The Ultimate Guide to Success in the College Admissions Process

Secrets about College Admissions You Should Know

College admissions sucks.

There's a million things you have to consider, making it very easy to miss certain things.
Don't look back only to realize that there was something you could've done better.

Table of Contents
- Preface
- The Importance of a Story
- Student Profile Comparison
- Crash Lesson on Wording your Extracurriculars
- Choosing a College List
- General Essay Progression Timeline
- General Essay Guidelines
- Sample Essay Revision
- 50 Successful Ivy League essays
- My Duke Supplementals
- Final Message

Your dream college acceptance journey starts here.

Preface
If you’re reading this, I want to start off by congratulating you—you’re already
taking proactive steps into building a better future for yourself. This puts you in the top
percentile of your peers.
Let’s get straight into what you came here for.

IP of myriadadmissions.com
 The single most important thing that I’ve recognized as a differentiator between
students that are successful and unsuccessful in the college application cycle, regardless of
their application, is mindset.
No matter how accomplished of a writer you may be, the reality is, the majority of
high school students have never written an essay purely about themselves before (perhaps
after 1st grade, when writing about how you had a great day making mud pies was still
cool).
So, what does this mean for you?
It’s okay to fail.
You won’t get it right the first time. Or the second time. Or the third time. Or perhaps
even the twentieth time.
But just like any skill, continuous practice and repetition improves your writing
ability, day by day. This is why I encourage all of my students to write even when they don’t
feel that the topic they came up with is to their liking—the more practice you get, the
greater the next essay after, and the next one after, then the next one after that will be.
It’s okay to get frustrated when your writing feels inferior. You may feel like
complete shit when you ask someone to review an essay you worked so hard on only for
them to rip it to bits.
That is exactly when you should keep writing.
When you feel the greatest pain is when the greatest growth follows.

The Importance of A Story

Now that we’ve gotten mindset out of the way, let’s focus on some of the more
tangible elements of your college applications.
After mindset, the next most important aspect of your college applications is story,
or narrative.
Sure, you may be a well-rounded student. Perhaps you have a keen interest in music,
and one of your main extracurriculars is having a band you performed for for many years.
But maybe you also love math—perhaps you’re the president of your school’s math team.
Literature interests you as well, so you write a couple blog posts for a local article on the

IP of myriadadmissions.com
weekends. Perhaps you also participate in debate, environmental club, and volunteer at a
hospital two times a week.
The issue here is that having a wide range of interests makes it difficult for you to be
memorable in the eyes of the admissions officers.
In comparison, let’s take a student that has volunteered at a hospital, shadowing a
doctor at their local clinic, conducted research on arthritis at their local university, held
fundraisers to support arthritis-related charities, placed well in HOSA competitions, and
has a non-profit where they teach disabled children how to cook.

Student Profile Comparison

Student 1 Student 2

Performing in a band Volunteer at hospital

President of math team Shadowed a doctor

Blog post writer Research on arthritis

Debate club Fundraisers for arthritis-related charities

Environmental club HOSA competitor

Volunteer at hospital Non-profit teaching disabled children

Which student is more memorable?

Student 2 → they show a clear passion for medicine while it’s hard to describe student 1
using 1 sentence.

Now, if you’re not like student 2 and haven’t planned every single detail of your high school
career the summer before your freshman year, fret not. Regardless, your application should
still follow some sort of thread that combines all of your interests into one cohesive story.
Perhaps the *narrative* that you want to push to the admissions officers is “the student
who loves to teach others via sports/education” or “the student who loves to build things,
whether that’s building a business, building an app, or bringing together a team of
musicians to create music”.

IP of myriadadmissions.com
 Be clear about what your narrative is.
Your essays, as well as your letters of rec, should reflect this narrative of you to the
admissions officers. Perhaps your essays will mention that you’re someone who loves to
help others—you’ll want that idea to be portrayed in your letters of rec as well.

Crash Lesson on Wording your Extracurriculars

Action words, or the word you begin your description with, is absolutely key.
For example, when describing the hospital volunteering experience you had, you
may write in the description section, “handled paperwork, delivered prescriptions, and
wheeled patients in and out of center.”
Use the strongest action words that you can to describe your extracurriculars. For
example, instead of writing, “Brought 20% greater profit margin to the company and made
graphs showing profit estimations for partners”, say “Improved company profit margin by
20% and generated estimated profit models for upper management”.
Much better!

IP of myriadadmissions.com
Here is a list of stronger words you could use in place of others in your extracurricular
descriptions.

Action Word Stronger Action Word

Planned Administered Commissioned Developed Evaluated

Formulated Observed Prepared Researched Revised
Studied Anticipated Determined Devised

Organized Acquired Appointed Authorized Collected

Customized Facilitated Issued Ordered Retrieved
Simplified
Activated Arranged Cataloged Committed Delegated
Housed Linked Organized Routed Sought Adjusted
Assembled Centralized Confirmed Designated
Implemented Logged Procured Scheduled
Straightened Allocated Assessed Charted Contracted
Designed Incorporated Mapped out Programmed
Secured Suggested Altered Assigned Classified
Coordinated Established Instituted Obtained
Recruited Selected Tracked

Executed Acted Collected Displayed Exercised Input

Merchandised Produced Proved Sold Administered
Completed Distributed Forwarded Installed
Operated Proofed Performed Stocked Carried out
Conducted

Helped Aided Assisted Continued Eased Enhanced

Interceded Prescribed Rescued Sustained
Accommodated Assured Cooperated Elevated
Enriched Mobilized Provided Returned Tutored
Advised Bolstered Counseled Enabled Familiarized
Modeled Rehabilitated Saved Validated Alleviated
Coached Dealt Endorsed Helped Polished Relieved
Served

Solved Alleviated Collaborated Created Detected Foresaw

Investigated Repaired Revived Synthesized
Analyzed Conceived Debugged Determined
Formulated Recommended Resolved Satisfied
Theorized Applied Conceptualized Decided
Diagnosed Found Remedied Revamped Solved
Brainstormed Crafted Deciphered Engineered
Gathered Remodeled Revitalized Streamlined

IP of myriadadmissions.com
Choosing a College List
I’m going to give you three prototypes of students, each with a different college list
strategy. Read each description, and determine which prototype fits you best.
[insert three avatars, and a description underneath]

Shotgunner All-arounder Options Seeker

You’re a high caliber You’re a safe Perhaps your application is

applicant—top ten applicant—perhaps not as not as ridiculously insane as
percentile of your class, high caliber as the a shotgunner or even an
excellent standardized test shotgunner, but still a all-arounder. Or perhaps it
scores, great awards, and strong applicant. Or, your is.
great extracurriculars. application is strong enough
to be considered for But your motives for school
You always dreamed of shotgunning potential, but are different.
going to an ivy league, or a you’re looking for a simpler
top 20 university. life. You don’t value experience
as much as you value cost,
In some uses of the term, The top 20 prestige doesn’t distance from home, etc.
others may call you a faze you. You’re looking for
“prestige whore”. a solid school that you’ve You’re looking for the
visited, talked to a couple optimal deal where you
You also understand the students, got a good vibe, won’t sacrifice as much, yet
value of an elite education and decided you could still obtain a respectable
(namely, the network you’ll actually see yourself there. education.
have access to, as well as
greater chance of entry into You value your education You’re looking to weigh as
certain fields). and college experience. many options as you can.

Shotgunner: You should ideally be applying to 20, perhaps even 25+ universities, if you can
stomach it. 60% of the universities that you apply to should be top 20 universities—it’s
fairly common for a shotgunning applicant to apply to all 8 Ivy League schools, as well as
Stanford, Duke, UChicago, and the like. 30% of the schools you apply to should be
targets—typically, schools like Boston College, Boston University, and the mid-tier UC
schools tend to be the typical target schools shotgunners apply to. The remaining 10%
(which should equate to roughly 2 schools) are your safeties (but who cares, you’re a
shotgunner, you’re bound to get into at least one of your other schools).
Just kidding, please take your due diligence and apply to safeties.

IP of myriadadmissions.com
All-arounder: Perhaps you visited a couple reach schools and you realized that they fit
your vibe. Perhaps you visited some more reach schools and realized that they were
completely out of your comfort zone. An example might be as such—you visited Columbia
and loved it, not because of its prestige, but because you loved how well integrated it was
with the city. Next, you visited Princeton, only to realize the campus-y feel of Princeton was
boring and not as stimulating as the city vibe. You choose not to apply to Princeton. For a
similar reason, you realize Duke is not the right fit, nor is Brown or Cornell.
However, you decide NYU is another great fit for you. You met a couple of students as
you were walking by, and hearing them rave about their school inspires you. You can
genuinely see yourself as a student there. The fact that NYU isn’t as elite as an Ivy League
university does not bother you one bit.
So on with the journey you go. A couple of reach schools, a couple of target schools,
and a couple of safety schools. However, the reach/target/safety label does not
matter—you genuinely see yourself loving your experience at any of the schools you apply
to. Thus, the ratio between the three categories is of not importance to you. So you choose
the schools you want to go to instead.

Options seeker: You’re not looking for typical elements to a college that other students
may be looking for. Perhaps you have family that you want to stay close to. Tuition is an
important aspect of your decision.
Instead of prestige or campus fit, you look for the best deals. Alabama offers full
tuition to high scoring students. Duke offers full tuition merit scholarships to exceptional
students. You apply to a greater number of state schools than your average applicant, as
in-state fees tend to be lower, and you can be close to your family as well.

Disclaimer: Most applicants do not fit cleanly into one prototype (spare the shotgunner,
perhaps). Thus, feel free to take elements that you like of each prototype of applicant and
craft your college list as you please.

IP of myriadadmissions.com
General Essay Progression Timeline
Here is a very rough timeline of what to expect in terms of a timeline for your essays.
These are NOT strict deadlines—they merely serve to help you stay motivated and on the
right track to completing your essays in a timely fashion and without overloading yourself
too heavily.

Mid-September → October 21st Personal Statement almost complete,

EA/ED supplementals near completion

October 21st → November 1st Finishing touches on PS and EA/ED

supplementals

November 2nd → November 9th 1 week break to rest your brain!

November 10th → December 15th Wrap up supplementals to RD schools

General Essay Guidelines

As you may already know, the personal statement is arguably the most important
aspect of your college applications. This is where you turn from a set of numbers of
descriptions to a real person.
After all, universities aren’t accepting statistics into their schools; they are accepting
real students.

Personal statement
The most common mistake that I see students make regarding their college
applications is NOT WRITING ABOUT THEMSELVES.
You must keep in mind that the personal statement is just that - personal. It should
be about YOU - who are YOU as a person? Yes, it makes sense to add some background and
set the scene to explain that; however, a good rule of thumb is to keep more than 80% of
your essay saying something positive about you, whether directly or indirectly.
A good test to see if your essay does a good job of explaining who you are as a
person is to give it to someone that doesn’t know you very well, and tell them they have a

IP of myriadadmissions.com
minute to skim your essay. If they can give you a raving monologue of who you are a person,
then you’ve done a good job. If not, your essay needs more of you!

Here is a link to an essay revision I did for a student:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Uh883dPhvxdghjYkPP6ABfmbnQuLyK9ePMKzZar
XmAg/edit?usp=sharing

Here is a link to a PDF containing 50 successful Ivy League essays and their analyses:
http://www.qianmu.org/u/lystu/school/file/0hme5mn180002vc/0hmlotdce00040a.pdf

Here are the Duke supplementals that got me into Duke:

PROMPT: If you are applying to the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences as a first year
applicant, please discuss why you consider Duke a good match for you. Is there something
particular about Duke that attracts you? (Please limit your response to no more than 250
words.)*

Oh, the freedom to architect my education at Duke.

I might create my own unique pieces in the style of Socrates; maybe I'll compose in
Linear B. Socratic pursuit of truth; does it apply in science? I love Duke’s hands-on focus on
biology; while I conduct research in Dr. Heitman’s Lab, I’ll dig deep. I’d explore the
unmanifested; as I observe Crohn’s Disease (CD) in vitro, I’ll ask; can we use natural
resources to cure CD from a different angle? Duke’s intimate professor-student
relationships excites me; maybe, with Dr. Heitman, we’ll debate the morality of research,
cure versus treatment, and healthcare.
Then, I’ll answer my own questions.
At the Social Sciences Lab, I might translate how social constructs shape the
behavior of CD patients. How are CD patients treated; how does this affect them as citizens
of society?
Outside of the classroom, I’ll express myself creatively. Maybe, Temptasians at Duke
could be my chance to kickstart my acapella career; years of karaoke might actually come in
handy!
I’d make sure to balance fun endeavors with serious ones. Duke’s liberal education
creates room for liberal thinking; as the day winds down, I may ask fellow Blue Devils, How

IP of myriadadmissions.com
does social media impact society? What caused the surge in gun violence? Can empiricism and
rationalism coexist?
Duke is the perfect opportunity for me to create knowledge by engaging with peers,
conducting independent research, enjoying faculty mentorship along the way, and using
Study Abroad to conduct field work--oh, what I could accomplish!

PROMPT: Duke University seeks a talented, engaged student body that embodies the wide
range of human experience; we believe that the diversity of our students makes our
community stronger. If you'd like to share a perspective you bring or experiences you've
had to help us understand you better-perhaps related to a community you belong to or
your family or cultural background-we encourage you to do so. Real people are reading
your application, and we want to do our best to understand and appreciate the real people
applying to Duke. (250)

I grew up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, a predominantly white, rural town then

moved to New Jersey--safe, largely diverse and urban.
We were one of two Asians families in Bethlehem. But I didn’t care. I was young; it
didn’t matter that I looked different from my white friends. They loved me and I loved them.
We had competitions to see who could find the most slugs underneath rocks. Danced at
each other’s houses. Rode bikes around the neighborhood. A good time doesn’t distinguish
based on skin color.
New Jersey was different. Wildly diverse--the reverse of Bethlehem’s white
community. My first walk down Main Street, I thought, “So this is what a melting pot is.”
I had homemade pastitsio, a Greek pasta dish, for the first time. Played tennis with Russian
grandpas. Watched anime.
One of my closest friends is Muslim. His name is Mehdi. We may have limited
similarities, but we do have one that’s certain--will to enjoy. We can look at dog memes and
laugh all day long.
I try my best to look for the best in others. I know that if everyone was exactly alike,
the world would be quite dull.

IP of myriadadmissions.com
 I’m going to continue making acceptance of people the norm, regardless of gender,
race, or background. How? By sharing experiences, stories, and cultures, just as I have been
doing for my entire life.

Final message
As a final note, here is my message to you, as a nervous applicant that is likely obsessing
over college applications and is worried sick about getting rejected.

Most of my friends, regardless of which university they got into, and whether they were
happy with that choice or not, ended up being content once they settled in.

You’ll realize that college isn’t really all that. Each school will more or less have similar
opportunities and accomplished professors that will help you achieve your goals, as long as
you’re willing to apply yourself.

You are not your college decision. Don’t base your self-worth on the arbitrary decision of a
person you never met in your life who looked at the smallest fraction of who you are as a
person for 10 minutes.

You are a beautiful person.

Godspeed.

With love,
Limmy
IP of myriadadmissions.com