Why Applying to Selective Colleges Is Harder Than You Expect

TL/DR for Busy Parents

Applying to too many highly selective colleges often hurts students rather than helping them. These schools typically require extensive, highly individualized supplemental essays that demand deep research, reflection, and multiple rounds of revision.

When students try to juggle several of these applications at once, quality drops, stress increases, and essays become generic or rushed. For context, we believe a strong supplemental essay usually takes 5 to 10 drafts completed over 2 to 3 months, totaling 10 to 20 hours of focused work per application.

At the same time, admissions officers are evaluating institutional fit and priorities that students cannot control. Submitting more applications does not meaningfully increase the odds of admission when those factors are misaligned.

At Thinque Prep, we believe a smaller, intentional list of best-fit schools allows students to produce stronger, more thoughtful applications while avoiding burnout. This approach consistently leads to better outcomes and a healthier application process overall.

See the full article below...

It's only 250 words... How much work could that be?

It's days... hours... minutes before the deadline and you see the clock ticking down. You had months to write your applications but you'd put it off for a number of reasons: your 5 AP courses, your robotics competitions, other application essays.

In August, you'd originally thought, “It’s only 250 words. How much work could that be?”

Now, with Reddit A2C open on one tab and your empty Google doc on your screen you find yourself silently screaming why is this so hard?

Then you have a bright idea! “I can just copy/paste my essays from one college to another.”

After all... the college prompts seem similar enough. They're all on Common App and have a similar deadline. I'll just save time and write one supplemental essay and send it to 10 different school!

This is where many families run into trouble. Not only do students underestimate the research and writing time involved, they also underestimate just how selective these schools are. 

Based on our experience working having worked with hundreds of students, one pattern is very clear: unless a student has done significant research into how they align specifically with a school’s institutional priorities, admission to a highly selective college is extremely unlikely. In many cases, these applications become time consuming exercises with very little strategic payoff.

Parents often respond with something like, “But Johnny has a 4.5 GPA and a 35 on the ACT.”

Here's the thing: At institutions with single digit acceptance rates, strong grades and test scores are necessary, but they are not sufficient.

Here's the important message these institutions don't share with families about just why applying to selective colleges is so much hard than you expect: they are not simply evaluating transcript strength. They are building a class with very specific academic, demographic, geographic, and programmatic goals that often go far beyond what a student or a family is capable of controlling.

Which Highly Selective Schools Are We Talking About?

Before diving into the nitty gritty of why families should think twice before initiating a “spray and pray” approach to applying to these schools, it helps to name these schools clearly. These are the the highly selective institutions with extensive supplemental writing requirements:

• Brown

• Caltech

• Columbia

• Cornell

• Harvard

• MIT

• Princeton

• Stanford

• UChicago

• Yale

• Accelerated Medical Programs (often referred to as BS/MD programs)
  

Now let's dive into why applying to these colleges is so much harder than you'd expect.

Reason 1: The Applications Themselves Are Structurally More Demanding

Highly selective colleges require significantly more work per application than most other schools. Families should be aware that these applications typically involve:

• A larger number of supplemental essays

• Prompts that are abstract, values driven, or discourse based

• An expectation that students understand specific programs, faculty, and academic offerings available at that particular college

• An deep desire for student authenticity, intellectual curiosity, and introspection.
  

Each application should be considered a custom project. The level of individualized guidance required per application is much higher than for standard applications. Don’t be fooled by so-called ‘experts’ who encourage you to just copy and paste.

How Many Essays Are We Talking About?

On average, highly selective colleges require 3 to 10 supplemental prompts per application, often totaling 1,000 to 1,500 words. While this may not seem a lot at first, please realize these prompts are thoughtfully crafted and intended to identify students who can thoughtfully and articulately express specific qualities – for example, intellectual curiosity, social values, academic prowess, ability to engage in challenging discourse, and institutional fit.

In our experience, the average student needs 5 to 10 drafts per essay to fully develop and refine their responses. Because let’s be real… your typical teenager - no matter how motivated - typically hasn't yet developed the skillset to approach this elusively complex process.

Reason 2: Time Commitment

Why Applying to Selective Colleges Is Much Harder Than You'd Expect

While every student writes at a different pace, the time investment for highly selective supplements tends to follow a similar pattern.

When a school requires 5 to 10 supplemental essays, and each draft can take 30 minutes to 2 hours, this quickly adds up to 8 to 15 or more hours for a single application, more particularly for schools that offer abstract prompts (I'm looking at you UChicago) or require extensive school specific research.

While that doesn’t seem like much on paper, remember that this is for 1 particular application. If a student is applying to 20+ colleges — each with complicated supplements — the time required adds up quickly.  Ideally, this work is spread out over at least 2 months to allow for thoughtful revision rather than rushed writing.

Importantly, this estimate does not include the extracurricular experience required to even be prepared to answer these questions. For many of these schools, meaningful preparation needs to happen years earlier through intentional extracurricular involvement, academic exploration, and sustained engagement. Without that foundation, students often struggle to respond compellingly to the prompts.

College Mailers Only Add Fuel to the Fire

Intentionality Matters More Than Volume

At Thinque Prep, we do not believe college applications should be a numbers game. A 5% acceptance rate does not mean that applying to twenty similar schools guarantees an acceptance.

We believe in streamlining the application process and making it as stress free as possible. As part of our standard College Success Package, we include no more than one highly selective school with extensive supplemental requirements on a student’s Custom College List.

This is not a cap on ambition. It is a safeguard against overload and a realignment to focus on fit. Our belief is that each student can fully execute a strong, thoughtful application and find amazing amounts of success without the struggle of juggling multiple high intensity applications.

Options for Thinque Prep Families Who Want Support for Multiple Highly Selective Applications

If after reading this, you still feel compelled to apply to multiple highly selective schools, that’s okay!

Students are always welcome to apply to as many highly selective colleges as they wish without our guidance. After all, you can only apply to college once (theoretically). However, when families request our direct support for multiple applications in this category, the scope of work increases significantly.

Because of the intensive nature of these applications, families who would like assistance applying to multiple highly selective colleges will need to either

• Select the All Inclusive Package, or

• Choose an add on package to cover additional highly selective schools

This structure allows us to provide the level of individualized feedback and counselor involvement that these applications genuinely require.

Applying to Selective Colleges Is Harder Than You Expect

Our Goal Is Intentionality, Not Just Completion

Highly selective admissions already come with uncertainty and pressure. Our role is to reduce unnecessary stress while maintaining a high level of student support.

That means identifying schools where a student’s academic interests, values, and strengths genuinely align with the institution, and where the student is positioned to thrive. Highly selective colleges are just one small part of that equation.

So Is Applying to Selective Colleges Is Harder Than You Expect? It does not have to be...

We believe there are many strong colleges beyond those that dominate public discourse, and we encourage students to explore the hundreds of institutions across the country that may be an excellent fit for their needs.

Our focus is helping students apply intentionally so every school on their list has a clear purpose and a compelling case for fit. In doing so, we help families navigate a demanding admissions landscape in a healthy way – with clarity, intention, and support.