With admit rates at historic lows and more students applying to more colleges than ever, it’s important for students to make sure they’re submitting the best applications possible.

Whether you’re a sophomore preparing to take your first standardized test or a junior retaking the SAT or ACT to achieve your goal score, performing well is on the minds of many students. One thing remains consistent for students of all ages, however — test anxiety. 

For most undergraduate students, graduate school is a possibility, but many aren’t sure until closer to application time. By then, you’ve passed many opportunities to work on areas that will influence your application to graduate school. Even if you’re not entirely sure which field you’ll be pursuing in a few years, it’s important to get involved the moment you step foot on campus to ensure that you’re making the most of your time in college and that you have the best chance of gaining admission into a top-choice graduate school.

Whether you love Emily Dickinson’s slanted rhyme, Allen Ginsberg’s beats, or Langston Hughes’ Renaissance jazz, you have many college options to study this literary art form. If you’d like to pursue your passion for poetry in college — be it writing, history, analysis, or performance — the expert counselors at IvyWise have identified five great schools where you can find poetic inspiration.

It’s a new year, a new semester, and the perfect time for students to reevaluate their extracurricular activities and whether or not those activities are really helping them better explore their interests. Students often overlook community service as a way to explore their interests because they tend to have a one-dimensional view of what community service entails.

For students expecting early decisions, it’s easy to imagine how they’ll react to their admissions outcomes — whether it’s an acceptance or a rejection. But there’s another possibility on the table that many students forget to prepare for: a deferral.

You made it through the first half of junior year, which means you’re on your way to being a senior and ruling the school! Although college may seem far away, it’s much closer than you think. Now’s the time to develop concrete ideas about where you want to go to college, and make sure that your course load, test scores, and extracurricular activities will help your application stand out. Follow these tips from the IvyWise team of counselors to get the most out of the next six months and have a less stressful and more enjoyable senior year.

IvyWise counselors Carolyn and Victoria review one of our pro bono students’ profile, transcript, Common App personal statement, and Stanford University Supplements on the Just Admit It! college admissions podcast, giving listeners expert insight from former admissions officers.

The admissions process, while time-consuming and complex, is also fun and fascinating. Below, we’ve included some important college admissions statistics, facts, and figures that will help you understand the trends in admission over the past decade.