Top Tier Admissions

08/21/2026

A successful Harvard application requires far more than exceptional grades and test scores. Harvard is dedicated to nurturing thoughtful, engaged leaders who go on to make a genuine difference in research, public service, business, medicine, and the arts. When you apply, the committee is eager to see how your personal story, curiosity, and character fit within this vibrant community. The supplemental essays are your invitation to share who you truly are.

Harvard University: Supplemental Essays

Harvard asks every applicant to complete five short-answer essays, each capped at 150 words.

A breakdown of Harvard's 2026-2027 supplemental essays from Top Tier Admissions, with prompt-by-prompt strategy for all five required short answers, including the roommate and disagreement prompts.

08/21/2026

Having spent time as a graduate student, an admissions officer, and now as a neighbor of Northwestern University (NU), writing to you from my home in Evanston, IL, I’ll admit upfront that I may be a little biased about Wildcat excellence. But it’s not just me. Northwestern’s recent application numbers confirm that plenty of others are taking notice of NU’s special mixture of qualities, too, as students increasingly look beyond the usual East Coast suspects.

Here's everything you need to know about Northwestern, and why it's having a moment.

The Midwest Is Having a Moment

As Top Tier CEO, Dr.

Applications to Northwestern are surging. Here's why the Midwest is on the rise, whether NU tracks demonstrated interest, and how to actually get in.

08/21/2026

Notre Dame’s Class of 2030 acceptance rate held at a record-low 9%, even as the applicant pool grew to 36,102, up 701 from last cycle. With admission this competitive, it’s worth understanding exactly what’s driving the numbers, and what actually gives an applicant an edge.

Restrictive Early Action applicants were admitted at 12%, compared to 9% overall. Notre Dame is direct about why: students for whom the university is a genuine top choice are encouraged to apply early, as long as their application is truly ready by November 1.

Selectivity hasn’t come at the cost of accessibility. Notre Dame continues to meet 100% of demonstrated financial need without loans, with free tuition guaranteed for admitted students from families earning under $150,000 a year.

It’s also part of a broader shift in how top applicants are choosing schools. Notre Dame is one of 20 universities considered a New Ivy, a group increasingly seen as a compelling alternative to both the Ivy League and Ivy-plus schools like Stanford, MIT, Duke, and the University of Chicago.

Swipe through for the full breakdown: the headline number, five years of admissions data, Notre Dame’s financial aid commitment, Restrictive Early Action strategy, and where Notre Dame fits in the changing landscape of elite admissions.

Thinking about a Notre Dame application strategy? Connect with our team today, link in bio.

08/20/2026

The Princeton Review just released its Best Colleges for 2027 rankings, and instead of naming one overall "best" school, they built 50 different lists from survey responses of 172,000 students at 392 colleges.

Best classroom experience. Best career services. Happiest students. Great outdoors. Every list highlights something real about undergraduate life that a single prestige ranking cannot capture.

Here is the thing: prestige still matters. Selectivity, academic reputation, and outcomes are all reasonable things to care about in a college search. But they cannot tell a student what it will actually feel like to spend four years somewhere.

The better question is not which college ranks highest. It is which college is right for this student, their learning style, their goals, their idea of a great four years.
That is the work we do every day at Top Tier Admissions. Our Senior Private Counselors help students build a college list that balances ambition with genuine fit, with Private Counseling starting as early as elementary school.

Ready to build a smarter, more strategic college list? Schedule a Conversation with our team. Link in bio.

08/20/2026

Every year, college rankings invite families to ask a familiar question: Which colleges are the best?

But The Princeton Review’s newly released Best Colleges for 2027 rankings offer a useful reminder that there are many different ways to define “best.”

Rather than placing colleges on a single hierarchical list, The Princeton Review surveyed 172,000 students at 392 colleges about their experiences and used those responses to create 50 different ranking lists. The colleges themselves represent a select group: according to The Princeton Review, the 392 featured schools comprise only about 14% of America’s nearly 2,800 four-year colleges.

The Princeton Review's Best Colleges for 2027 are out. Here is how to use the rankings to find the college that truly fits your student, not just a prestigious name.

08/19/2026

Should your student apply Early Decision this fall? Before you decide, it helps to know what you are actually signing up for.

Maria Laskaris, Top Tier Admissions Senior Private Counselor and former Dean of Admissions at Dartmouth, breaks down when Early Decision genuinely helps your student’s odds and when it backfires.

Early Decision is a binding commitment. Student, parent, and school counselor all sign an agreement promising your student will enroll if admitted and withdraw every other application. It is not a legal contract enforceable in court, but inside the college admissions world, it functions like one.

The acceptance rate boost is real. Our Class of 2026 students achieved a 72 percent early Ivy Plus admit rate, compared to a national Ivy League average near 5 percent. But that boost only helps a well matched, academically ready applicant. It will not rescue one who is not.

Before your student commits to Early Decision, ask two questions. Is their GPA genuinely within the school’s range? And are they truly ready to stop looking at other options? If the answer to either is no, Early Action may be the smarter, lower risk move this year.

Swipe through for how to choose the right Early Decision school, the real difference between ED and EA, and the financial aid risk families often overlook before signing.
Check out the Top Tier Admissions blog for the full breakdown, link in bio.

Not sure whether Early Decision or Early Action is right for your student? Our Private Counseling and Application Boot Camp® programs help families build a confident, data driven early application strategy. Connect with our team today.

08/18/2026

Our 22nd annual Application Boot Camp® just wrapped, and these students walked away with something incredible: a completed Common App, finished essays, and a clear strategy for the rest of their college application process, all in just four days.

This is what focused, expert guided college admissions support looks like. Every essay draft was reviewed by our full team, giving students multiple perspectives and the kind of detailed feedback that turns a good essay into an authentic, compelling one. Beyond the writing, students left with a real understanding of what colleges are looking for and how to position themselves as strong candidates going into senior year.

Starting senior year with your application, essays, and strategy already in place is a remarkable head start, and one our students earned through real work and dedication.

Missed our August dates? Personal Application Boot Camp® offers that same trusted curriculum and hands on support, built around your family's schedule instead of ours.

Ready to give your student that same head start heading into application season? Connect with our team to learn more about Application Boot Camp® and Personal Application Boot Camp® today!

08/14/2026

Northwestern’s acceptance rate for the Class of 2030 held at 7%, and more than half the incoming class came from Early Decision.

Swipe through for the numbers behind the headline: how the applicant pool grew, why Early Decision carries so much weight in Evanston, and what Northwestern’s staying test-optional policy (plus its “Dialogues” supplement) actually means for your application strategy.

Want a real strategic case for whether ED belongs in your plan? Connect with our team today! Link in bio.

08/14/2026

The 22nd annual Top Tier Admissions Application Boot Camp® has concluded, and we couldn’t be prouder of what our students accomplished.

Finishing the Common App & College Essays in 4 Days

Over the course of four focused days, students transformed months of preparation and ideas into tangible progress on their college applications. They completed their entire Common App, Main Essay, and several supplemental essays; finalized their application strategy, including important deadlines; and refined their activity lists. By the end of the program, all students had their applications well underway with a clear roadmap for completing the rest of the process, and most finished entirely, ready to focus on senior year without the stress of college applications looming over them.

And they didn’t do it alone.

Discover how our college Application Boot Camp students finished their Common App & essays in just 4 days. Learn about our Personal Application Boot Camp® options!

08/13/2026

Our own Julia Spaht was featured in TOWN&COUNTRY this month, sharing her expertise on one of the biggest shifts in college admissions right now.

In “How Changed the The University of Alabama,” Julia unpacks why students from New Jersey, Chicago, California, and Texas are increasingly adding Southern schools to their lists. The draw? SEC culture, streamlined admissions, and generous out-of-state merit scholarships.

Her advice to families? Look past the TikTok version of a campus. “Visit before making assumptions,” Julia says.
Take the tour, catch a home football weekend, and keep those grades and test scores strong to maximize scholarship opportunities.

Read the full T&C feature: https://Inkd.in/gCJtSkgq

A big thank-you to editor Emily Burack and the Town & Country team for including Julia’s perspective. We’re grateful for the feature!