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Getting accepted at an elite Ivy League school is harder than ever.

Not only have the numbers of candidates for these coveted seats increased, but so have the entrance requirements. Ivy League colleges and universities accept only the best students.

Even if you’ve earned top grades in high school and on your college entrance exams, you still might not be Ivy League material.

Let’s look at what it takes to get into the Ivy League.

Set your sights early

If you’re thinking about going to an Ivy League school, your work begins long before your senior year. You’ll need to take higher level courses such as advanced mathematics in high school, and to make room for these classes, you may find yourself learning algebra in middle school.

You’ll need to make good grades in these subjects, and although you don’t need a perfect SAT/ACT score, you must show outstanding performance on your college entrance exams. Your grades and exam scores are predictors of college success.

Discover everything you can about the university

A commitment to getting a college degree is not something to be taken casually, Ivy League schools are most likely to accept students they think will be a good fit for their program. As a hopeful candidate, you have to do due diligence. Research every school to which you are applying.

Show your passion

For years everyone thought being well-rounded was the way to get into an Ivy League school. That meant getting good grades, lettering in sports, volunteering in the community, holding down a job and saving the world in your spare time. Applicants  were well-rounded but stretched thin. They had no focus and less passion.

The best way to get into an Ivy League school today is to show that you are passionate about what you do. You might only do one thing, but these schools want to see your passion for it. They also want to know that you are focused and ethical about your work.

Be yourself

Ivy League schools are looking for students who are authentic. Successful candidates who secure admission to one of these eight elite schools must be comfortable with being themselves.

Honesty goes a long way and so does being yourself. One of the best places to demonstrate both is in your application essay. Keep the tone formal, but write as though you are speaking to the decision-making committee. Avoid writing an exaggerated novel. Instead, approach the composition with honest answers that reveal who you are as a person.

It takes academic strength, knowledge about the school to which you are applying, deep passion, and personal integrity to get into the Ivy League. Your acceptance letter will recognize those characteristics, and your future Ivy League school will help you nurture them during your studies.

The path to success has always been a standard progression: Go to school, get good grades. Go to college, get a good career. Get a good career, help your community.

The linchpin in the progression is the college degree.

Your bachelor’s degree verifies your ability to learn a subject deeply. It provides you with a common foundation steeped in history, philosophy, and psychology. Your degree says you can commit to achieving your goals over a several year period, and that you understand the importance of delaying gratification.

College degrees make it possible for graduates to improve their socio-economic status and take better care of themselves, their families and their communities. And yet, public universities are failing their only customer: the public. How is this possible?

Fail #1: Biased benefits 

Many students can to attend a university only because of financial aid. When wealthy students have access to the same subsidies, grants and other tuition discounts as poorer students, they gain a competitive edge in several ways.

First, they are able to spend someone else’s money rather than their own. More importantly, these students are taking money from students who need the financial aid far worse than they do.

If a lower-income student does not have access to enough financial aid, he or she will not be able to attend college and earn a degree. 

Fail #2: Budget cuts and tuition increases 

Public universities are supposed to be public centers of learning. These institutions are usually far more cost effective and affordable than their private counterparts. In short, a public school can put a college degree well within reach of most Americans.

Over the past several years, however, budget cuts have forced universities to turn  elsewhere for revenue streams. Some of the schools have looked to creative revenue streams, but most have resorted to tuition hikes to stem the budget hemorrhage.

By increasing tuition, public schools are turning their backs on the public who most need a college degree.

Fail #3: Limited awareness

Low-income students tend to avoid ambitious goals when applying to colleges. They under-match their skills and goals, applying at smaller, less well-known colleges. These students simply don’t realize they are capable of getting into more prestigious universities. Better schools are more likely to help larger percentages of their matriculated students graduate.

Universities should target students with awareness campaigns that show how graduating from a four-year institution of higher learning is the key to lifetime success.

If they do anything less, public universities are perpetuating the cycle of failure among the population needing college degrees the most.

The rising cost of college tuition has become a highly controversial topic, even arousing the attention of politicians who debate the best ways of making higher education more affordable for all students.

Given this situation, it’s inevitable that institutions are scrambling to find ways to lower their costs.

Here are some ways in which colleges are working towards lowering costs, some with more success than others.

1. Measuring productivity and quality. With so few objective measures available, students automatically use price as a gauge of a college’s quality. This is not always an accurate measure, and it presents an obstacle for schools that want to reduce the sticker price of tuition, as they fear potential students may view their institution as having poorer quality. In response, colleges are beginning to take a look at ways they can measure the quality of student learning and the productiveness of college staff.
2. Making use of technology. Digital textbooks can dramatically reduce student cost, as can open education systems that provide students with opportunities to earn some of their course credit online. With more and better quality education apps appearing on the market every day, educators have many unique opportunities to provide life-changing learning experiences without the life-crippling cost.
3. Providing more education to students and families about costs and options. Often, students begin their college experience with no real understanding of their indebtedness and how it will impact their futures. They are also kept in the dark about precisely what their tuition pays for. Colleges are beginning to provide better information about spending so students can make more informed decisions.
4. Slashing the price of tuition, but decreasing discounts. A number of colleges have moved to a low-cost, low-discount model in which tuition is slashed almost in half, but tuition discounts are utilized far less. A potential benefit to this model is that students have a more realistic picture of exactly how much their tuition will cost. But the downside is that enrollment can decrease as potential students perceive the institution as less valuable.
5. Reducing administrative costs. Perhaps the greatest cost afflicting colleges is in the sheer numbers of staff that they employ. While most agree that reducing the number of instructors negatively impacts the quality of instruction, administrators could be cut from college budgets with very little negative impact on the organizational structure.

There is no one right answer when it comes to reducing costs at our colleges and universities. But with costs rising every year, it is certainly an issue that can no longer be ignored.