thank you for watching!

I'm so happy to hear that! You never know until you apply so go for it!!

congrats!! hope you have an amazing first semester!

Thank you for the kind words! I would answer your question in 2 different ways: first, absolutely no one has nearly any idea of what they're doing or want to do (think of the people you know who are the most put together, or adults, or parents, they also have no idea or will change their mind soon enough). With that said, I think it's useful to be able to create a cohesive story but that doesn't mean all your extracurriculars need to be on one subject (i.e. your story could be that you're close with your family, always was a curious child, and was interested in X subject but it turns out you didn't like it but one small spark led you to subject Y and that's where you're currently at). In other words, you can craft a story out of anything and I promise you it is totally ok to not know exactly who you are or what you want (a lot of life is exploring to figure that out)

​@@marysbraindump Thank you so much for the detailed advice! I think I really resonate with the last line, and I feel reassured to know that I'm not the only one going through this feeling of uncertainty about the future.

Hey Tobias, (I'm not an admissions officer) but that sounds totally reasonable to me! If they would be willing to, then that's as good as any other LOR (and I've heard some stories of pretty out there people who gave LOR's). Also, I actually did have an extra LOR from a past internship

Hey Andrew, thank you for the appreciation, it's really nice :) I did receive a whole admissions package from both schools! The Yale one among the normal admissions stuff had a cute certificate of admissions and I actually have a picture of the front of the Harvard package on my instagram!

Hey! I took both exams (SATs twice, I did worse the second time lol) and only took them during high school. I applied with my ACT scores for transferring and didn't retake them (my act and sat scores were approximately equivalent)

I relate to a lot of what you wrote! First, I think it's really hard when you don't share the values of the mainstream population around you, it's not impossible (because you can still be yourself and eventually find your people), but I acknowledge it's really hard and lonely. So a couple things, hopefully you know more about yourself now than when you were in high school so you'd be more careful about transferring to a school that's more aligned with your interests. With that said, whether you like your new school or whether you stay at your current school is very much based on your internal self and not external factors. In other words, to be happy, I'd say invest a lot into your community and relationships (there's got to be some people who you'll get along with even if that's not the average person around you) and invest in yourself such that you can be happy anywhere (i.e. maybe do internships online or off campus, or just read about topics you're interested in, etc.)

I think it depends on the school as a lot of schools are standardized-test optional now (but not all, i.e. I believe for MIT you have to submit scores). I submitted my ACT score, it's above Harvard's recommendation score if you google that but it was on the lower range (and nowhere near perfect, I was probably like 50th percentile)

Hey Tanmay, so I definetly can't speak to your situation in particular but personally I think they will judge your college grades more (and if those grades are pretty good) then it's probably unnecessary to retake the SAT/ACT (especially if you can explain why those were low vs. why your grades are higher now). 2) I didn't come from the military and wasn't previously accepted. I will say it's true that most ivy transfer programs save spots for people in those situation, however there are still spots left and when it comes to "chances", you'll just never know until you apply. There's likely always a chance, and more importantly, it's better to find out than to wonder what would have happened had you tried

Ofc! Thanks for watching :)

Hey Mona, yes! Even if you are accepted ED, you can even apply to transfer freshman year or sophomore year. ED binds you to attending (and even then people do reneg), it doesn't bind you to staying

@@marysbraindump thank you so much!!

is there any way i can get in contact with you and talk about the process for Columbia???

Hey, congrats on the transfer!! And interesting question, I may do a whole video on this at some point but off the top of my head (this is a whole hodgepodge of genres): difficult conversations, the warmth of other suns, sapiens, winner take all, siddartha, when breath becomes air, dying of whiteness, take a class on aesthetic philosophy (schillers letters), atomic habits, good to great

Hey Sabrina, I don't usually read people's essays as that takes a lot of time and there are a lot of requests, but if you have specific questions on your application feel free to message me on Instagram and I'll try and get back to you quickly

Hey Edith, I'm not 100% I'm answering your questions correctly but I do think the more recent the activities are considered more (since they represent more of who you are now) but that they consider all your activities holistically

@@marysbraindump omg thank you mary!💗

Hey, these are all great questions! I would say each person has different motivations for doing ecs and you need to find what resonates with you, this can include finding a job (not the best reason but valid), finding friends, because you like doing the activity, etc. In terms of managing your time, try to be intentional about if how you're spending your time is aligned with how you want to live your life. How you spend your time should be an intentional reflection of your values. I.e. you can kind of force yourself to spend less time on academics and more time on ecs if that's what you value by signing up for EC's where you're then responsible to the club/to others, and you'll naturally shift your calendar that way. One tip for academics is to realize what you're trying to get out of it & keep it within those bounds if that's what you value (i.e. you can say, I'm going to try and get a B and not prioritze more than that). And in terms of opportunities, my number one tip is at the start of the year, sign up for all the clubs and email lists that you're remotely interested in and wittle it down, most opportunities in college are on those email lists and most people don't read them (but you should, across clubs you're not even in if you're interested in those subjects). Finally, don't be too hard on yourself! We capacity build over time, if you get a little bit better at a small thing, over time those habits stick and add up!

omg! i didnt expect such a thorough and helpful response! thank you so much I think i am trying to get to that step. U have inspired me a lot with ur video, thank you!@@marysbraindump

Hey se li, (warning:) I'm not an advisor and I've actually never heard of that before (taking high school tests after high school but before some deadline). First, I'd check if that's allowed (you can always email the school's admissions email). Second, this may be helpful if you try to transfer freshman fall but all in all, I think it's more feasible for you (and more helpful for admissions) to just work on your college academics. As you spend more time in college, it gets weighed more as well. If your college grades are for example way better than your high school exams, in the extra essay section you can explain what you think that difference is as well

@@marysbraindump Okk Thankk you : )

Hey, thank you for subscribing and liking! I'm trying to think and the person I know from the UK didn't mention anything in particular but I'll say applying from Canada, some things that were different: - I missed a financial aid form because they had different requirements for tax returns, luckily harvard let me send it in later but that could've been a huge problem - If you have a different school calendar you can ask about how to send grades - From what I can tell, your app gets read by people who understand your region so I wouldn't be overly concerned about regional nuances as they likely understand them Also, you can always email each school's application contact email to ask really specific questions for your situation

@@marysbraindump Thanks so much.

Hi, I'm applying as a transfer student from the UK as well, hoping to get into an Ivy. How's your application going so far, if you don't mind me asking?

I haven't heard of this personally for transfers but I'm not sure

In terms of college transcripts and docs from your school, your school should have a web portal to request those, otherwise I'd ask your advisor!

hey, unfortunately the only way to find the exact answer to this is to apply but I definetly think it's possible for you!

Hey Sofia, I'm not sure about the rules for your specific situation (every school will have their admissions eligibility requirements on their website) and you should contact the school to get the most accurate information. But generally what happens is when you get accepted, the school tells you how many of your credits will transfer over and that determines your standing (i.e. if you transfer 1 years worth of credits you'd be a sophomore, if you transfer 2 years you'd be a junior, I don't think there's any scenario where you'd be a first semester freshman). Transfers at Harvard (at least when I was there) could take an extra semester if that time matters to you

@@marysbraindump Okay, thank you!!

Hi, unfortunately I can only speak from my limited experience. I know of at least 1 international student who transferred to Harvard/Yale over the past few years. They came from all sorts of schools from small 2 year schools to universities in other countries to myself who came from NYU. I don't think it's easy to connect with admissions officers but many have posted content online

Yup, at least when you transfer to a liberal arts college! So I did business and political economy at NYU and then computer science and philosophy at Harvard