The world’s population crossed the 7 billion mark a while ago, and is headed towards 8. Yet top tier schools still admit a relatively fixed number of students, out of the tens of thousands of applications they receive. If you’re applying to an Ivy league school, your academic records are not only expected to be stellar, you’re expected to be talented as well.

But even amongst the brilliant, and talented students applying to top tier schools, only few make it. What gives? How do college admissions narrow down their selection from the field of applicants?

How Do College Admissions Choose Candidates?

Without a doubt soft skills like essays, awards, extracurricular, social media and interviews play an important role. Unfortunately, nothing strikes anxiety into the heart of a student like college essays. Pondering the various essay questions is not only intimidating, but downright hurtful to your self esteem. This is where ivy league counselling comes in.

College admission boards are never looking at one specific thing, but rather taking a holistic look at your character. If you spend all your time cultivating your GPA and SAT, you won’t be able to demonstrate your character, and could risk losing a spot to a more prepared student. The competition is fierce.

Soft factors can’t be objectively measured. So as cool as you think you are, top tier schools might not agree with you. Having been a well known educator and counselor for more than two decades, Danille Arca founded ExpertAdmit to provide ivy league counselling to give students their best shot at a top tier college. Waiting till your senior year before you thing about college is no longer realistic. Here’s why college counselors are worth it.

Is Ivy League Counselling Worth it?

The type of services open to you, as well as the benefit you get from a counselor, will depend on how early you seek one (the earlier the better). Getting a counselor while in middle school can shape your entire career path and increase your chances of going to a top tier school.

Top tier schools like to see that your talent is focused, hence a counselor can help you narrow your focus, in terms of extracurricular activities, athleticism, academic curriculum and branding. Honestly, any intelligent student with enough discipline and foresight might be able to do the same for themselves, but very rarely are kids capable of this.

Besides, most counselors would have had lots of training and experience reviewing soft skills that are endearing to ivy league schools. So they can work with you through out the admissions process to ensure you don’t come off ignorant.

Can ivy league counseling guarantee admission into a top tier school? Absolutely not! No one can. Any counselor claiming to do so is practicing the sought of illegality that got Felicity Huffman into jail. Even though you can’t get a guarantee, it can give you your best shot. Up your chances by show casing your achievement in the best possible light, if you start counseling early.