What Ivy League Admissions Officers Want From Top Applicants In 2026

What Ivy League Admissions Officers Want From Top Applicants In 2026

By Christopher Rim | Oct 14, 2026, 06:15pm EDT

For roughly the last decade, the prevailing wisdom in college admissions has been to be “pointy.” Rather than well-rounded students who have participated in a little student government, a little soccer, a little piano, applicants were told that top colleges want specialists in a particular field. The ideal candidate, according to this model, has one defining passion, pursued it relentlessly, and appears to have known since childhood exactly what they wanted to do with their life.

There is some truth to this advice: it pushed students away from padding their Activities List with a dozen disconnected clubs and toward the kind of depth and sustained commitment admissions officers have always looked for. But it also placed enormous pressure on students to commit to a single path beginning as early as ninth grade or even middle school. While encouraging students to pursue a genuine passion, the “pointy” model can inadvertently lead to admissions profiles that look inauthentic and contrived.

Few 17-year-olds have pursued a single passion since middle school. Many students change their intended major at least once in college, and even many adults would admit they still haven’t settled on a single, defining passion. Admissions officers, who read thousands of applications each cycle, know that this expectation is unrealistic.

As a result, a perfectly linear narrative—in which every activity, every summer, every essay reflects a single interest—can appear manufactured. Rather than reflecting a student’s intellectual journey, it can look like a profile designed for what admissions officers want to see.

Starting early remains as important as ever, but the “pointy” profile is no longer catching the eyes of admissions officers at the most selective schools. Instead, admissions officers are increasingly drawn to students who are “star shaped,” who creatively blend their numerous interests, particularly interests that don’t typically overlap. In contrast to the singularly focused application profile, a star-shaped application presents a more honest picture of how motivated high school students discover their core interests: they follow multiple threads, notice connections, and develop a direction organically.

What does the difference between these two types of applicant profiles look like?

A “pointy student” interested in computer science might participate in years of coding competitions, attend a summer research program in machine learning, and launch a passion project dedicated to helping younger students develop beginner programming skills. A star-shaped student might bring that same technical background together with a longtime fascination with linguistics and a deep connection to their family’s heritage language, then build a tool that helps preserve a dialect spoken by a shrinking number of elders in their grandparents’ community.

Both profiles showcase a depth of knowledge in the student’s various interests, but the “star-shaped” student is better able to distinguish themselves from thousands of other applicants through their creative combination of interdisciplinary interests.

Part of why this type of application is so attractive to admissions officers is that it more compellingly demonstrates what unique contribution a student will make to their chosen field of study. Many of the most exciting developments in recent decades have emerged at the intersection of disciplines. Behavioral economics brought psychology into economic models. Computational biology brought together computer science and the life sciences. Fields such as bioethics, digital humanities, and climate policy are innovating across departmental boundaries.

Dozens of applicants want to study public health because they are interested in medicine. But an applicant who wants to study public health because their work in urban design has shown them how neighborhood layouts shape residents’ access to care can tell a unique story and bring a distinct perspective. Admissions officers don’t simply want to know that a student is passionate about their intended field, but also how they will contribute to that field in a way that no one else can.

This is not to say that students should abandon depth or pursue random interests for the sake of variety. A star-shaped profile is still built deliberately and requires an early start. Likewise, simply pursuing multiple interests is not enough—students need to make these connections explicit in their applications. Admissions officers spend only a few minutes with each application, so the Activities List, supplemental essays, and personal statement should clearly demonstrate how their interests inform one another. But this model allows students to discover what genuinely interests them and to explore their passions without worrying about the singular expertise they need to identify and pursue.

Ultimately, the purpose of a college application is not to prove that a student has their entire life figured out by age 17. It’s to show admissions officers how a student thinks, what they care about, and what they’ll bring to campus and beyond.

Originally published on Forbes on Oct 14, 2026