In search of schools with no extra Common App essays?  Look no further, check out our list of popular schools here, updated for the 2017-18 application season.  

The list includes schools that simply require the base essay as well as others offering "optional" essays which you might want to complete anyway to strengthen your application.  If you're a student or parent with a College Kickstart Plus or Premium subscription, this information is already available to you as part of our application requirements tracking feature.

Click on Continue Reading for the list.

Still looking for essay ideas?  Check out this article from the New York Times for tips on how to create a winning essay admissions officers will love.   

Click here for the article.

Forbes released its list of top ranked colleges for 2017. 

The Forbes ranking methodology is driven by student experiece (20%), post-graduate success (35%), student debt (20%), graduation rate (12.5%) and academic success (12.5%).  

At the top of this year's list are:

1. Harvard University
2. Stanford University
3. Yale University
4. Princeton University
5. MIT
6. Caltech
7. University of Pennsylvania
8. Duke University
9. Brown University
10. Pomona College

Click here for the full list.

Attending a school with great cross-registration options can be a terrific way for you to take classes beyond those offered at your home institution, expand your horizons and experience academic life in a completely different setting.

The Claremont Colleges, for example, allow students to take classes at any member institution (Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, Pomona, Scripps). Students at Occidental can also take engineering classes at Caltech, while Wellesley students can take business classes at Babson or engineering courses at MIT. From coast to coast, our list includes several popular colleges from our coverage universe, the consortium/consortia they belong to and the available cross-registration options. Be sure to click on the included links for detail on cross-registration policies—for example, some schools will only allow you to cross-register for courses that not offered at your home institution, while others may only allow to cross-register on a space-available basis.

Click on Continue Reading below for the details.

Money Magazine just released its college rankings for 2017-18. Over 2,000 schools were evaluated based on 27 factors along three categories: educational quality, affordability and outcomes. The result: 711 schools that deliver a great education at an affordable price, with good outcomes post graduation.

The top of the list:

• Princeton University
• Baruch College (CUNY)
• University of Michigan 
• University of California - Berkeley 
• University of California - Los Angeles
• Stanford University 
• University of California - Irvine 
• MIT
• University of California - Davis 
• Harvard University 

Click here for the rankings or here for the methodology.

Hot off the press!  We've had a chance to review the Fall 2017 admissions data released yesterday by the University of California and thought it would be helpful to summarize it and share our key findings.  

Overall freshman admission rates are up for non-residents and down for residents as the University of California continues to settle on a new normal that accommodates a larger mix of out of state and international students.   If you're an out of state or international student, pay close attention...there continues to be a window of opportunity to take advantage of favorable odds at several UC campuses.

Click on Continue Reading for the details.

Here's our latest list of reported overall admission rates for the Class of 2021. Results are now available for American, Boston College, Boston University, Bowdoin, Brown, BYU, Cal Poly SLO, Carleton, Claremont McKenna, Colgate, College of William & Mary, Colorado College, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Emory, Franklin Olin, George Washington, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Hamilton, Harvard, Harvey Mudd, Haverford, Johns Hopkins, Kenyon, Lehigh, Macalester, Middlebury, MIT, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Oberlin, Oxford at Emory, Pitzer, Pomona, Princeton, Scripps, Stanford, Swarthmore, Trinity College, Tufts, Tulane, Union College, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Merced, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, University of Florida, University of Pennsylvania, USC, University of Virginia, Vanderbilt, Vassar, Wake Forest, Washington University in St. Louis, Wellesley, Wesleyan, Williams and Yale.

Bookmark this page as we'll update frequently as more institutions report results. 

Click Continue Reading for the list.

Trying to find likely or target schools to balance out your college list? In search of schools with great need-based aid or are generous with merit scholarships? Or are you simply looking for schools that don't require extra Common Application essays?

Let MixFixer™ help you. We'll make it easy to find likely, target or reach schools to balance your list and dial in on schools to fit your needs. Click on Continue Reading to learn more.

For those of you that have been waitlisted at one of your top choices, here's a list of 2016 waitlist statistics for several popular private and public schools, along with notification dates and latest status where available.  

Our sample of waitlist statistics from 163 private and public institutions paints the following picture:

• On average, 18 percent of students accepting a place on a waitlist were admitted

• 55 percent of the schools admitted 10 percent or less of the students accepting a place on the wait list last year

• 37 percent of the schools admitted 5 percent or less

• 11 percent admitted no one

There are several factors driving the low rates, including the size of the waitlist (often very large), and how well a school anticipates its admissions yield. 

Click Continue Reading for the list.

The University of California approved a policy on non-resident enrollment.  

Non-resident enrollment will be capped at 18 percent at UC Davis, UC Merced, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, and at 2017-18 levels at UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UCLA, and UC San Diego.

Click here for the details.

The Claremont Colleges—Pomona, Pitzer, Scripps, Claremont McKenna and Harvey Mudd—announced admission results for the Class of 2021.  

• Pomona reported 8.2 percent of total applicants were admitted this year.  The admission rate for early decision was 21 percent.

• Scripps reported 33.4 percent of total applicants were admitted to the Class of 2021.  The admission rate for early decision applicants was 38 percent versus 33 percent for regular decision.

• Pitzer reported an overall admission rate of 15.6 percent for the Class of 2021.  The early decision admission rate was 34.4 percent.

• Claremont McKenna admitted 10.4 percent of applicants to the Class of 2021.  The early decision admission rate was 31 percent versus regular decision admission rate of 8 percent.

• Harvey Mudd admitted 13.9 percent of applicants to the Class of 2021.  The early decision admit rate was 16.1 percent.

For more information, click here.

Here's a refreshing New York Times post from Rebecca Sabky, a former admissions director at Dartmouth, about looking beyond academic credentials and extracurriculars for a fundamental human quality in applicants: kindness!

The Chicago Maroon reported today that early admission results for the Class of 2021 will not be disclosed until the the fall.  

Click here for the news release.

Tulane University announced that 21 percent of applicants were admitted to the Class of 2021.  

A total of 35,605 applications were received, up 11 percent from last year.   

Click here for the news release.