PROFILE
BY LAURA BENS
W
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What Are Ivy League Colleges Looking For
hereas last generation’s college applicants were debate team captains and student paper editors, this generation’s college hopefuls are minting NFTs and trading Ethereum. Much has changed about the college application process over the past twenty years. Gone are the days when good grades, high test scores, and a “wellrounded” list of extracurricular activities were good enough to get you into some of the top schools in the country. In many ways, these changes reflect the massive social and technological changes our country, and the world, has undergone since the 1990s. The complication of society has similarly complicated the admissions game to top schools, and Gen-Z applicants and their strategy-savvy, modern parents are uniquely suited to handle these changes. Gen-Z has been described as the most racially and ethnically diverse generation in America to date, as well as the most educated and technologically savvy. When college applicants of this generation are evaluated by top schools, they are viewed through the lens of these circumstances; compared to previous generations, they are the only generation to have grown up in a fully digital age, with all the world’s knowledge at their fingertips. Given this unprecedented access, colleges in this day and age want to see applicants who recognize the special circumstances of our current world, and have the enthusiasm and intellectual curiosity to chart their own path and attempt to make sense of it all, all while making an impact in their communities. This is all to say that current college applicants face the toughest college application process of any generation so far. So how do students stand
out from the crowd in this exceptionally difficult evaluation process? The answer does not necessarily lie in their academics. “With most schools having received a record-breaking number of applications in 2020, they could fill their incoming freshman class several times over with 4.0 GPAs and 1600 SAT scores,” says Christopher Rim, Founder and CEO of Command Education, a boutique college consulting firm. “This means that elite colleges these days are looking for students with unique backgrounds or niche interests who are making an impact in “WE WORK LIKE AN INCUBATOR FOR TEENS, their community.” Founded in 2015, PROVIDING SUPPORT AND Command Education EXPERTISE TO HELP works with students to STUDENTS DEVELOP THEIR help them craf t OWN PASSION PROJECTS’’ compelling applications centered on their authentic passions. Ultimately, top schools have their own passion projects, build a meaningful their pick of the litter. Fortunately for parents, nonprofit, or run their own company. Students Command Education provides an emotionally learn leadership skills within their community intelligent approach to college consulting, centered and this naturally helps them stand out to top on not simply improving an applicant’s chances schools,” says Rim. “It’s important that this initiative of success in the process, but also helping them develops the student’s own personal ambition build crucial life skills as they explore and develop and something they are truly passionate about their passions. Navigating the complexities of — that’s why it takes years for something like the elite college admission process can be stressful this to be developed.” to do alone, which is why many parents pay Although they may have vastly different $1,500/hour to work with Command Education. backgrounds and come from all over the world, “We work like an incubator for teens, providing the parents who work with Command Education support and expertise to help students develop are all seeking the same solution for their children:
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