As reported by the Washington Post, Princeton and Stanford universities will no longer require the essay component to the SAT and ACT.  

While the essay is not longer an absolute requirement, Stanford will continue to "strongly recommend" that applicants submit an essay score from either of the standardized tests.  Princeton will require a graded writing sample as a substitute, preferably in English or history.  

Click here for the article.

For those of you that have been waitlisted at one of your top choices, here's a list of 2017 waitlist statistics for several popular private and public schools, along with notification dates and latest status where available.  

Our sample of waitlist statistics from 132 private and public institutions paints the following picture:

• On average, 13 percent of students accepting a place on a waitlist were admitted

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

• 51 percent of the schools admitted 5 percent or less

• 16 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.

Forbes released its list of America's Best Value Colleges for 2018. 

The Forbes ranking methodology is driven by alumni earnings (20%), net price (20%), net debt (20%), school quality (20%), timely graduation (10%) and Pell grant recipients (10%).  

At the top of this year's list:

1. UCLA
2. University of California - Berkeley
3. Brigham Young University
4. University of California - Irvine
5. University of Washington - Seattle
6. Harvard University
7. Stanford University
8. Princeton University
9. University of California - San Diego
10. Amherst College

Click here for the full list.

Stanford announced today that it admitted 2,040 applicants to the Class of 2022.  

A total of 47,450 applications were received this year, resulting in an overall admission rate of 4.3 percent. 

Click here for the news release.

Here's our latest list of regular decision notification dates for the Class of 2022.  As many of you know, schools often post results in advance of their "official" notification dates, so we've compiled the most recently updated dates for you here, along with the notification dates from last year.  Bookmark this site, as we'll post updates often.

Good luck, seniors!

In search of colleges and universities with strong undergraduate international relations programs?

Courtesy of Foreign Policy magazine and the College of William & Mary, we've compiled their list of top 50 programs in the United States, along with admit rate and test score data to help you locate likely, target and reach schools to add to your list.  As always, we've also included a link to each school's website to help you explore further.

Click on Continue Reading for the list, or here for the Foreign Policy article. 

Here's our latest list of early decision and early action dates for the Class of 2022.  As many of you know, schools often post results in advance of their "official" notification dates, so we've compiled the most recently updated dates for you here where available, as well as last year's notification dates for reference.   

Case Western is set to announce today at 8pm ET (both EDI and EA).  Colorado College (EA), Kalamazoo and the University of Michigan are on tap for Wednesday 12/20.

With ED/EA decisions released for virtually all of the schools we track, we'll call this 38th update our final one this season. 

Good luck, seniors!

Here's our latest list of reported early admission rates for the Class of 2021.

This list includes several popular private and public schools, including Barnard, Boston College, Boston University, Brown, Carnegie Mellon, Claremont McKenna, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Davidson, Duke, Emory, Emory (Oxford), Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Hamilton, Harvard, Harvey Mudd, Johns Hopkins, Middlebury, MIT, Northwestern, Notre Dame, NYU, Pitzer, Pomona, Princeton, Rice, Scripps, Trinity College, University of Georgia, UMass Amherst, University of Pennsylvania, University of Virgina, Vanderbilt, Wesleyan, William & Mary, Williams and Yale. 

Stanford and the University of Chicago don't plan to release statistics until the end of the admissions cycle.

Click Continue Reading for the list.

U.S. News & World Report released their 2018 college rankings earlier today.  Over 1,800 schools were covered nationwide and evaluated on multiple measures of academic excellence and outcomes to produce the final rankings.

Princeton retains sole posession of the top spot for National Universities, and Williams College tops the list of Liberal Arts Colleges.  

Click on Continue Reading to see the rankings changes. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

Stanford announced today that it admitted 2,050 applicants to the Class of 2021.  

A total of 44,073 applications were received this year, resulting in an overall admission rate of 4.7 percent. 

Click here for the news release.

Here's our latest list of regular decision notification dates for the Class of 2021.  As many of you know, schools often post results in advance of their "official" notification dates, so we've compiled the most recently updated dates for you here, along with the notification dates from last year.  Bookmark this site, as we'll post updates often.

Good luck, seniors!