Thanks for this question! I know it's on a lot of people's minds.

Freshman year first semester grades don't matter, period. They don't show either any relevant personality traits or any relevant academic ability. To look at the other side of the question: depending on how you define a hook, it can be essentially impossible to get in without one. Getting into an Ivy requires that you have some key, compelling, and unique elements. Those involve demonstrating an extreme level of persistence, exploring uncharted territory, and demonstrating curiosity about things that others dismiss.

For the second questions: if you look at the numbers, sure, absolutely. But the numbers don't tell the full story. First, people apply one ED school, and as many as 20 RD schools. Obviously, the ED numbers will be superficially higher. The only time ED helps is if you're punching a little below your weight, so to speak. So if you're someone with a strong chance at Harvard, and you apply ED to a slightly easier Ivy, they may be more inclined to grag you while they can. I've seen that with a few students who wanted a safer route.

The specific major matters in two ways. First, if it's something oversaturated, like biology, that can hurt. But more important than the major itself is your reason for choosing the major.

I recommend (as does the co-author of Invitation to the Ivies, Chelsey Snyder-Singh) that you have a specific Intellectual Mission Statement, which is similar to a professor's research area. That should be your reason for your major. So when asked "Why do you want to major in ___________," you can give your Intellectual Mission Statement as a reason.

Even better: talk about an independent major you want to design. This is something obvious to do for Duke, where independent majors through Program II are what they are about, but should be also considered for any college that allows them.

Thanks for your question!

Good question. Ivy League colleges use extracurriculars to gauge your personality in ways that grades and test scores cannot.

There is a catch, though. Extracurriculars only tell a compelling story when they happen outside the beaten path. Extracurriculars that you just sign up for at school, in addition to being wayyy too common to matter, don't show anything interesting about your personality.

Essays, no question. With great grades and bad essays, you have no chance. With great essays and bad grades, you have a chance.

So let's first understand what yield protection is. One stat that colleges consider is what percentage of those who are accepted end up enrolling. Ideally, that number should be 100%, but no one, not even Harvard, gets that high. Yield protecting is a way to increase that statistic by rejecting students seen as unlikely to enroll if accepted. For example, if you're likely to get into Harvard, a lower ranked school might not accept you, assuming that you would not enroll if admitted.

Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, and MIT do not yield protect. There is just no reason for them to. However, many other colleges, including lower ranked Ivies, do.

A few years ago, one of our students got into Princeton...but was rejected by Cornell! Princeton is much harder to get into, of course. Equivalent essays were submitted.

This student was so incredibly strong that anyone looking at his application would assume he would go to Harvard, Princeton, or Yale. They would have been right.

More recently, we had a student who got into MIT, Harvard, and Yale, but was rejected from U Chicago. Similar situation - a world class applicant who would seem guaranteed to go to one of the top few schools in the country.

Yield protection is a basic reality of college admissions.

Thanks for your question!

It was personal experience. I was one of those kids who everyone thought would get in everywhere. Highest grades in my class, 5's on ten AP exams, founder of multiple clubs, ahead two grades in math, varsity athlete, etc. However, I got rejected from almost everywhere I applied!

I became obsessed with what had gone wrong. Slowly, over decades, I cracked the code. Today, my students have a very different experience from my own!

Thanks for the question!

For Ivy admissions, you should actually experiment with crazy chicken wing recipes. The more outlandish the better. Part of Ivy strategy is creating an "Activity for Fun", which is used to answer questions like, "What brings you joy?".

I know this question wasn't serious, but it inadvertently pointed out an important part of Ivy admissions that most people don't know about or expect!

Amazing

Interesting question, and more relevant than what most people expect. A key part of developing passions needed for Ivy admissions is making sure you have sufficient unstructured time. Many parents feel pressure to make sure their young children are doing enough organized, official activities. But for Ivy admissions, unstructured time is actually more useful.

Thanks for the question. Without trying to summarize a 250 page book in a Reddit post, let me do my best with this one.

Ultimately, Ivy admissions are about personality testing far more than achievement testing. The personality test questions are found in the big essay questions and the small, seemingly unimportant short questions. By learning how personality tests work, you can essentially outsmart the personality test parts.

The number one bit of advice I can give is this: start in 9th grade or earlier. Read the application questions then so that you can design your applicant profile around them. Don't wait until 12th grade and then try to make your activities pretend to fit questions that they don't align with.

Thanks for asking!