. Why would colleges not want me to know that they need money? Colleges are businesses, they need money. Saying that colleges are selfish based on their need of money is unfair. But, you don't care about being fair, you only care to get some views. You've got your views, I'll give you that. But don't think that there aren't any people who see this video for what it really is: obvious information with a deceptive title.
+Gerardo Guzman Speaking from my own experience with admits, Stanford likes dancers. It'll sometimes take people with nothing but above average scores and all right GPA because they dance. Also, Stanford admissions out of all colleges have very warped visions of "diversity", that nobody but they will understand. They will sometimes seek out a certain applicant, because he/she has some arbitrary trait that they for some reason think valuable.
O my gosh congratulations ! Stanford is my dream school❤️ I have only taken the act once( but I'm only a sophomore *kind of an over acheiver*) but I scored a 25 so hopefully I can do better next time
I refuse to be a college's bitch. I will NOT refigure my life just to get into a damn school. If a college wants me, then they want me. If they don't, they don't. I will take my well-rounded life thank you very much.
This is all bullshit... I got into my dream school and my parents didn't TOUCH my application. Because honestly, you've been doing what you need to do to get into college all along. The application is just about writing it down on paper. If you can't do that for yourself by 18, then are you really ready for college? The only book you need to buy is that blue SAT book your junior year. Otherwise. Have fun getting into college!! The only help kids should really need is funding. Make a video about that, would you?
Thanks Im a freshmen and I will start prepping for SATs this summer This actually makes alot of sense; I was worried about not joining clubs, but not anymore
That doesn't mean you shouldn't join clubs! Join as many as clubs as possible and try to be president or co found a lot of them. By the way, I'm also a freshman and you do realize that prepping for the SAT is useless? We're getting the new SAT's! We have no damn idea about what the new SAT is going to be like. We're all screwed over. You're prepping for the old SAT but taking the new one...
This seems to be more of a US college thing, because: - not all countries uses standardized testing to the same extent as the US does in addition to the exams students take at the end of high school - some colleges are free or require very low tuition fees and still deliver top quality education - US ranking extremely overhypes and puts a bias on the rankings of US colleges
This video continues to press parents to improve their college applications, instead of allowing students to navigate this journey on their own. It's particularly frustrating to see parents doing grunt work with their children's applications. A big part of attending college is not only the academic side of things, but personal development and independence- learning to be an adult. If the parents continue to squander students' efforts toward independence and act as a "helicopter parent" from the gate, what kind of experience are they really setting them up for?
Do you work in college admissions? Yes I know they want things to be the students' work, so they can evaluate the students. Guidance departments talk about kids "spreading their wings" and becoming independent in their late teens. Well that's not how General Douglas MacArthur graduated first in his class at West Point. His mother lived nearby campus (not before he enrolled of course -- she moved there when he started) and checked his assignments and nagged him for 4 years. (I learned this on the nice guided tour they give there.) Maturity you can learn later once you're on the fast track.
There's a HUGE difference between guiding and doing. I value familial ties as much as the next guy, but doing the work for your student is a blunt disservice.
I learned : - Kill your SAT Score - Get a Resonable GPA - Have a Skill that Sets you apart, and indicates you might end up being a Milionaire and try applying early...........BOOM you in!
I'm so relieved after seeing "How To Get Into College In 2 Steps." My parents are always haranguing me about how I have to be well rounded and athletic. 'Stretch yourself thinner because that's what colleges want to see!' when all I really want to do is stay home and do math.
I actually liked the length of the video because I need as much information as possible! I wouldn't want information that was watered down, he went in dept. about everything which is really helpful!
I was accepted to Vanderbilt University last week and I can definitely say that I didn't need an admissions coach... Sure I took an SAT prep course but I did everything else based on books I bought on Amazon and I got into the #16 school in the country.
Point 4 is probably the most useful to anyone watching this video, or anyone concerned about the college application process. Colleges want students they can trust to succeed after college. If you're okay/mediocre at a large number of things, how is a college supposed to know what you'll do after college? One thing we have to understand is that passion strongly correlates with success. People only really find success if they do what they love. For example, if you want to work at Pixar, you won't even have a prayer of working there if you only want the bragging rights. The animators at Pixar are there because they love animation. The takeaway is that if you're driven and passionate enough at what you do, with the proficiency and catalog to back it up, opportunity will come to you. I got into the University of Michigan through piano. But I wasn't forced to do piano by my parents. I pushed myself to get better and better. So, find what you love and run with it.
I feel like most of this is untrue. I'm from a lower middle class family, didn't even think about college until junior year, and was just accepted to Georgetown, one of the most selective schools in the country. So to all future college applicants: don't let this video scare you. Be yourself and work hard and I'm sure you'll get into a great college
I like how he brushes off the fact that he had perfect SAT scores. Duh, any high-ranking college is going to let you in because having a perfect SAT score will bump up their metrics as well. They can always get someone with a 4.0 GPA to cover the gap your perfect SAT score and mediocre grades created. Also top colleges are not about the life of the mind. They're about connections, bragging rights (especially for the parents early on, and then the kids in their adult lives) and getting well-paying and/or prestigious jobs. True education and the pursuit of knowledge is just a nice peripheral thrown in for good PR. It has been like that since time immemorial. It will continue to be like that as long as human beings walk the Earth.
This is such an advertisement. Just saying that no schools look at you application is complete garbage. If you apply to a large school that receives tens of thousands of applications that may be true, but smaller schools do look at the rigor of your classes and some of the finer points.
Even for big schools it's not true. I got into Davis where about 60,000 apply and about 20,000 get admitted and I had low sat scores and terrible act. And I'm not "in the know" So for anyone reading this, don't believe this video, it's a scam. Just do your best in the applications because they DO look at it, especially your personal statement! I mean. I'm entering Davis on the 15th of August for the Special Transitional Enrichment Program, so do not listen to scams such as these, listen to actual students.
Ditto_Cris •_______• Np! I'm a senior in High-school and Davis is definitely a school that I've been considering, but similar to you, I don't have the best test scores.
The picture he puts up at 12:13 is the Fighting Koalas of Columbia College, a liberal arts college for women in South Carolina, not the Ivy League University in New York. Proves this guy doesn't know anything.
I have heard many other college graduates say this same thing - on youtube. Colleges and Universities want specialists - kids who specialise in ONE or TWO major areas. If they can sit their SAT's early, then they can work on the speciality for Junior and Senior year. Being a specialist will get you in. Colleges will obviously admit some well rounded students, but they really really want specialists.
Not all colleges have a terrible admissions process. Some officers DO look at the overall applicant. I got into UNT. My ACT/SAT were not the highest, but my résumé/essay and decent grades got me in. The point is that some do look at you as a person and student. It's not all about that SAT score...
I also got accepted to UNT with a 3.3 gpa from Houston Community College and like a 1230 SAT score. I don't even remember my essay that I wrote... haha.
Hey, Anthony, at the 12:17 mark you used the wrong seal for Columbia. That's the seal for a liberal arts college in South Caroline, not Columbia University located in Manhattan.
I barely scraped by getting accepted into my college. But, one tip that my counselor gave me was that colleges will accept lower gpas and SAT scores towards the beginning of admissions because they're worried about making their numbers. They want our money. And we want their education. So, if you've an average student like myself, apply at the very start of the season and you'll get clumped in with these "experts" and top ten students.
Go to community college for two years and transfer. You'll save a lot of money knocking out the basics, you'll still get the same diploma from your choice school and it's often easier to get into a college as a junior than as an incoming freshman.
The money part is true. I'm in grad school with one of the admission officers of the school in my program, and this lady flies off to richer parts of the country in order to appeal to students that come from rich families almost every week.
I had two questions wrong on the SAT 1 and I didn't get in to any of my 6 top choices :(. He's absolutely right about starting early - my parents and counselors didn't really care about my app until late Junior year and by then it was too late to have anything that merits "specialist" status. Oh well, I'm now taking a gap year and re-applying with a stronger app and making a killing off SAT tutoring in the mean time. Start early and good luck my friends!
WOW! What a revelation! I would never have guessed Colleges were only after the money... Especially not after seeing Deans of medical schools making (literally) millions, college football being a booming industry, while the players get no money, and tuition rates rising far higher than what is necessary to compensate for inflation. Glad someone made a 15 minute youtube video that just kept repeating colleges are MONEY HUNGRY, because I sure as hell had no clue. smh at humanity.
This is why I'm going to community. I live in California and am a resident so it's essentially free with fafsa and promise combined. 2 years of free college then I get to transfer to state or university with guranteed acceptance through a program. You guys have to be smart and take advantages of the things around you. ;)
It's true, everything the guy in this video is saying is true. My step-son will be a Freshman at Princeton University Fall 2015. We went on tours at MIT and a couple of Ivy League universities in between his Junior & Senior year of high school. It was clear that we were too late. The information they gave on these tours was information we should have known before he even started high school. In fact there were many kids on these tours with us that were just out of 8th grade! These were kids of wealthy parents who knew the system. We felt like such dumb asses. The only thing that got our kid into Princeton was his 4.0 GPA (they don't offer AP courses at his high school, so 4.0 is as high as he could get) and his nearly perfect ACT scores. He doesn't come from money or privilege, but he's freaky smart and that's how he got in to Princeton. They don't want well rounded students anymore, like they did when I went to college. They want kids that are genius smart, especially in one particular obscure subject. So if your kid has super high grades & ACT/SAT scores, and is super focused on one thing he/she likes, for example, the mechanisms for printing 3D images on orbiting space shuttles (don't laugh, I'm serious), then don't dissuade him/her. Your kid does NOT need to be well rounded.
