TIP: Don’t overestimate your competitiveness by underestimating the competition.

TALE: It was just three years ago that Mitch had done everything right. He was at a private school. He had top grades. He was top of his class. He had a weighted GPA of 4.3 and an unweighted GPA of 3.97. That means he had one B plus in honors English as a freshman. Everything else was an A. He had above 1400 SAT scores and he had - wait for it -10 APS. He was a national merit commended scholar and a Hispanic scholar. So you can imagine, mom never worried too much about Mitch.

What came next nobody was ready for. Mitch placed all his bets with colleges that admit less than 25% and less than 15%. ALL his bets went there, and while his Mom begged him to add others, he refused to listen. Mitch underestimated the competition and was not admitted to a single college. Yep. You read that correctly. Notta One.

TRUTH: The job of the list of colleges is to ensure success. The job of the college admission essays is to MAXIMIZE success.