Rona Aydin is the founder of Oriel Admissions, a Princeton-based college admissions consulting firm advising families nationwide on elite university admissions strategy. An Oxford University graduate, Rona leads a deeply experienced team whose distinctive 360 approach treats every part of the application - academics, testing, activities, essays, and interviews - as one connected strategy.
Your high school matters, but not how families fear: colleges read every transcript against the school’s own profile, so top students at ordinary schools routinely beat the middle of elite classes. How school context actually works, and the strategy for both sides.
TL;DR: The Ross Mathematics Program is a six-week residential immersion in number theory, founded by mathematician Arnold Ross in 1957 and famous for its motto, think deeply of simple things. Admission runs through a challenging application problem set where the quality of written reasoning matters more than the number of answers, and the program is … Continued
Texas A&M admitted 59% of in-state and 49% of out-of-state applicants in the latest published split, and top 10% auto-admits filled 41.8% of the Fall 2025 class. Verified numbers, the nonresident tuition waiver, and strategy for nonresident families.
UC Berkeley admitted 10.5% and UCLA 10.8% for fall 2026, but residency flips which is harder: Berkeley for nonresidents, UCLA for Californians. Full comparison.
Harvard-Westlake places 18.7% of graduates at HYPSM and another 29.4% at top-25 universities, the highest beyond-HYPSM share in our national dataset, from a class of about 280. NYU and USC lead by volume. The sourced matriculation numbers, explained.
TJHSST reports 99% four-year matriculation, but the pattern is unique: UVA leads with 72 in the last published count, roughly one in ten graduates reaches the Ivy League, MIT, Stanford, or Caltech, and cost-rational STEM publics dominate. The sourced numbers.
Roughly 70 to 96 Stuyvesant graduates per year, about one in eight of 800 seniors, enroll at the Ivy League, Stanford, or MIT, and a quarter of each class reaches a top-25 university. The real Stuyvesant college matriculation numbers, sourced and explained.
The UC personal insight questions are the only narrative element of the UC application. How to choose four prompts and write responses that carry a test-blind file.
Groton leads the nation with 21.9% of graduates enrolling at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, or MIT. Verified matriculation data for 22 top feeder schools: every elite boarding school, NYC day schools at ~30% Ivy+, and Stuyvesant sending more graduates to elite universities than any private school.
Milton Academy admits approximately 13% of applicants. This guide covers the acceptance rate, 85th percentile SSAT expectations, $75,980 boarding tuition, the January 15 deadline, and the admissions strategy families use to prepare a competitive application.
Groton School admits roughly 12% of applicants and offers free tuition to families earning under $150,000. This guide covers the acceptance rate, SSAT expectations, the January 15 Gateway deadline, and the strategy behind a competitive Groton application.
The Peddie School admits about 22% of applicants. This guide covers boarding tuition near $72,800, the required SSAT and interview, the January 15 deadline, financial aid averaging $40,000 for 36% of students, and how strong applicants position themselves.
The Pingry School admits about 12% of applicants, the lowest rate of any New Jersey day school. This guide covers Early Action versus the December 20 deadline, ISEE and SSAT expectations, tuition near $54,800, and the 45-minute interview.
ISEE prep should start four to six months out and target stanines of 7 to 9 for elite schools. See the ISEE vs SSAT comparison, the testing-season calendar, score expectations, and the three-phase prep plan that works.
Private school interview questions follow a predictable pattern across five categories. See the questions students and parents actually hear, how to answer the big three, boarding school variations, and the mock-interview method that works.
Princeton Day School admits about 30% of applicants, with odds that vary sharply by entry grade. This guide covers tuition near $52,500, SSAT and ISEE codes, the December 1 aid deadline, the January 15 application deadline, and entry-grade strategy.