Are There “Secret Strategies” to Gain College Admission?
SEPT 4, 2025
Working with a college counselor is a good start towards being admitted to a highly selective college or university, but it is insufficient by itself.
In a similar vein, simply being a child of a wealthy family is also not enough since schools will still want to see a track record of rigorous courses, favorable grades, a sense that the applicant is capable of college-level work, and has a great deal to contribute to his or her college classmates.
While there may not be "secret" strategies, there certainly are successful strategies that some applicants use to aid their admission:
Athletic recruiting: With the full knowledge that athletic coaches can submit lists of their top recruits to the admissions office, high school athletes spend years training and competing across a wide spectrum of sports. Coaches scour the nation (and the world) looking for top recruits to fill out their rosters. Some schools, such as the Ivies, look for athletic champions who also have top grade point averages and competitive test scores. Athletic recruiting has its own timetable, where candidates submit their applications months in advance of even Early Decision deadlines -- and must commit to a school early as well.
Legacy, development, and children of faculty admissions: These students are advised to apply early, either Early Action or Early Decision, to demonstrate their commitment to the school. Many private colleges favor the admission of children of their graduates. They also give a "tip of the hat" to "development cases", which are families who have been financially generous to the school. The offspring of faculty may get an edge too.
Demonstrated artistic talents: For some programs, admission is determined primarily through live auditions and/or through the submission of portfolios, recordings, videos, and other evidence of the candidate's artistic merit. Some of these candidates spend the summer before their senior year working on material that they will present for consideration to the colleges. They may also receive letters of recommendation from their mentors at respected programs attesting to their merit. Scholarships are available at many summer programs to aid underprivileged students.
Success in regional, state, national, and international competitions: There are competitions for an extraordinary variety of endeavors, from jazz music to newswriting to debate to "quick draw" gunslinging, to short story writing, to science Olympiads. I knew a young woman at Harvard who won an international ventriloquism competition, and another who was the reigning world champion of Taekwondo. The Intel Science Competition first place winner lived down the hall from me during my freshman year. There are large rewards in college admissions for champions -- and even more so if you can be a champion in two disparate fields (like being the state debate champion, and also the state's top jazz pianist). "The varsity football player who writes award-winning poetry" -- now there's a hook.
The "secret strategy" is about the applicant's track record of accomplishment. These will be viewed within the context of the applicant's environment. A candidate who is the first ever from the State of Montana to be the US Youth Poet Laureate will be attractive to any college.
