Dying to climb the Ivy? How to survive the race for a top spot

Top schools are still hard to get into.The classes of 2031 at Harvard and Columbia will get between 50,000 and 60,000 applicants this fall, and the acceptance rate for those universities is historically around 5%.To make matters worse for the world’s 15 and 16-year-olds, the admissions landscape continues to change.

Universities are revising standardized testing requirements, evaluating how applicants use artificial intelligence and looking for evidence of intellectual curiosity, initiative and personal development beyond the classroom.For parents hoping to give their children the best chance of attending Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia or another highly selective university, these changes raise important questions.How early should students begin preparing? Which activities matter most? And how can families help their children stand out without turning their teenage years into an endless exercise in résumé building?The answer begins well before senior year, when college applications are due.

According to Christopher Rim, founder and CEO of Command Education, some parents want to start college prep in fifth or sixth grade.He says that’s a bit early, but “it’s wild that parents starting as early as middle school [are] already thinking about this, but that just shows how competitive it is.”“I would say the first thing is let your kid really be a kid.

Allow him or her to explore different projects, different sports, different activities,” Rim tells the Post.Though successful, high-achieving parents want the same for their kids, Rim recommends letting them “get involved without pressuring them, without holding them to one activity that they picked three years ago.”The challenge is that admissions decisions are not determined by a single formula.

Academic performance, standardized tests, recommendations, extracurricular commitments and personal essays can all influence the outcome.Universities also consider applicants within the context of thei...