Define Your Goals Early Harris Eppsteiner
Valedictorian of his Atlanta prep school class, Harris applied to some of America's most elite schools, getting into Harvard, Yale, Penn, and three others. He chose Yale but is taking a gap year to live on a kibbutz in Israel. Harris started with a list of 15 schools but narrowed them to just six. How did he rule out so many upfront? "A lot of it was asking myself what did I want to get out of [college]," he says. His goals: schools where he could study international relations or economics, in places where he could "broaden my comfort zone" beyond Atlanta.
GPA: 4.0 nonweighted
SAT scores: 800 math, 800 critical reading, 800 writing
Extracurrics: Theater, leadership positions in United Synagogue Youth, National Merit scholar
Essay topic: His experiences in the Georgia Governor's Honors Program
Advice for 11th graders: Talk to students at the schools you're considering; ask about positives and negatives.
Redo: Would have started earlier: began the Common Application in October, finished in December
Help from parents: Mom proofread his essays; Dad encouraged him to apply to his alma mater, Northwestern University. Other than that, "they took a hands-off approach."