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Ryan Choice

@ryanchoice_

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Score higher. Get in. Pay less.
SAT hacks + admissions strategy
22 years, 500+ Ivy acceptances

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🎯 The BEST and WORST apps for studying

The apps everyone pays for keep landing in red, and most of the greens are 100% free.

Comment APPS and I’ll DM you my full study app list with prices and what each one is for.

1️⃣ Move your Quizlet sets to Knowt, Learn mode is still free there
2️⃣ Drop your real lecture files into NotebookLM and let it quiz you with page citations
3️⃣ Install Zotero before your next essay, it saves every source and writes the bibliography for you

#studyhacks #studytips #studygram by @ryanchoice_

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3 months ago

🎯 Stanford was decided at age 12

His mom apologized for his hobby. Stanford said yes because of it. One obsession, started at 12 and compounded for 5 years, beat 10 activities.

Comment YOUR spike and I’ll tell you if it can carry an application. Follow for the next real case.

1️⃣ Quit nothing. Keep the one thing your student already does on weekends and go 1 level deeper every year

2️⃣ End every year with proof from outside school: a county count, a local paper, a state award

3️⃣ When everyone else has 10 clubs and your student has 1 obsession, hold. That is the file nobody else can copy

#collegeadmissions #collegeprep #stanford #extracurriculars #collegeapps by @ryanchoice_

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2 months ago

🏅 Best awards anyone can win

9 national awards for high school students with no competition, from the Congressional Award to AP Scholar. Meet the requirement, and the award is yours.

1️⃣ College Board National Recognition: top 10% PSAT in the student’s own school. Claim it on BigFuture in May

2️⃣ Congressional Award: register at 13 and a half, start service hours in 9th grade

3️⃣ Never give NHS membership 1 of the 5 award slots. Become an officer instead

#collegeadmissions #commonapp #collegeprep #collegeapplications #parentsofteens by @ryanchoice_

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a month ago

🤫 Secret scholarship apps ranked

18 scholarship apps, ranked bad to great: the famous ones leave it to luck, and these do the work.

1️⃣ Search CareerOneStop: the Labor Department’s own scholarship finder, 9,500+ awards
2️⃣ Sign up at raise.me: 300+ colleges give micro-scholarships for every A, starting in 9th grade
3️⃣ Before you cross a college off, run MyinTuition: 6 questions, your real price

Want to know more about any of these (or any other) scholarship apps? Ask me below and I’ll answer.

Follow for more reviews on study apps, competitions, and scholarships.

#collegeadmissions #collegeprep #collegebound #scholarships #collegescholarships by @ryanchoice_

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2 hours ago

🎯 7 essay topics colleges are sick of

Every slide has the topic they’re tired of and exactly what to write instead.

Comment REWRITE and I’ll DM you the rewrite guide, all 7 cliches with the fix for each one.

1️⃣ Someone you admire? Write the moment YOU acted like them
2️⃣ Pandemic goes in the 250 word challenges question, so your 650 stay yours
3️⃣ 1 story, deep, with details no other applicant could write

Source: Who Gets In and Why (Selingo); named admissions officers via US News; commonapp.org

#collegebound #collegeessay #commonapp #collegeadmissions #collegeapps by @ryanchoice_

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2 months ago

🔥 Great competitions anyone can win

Every one of these is a national title that colleges notice, and any high school can win it: cook a dish that flies to the space station, race a solar car at Texas Motor Speedway, or say 3 poems out loud at a national final.

1️⃣ American Rocketry Challenge sign-ups close December 6, so start a team this month
2️⃣ Ask your English teacher to sign your school up for Poetry Out Loud, the school rounds start this fall
3️⃣ Sony’s youth photo contest is open until January 5, and 1 photo from your phone is enough

Would you rather cook for astronauts or race a solar car?

Want more? Follow for more amazing competition and scholarship lists.

#collegeadmissions #collegeprep #collegebound #scholarships #extracurriculars by @ryanchoice_

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a day ago

🧠 Amazing study apps nobody talks about

ChatGPT made up 1 in 5 of its sources in a 2025 study, while Elicit answers from 138 million real papers and Grammarly Authorship shows you typed every word yourself.

1️⃣ Ask your teacher first, then let Turbo AI record the lecture: it writes your notes, flashcards and a quiz
2️⃣ Add SAT practice, 3 hours a week, as a habit in Reclaim, and it finds the best times on your Google Calendar
3️⃣ Join schoolhouse.world (13 and up) for live SAT tutoring, and earn a calculus certification MIT accepts

Want to know more about any of these (or any other) study apps? Ask me below and I’ll answer.

Follow for more study app and competition reviews.

#collegeadmissions #collegeprep #collegebound #highschool #studyapps by @ryanchoice_

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3 days ago

🍕 The Pizza Essay

A 196-word Yale essay about ordering Papa John‘s got her in. Then she turned Yale down. True story (Washington Post, 2017).

The lesson: an ordinary college essay beats a fancy one.

Comment ADMISSIONS and I’ll send you the guide.
Drop your essay idea in the comments, and I will tell you if they work.

How to write yours:
1️⃣ Pick a small true thing you do every week, not an award
2️⃣ Open on the moment, not the meaning. The doorbell, the box, the smell
3️⃣ One detail nobody else has. The exact order, the exact ritual

#collegeessay #collegeadmissions #collegeapplications #yale #commonapp by @ryanchoice_

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a month ago

🤯 Easiest scholarships anyone can win

College Board picks 90 winners every month, the Elks pick 500 a year, and Dollars for Scholars had 22,000 winners last year.

1️⃣ Build your college list on BigFuture tonight, that’s your entry for College Board’s monthly scholarships
2️⃣ Record your Voice of Democracy essay on your phone and turn it in before October 31
3️⃣ If you’re a senior, enter the Elks before November 12, there’s no GPA cutoff

Want to know more about any of these (or any other) scholarships? Ask me below and I’ll answer.

Follow for more amazing competition and scholarship lists.

#collegeadmissions #collegeprep #collegebound #scholarships #collegescholarships by @ryanchoice_

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5 days ago

🙌 Best scholarships you can win

18 scholarships for high school students, ranked bad to great. The famous names hand you nothing, these pay real money.

1️⃣ Senior with a 3.75 GPA? Apply to Jack Kent Cooke by November 11, up to $55,000 a year

2️⃣ Sign your student up to caddie at a golf club: 2 summers and Evans Scholars pays tuition plus housing. Seniors already caddying apply by September 30

3️⃣ Film the 2 minute Taco Bell video before Live Más opens in October: no GPA, no test scores, $5,000 to $25,000

#scholarships #collegescholarships #financialaid #payingforcollege #classof2027 by @ryanchoice_

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a month ago

✅ ACCEPTED: 12 for 12

“It’s too late for my son.” A dad said that at my desk in October. By March: 12 college acceptances, 0 rejections. Same 3.7 GPA, same 1380 SAT, no awards.

The full case is in the slides: 5 moves, not 1 extra point. 3 you can copy today:

1️⃣ Cut every activity you cannot say one true sentence about, a short list reads stronger
2️⃣ Replace every adjective like “passionate” with proof an admissions officer can check
3️⃣ Balance the college list with the 5-3-2 rule, then apply early action and rolling

Follow for the next case from my desk.

#collegeadmissions #collegeapplications #collegeacceptance #commonapp #collegebound by @ryanchoice_

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2 months ago

🏖️ Best Colleges to Live At

Every campus has a real upside and a real catch. Ranked by which side matters more over 4 years.

1️⃣ Visit in February, not October, every campus looks perfect in the fall
2️⃣ Ask a current student what they do on a Tuesday night, that answer is the real campus
3️⃣ Sit in the main quad for 30 minutes with no tour guide before you decide

Did I miss your school? Mention it below and I’ll tell you where it lands.

#collegeadmissions #collegeprep #collegebound #collegelife #ivyleague by @ryanchoice_

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9 days ago