Going Ivy College Admissions Consulting in Phoenix, AZ

Whether your parents went to a top U.S. college or you’re the first in your family to go to school in the this country, you are like many other Arizona high school students who set a goal to get through the daunting process of applying to college. The preparation you receive at any of the public, private and charter schools in the Phoenix metro area has taken you far, but the work doesn’t stop there. When it comes to gaining admission to college, there is no secret formula, but there are steps that you can take to convince your dream schools that you are the type of student that they need on their campuses.

Setting a goal to get accepted into college is only the first of many steps. Some schools require three different essays, some won’t accept the Common Application, some want you to take at least two SAT subject tests, and some will interview you. It is easy for you to become overwhelmed by everything that you will need to do for each individual college that you are thinking about applying to according to their particular requirements and deadlines. Fortunately, the experts at Going Ivy are ready to help you through the process.

Helping You Reduce the Admissions Stress

When you are preparing for college, the sheer number of tasks that you will need to complete can be crushing. One of the reasons that college admissions might seem so stressful is that the outcomes are black and white. This may lead you to view the process as being a success versus being a failure. You do not need to have a highly stressful experience with applying to college, and we can help by identifying your strengths, providing you with guidance and demystifying the process. Here are some of the ways we can help:

• Identify your strengths and explaining how they might be framed in the most appealing manner.
• Explain how the admissions process works and how admissions committees choose which students to accept.
• Help you to research different college choices and provide you information about your educational options.
• Give you access to CollegePlannerPro software, which holds a substantial amount of information.
• Outline and edit answers to all your essays and application questions.
• Maintain 24/7 availability and respond to your emails, phone calls and texts promptly.
• Help you to transform your anxiety into motivation.

Going Ivy can help you to reduce the stress that is involved with trying to undertake this monumental task and accomplish your major goal by using a holistic approach that acknowledges your personality, motivation, writing, presentation and more. A large part of reducing the stress that is involved is starting early and being organized. We work with high school freshmen through seniors in Phoenix and around the country, and those who are reflecting on colleges and prepared for requirements of admission earlier are more excited than anxious when it comes to submitting college applications. We can help you with this by designing a tailored roadmap that outlines all of the steps that are required and your deadlines. When your goal is broken down into individual, concrete steps and milestones, it can seem much more manageable as you work toward accomplishing it. The plan that we will design for you will be one that is based on your strengths and is focused on helping you to stay motivated so that you remain on task.

Understanding the Four Primary Tasks

While your work will necessarily involve good study habits throughout high school and strong preparation for your standardized tests, the four overarching tasks of applying to colleges will take you about six months. The summer before your senior year of high school should be busy! These steps will include researching your choices, selecting the colleges to which you’ll apply, completing your applications and deciding where you will enroll when you receive your acceptance letters.

Researching Schools

Your school research should include an in-depth look at the areas of study, the teaching techniques, the typical class profile, student characteristics and more. When you learn these things, you will be better equipped to figure out whether a particular school is right for you and whether or not you are likely to be accepted.

Choosing Your Schools

When you are selecting the schools to which you will apply, you’ll want to choose a mixture of reach schools, target schools and safety schools. You will also want to determine if you want to apply to one of your top choices by early decision or early action.

Completing All of Your Applications

You will need to gather the information about what is required for each application. You will want to use your best effort when you are completing every application and personal statement, including the ones to your safety schools. The research you’ve already conducted will come in handy here, as you should be sure to communicate a high level of knowledge and interest in each school.

Choosing Where to Enroll

If you are very fortunate and have prepared exceptionally well, you may find yourself in the enviable position of having to choose which offer to accept. Unless you were accepted by early decision to your top-choice school, you will need to do further research, consider financial aid offers and perhaps complete some additional visits.

Understanding Highly Selective Colleges

U.S. News and World Report’s research shows 80 percent of the colleges and universities in the U.S. accept at least half of their applicants. The story is very different, however, at the most highly selective schools in the U.S., which make up only about 100 of the more than 4,000 institutions. These are institutions that admit fewer than 25 percent of the students who apply each year. Among these institutions are the schools that make up the Ivy League, and their 2017 admissions statistics are revealing:

• Harvard – 5.2 percent
• Columbia – 5.8 percent
• Princeton – 6.1 percent
• Yale – 6.9 percent
• Brown – 8.3 percent
• University of Pennsylvania – 9.2 percent
• Dartmouth – 10.4 percent
• Cornell – 12.5 percent

And don’t forget a spot at the highly coveted Stanford campus: that registered at 4.65 percent. When you decide to apply to a highly selective school, it is important for you to understand how competitive it is and that most of the other applicants will also have top grades and scores. With such low acceptance rates (denying hundreds of valedictorians and perfect testers every year), applying to these schools takes confidence and a lot of help. The key will be standing out in your essay, your story and your extracurricular choices to shine through as the interesting and unique person that you are.

Understanding the Most Common Factors that are Emphasized by Admissions Committees

There are a number of factors that most college admissions committees emphasize when they are reviewing applications. These include your grades, the rigor of your high school classes, your standardized test scores, your letters of recommendation and your personal statement. A few schools are now making standardized tests optional while others, including Yale and Harvard, factor in whether or not your parents are alumni in addition to the other factors. Others require interviews while some make them optional. You will want to look at the particular requirements each of your potential schools has and note all of their respective deadlines.

It is important for you to understand that there is no secret for gaining admission into an exclusive school. There are things that will help you and things that will hurt you. Going Ivy believes that taking certain steps to identify the college that is the best fit for you can help you work to make yourself an ideal addition to its campus. You should be authentic instead of attempting to package yourself into what you think a particular school wants. You are more than your grades and test scores, and conveying who you truly are is important both to your school and to your own happiness with your choice.

We can assist you with your organizational skills so that you are submitting your applications early instead of rushing to meet deadlines. We also help you to make certain that you are answering what each application question is asking of you.

Some factors may give you an edge. These might include your being from a geographically diverse location, having a special talent, being an underrepresented student, being a star athlete or having legacy status. Most students, of course, do not have these additional attributes. What makes you unique will be enough if you can communicate it skillfully.

Choosing Where to Apply

For students applying to highly selective colleges and universities, the number of applications they submit each year is going up. Because many of our students want to apply to highly selective schools, Going Ivy typically recommends that you submit between seven and 12 applications. You should group the schools into categories based on your test scores, grades, extracurriculars, leadership roles and other factors.

1. Safety schools

These are schools that you believe you have a high probability of being admitted. You should have scores and grades that are much higher than the minimums required by the school. Don’t think of these as throw-aways and not worth your attention. You should apply to the safety schools at which you’ll be happy to attend if you are not accepted to your other college choices.

2. Schools that match you

These are schools that fit your academic interests and your personality. Your achievements should fall within the profiles of their normally admitted classes.

3. Reach schools

These are schools at which you have a chance but for which your achievements or scores might be slightly below what they normally accept. You will have to shine on your applications and essays, and you will need great letters of recommendation for these schools.

4. Lottery schools

Even with top scores and grades, you need to recognize that being accepted to Stanford or Harvard is akin to winning the lottery. Thousands of applicants who are first in their classes and who have top grades and scores are rejected each year by these schools. While you might need a stroke of luck to gain admission to these schools, it is still possible. In fact, many students from Going Ivy have won admission to these highly selective schools.

How We Can Help You Decide Where to Apply

Our Going Ivy counselors are graduates of Brophy College Prep and Xavier College Prep, and we have graduated from some of the top colleges in the nation. We understand how to figure out which schools are your best matches and fits, and we can supply you with the resources that you need to help you to choose. We may ask you to answer a number of questions to help us to figure out some schools that we can recommend. Your answers to these will help us to understand your personality and then to suggest schools that fit your personal approach and needs. We can also ask you a number of different questions that are designed to help you to start thinking about how you’ll convey that you are the perfect student for each school.

When we ask you to answer these statements and questions, we are not testing you. Instead, the conversation is meant to help us get to know who you are as an individual. Some schools have their own unique personalities, and Going Ivy can help by showing you the choices that have personalities that match yours.

As the time to apply draws near, Going Ivy will reassess the schools in which you are interested in order to make certain that you choose the ones that meet your academic and career goals and fit your personality. We’ll also analyze your chances of getting accepted to them. Then, we’ll help you rank them by your own preference and chances of acceptance. Part of this process will be deciding which schools you might want to apply to first and whether or not you will apply to them via the early action or early decision processes. Your chances of acceptance improve significantly when you apply early instead of waiting until the deadlines are looming.

Getting Help from Going Ivy

Like other supportive professionals, college admissions advisers assist you with navigating through the challenging and complicated process of applying to colleges. Commonly, parents want you to make your own decisions about college while they support you through it. Parents also want the stress for their children to be minimized during the college admissions process so that their teenagers are happier and less anxious.

We offer comprehensive services from which you can choose, and we take the time to get to know who you are. We don’t just work with students who have goals of attending the schools in the Ivy League. Instead, we work with students of all backgrounds who want to achieve their highest potential. We will work to help you to become highly motivated. We also offer services to assist you with getting better grades, becoming more organized and helping you to find the right balance in your life.

Contact us to schedule your free consultation so that we can learn more about you and your goals for college admissions. We can help you with all aspects of the process. You do not have to have the best grades in your school to ask us for help. You simply need to have a desire to succeed at the college that will be the best fit and match for you. We look forward to working together as you grow, like the ivy plant, into the person who you have the potential to become.