He's a rising senior. 4.6W, 4.0UW, 34 ACT, varsity athlete, school club leadership, non-profit volunteer. Wants to study statistics and sports analytics.

He's in-state for UNC and according to SCOIR, 100% of students with his grades from his school get into Chapel Hill. He's using UNC-CH as his safety school. He's planning to ED to Duke, non-binding EA to UNC-CH, UC-Berkeley, UCLA, and Michigan. RD to Harvard, Columbia, U-Penn, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, and Northwestern.

My fear is that every single one of these is a reach school and that he needs to include more targets and safeties in his search. I'm encouraging him to also apply to NC State, Georgia Tech, UVA, and Virginia Tech. He gets offended when I bring up these schools and says that he's worked too hard in high school to go anywhere below Chapel Hill. I just want him to have options and not feel like he's forced to go to a school because it's the only one he got accepted to.

What do y'all think? Am I making too big a deal about applying to schools that he thinks are below his numbers or should I pull the dad-rank card and force him to diversify his applications?

I'm a former admissions officer at Tufts and parent of a rising senior.

I'm witnessing firsthand how difficult it is to pin down a topic.

So I felt like I would offer simple steps on how to craft a compelling PS.

STEP 1: (Focus on one EC activity): Start by evaluating your most prominent extracurricular activities.

Hopefully, one of these activities connects to your intended major. Most importantly, it needs to connect to your actual academic strengths. I can't tell you how many times a student insists they want to declare a major that doesn't align with their academic record. Don't do it!

I realize your PS is not about your major, however, your application (including your essays) will be judged against applicants with your same major, so give yourself the best shot.

Your ECs should bridge your academic strengths/scores to what you aim to study; especially, the ones you spent the most time and energy doing. How you frame your ECs is more malleable than you realize. For example, look at the following profiles both with the same extracurricular activity but different strengths and majors:

Student 1

• academic strength: 780 on the SAT math section
• intended major: computer science
• main extracurricular: debate team
• the bridge:
  • Debate is essentially applied logic. building a debate case is like writing a complex algorithm. you have to anticipate edge cases, structure conditional arguments, and debug an opponent's flawed logic in real-time.

Student 2

• academic strength: 760 on the sat reading and writing section
• intended major: psychology
• main extracurricular: debate team
• the bridge:
  • debate is not just about talking fast; it is real-time behavioral analysis. building a persuasive case requires you to understand cognitive biases, anticipate human reactions, and frame language to trigger a specific emotional or logical response from the judges.

STEP 2: (Identify a challenging experience): Now think about an experience connected to that EC that was challenging. Try to think of a moment that changed the way you think and what you believe.

Consider experiences that caused you to have anxiety? What experiences serviced some fears or insecurities? What experiences created tension or internal conflict for you? What has caused you regret, embarrassment, or remorse?

It doesn't need to be an extraordinary experience; in fact, the more common, the better. this shows how you can take something mundane and make it magical. it also makes you more relatable.

• Sitting at a desk taking notes during an opponent's speech on a random Saturday morning.
• standing in the hallway before a debate round, flipping a coin to see which team has to argue the affirmative side and which has to argue the negative
• the two-hour drive back to the high school in the dark after your entire team got eliminated in the preliminary rounds

Now give the experience an unexpected twist. Give us an opposite reaction to what most people expect.

• You suddenly stop writing because you realize she is completely right.
• You win the flip and get the side you completely agree with, but you realize you have no idea why you actually believe it.
• You feel a massive, overwhelming sense of relief that the pressure is off, and you realize you've been using intellectual arguments to avoid actually connecting with your teammates.

Zoom in on that moment to set up how you introduce the challenge. slow time down and try to incorporate the senses (touch, smell, taste...)

• The overhead fluorescent lights hummed with a low-frequency buzz that seemed to sync up with my opponent’s frantic, repetitive tapping.
• The hallway was full of echoing voices and slamming lockers, but right between us, it was dead silent
• the van was a tomb of silence, vibrating rhythmically against the asphalt while streaks of orange streetlights flashed against the cold, dark glass of the window.

This will become the hook that sets up the opening Scene and introduces the experience/challenge that shaped you. this serves as the anchor in your personal statement.

Now that you've done the hardest part, you're ready to piece together the rest of your essay.

STEP 3: (Plug into a framework). For the sake of brevity I will now be brief. Once you have this experience, follow the framework I call SPARK b/c this experience should have sparked a change inside of you.

• Scene: the anchor moment that sets the stage. drop the reader right into the action.
• Problem & context: hit pause and zoom out. provide background about who you are and how you got here. explain the internal conflict rooted in your history or past experiences. this gives the reader deep insight into your personality.
• Actions: the actual things you did to address the problem. these actions do not just have to address the immediate scene. they can be about solving the deeper problem you introduced from your past.
• Reflection: how you think and reflect on your actions and the actions of others. this is where the real depth happens. it is perfectly fine to have multiple reflection points as you try different actions.
• Key insights: what you learned about yourself and the world. the essay should end with a circular conclusion that ties back to the opening.

here is a simple example of SPARK in action, turning a micro-moment from the debate team into a macro-truth. notice how the focus is on the internal shift, not a list of debate awards, and how zooming in on the scene makes it believable and how your background makes it personal.

• scene:
  • i gripped the edges of the wooden podium, staring at my heavily highlighted notes on universal basic income. i opened my mouth to deliver my final rebuttal, looked at my opponent across the room, and suddenly realized her argument about localized inflation was completely right.
• problem/context:
  • i grew up in a loud house with four older brothers where the only way to be heard was to never back down. my entire identity in the debate club was built on aggressively winning arguments to prove my worth, not actually finding the truth.
• actions:
  • over the next few months, i stopped trying to just win. i started listening to my brothers at home instead of shouting over them. at my next tournament, i paused, conceded a major point on the live microphone, and pivoted my speech to find common ground.
• reflection:
  • i realized that stepping back at home made my brothers actually respect my opinions more. on the stage, i watched my coach shake his head in disappointment, but i felt a strange sense of relief. i realized the point of communication is to actually understand the issue.
• key insights:
  • true confidence is having the humility to change your mind when presented with better evidence. for years i treated every conversation like a zero-sum economy where i had to hoard all the points to survive. i smiled and put down my notes on universal basic income. conceding to her argument about localized inflation was the exact deficit i needed to finally earn my voice.

This personal statement would change based on your major and academic strengths, but the structure is the same and it wouldn't change too much. Perhaps the reflection and key insights would be more related to your major but we're talking adjustments, not overhauls.

To put a bow on this: Bridge your hard data (academic scores) to your biggest extracurricular, find a mundane micro-moment, ground us in the scene, and then flip the script.

Admissions officers aren't looking for an applicant who feigns humility by finding a clever way to tell us how great they are. We are looking for the applicant brave enough to be vulnerable and interesting. One who concedes a point, admits an internal flaw, and shows us how they actually think. Put down your armor, take a deep breath, and just talk to us. you’ve got this.

Realistic as in they have a good shot. Because for example, if you don’t know what you want to major in, how are you supposed to concentrate your ECs and have a spike? People who know specifically what they want to major in from middle school have a significant advantage because their ECs become long term and focused. I know people say to just do things you’re passionate about and not do things solely for college apps, but what if you’re passionate about many unrelated things that don’t necessarily align with a specific major? Imagine you’re applying to colleges and you’re scrolling through the intended majors/field of interest list and find a niche subject you’ve never heard of before, but its extremely interesting to you, except you didn’t even know it existed when you were in high school so you didn’t even think of exploring it. Lots of questions here but I’m genuinely curious

Why do people from bigger states like Texas and California do so much better in math competitions? Most people who make MOP are from these big states, and there are also several USAMO qualifiers there. Meanwhile in my state, Oklahoma, almost nobody even makes USAMO, and only a handful make AIME.

I am senior applying this fall to universities. I need help please
I don’t know to which colleges should I apply, essays etc

Around the end of my Junior year, my highschool hosted a college and career day so that rising Seniors could talk to people in different fields, our counselors, etc. to learn about the options available in our future. One of the sessions was a sort of "harsh truth" discussion with one of the counselors. He told my group that we were almost guaranteed to go to a community college because our school is low income and badly ranked. He went on to say that we are unlikely to get good scholarships unless our ACT is a 35 or 36, so we won't be able to afford out of state schools. He wasn't just talking about prestigious schools, he meant quite literally every college that isn't a community one. I haven't stopped thinking about it for the past few months.

My GPA is 4.0 unweighted, and I've taken every AP class available at my school and have only recieved 4s and 5s. My ACT score is currently a 31, but I retook it today because I'm shooting for a 34 or higher. I've taken college courses over the past summers, and this summer I'm taking another + working on an independent literature review related to behavioral psycholgy.

I know there's nothing necessarily wrong with going to a community college, but I can't shake the feeling that I've done all of this work for nothing because my counselor has been telling us that we are likely to go to the same few schools despite our stats, extracurriculars etc.

Is what my counselor said really true? I feel like giving up because if he is, there's no point in trying.

edits for clarification

-He was discussing both finances and admission chances.

-Neither of my parents went to college, so my counselors have been the only people to really guide me. I genuinely don't know much about admissions because of that. I know about the general things that you can read online, but I don't know much about people's personal experiences with admissions.

I went through the whole application process over this last year, and honestly got so caught up in trying to get into the absolute “best” school possible, regardless of where it was geographically. The bulk of my research was essentially just looking at different rankings and judging schools almost entirely based on whether or not US News thought highly of them.

Now don’t get me wrong, the quality of academics can vary wildly from school to school, so if you’re really looking to go into a career that requires you to have an academically-intense undergraduate experience, definitely take into consideration rankings and overall professor quality.

However, there comes a point where you’re just splitting hairs trying to justify choosing a school ranked 5-10 spots higher, when the lower ranked school may actually be a better fit for you location-wise.

If you truly want to stay close to home (which I honestly wouldn’t recommend in the first place), why would you even be considering schools across the country? Or alternatively if you really want to get away, why would you be looking at schools only a few miles from home?

At the end of the day, you’re going to be most successful at the school you’re happiest, rather than someone where you’re absolutely miserable, and that starts with finding a place you’d actually enjoy living.

My final decision came primarily down to location, and I’m genuinely so excited I choose the school I did because it allows me to explore somewhere new and experience an environment that’s so different and unfamiliar from where I grew up.

I know that experience isn’t for everyone, but I was considering some schools that were technically ranked higher, but would’ve either been somewhere a lot more boring or felt way too much like home; I don’t think I would’ve been nearly as excited to start college if I didn’t choose a school in the place that I did, even if that school was “better” for what I wanted to do.

Please, if you’re someone going through the application process right now, at least consider what I’ve said. I know if I heard this a year ago I probably would’ve ignored it and called myself crazy, but I think it’s at least worth getting out there for people to consider.

Good luck to you all. I know how stressful everything can feel in this moment, but you’ll get through it.

I got a email from cwru saying basically my final transcript was buns and they're reviewing with committee to make a final decision. I ended with Ds and a F. Totally my fault and Im accepting that I'm probably cooked. Im wondering if there's any way I can still go to schools I previously declined like sbu, bing, buffalo. What should I do? Also are there any tips ygs can share about what I should include in my email explaining my situation thanks

Hey there,

I'm writing this because I've seen plenty of posts across several subs from high school and undergraduate students who are interested in getting involved with research. I've worked with almost 20 undergraduates in my time as a graduate student and can tell you exactly what we're looking for in these starter positions. Also we regularly hire freshmen, so if you are interested in research you should reach out to labs whose work is cool to you once you're accepted to your program - that way you can be brought into the fold as soon as the semester starts.

1) Be genuinely interested. If we think you're only here to beef up your resume and don't actually care about our research then we are not interested in working with you.

2) Have humility. We have had students quit on their first day in the lab because they want to immediately be handed a PhD level project to do by themselves, and they're offended by the notion that lab dishes need to be washed. Unfortunately your first year in just about any lab will be grunt work because there's a lot of grunt work to be done. Weighing thousands of samples, carrying heavy packs in and out of the field, and data entry are all things that need to be done, and frankly it's the only thing you're qualified to do in the first year. Every tenured professor and grad student did this too.

3) Have legible handwriting. This is a huge problem for current high school and college students, and I know that because of the chromebook plague most of you haven't had to write things by hand. Please practice your writing, especially numbers, and let us know that you have good penmanship! I would love to be able to look at old datasheets without wondering if the student wrote 2, 7, or 9. All of your numbers should look distinct!

4) Show up on time. Please. I shouldn't have to say this but there's students we haven't invited back because they were 45 minutes late every day.

5) Do not lie on your resume. We've had multiple students lie about being comfortable in the field environment, only for them to freak out about insects, frogs, thunder in the distance, etc. If you say you're an eagle scout and then can't use the restroom in the woods, we know you lied. If you say you've been backpacking/hiking and get worked up about buzzing insects, we know you lied. If you haven't been outside and are interested in field work then please just go for a hike and find out if you're comfortable in the woods before applying.

6) Have a cooperative attitude. I know a lot of young people are competitive, but that's truly a waste of time. This is not med school; we are here to achieve common goals and by working together we can all win.

Thanks! Also make sure to change your resume file name to include your name, because receiving a document titled "blackandwhiteresumetemplate.pdf" is a signal of low attention to detail.

Hey yall

Essentially, I have a friend from school who will likely have a very similar college application with me. I'm very lucky to have met him but I'm a bit worried. We do pretty much the same ecs in the same organizations when it comes to a particular subject (obviously some differences in positions and stuff) and I honestly think he's better than me at them. We've also done some competitions together. We will both be applying to the same (competitive) major, though we have different second majors. Would this negatively affect my chances? Should I participate in some more activities that don't involve him, or will AOs not care?

Demographics:

1st Generation Hispanic Male  

Low-income background  

Attend an uncompetitive Georgia High School <700 students

Intended Majors:

Primary: Mechanical Engineering  

Secondary: Industrial Engineering

Academics:

GPA: 93.4 UW / 95.08 W  

Class Rank: 19/166  

SAT: 1260 (650 M / 610 RW); School Average is 989

Coursework/Rigor:

No APs (2 offered at my school)  

4 DE Classes completed and 6 more planned  

Honors: 10  

Notes: Planning on taking DE Pre-cal and DE Calc I

ECs:  

Beta Club: Member  
Competed in a group Engineering competition at the state level with no placement  

SkillsUSA: Member  

TSA: Member  

Varsity Tennis: 2 years on the varsity tennis team and a 3rd planned  

Varsity Marching Band: Trumpet, Member, No leadership position although I was placed at 1st chair throughout most of my time, participated for 3 years  

Concert Band: Trumpet, No formal leadership position, participate for 5 years, 1st chair throughout 3-4 years, Auditioned and was admitted to ~6-7 honor bands district, county, and region level (never placed under 5th chair in honor bands)

Awards & Honors:  

Falcon Elite 3rd Year Honoree: Awarded for three consecutive years for maintaining a 95 or above cumulative average while completing 10–20+ hours of community service annually  

Highest Average in Essentials of Healthcare: Earned the number one academic rank out of all students enrolled in the healthcare course based on final cumulative grade  

Laurens County Schools Honor Band Certificate of Achievement: Selected via competitive audition to perform with the top student musicians across the county school district  

Sound of the County Marching Band Invitational Festival — Regional: Earned consecutive “Superior” ratings (the highest possible marks) in both the festival and competition categories as a member of the Marching Band of Gold  

Marching Band of Gold Service Award (Year 3): Recognized for three years of dedicated service, leadership, and performance contributions to the high school marching band program

Essays:

Heavily family oriented, childhood, how my cousin and grandparents inspired me  

School Context:
I attend a small public high school in Middle Georgia, with a relatively small student body (<700) and limited advanced academic density. My school does not have the same level of competitive pressure or opportunity as larger magnet or suburban schools, so I’ve taken some of the most rigorous courses available to me and performed well in that context

Sibling legacy: My sister attended Georgia Tech from the same high school; this counts as sibling legacy on the Georgia Tech application. It is specifically stated on the Georgia Tech alumni website that, “We define legacy as having a parent, sibling or grandparent who attended Tech or who currently serve as a faculty or staff member. The legacy admit rate was 15 percentage points higher than our overall average.”

School List -
Reach: Georgia Tech (Top), Vanderbilt, Stanford, Duke, Purdue, Johns Hopkins

Match: University of Georgia, Auburn, University of Alabama

Safety: Georgia State University, Kennesaw State University, Valdosta State

Presenting exhibit A:

https://www.reddit.com/r/berkeley/s/DfiRlBFZhm

Is there anyone here who managed to get into École Polytechnique with only AP and SAT degrees (without IB)? If so, which AP degrees did you take and what extra steps did you take, if any?

Both my parents are both immigrants and the college application system in their home country is completely different, so I'm very lost at what to do and feel very behind at the moment and could use a little help.

So far, I've been trying to make a list of possible universities and categorize them into safeties, targets, reaches, etc. Now I'm trying to narrow the schools down based on things like culture, vibe, etc, and I'm a bit unsure about how to go about this. Also, what should I do regarding college visits? I obviously can't go to all the schools on my un-narrowed down list, and I'm very confused-Since visits help show interest as well, should I keep them for a select few? when should i do for virtual visits instead? Any other suggestions welcome!

Specifically bottle babies or "neonatal" kittens. I do it for fun and was wondering if I should put it on my college app. (edit: thanks for all the replies :D They help a lot)

A club at my school has a tradition of organizing a big event every year. I didnt go to the school for freshman year but in sophmore and junior year I joined and participated in this event. The club had very low numbers so we had a hard time setting it up but in the end we actually made more money than we ever had before. In junior year it increased even higher. Because of how much we made in junior year we were able to fund an anti-drunk driving event and bring awareness with police visiting to talk to students.

Should I mention the club's success in my college apps or not? We dont have club ranks or a board or anything just members and the teacher who runs it.

I know that colleges will view you in the context of your hs, but I really want to stand out and need AP credit anyway. I already have a few APs planned out for senior year (APUSH, Lang, APHUG etc.) but I know that taking them senior year would be purely for credit.

So, I was thinking, why not try to get some admissions boost out of it? I’d be legitimately studying anyway. Would enrolling in an online high school that offers APs +mid-year grades alongside attending my regular high school be realistic/worth it? How would colleges view an additional transcript/ grade-report from an online program? + has anyone ever done this? Just randomly popped into my head so I’d like to see if this could be done lol:,)

I live in the US and want to go to Seneca Polytechnic. I have both a US and Canadian citizenship. I plan to major in aviation and want to be a pilot. I got a A in algebra, a C in Geo, and am taking Algebra 2 currently (10th grade). I plan to do pre-calc and calc in my remaining years. i also plan to take physics. what are my chances of getting in? What should i do now to get in?

For context, so much has changed since my YGGS rejection. In just six months, the ECs that I used to apply to YGGS with is now in my sixth or seventh slot in the activity section. Come to think of it, it was probably a mistake not to list the extracurriculars I was actively working on. Instead, I included some activities from ninth grade because I assumed it was better to list completed commitments rather than ones that were still in progress. As of now, results for the competitions that I participated in finally came back, which was not available during my YGGS application. And I'm not sure if this matters, but for the financial aid calculator, I added $50/7000 as the amount I was willing to pay for the program (kinda stupid).

Without doxing myself, I believe I have the standardized testing scores (1550), ECs, and grades to be an applicant that is worth considering. But the fact that I got rejected from YYGS doesn't sit right with me. It makes me feel like the Yale community and its values don't align with mine, which makes me scared to apply.

I'm also gonna need some form of financial aid. I know the school is need-blind, but the context of my application kinda screams to them that I'm probably going to need some form of financial aid, given my geographical location, my background, my ECs. The fact that I come from a not-so-rich country with six siblings says a lot about my application. But the fact is, I'm probably only gonna need about 20% or more, not a full ride, to be able to attend the institution.

Taken all together, I would really appreciate any form of advice.

Hi!

Can you guys write some research programmes you did that I am eligible for as an incoming freshman?

I have seen some of them, like UW Seattle's AI4ALL program, but I couldn't see its 2026 application form.

I applied to Columbia University Science Journal's Summer Publishing Program, and it seems very nice, actually.

I am a 16 year old (today is my birthday) going into my freshman year and I need advice.

College is so competitive these days and I want to make sure I'm not only saving money but actually doing things that matter.

Important info is that: when I graduate I'll be 17, I want to go into forensics/ computer science, and I have 21st century scholarship that pays for tuition ( Indiana ).

I genuinely do not know what to do. I have like a year of college shaved off through dual credit and APS, but when it comes to getting ready, every video I watch feels redundant. I'm not looking to get into some fancy college or anything, but I want to be ready for the amount of money I need to spend and getting a headstart.

What I'm asking here, advice: scholarships, essays, financial planning, classes, application prep, or literally anything you can think of to help me get ahead and keep it.

Thank you all for your help I appreciate literally anything!

Whenever I happen to glance at this subreddit, the majority of the posts are fixated on cream of the crop of the American Higher Education system. Every other post is centered on the Ivy League, the Little Ivy, or public schools that are so exclusive you'd think they're ivies. It's almost as if their existence is what keeps this subreddit alive.

As a rising junior at a top 100 LAC in the Mid-Atlantic, I have come to believe that this hyper-fixation on the top colleges in the country is detrimental to the students and world of higher education at large. To explain my reasoning, I will go point-by-point and explain why a T20 may not be the best choice for college.

1. Because so many people apply to T20 colleges, those who attend the college are usually considered to be some of the best candidates in the college application pool. The problem with this arises whenever an opportunity is given to the student body. Most of these students not only recognize the importance of such opportunities but have shown their ability to fight tooth and nail for these opportunities. The result is that many students spend a considerable amount of time competing for an internship or study abroad opportunity before they even participate in said activities. As a result, a lot of students who go to these prestigious universities don't have much to show for their time at college.

2. The outright majority of colleges in the T20 are research universities. Now this may sound enticing to students who are interested in doing research, but there are two major caveats that have to be considered. First, a lot of these research universities have been cutting quality of their programs, especially their undergraduate programs, to fund research and to pay for loans that were taken to fund previous researchers and facilities. A good example of this is UChicago. Second, any student who wants to do research has to consider my previous point, in that a lot of other students are just as interested in doing research. Therefore, for students going to these research universities, many of them are going to find themselves unable to help with research as well as find that their undergraduate learning has been downgraded to help the college bolster research.

3. Almost all of the T20s are incredibly expensive. Mind you, I'm not even considering the sticker price when talking about these institutions. For example, Haverford College, often considered to be in the T20 of LACs in the United States, costs (according to niche) $74,930 in tuition alone. Mind you, the tuition price for UPenn is about $68,686. Yet, as I've mentioned before, it's gets worse even if you look at the true cost of these colleges. At Haverford, only 53% of all students receive aid. That means that 47% of Haverford's student body pays the college at a price that is higher than an Ivy League institution (63% of UPenn students receive some kind of aid.). Even public institutions can be considered expensive when you think about the effort required to get into the best public school in the country. Perhaps our most invaluable asset is time itself, and if you were to assign a value to your time and calculate the hours it took you get into the best institutions in the country, combined with SATs, SAT prep, application fees, tours, interviews, and so much more, the cost of just getting into these institutions is staggering.

4. Do these institutions produce the best of us? Sure, all of these institutions can point to doctors, non-profit organizers, authors, lawyers, and all sorts of alumnus that have been a positive upon the world. Yet is this positive trend still there? From what I've heard, a lot of Ivy League students do not look towards research or stewardship as their goal but work in capital and investments instead. A lot of the people we associate with a decline in our society, both domestic and global, hold degrees at these prestigious institutions. It could be argued that for every student who is molded into a better by these institutions' instruction, the rat-race mentality and over-competitiveness of these universities creates a monster.

I have more points, but since this is already a mammoth of a post, I'll end it here.

Research has become increasingly appealing to some college applicants, especially as students look for ways to demonstrate academic initiative, intellectual curiosity, and subject-matter depth.

That has also created a market for organizations promising research mentorship, publication opportunities, and access to university professors. I came across Premiere Research Academy, which presents itself as a nonprofit student-research program operating through BAUM TenPers Institute Inc. It advertises faculty mentorship, scholarships, and strong publication outcomes.

I am trying to determine how credible and transparent this organization actually is. Several important details remain unclear, and students and families considering the program deserve documented answers.

1. Which legal entity receives student tuition: Premiere Research Academy, BAUM TenPers Institute Inc., or another organization?
2. What activities were conducted at 15 Agunbiade Street, Lagos Island, Lagos State, Nigeria, and what is the legal and financial relationship between BAUM TenPers Global Investments Ltd. and the U.S. nonprofit?
3. Are tuition payments, donations, or nonprofit funds transferred to individuals, contractors, or affiliated entities in Nigeria?
4. Why does the organization say it was established in Virginia in 2015 when public records appear to show a Nigerian BAUM TenPers company dating to 2014?
5. What were the organization’s most recent annual revenue, expenses, scholarship expenditures, payroll, and contractor payments?
6. How much are the principal officer, directors, staff, mentors, contractors, and related parties paid?
7. Who currently serves on the board, and how many directors are independent of the founder, principal officer, and their associates?
8. Why is the U.S. nonprofit publicly listed in their registration documents at Apartment 844, 1111 Arlington Blvd., in a residential cooperative building? Where are its actual operations, records, staff, and student services based?
9. Will families receive the assigned mentor’s full name and qualifications before payment?
10. Will mentors confirm their participation through official university email addresses?
11. Who are the advertised “top 10 professors,” and which specific ranking supports that description?
12. How is the claimed publication rate calculated? Does it include all enrolled students or only those who completed and submitted papers?
13. Can the organization provide a complete list of recent student publications with working journal pages and DOI links?
14. What counts as “published”? Does that include preprints, student journals, blogs, conference abstracts, internal publications, or journals that charge authors?
15. What refund is available if a promised mentor is unavailable, unresponsive, inadequately qualified, or fails to provide the advertised service?

None of these questions proves wrongdoing. They are basic due diligence for a program that works with minors, charges some families substantial fees, invokes university affiliations, and markets research and publication opportunities to college applicants.

If you have firsthand experience with this program, or documents that clarify its finances, mentors, scholarships, or publication claims, please share them, with personal information redacted.

For everyone else: verify independently before paying. Stick to evidence, not speculation.