The college admissions landscape is known for being fiercely competitive. The competition for Ivy League admissions is even more intense. If they want to catch the eye of an admissions officer, students must have a way to distinguish themselves from the rest of the qualified applicants. The Ivy Institute can help.

At The Ivy Institute, a college admissions consulting firm, students receive personalized college guidance from a team of advisers. Part of that academic coaching is the App Identity^TM College Strategy.

What Is the App Identity^TM College Strategy?

Many of the advisers at The Ivy Institute are former Ivy League admissions officers, so they know what it takes to stand out in the competitive college admissions landscape. With App Identity^TM, a student and their counselor find an "angle," or a singular defining feature that captures the student's essence and makes them who they are.

Once the student and their counselor have selected a characteristic, they work together to make that characteristic tie their application materials together-resulting in a cohesive, one-of-a-kind narrative from start to finish. The result is a unified application that illustrates what a student will bring to a university.

Why App Identity^TM?

The Ivy Institute's president succinctly sums up the answer to that question: "If you want to get accepted to one of these schools, you should be able to get accepted with who you are and what you've done without mentioning anything on your resume or transcript. None of that's going to matter. They'll say, 'Anybody can do any of this. What's something only you can do?'"

What Goes into App Identity^TM?

So how does a student's expert admissions counseling team go about designing their App Identity^TM admissions strategy? Here's a breakdown:

Self-Reflection

The college application assistance process starts with the student reflecting on their lives, interests, and goals. The team at The Ivy Institute will also use predictive admissions modeling to discover what schools the students are most likely to get into. They can then offer tailored application support for those schools.

Academic Achievement

Success in the academic realm is certainly part of the equation. After all, top colleges want to see that students are motivated when it comes to learning. However, The Ivy Institute's president believes that the academic factor doesn't hold the same weight it once did. 

"I'd say academics are foundational, but I don't know if they're necessarily the most important anymore. I think they're looking for students that are really different," the president said.

Life Experience

For some students, cultural backgrounds and life experiences are important to their identity. Similarly, students who have faced significant adversity may find that it shapes their academic and personal journeys.

Special Interests

Both academic and extracurricular interests can be major parts of an application. Students who work with a charitable cause or have a specific research interest might consider incorporating those elements into their App Identities^TM.

A Defining Narrative

The Ivy Institute compares college admissions officers to collectors. Those collectors don't want 100 versions of the same student; they want students who offer something no one else can. 

The Ivy Institute: Helping Students Stand Out

The App Identity^TM College Strategy is a major part of why The Ivy Institute has top university acceptance rates year after year. App Identity^TM isn't a guarantee of college application success. However, a well-crafted application (along with the college admissions expertise of each applicant's team) can give talented students the edge they need to distinguish themselves.