The Game: A Guide to Elite College Admissions

Starting a business or organization may sound like an obvious way to stand out at top colleges, but merely founding something is very different from building something successful enough to matter.

In this episode, we examine nine often-overlooked downsides of student-run ventures, from low risk-adjusted returns and predictable applicant positioning to parental involvement, weak execution, and the “chronicle of incompetence” an unfinished online presence can create.

We explore stronger alternatives to starting from scratch and the traits that make entrepreneurship a better bet—including intrinsic motivation, action bias, executive functioning, existing momentum, and the ability to build a real team.

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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 2025–26 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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In elite college admissions, intuition can work against you—because the most logical moves are often the ones everyone else is making.

In this episode, we unpack six counterintuitive admissions truths, from why colleges that are better “fits” are harder to get into to why elite admissions can punish the very pre-professional ambition that attracts students to top colleges in the first place. 

We explore how unconventional thinking can outperform the intuitive playbook most applicants use and create major strategic advantages in a process where differentiation is key.

——
“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 2025–26 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).

Web: greatmindsadvising.com
Contact: greatmindsadvising.com/#contact
Newsletter: greatmindsadvising.com/#newsletter
Email: [email protected]
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While high school sports may provide many non-admissions benefits, for the vast majority of students, they do very little to improve the odds of admission to top colleges.

In this episode, we explain why sports are often highly common, non-differentiating, and irrelevant to most students’ case for admission—while also being extremely costly in terms of time. 

We cover some notable exceptions (e.g. niche sports, sports-related academic hooks) and offer best practices for students trying to balance athletics with building a competitive elite college candidacy.

——
“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 2025–26 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).

Web: greatmindsadvising.com
Contact: greatmindsadvising.com/#contact
Newsletter: greatmindsadvising.com/#newsletter
Email: [email protected]
FB: facebook.com/GreatMindsAdvising/
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In this episode, we distill five recurring principles that separate elite applicants from the many high-achieving students who blend into the applicant pools at top colleges.

——
“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 2025–26 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).

Web: greatmindsadvising.com
Contact: greatmindsadvising.com/#contact
Newsletter: greatmindsadvising.com/#newsletter
Email: [email protected]
FB: facebook.com/GreatMindsAdvising/
IG: instagram.com/greatmindsadvising

Teacher recommendation letters are among the most important—yet also most overlooked—components of applications to highly selective colleges, with very few students thinking strategically about the type of information they provide their teachers.

In this episode, we examine three common questions found on teacher recommendation questionnaires that can unintentionally weaken an otherwise strong application. We explain why seemingly harmless prompts about academic struggles, intended college majors, and passions outside the classroom often create strategic problems and how students can instead provide information that better reinforces the overall themes of their applications.

More broadly, we discuss why students must adopt a proactive, rather than reactive, approach across recommendation letters, essays, and other application materials, pivoting away from irrelevant and poor questions, while also ensuring no potentially advantageous details are spared even if they are not directly prompted.

——
“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 2025–26 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).

Web: greatmindsadvising.com
Contact: greatmindsadvising.com/#contact
Newsletter: greatmindsadvising.com/#newsletter
Email: [email protected]
FB: facebook.com/GreatMindsAdvising/
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In this episode, we answer an audience member question related to AI in admissions, specifically its use to pull student and parent data in order to forecast an applicant’s likelihood to “yield,” or enroll at a given college.

While AI has given more firepower to the process of tracking demonstrated interest and predicting enrollment, we reveal how colleges have long since been building “yield” models for years—despite many colleges and admissions officers making claims to the contrary.

Ultimately, we delineate between factors that can and cannot be controlled in the admissions data arms race—and highlight the actions students and families can actually take to increase the probability of admissions success.

——
“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 2025–26 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).

Web: greatmindsadvising.com
Contact: greatmindsadvising.com/#contact
Newsletter: greatmindsadvising.com/#newsletter
Email: [email protected]
FB: facebook.com/GreatMindsAdvising/
IG: instagram.com/greatmindsadvising

Top colleges do not reward smart and talented students; they reward students who have harnessed their abilities toward impact in a specific area.

In this episode, using two student examples, we reveal the costs of operating without a plan—from constant jumping between interests and activities to allowing outside influences to dictate actions that are misaligned with a student’s admissions goals.

Ultimately, we argue that focus is about more than building an admissions “hook.” It provides students with a decision-making filter that reduces uncertainty, protects them from distractions, and helps ensure that years of hard work are spent moving in the right direction.

——
“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 2025–26 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).

Web: greatmindsadvising.com
Contact: greatmindsadvising.com/#contact
Newsletter: greatmindsadvising.com/#newsletter
Email: [email protected]
FB: facebook.com/GreatMindsAdvising/
IG: instagram.com/greatmindsadvising

For many students targeting top colleges, summer has become synonymous with college admissions. Summer programs, summer internships, and summer research are treated as though they are the key to building a competitive candidacy.

In this episode, we challenge this common view and explain why students, parents, and the college admissions industry at large dramatically overestimate the importance of summer activities.

We argue that exceptional candidates at top colleges build their resumes year-round rather than in short seasonal bursts––and don’t wait on deadlines, programs, permission, or ideal circumstances to make progress.

——
“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 2025–26 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).

Web: greatmindsadvising.com
Contact: greatmindsadvising.com/#contact
Newsletter: greatmindsadvising.com/#newsletter
Email: [email protected]
FB: facebook.com/GreatMindsAdvising/
IG: instagram.com/greatmindsadvising

In this case study episode, we analyze the profile of a high-achieving junior interested in political science, public policy, and pre-law. Despite a 4.0 GPA, top 1% class rank, strong course rigor, and a 34 ACT, the student’s extracurricular profile currently lacks the type of focused depth and differentiation required to stand out among applicants targeting highly selective colleges.

We break down the strengths and weaknesses of the student’s academics, testing, activities, and awards, identify strategic challenges associated with positioning for political science and pre-law, and discuss how the student can build a more compelling admissions hook. Finally, we outline several opportunities to strengthen the student’s candidacy through more focused extracurricular development, higher-impact initiatives, and stronger overall application strategy.

——
“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 2025–26 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).

Web: greatmindsadvising.com
Contact: greatmindsadvising.com/#contact
Newsletter: greatmindsadvising.com/#newsletter
Email: [email protected]
FB: facebook.com/GreatMindsAdvising/
IG: instagram.com/greatmindsadvising

In this episode, we break down a viral parent forum post from the family of a student allegedly admitted to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and MIT. The post argues that in today’s admissions landscape, even a traditional “spike” or hook––such as a student specialized in computer science, politics, or healthcare––is no longer specific or compelling enough for the most selective colleges.

Using the post as a starting point, we reinforce the growing importance of scarcity, hyper-specific positioning, and niche academic narratives in elite college admissions. At the same time, we also comment on the critical gap between theoretically optimal admissions strategy and what students can realistically sustain and execute over multiple years, as well as why strategy is only one variable within a much broader admissions game.

——
“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 2025–26 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).

Web: greatmindsadvising.com
Contact: greatmindsadvising.com/#contact
Newsletter: greatmindsadvising.com/#newsletter
Email: [email protected]
FB: facebook.com/GreatMindsAdvising/
IG: instagram.com/greatmindsadvising