Last fall, Sarah Baker told her Mom, Eleanor, that she intended to follow in her footsteps and attend Harvard University. As an alumna, Eleanor was thrilled. Sarah was a legacy, so she was sure she’d be a shoe in. However, Eleanor began conferring with friends and relatives whose children had recently navigated the application process at elite universities, and soon realized how wrong she was. In the past, perfect grades and test scores were enough to gain admission to top schools, but she learned that prestigious universities are now looking for students who mobilize their passions to make a demonstrable impact in their community.

Eleanor sought the help of a Command Education Senior Mentor, who informed her and Sarah that being a legacy applicant may only tip the application process in a student’s favor at the very end—and typically, this only occurs if the committee is choosing between candidates with nearly identical application profiles.

So, Sarah worked with her mentor to narrow her extracurricular involvements and begin intentionally pursuing her interest in sustainability. By the beginning of her senior year, she had taken advanced coursework in Environmental Science, attended a prestigious summer program focused on sustainable design, and founded a nonprofit that organized a monthly farmer’s market in a food desert in her area. She also worked with a Command Education tutor to raise her ACT score from 31 to 34.

Not only did Sarah’s self-confidence improve as she developed her interests, but she also reevaluated her future goals. As her mentor coached Sarah through the process of building her college list, she discovered that she would flourish in a big city, and Columbia University’s program in Sustainable Development appeared to be the perfect program in which to grow her passion. She was thrilled to be admitted to Columbia Early Decision.