Wanted to give everyone a heads up that my 1 on 1 mentorship spots for this cycle are filling up and I only take on a limited number of students so I can actually give each person the attention they deserve. If you have been thinking about working together on your application strategy, essays, school list, or overall narrative, now is the time to lock that in. You can see everything I offer at thedoubleivygrad.com/services, or just DM me here and we can talk through what makes sense for where you are right now.

Admissions officers will spend roughly 90 seconds scanning your activities list before they form an initial impression. In those 90 seconds, they are not counting activities. They are reading a narrative. And right now, most juniors have an EC list that tells the wrong one. Here is what I mean. If you have Model UN, NHS, volunteering at a food bank, tutoring, a sport, and a research project, your list reads as "well rounded student who joined what was available." That is not a rejection sentence, but it is not a compelling story either. What top schools want to see is a throughline. A pattern that makes them say "this student clearly cares about X, and they have built around it at increasing levels of depth and impact." Before senior year starts, do this exercise. Write down every EC you have. Then ask yourself: if I removed my name and handed this list to a stranger, what would they say this student is about? If the answer is "I'm not sure" or "a little bit of everything," you have a positioning problem, not a qualifications problem. You still have summer to fix this. You do not need to drop activities. You need to reframe, consolidate, or add one effort that ties the loose threads together into something coherent. What story does your current EC list tell? Drop it below and I will give you honest feedback.