Lakhani Coaching 2020 Acceptance List
March 30, 2020
Dear Friends,
I write today in defiance of the difficult times we are facing. With admissions decisions rolling in, we have celebratory news to share, which I hope brings positivity to seniors roughing out virtual school in their last semester, and inspiration to students from middle school to graduate school who are ramping up work for applications this fall.
Our students this year have been accepted at such special places as Penn, Cornell, Brown, UC Berkeley, Wake Forest, USC, Northwestern, and Johns Hopkins, among many more superb colleges, alongside graduate admissions to Harvard Business School, Georgetown Law, Columbia Business School, Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), UCLA Law, Tufts’ Master’s in Law and Diplomacy (Fletcher), and USC Marshall School of Business. This is just a snippet of the more robust list below, and the comprehensive Lakhani Coaching acceptance list. Email us if we are missing one of your acceptances!
The true celebration is not about getting into the most selective program—it’s about landing at the place where you will be happiest. As such, my advice for seniors below focuses on two important topics: virtual revisits and how to handle deferrals and waitlists.
Juniors meanwhile are on their way to stellar applications seven months from now. Our students are hard at work on SAT/ACT increases, Subject Tests and AP preparation, cultivating next level character pursuits, and planning for college essay drafts this summer. For the highest achieving sophomores and juniors, Subject Tests are a current priority, with just the June 6 date available this spring.
Meanwhile sophomores are gearing up wisely, booking summer intensives for SAT/ACT work —focused time over summer a pillar to our coaching SAT increases as large as 600 points—as well as planting intriguing seeds for character pursuits.
Graduate school candidates are hard at work, too, on GMAT, LSAT, GRE and MCAT, as early round applications open as soon as late May for medical school and August for law and business school. The timeline is similar for independent and boarding school candidates. If you will be applying to change schools in the fall, summer is the ideal time to invest in SSAT and ISEE growth, before prep for interviews and personal statements in September.
We are pleased to share that our inaugural Lakhani Scholar, Lisa David, who received a life-changing acceptance to GW this year, had a personal essay published in Thrive Global discussing the impact Lakhani Scholars has made on her life. Congratulations, Lisa. Lakhani Scholars 2020 applications remain open, and due to coronavirus, deadlines will be extended to October 1 . For our generous clients interested in supporting the high achieving low income students who benefit from Lakhani Scholars, you are welcome to sponsor a scholarship here.
Finally, I was pleased to contribute a TV interview to FOX’s coronavirusNOW.com coverage, as well as to FOX5 NY reporting , both focused on how COVID-19 affects juniors and seniors, including impact on admissions yield.
More specific guidance is laid out below, as well as a standardized testing problem of the month.
Families can feel free to contact us if you have unique questions you’d like to discuss. You can also keep up with us by following us on Instagram @lakhanicoaching.
Here’s to good health—
Hafeez Lakhani
2020 Acceptance List
Congratulations to all of our students! If we're missing an acceptance, let us know !
American, M.A. School of International Service
Berkshire School
Boston University
Boston University Law
Brown
Chapin School
Collegiate School
Columbia Business School
Columbia, Master of International Affairs (SIPA)
Cornell
Drexel
Emory
Ethical Culture Fieldston School
Fordham
Fordham Law
FSU, M.A. Russian and East European Studies
Georgetown Law
Georgia Tech
GW
GW, M.A. International Affairs
Harvard Business School
Hotchkiss School
Illinois, M.A. Russian, East European Studies
Imperial College London
Indiana, Kelly School of Business (BBA)
Indiana, Kelly School of Business (MBA)
Institute of World Politics
Johns Hopkins
McGill
Miami
Michigan
New School, M.A. International Affairs
Northeastern
Northwestern
Notre Dame
NYU, M.A. International Relations
Rice
SMU
St. Georges School
Temple
Tufts, M.A. Law and Diplomacy (Fletcher)
UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley, Haas (MBA)
UCLA Law
UCSB
UNC
UNC, Kenan-Flagler (MBA)
University of Alabama
University of Mississippi
University of Pennsylvania
University of South Carolina
USC
USC Marshall (MBA)
UT Austin, McCombs (MBA)
UVA, Darden (MBA)
Wake Forest
Wesleyan
Wisconsin
WPI
These will soon be added to the Lakhani Coaching Acceptance List. Congratulations again!
Seniors: Making a Decision
Virtual Revisits:
I always say: 90% of my education at Yale came from my peers. In the interest of “finding your tribe”—the peers you’ll be learning so much from—I encourage all students to take virtual revisits seriously. In many cases, admitted students will be able to connect via chat and video to online admitted students networks, attend online classes taught by faculty, attend live-streamed video panels about different elements of campus life, and explore virtual content from student organizations. If you’d like to discuss any tough decisions you’re making, feel free to contact us .
Waitlists:
As I spoke about on FOX , given that annual yield estimates are in serious jeopardy, waitlists are a greater opportunity this year than in any year of recent memory. We encourage the following waitlist process:
Only stay on a waitlist if you truly would accept the offer over your current options. Go into it knowing that the odds are slim, but not zero. I’ve seen students accepted off waitlists as late as July, but I recommend that anyone staying on a waitlist put in a letter (below) and then begin to celebrate the options that are firm in hand.
Craft a letter of continued interest. Colleges receive a number of these letters so I advise not simply including fluff. Rather, ask yourself what you can share that goes beyond the box you checked to stay on the waitlist.
Declaration of interest: To the extent you and your family feel comfortable, declare whether you would absolutely accept the offer were it extended to you. Know that you cannot truthfully say this to more than one school.
Potential offer of deferral: If you would be willing to take a year off and matriculate to the university one year from now, this may be a bargaining chip in your favor. Express this willingness in your letter, as well as a paragraph describing what you would get up to.
Share additions to your character story: The school already has your application and a mid-year update from your counselor. So what’s new? Will you be canvassing for elections this summer? Mention it. Have you earned a recognition for ongoing research or art? Do share. Did you code an app last year and that app is now available to download? Send them a link. The more specific the better.
Unsure how exactly to craft your letter? Contact us to discuss it further.
Deferrals and conditional acceptances:
Increasingly we are seeing three conditional acceptances offered by colleges, all of which hold unique promise:
Acceptance deferred by one year (the school requesting a year off of you rather than you offering it)
Automatic sophomore transfer contingent upon excellent grades
Acceptance with required first semester abroad
Each of these possibilities comes with a unique circumstance that the student needs to weigh out, but generally I see them as opportunities. Acceptance rates are at or near record lows. If this is a path to admission to your dream school, I encourage considering it. A year off is especially interesting, so long as you are prepared to craft a structured experience. Contact us to discuss any of these options further.
Juniors: t-minus Seven Months
An important question every junior needs to ask right now is, am I on track to apply Early? This question is hugely complicated by testing cancellations this spring—but nearly all of our juniors are still on their way to November 1 preparedness. Responsibilities include: final sittings of the SAT/ACT, potential Subject Tests, crafting a well-tailored college list (visits later), cultivating a sincere character story , and excavating material for college essays this summer. Most of our juniors are progressing through their customized timelines just fine, but if you are behind, now is the time to catch up, health permitting.
Subject Tests - Recommended but Not Required:
In cases of Engineering students, Math2 + Physics or Chemistry are required at the most selective schools. For other students, they are “recommended but not required.” With selectivity so tight, we recommend excellence on Subject Tests as an opportunity to stand out. Subject Tests resemble final exams, so wise to let this studying coincide with school courses culminating. June 6 is currently the only spring date this year, but keep a look out at collegeboard.org for March/May make up dates and potential June rescheduling.
Coronavirus Disruptions:
We are all coping with cancellations, changed calendars, etc. Those who plan carefully will be in a position to especially stand out.
April US ACT sittings cancelled
May worldwide SAT sittings cancelled
AP Exams being administered online, online prep to be offered
IB exams cancelled worldwide
Skype coaching:
We have been coaching students by Skype plus our suite of online tools since 2010, to world class results. Contact us to discuss setting up a program.
Resources:
New York Times: How to Write a Good College Application Essay
Grown & Flown: How Your Teen Can Snag a Powerful Letter of Recommendation for College Applications
College Board Coronavirus Updates
International Baccalaureate Covid-19 Updates
Underclassmen: Summer Intensive
I love to ask sophomores this time of year, How does it feel to be at the halfway point of high school? Because indeed, now is the perfect time for freshman and sophomores to chart a careful path the rest of the way—in the case of sophomores, just a year and a half to applications.
Two responsibilities to note for summer:
Summer Intensive SAT/ACT
SAT and ACT skills growth is much like improvement in a sport or musical instrument. If I’m interested in becoming great at basketball, can I study all night tonight and have a world class jumpshot tomorrow? Of course not. Our secret to coaching SAT increases as large as 600 points and ACT increases as large as 12 points is rooted in the above analogy—approaching it as skill building. The key is commitment from the student, ideally when school is not competing for his/her attention. In our experience, students who see the greatest gains are ones who devote 50 to 100 hours to coaching over summer.
Our most senior instructors, including myself, get fully booked every July and August— contact us to reserve your coach if you haven’t already.
Developing One's Character Story
The summer before junior year, I love to see a student begin to expand the depth (rather than breadth) of her character story. As such, we are encouraging all of our sophomores—soon to be juniors—to cultivate character pursuits this summer that allow for new levels of investment in areas of sincere interest. Contact us if you’d like to hear examples of how we’ve helped other students advance their character stories.
Resources:
Redbook: Here's How to Help Your Kid Rock the SAT and ACT
CNBC.com: To Get Into a Top College, Your Character Matters, Too
Graduate School Candidates: t-minus 5 Months
Law School: Rolling applications open as early as August. If you are thinking about applying this fall, you should already be working hard on LSAT or GRE, to leave 1-2 months for work on your personal statements. Contact us for guidance on deciding between LSAT and GRE, and to book one of our expert coaches to help you reach your desired scores.
Business School: first round deadlines are in early September, so a plan of action needs to be in place from now to reach GMAT or GRE goals through focused coaching, and to then formulate an appropriate school list and excavate intriguing personal statements.
Medical School: AMCAS applications for following year admissions open in early May. If your MCAT journey is still in progress, feel free to contact us to discuss how we can help you reach your goal scores.
Other Graduate Study: As with any admissions goal, it’s wise to get testing out of the way before finalizing a program list, making note of deadlines, and working on personal statements and other components such as recommendation requests. In many cases candidates will also dedicate time to elevating a writing sample or portfolio. Contact us to create a customized plan to reach your desired program.
Boarding School and Independent School
A number of families who will apply to change schools in the fall have already booked summer SSAT or ISEE coaching. Independent and boarding school applications can be due anywhere from November 1 to February 15. As with any process, we recommend separating responsibilities—taking care of testing first, followed by coaching for personal statements, applications, and interviews in the fall. Contact us to discuss test preparation, a school list, and a plan of action.
Resources:
New York Times: Considering College? Maybe You Should Invest in a Coach
Problem of the Month: Math2 SAT Subject Test
Question:
In a bag of M&Ms, there are 30 green, 21 blue, 15 yellow, and 26 red. What is the probability that if I pulled out two M&Ms, I have in my hand one green and one yellow?
A) 5.31%
B) 5.37%
C) 10.75%
D) 23.92%
E) 48.91%
Click here to see the answer.