The Ivy League is Not a Dream!

newly graduated people wearing black academy gowns throwing hats up in the air

The Ivy League is Not a Dream

Get Admitted to Top Universities and Get Rich!

IvyLeague.mom

The Ivy League is not a dream! So many parents and kids have dreams of getting admitted into a top university. My kid was just admitted into an Ivy League college, and I am sharing my story for any parent to be able to do the same: help your child to get into the best schools and get excellent test scores. In intermediate school, my kid scored high enough on the Specialized High School Achievement Test (SHSAT) to get into Stuyvesant High School and then got a near-perfect score on the SAT. Tutoring and hard work had a lot to do with it. The number one thing to remember is not to force your child to do anything. I was ecstatic when my daughter Angelica scored high enough on the state exam to be allowed to take the Hunter College High School exam. However, she did not want to go to that school, so she quit the tutoring that I sent her to. I did not force it, and was surprised when she wanted to take the exam anyway. She did not do well on the essay, because her heart was not in it. Then when it came time for the SHSAT for high school, my child was used to the format of the test, because most standardized tests are pretty much similar. What if you do not live in New York City? Consider moving to a neighborhood with excellent public schools. Great Neck South High School is one of the most highly rated schools in New York and they even have a golf team!

I am personally a proponent of public schools, because I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth, and public schools are great if your child gets into the honors and specialized programs. I just watched a documentary on HBOMAX about Avenues, a private school that costs $40,000+ a year that is next to a housing project in Chelsea, and according to the Avenues website, only about 33 students out of 300 got into the Ivy League. I will have to do more analysis to see if it produces many more Ivy Leaguers than public high schools in New York. I did hear, however, that many of the prep schools in New York are feeder schools to the Ivy League and send about 30% of graduates to the Ivies each year. So, by that estimate, 30% of 300 should be 90 students, and compared to prep schools, Avenues is not getting as many of their students admitted to the Ivy League. This is only assuming that the end goal for sending a kid to a private school is to get the kid into an Ivy League college. Send your child to private schools if your budget allows for it, but I was saving my money for tutoring and college.

The following are some tips on how I was able to help my child score so well on exams thus allowing me to become an Ivy League Mom!

Visit colleges as soon as you can. I do not mean visits in senior year of high school. I mean when your kid is around eight years old, start exposing the child to what colleges he can aspire to. Go on vacation to Connecticut and visit Yale; Madison Beach Hotel is close by and very relaxing (you can stay there for free with your Hilton weekend certificates, otherwise the hotel is quite pricey). Right now, if you apply for the Hilton Amex card, you can get 60,000 bonus points and a free weekend night certificate. Go to Boston on vacation and visit Harvard and MIT. While visiting the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, stop off at University of Pennsylvania. Show your kid what he can achieve with good grades. The Secret teaches us that we achieve what we set our minds to do. Therefore, we must show our kids what to focus on.

Pay for tutoring and start early, around the time of standardized tests for high school. In New York City, the big ones are the Hunter College High School Entrance Exam and the SHSAT. I brought my kid to Kaplan in Manhattan for SHSAT tutoring two years before the test. Then when the course was over, I paid for private tutoring by the teacher of the class. As a result of all the extra help in math, my daughter Angelica was able to well and is a math tutor for disadvantaged kids as an extracurricular activity. For the SAT, Angelica received tutoring in both English and math. She scored 1570 on her second try (the first try did not result in a high enough score). The need for tutoring has been confirmed by a Harvard dad: he and his son both attended Harvard, so he must know something we don’t. I asked him what was his secret. He said, “Spend the money on tutoring.” There you have it, ladies (and gentlemen, in case there are some dad readers snooping around here). Spend your money on tutoring.

What about college admissions consultants? If you can afford it, it will definitely take some stress off of the application process. The consultant will hold the college applicant’s hand throughout the process, with virtual consultations, essay writing help, advice on majors (the advice that was worth the money was to go for the less popular majors so there would be less competition), and generally being there during this stressful time. During the college application ordeal, it is very important to take care of yourself: exercise, eat right and get wellness treatments and massages.

For those parents with younger children:

As soon as you can, when your kid is around age three, get Hooked on Phonics and start teaching your kid to read. It does not take long. Just sit with your child a few minutes a day and soon he or she will be able to read. Yes, a three year old can read! When our three-year-old was sitting in the back of the car in her car seat and voiced the name of a restaurant, we could not believe it. After your kid starts to read, a whole new world will open up and your child will be years ahead of all the others.

Get your first month of Hooked on Phonics for just $1

Another thing to do as soon as possible is to order workbooks. Reading, math, grammar, spelling, vocabulary (root words) for your child’s grade and perhaps a few grades above that. You want to get a head start. Make it a game and give prizes and incentives for completing workbooks. Much cheaper than the thousands of dollars at Kumon and other learning centers. They sell Kumon workbooks on Amazon.

Kumon Workbooks

Train your kid’s brain with Sodoku puzzles. Get a baby Sodoku book on Amazon and start teaching your kid how to think logically. You are training the young brain for all the years of testing ahead, especially any tests with logic.

Of course, do not just focus on academics. Your child needs some fun. Put a tennis racquet or a golf club in your child’s hand and a decade later, she can wind up captain of the tennis team.

You might say, so much money and work to do all of the above. But as parents, we must sacrifice for our kids. You can save money by buying workbooks on Amazon instead of sending the kids to Kumon. You can apply for credit cards and stay in hotels for free with the points and free night certificates. Our reward is the bragging rights when our kids achieve great things. Who knows? You can probably use your child’s admission into the Ivy League for your own networking. After all, parents of Ivy League students and alum are allowed to join clubs in the city such as the Harvard Club, Yale Club, Cornell Club, etc. Also, some parents have been known to use their kids’ school connections to help with their own businesses, such as a realtor who used her kids’ private school parent list to sell real estate. There are no guarantees in life, but you reap what you sow.

Do you Need a College Admissions Consultant?

What about college admissions consultants? If you can afford it, it will definitely take some stress off of the application process. The consultant will hold the college applicant’s hand throughout the process, with virtual consultations, essay writing help, advice on majors (the advice that was worth the money was to go for the less popular majors so there would be less competition), and generally being there during this stressful time. During the college application ordeal, it is very important to take care of yourself: exercise, eat right and get wellness treatments and massages.

Jason, a high school senior who was accepted to attend an Ivy League college, was one of those lucky ones who did have a college coach that cost $15,000.

Jason reported:

My college coach, a former admissions officer at an Ivy League university, worked with other former admissions officers and guided me throughout the college application process.  They helped with the essay, emphasizing my special circumstance, such as needing to care for my little brother due to my parents being divorced.  The college coach assisted with prepping me for my interviews.  College admissions officers are looking for the perfect fit.  The most important parts of the application are a great essay and spectacular extra-curricular activities.  Everyone has top grades and excellent SAT scores, so you need to stand out with a personal essay that shows your special circumstance while maintaining good grades.  There are so many students who have the best extra-curriculars, such as creating their own company, winning international awards, creating patents, playing in Carnegie Hall, starting their own non-profit, etc. The Ivy League is looking for someone who is so passionate about something that he is willing to spend all his time and effort on it, such as a Regeneron winner or Olympic athlete, not someone who dabbles in something.  How was I to compete?!  One kid hired a college coach who created a website that showed his non-profit, started by donating his birthday money to poor kids and tutoring them.   My coach also gave me advice such as, everyone wants to apply to UPenn Wharton for finance, so perhaps UPenn’s art history major might be better. 

Vanessa, Ivy League Student

The Pieces of the Pie for Admission to an Ivy League College

Think of admissions to an Ivy as pieces of the pie: If you have enough pieces and they are large enough, then you make up the entire pie.  The pieces of the pie include: grades, extra curricular activities, achievements and awards, opportunity in high school, the essay, recommendation letters, the university-specific questions and SAT/ACT. 

Pieces of the Pie for Ivy League Admissions
Photo by Felicity Tai on Pexels.com

Grades

What grades do you need to have to get into the Ivy League? 

Since the Ivies have so many applicants to choose from, they will probably choose the straight A (weighted Grade Point Average 4.0) student over the B student.  The colleges want students who can handle the rigorous academic standards, so grades are a good indicator of future success.  Does it mean that if you have the occasional B that your chances are zero?  No it does not.  However, you are competing with the straight A students, so the higher your grades are, the higher your chances of getting into an Ivy. 

What if your grades are not perfect?

By not perfect, we mean a GPA around 3.3 to 3.7. 

  • Apply to less-choosy Ivy League schools. Out of all the Ivies, Cornell probably has the top acceptance rate, which is still uber- selective at approximately 8.7%. However, students with average grades will have an improved chance of getting into Cornell as opposed to Harvard, with a 4% acceptance rate.
  • Explain your grades in the Common App Additional Information Section. 
  • This is where you can explain your special circumstances, such as needing to do the housework or get a job because your parents are divorced.  Nowadays, divorce seems to be the norm rather than the exception, so discuss how the divorce has affected your grades: emotional distress, extra housework, need to take care of siblings, etc.
  • Excel in other areas of the college application. Grades are just one part of the pie that  Ivy League colleges use to assess their applicants. If a student has great extracurricular activities, top letters of recommendation, and poignant college essays, he can still be a viable candidate with so-so grades.
  • Look into transferring to an Ivy League.   Even if you don’t get in on your first try, perhaps you can transfer to an Ivy after a year or so at another college.

The College Essay

The college essay is your chance to shine, to stand out amongst all the other stellar grades and perfect SAT scores.  Here is where you need to reveal something about yourself.  The admissions officers want to know who you are, so that they can make a right match for the school.  Think of it as matchmaking for your significant other: you will be spending the next four years of your life in this college, so the admissions officers need to know that it will be a good fit.  Of course, there are some exceptions, like if your dad wrote a large check to support the school, but for the rest of us, the essay is very important.  The dirty secret, according to high school students I interviewed, everyone has some help with their essays.  Even those who cannot afford to hire a college coach will probably get some help, even if it is from a friend.

Please take this poll about whether you hired a college admissions consultant and check back for the results.

The Power of Incentives: How to Train Your Young Child’s Brain for Optimum Performance on Tests (Ages 3-8)

When my kid was three, I taught her how to read with Hooked on Phonics. From then on, I made her do pages of workbooks such as the NY state curriculum and Kumon math and English, all of which I ordered from Amazon. How do you make a kid do what you want? I did it with incentives. You want a new toy? Do a few pages of Kumon. Note that I was too cheap to actually pay thousands of dollars to the Kumon testing centers for them to watch my kid do workbooks when each Kumon book was only $10 on Amazon. I had to save money for the incentives!

You want to go to Hershey Park? Do some sudoku puzzles. A young child will do as he or she is told, especially when you offer treats. Then, before you know it, the kid will have grown into a bigger kid whose brain has been trained. This is akin to the dad teaching his kid how to hit a ball in the schoolyard. We all teach our kids what we know, and I know how to take tests. The test writers tend to test logic, and math and Sudoku train the brain to get used to thinking a certain way. You don’t need tutors when your child is three to eight years old. You need to build a foundation of basic skills and this is best done with active activities like workbooks with answers at the end. Save your money for when you prepare for standardized tests like the Hunter High School Entrance Exam, SHSAT and SATs.

Today, as a reward for getting into an Ivy League college, we are going to go shopping for a Canada Goose coat for those cold Ithaca winters, eat oysters at Docks for Restaurant Week and then go see Dear Evan Hansen (cheaper during Broadway Week). Yes, Broadway is back and we are showing our support with our standing ovation! Yes this is a pricey day, but incentives are very important. Also, see my other posts for my penny-pinching days.

What is an Ivy League Mom?

Deep thoughts: what is an Ivy League mom? Is she a mom who attended an Ivy League university or is she a mom of an Ivy League student? We’ve seen the term Ivy League mom used in both ways. Sometimes, a mom who graduated from an Ivy League school will have kids who attend the same school. So, the term Ivy League mom can be both a mom who attended an Ivy League school or a mom of an Ivy Leaguer.

Our Favorite Shirt in the Cornell Store

The RBG shirt with the dissent collar is the cutest item in the Cornell Store. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Cornell ‘54, met her husband, Marty, at Cornell. Marty was very supportive of RBG’s legal career. The dissent collar is what RBG wore whenever she disagreed with the majority. What a great way to show school pride, not to mention our love of RBG. The t-shirt is so soft and comfy too. Worth the steep price of $49.99, by Ivy Citizens.

RBG has our respect as the lady who managed to have it all. Not only did she manage to get her MRS at Cornell, a dream of many young ladies nowadays, she also had a brilliant legal career while being a mom.

Check out the dissent necklace below also:

Marry Smart by Susan Patton

Ivy League Moms (ILM) Book Club Selection

My daughter was recently accepted to Cornell. Congratulations, everyone said. I do admit that there is a part of me that wonders if she could have gotten into Harvard, Yale or Princeton if she applied. But she did not even apply. Like so many other students, she fell in love with the beautiful college campus at Cornell. Who can blame them? Upon further research, I discovered that Ruth Bader Ginsburg met her husband, Marty, while attending Cornell. Well, if it is good enough for RBG, it’s good enough for us!

Numerous women in Manhattan lament the lack of suitable men in the city. And young girls these days, I am told, are more interested in starting a family, at least earlier than women of my generation. I learned the hard way that fertility does not last forever, when I had to undergo a procedure many other women need to when they reach a certain age. So, if fertility does not last forever and there are limited suitable men in the city, where and when should a young woman try to meet the one? Marry Smart, by Princeton Mom Susan Patton, holds that women should start seeking husbands in college. I totally agree! Ladies, learn from our mistakes! Do not wait! Find your husband in college if your goal in life is to have babies. A must read!

EliteSingles.com
Princeton Mom says start getting the guys lined up in college so that you can have a husband after you graduate.

Summer is a Verb: Reading and Viewing List

One reader who attended an Ivy League college but grew up not so affluently in Queens said that his classmates would ask him, “Where do you summer?” He joked, “Summer? Flushing Meadow Park?” Summer is a verb to some Ivy Leaguers. To prepare for the Ivy League, we suggest reading True Prep, to learn that summer is in fact a verb and other ways to talk the talk and walk the walk of Ivy Leaguers.

The Social Climber’s Bible: A Book of Manners, Practical Tips, and Spiritual Advice for the Upwardly Mobile– very good and interesting tips on how to win rich friends:

Born Rich Documentary: Highly entertaining video about rich kids, the type you might encounter in Ivy League schools (after viewing Born Rich, see where the rich kids are now):

The One Percent Documentary: by Jamie Johnson, Johnson & Johnson heir who made Born Rich, see above.

If you need VPN, click here for a great deal!

Where do you summer?

The Ivy League is a Private Club Only the Elite Can Join

The Ivy League is a Private Club only the Elite Can Join

Why am I passionate about my child attending an Ivy League college? Because I have seen the things Ivy Leaguers can get. It is a private club that few can get in, but once you are in, you can have access to better jobs, make more money, network with a certain group of people (other Ivy Leaguers who have gotten these benefits and are now powerful), get wined and dined by companies just looking to recruit Ivy League students. One reader sent in this story:

When I was a law student, I got into a program that assigned me to a prestigious internship with a federal judge. I personally did not attend a top law school, but the judge assigned to me was an alumnus of Ivy League schools and only hired clerks who attended prestigious schools. This is the case with most Federal judges; they all want the best. I was lucky that I was part of the program, so I was vouched by the program organizers. While in chambers, I was able to see that these Ivy League clerks had it all: federal clerkships, large bonuses as a result of the clerkship in the guaranteed jobs in large law firms eager to hire them. I did not have access to any of these perks because I was not part of the club. The other interns chosen by the judge who attended top law schools talked about the wining and dining by law firms. They attended several recruiting events a month. It is really a different world for Ivy Leaguers.

Lower-Tier Law Mom

What about you? Please post your experiences, hopes and dreams in the comments below.

How to Become an Ivy League Mom

How do you become an Ivy League mom? I’m not trying to sound like a Tiger mom but I am sharing my story for any parent to be able to do the same: help your child to get into the best schools and get excellent test scores. My child was accepted into an Ivy League university. Before that, my kid scored high enough on the Specialized High School Achievement Test (SHSAT) to get into Stuyvesant High School and then got a near-perfect score on the SAT. Tutoring and hard work had a lot to do with it. The number one thing to remember is not to force your child to do anything. I was ecstatic when my daughter Angelica scored high enough on the state exam to be allowed to take the Hunter College High School exam. However, she did not want to go to that school, so she quit the tutoring that I sent her to. I did not force it, and was surprised when she wanted to take the exam anyway. She did not do well on the essay, because her heart was not in it. Then when it came time for the SHSAT for high school, my child was used to the format of the test, because most standardized tests are pretty much similar. What if you do not live in New York City? Consider moving to a neighborhood with excellent public schools. Great Neck South High School is one of the most highly rated schools in New York and they even have a golf team!

I am personally a proponent of public schools, because I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth, and public schools are great if your child gets into the honors and specialized programs. I just watched a documentary on HBOMAX about Avenues, a private school that costs $40,000+ a year that is next to a housing project in Chelsea, and according to the Avenues website, only about 33 students out of 300 got into the Ivy League. I will have to do more analysis to see if it produces many more Ivy Leaguers than public high schools in New York. I did hear, however, that many of the prep schools in New York are feeder schools to the Ivy League and send about 30% of graduates to the Ivies each year. So, by that estimate, 30% of 300 should be 90 students, and compared to prep schools, Avenues is not getting as many of their students admitted to the Ivy League. This is only assuming that the end goal for sending a kid to a private school is to get the kid into an Ivy League college. Send your child to private schools if your budget allows for it, but I was saving my money for tutoring and college.

The following are some tips on how I was able to help my child score so well on exams thus allowing me to become an Ivy League Mom!

Visit colleges as soon as you can. I do not mean visits in senior year of high school. I mean when your kid is around eight years old, start exposing the child to what colleges he can aspire to. Go on vacation to Connecticut and visit Yale; Madison Beach Hotel is close by and very relaxing (you can stay there for free with your Hilton weekend certificates, otherwise the hotel is quite pricey). Right now, if you apply for the Hilton Amex card, you can get 60,000 bonus points and a free weekend night certificate. Go to Boston on vacation and visit Harvard and MIT. While visiting the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, stop off at University of Pennsylvania. Show your kid what he can achieve with good grades. The Secret teaches us that we achieve what we set our minds to do. Therefore, we must show our kids what to focus on.

Pay for tutoring and start early, around the time of standardized tests for high school. In New York City, the big ones are the Hunter College High School Entrance Exam and the SHSAT. I brought my kid to Kaplan in Manhattan for SHSAT tutoring two years before the test. Then when the course was over, I paid for private tutoring by the teacher of the class. As a result of all the extra help in math, my daughter Angelica was able to well and is a math tutor for disadvantaged kids as an extracurricular activity. For the SAT, Angelica received tutoring in both English and math. She scored 1570 on her second try (the first try did not result in a high enough score). The need for tutoring has been confirmed by a Harvard dad: he and his son both attended Harvard, so he must know something we don’t. I asked him what was his secret. He said, “Spend the money on tutoring.” There you have it, ladies (and gentlemen, in case there are some dad readers snooping around here). Spend your money on tutoring.

What about college admissions consultants? If you can afford it, it will definitely take some stress off of the application process. The consultant will hold the college applicant’s hand throughout the process, with virtual consultations, essay writing help, advice on majors (the advice that was worth the money was to go for the less popular majors so there would be less competition), and generally being there during this stressful time. During the college application ordeal, it is very important to take care of yourself: exercise, eat right and get wellness treatments and massages.

For those parents with younger children:

As soon as you can, when your kid is around age three, get Hooked on Phonics and start teaching your kid to read. It does not take long. Just sit with your child a few minutes a day and soon he or she will be able to read. Yes, a three year old can read! When our three-year-old was sitting in the back of the car in her car seat and voiced the name of a restaurant, we could not believe it. After your kid starts to read, a whole new world will open up and your child will be years ahead of all the others.

Another thing to do as soon as possible is to order workbooks from Amazon. Reading, math, grammar, spelling, vocabulary (root words) for your child's grade and perhaps a few grades above that. You want to get a head start. Make it a game and give prizes and incentives for completing workbooks. Much cheaper than the thousands of dollars at Kumon and other learning centers. They sell Kumon workbooks on Amazon.

Kumon Workbooks

Train your kid’s brain with Sodoku puzzles. Get a baby Sodoku book on Amazon and start teaching your kid how to think logically. You are training the young brain for all the years of testing ahead, especially any tests with logic.

Of course, do not just focus on academics. Your child needs some fun. Put a tennis racquet or a golf club in your child's hand and a decade later, she can wind up captain of the tennis team.

You might say, so much money and work to do all of the above. But as parents, we must sacrifice for our kids. You can save money by buying workbooks on Amazon instead of sending the kids to Kumon. You can apply for credit cards and stay in hotels for free with the points and free night certificates. Our reward is the bragging rights when our kids achieve great things. Who knows? You can probably use your child's admission into the Ivy League for your own networking. After all, parents of Ivy League students and alum are allowed to join clubs in the city such as the Harvard Club, Yale Club, Cornell Club, etc. Also, some parents have been known to use their kids' school connections to help with their own businesses, such as a realtor who used her kids' private school parent list to sell real estate. There are no guarantees in life, but you reap what you sow.