In this case study episode, we analyze the profile of a high-achieving 10th grade student targeting top engineering and STEM programs (MIT, Princeton, and Georgia Tech), with strong grades, advanced math/STEM coursework, and some early depth in STEM-relevant activities.

Despite a solid foundation, however, the student’s extracurricular profile currently lacks a clear, differentiated through-line, as well as activities and awards that are necessary for benchmarking the level of technical ability required for elite STEM programs.

We reorganize the student’s activities into thematic clusters and walk through several strategic paths—engineering depth, as well as promising adjacent themes such as women-in-STEM positioning and science communication—to significantly strengthen her candidacy.

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“The Game” is hosted by Sam Hassell and brought to you by Great Minds Advising.

Great Minds Advising’s unique, hands-on mentorship program and its deep strategic insight into the application review process have earned the company a nation-leading track record of excellence, with 100% of its students gaining admission to a top-choice school in the 2024–25 application cycle.

Its students have recently gained admission to Stanford, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Penn, Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Rice, Northwestern, UC-Berkeley, and WashU (among many others) and are admitted to the Ivy League at a rate 14x the national average (90% when applying early).

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