If you want to know what will get you into an Ivy League or top-tier school, this short article might just increase your chances. Are you up to the challenge? 

What gets you into a top-tier school? 

1. Are good grades the only success factor to get me into an Ivy League School?
2. How the best college prep strategies actually are more meaningful now, and lead to greater happiness and success later in life as well.

Are good grades the only success factor to get me into an Ivy League School? 

Even though good grades are still important, they alone will not be enough to get into any of the Ivy League (or other top-tier) schools.  

Too many applicants have near-perfect grades and test scores, and there simply aren’t enough spots in the top schools for all of these academic superstars. 

So in a sea of high-scoring applications, how can you make yours more memorable? 

It turns out that admissions officers gravitate towards students who are unusually thoughtful and insightful, and who have lived their own values consistently enough to make a positive impact in their communities. 

If you ask ambitious, top students what matters most to them, many of them sadly can’t answer you! They have been so busy doing what they thought they were “supposed” to do to get into a great college that they lost track of their dreams.

But those who haven’t lost touch with themselves will come up with incredible ideas about how they hope to make a valuable impact on the world. 

How the best college prep strategies actually are more meaningful now, and lead to greater happiness and success later in life as well 

If you can pull yourself away from what you think you are supposed to do to prepare for college, and instead focus on the impact you hope to eventually make in the world, something remarkable will happen in your life. 

Many of my students have done this, and the transformation that happens is inspiring.

For example, perhaps there is an issue that you have always felt was just. not. right. The reason you feel so charged about this issue is because it violates your sense of rightness or fairness. In other words, it violates your core values. 

And you don’t have to wait until you have graduated from college in order to do something about this. Believe it or not, acting NOW will not only feel amazing to you, but will also make you memorable to your future admissions officers.  

Becoming memorable like these students requires two things: 

1. They become clear about their own core values. This is like a stand-out superpower.
2. They begin an impact project– an effort to meaningfully improve your community. 

I recommend listening to this podcast, where a young man shares his way through his core values ( value for human life, authenticity, and passion) and the 7 ideas for an impact project he came up with, and which he chose to go with. 

What are core values:

• the ideas or values that matter most to you
• the fundamental beliefs that guide you

Core values are essential to success because they provide a sense of purpose and direction.

I highly recommend listening to this podcast about how life has changed for some ambitious students experienced during their college prep and how they believe this also will change their life later. 

This is healthy college prep. 

You will get to know both a junior and students who are freshmen in their high school.