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EDUCATION


2026 SAT Class Overview|SAT Class Introduction|New Digital SAT|Digital SAT|SAT Taipei
The Ivy League team of teachers will create a customized study plan for you to quickly master the skills of the Digital SAT.
Jul 20, 20235 min read


The Best Universities in the Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area is one of the most remarkable concentrations of higher education in the world. Within a roughly 50-mile radius, you have institutions that between them have shaped modern computing, biotechnology, environmental science, law, and business in ways that are difficult to overstate. The proximity to Silicon Valley, the biotech corridor of South San Francisco, and the financial institutions of San Francisco itself means that studying here isn't just about
2 hours ago5 min read


The Extracurricular Activity Hierarchy That Actually Matters for Top US College Admissions
Here is an uncomfortable truth for students aiming at top US universities: a 1530 SAT and five 5s on AP exams is not enough on its own. Scores open the door to consideration. What actually differentiates applicants at the top tier is the substance and coherence of everything outside the classroom. And the stakes are higher than most students realize. UIUC's overall acceptance rate sits around 36.6%, which sounds approachable, but its computer science acceptance rate is 7.4%,
3 days ago5 min read


The Best of Both Worlds: 13 Universities That Feel Like Liberal Arts Colleges Without Sacrificing Research Resources
A common dilemma for college-bound students is the tension between two very different kinds of undergraduate experience. Liberal arts colleges offer intimate class sizes, professors who know your name, and a tight community feel. Large research universities offer depth of resources, specialized programs, and the prestige of a major institution. For students who want both, the choice can feel impossible. It doesn't have to be. A specific tier of universities manages to deliver
4 days ago6 min read


Outrageous! UChicago Law School bans AI in class, are top elite schools collectively "going backwards"
Recently, the University of Chicago Law School officially announced a major new policy: starting from the Fall 2026 semester, all first-year law students are completely prohibited from using laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and all other electronic devices in class! That's right, it's not just restricting AI, it's directly banning all devices altogether! This is probably the most hardcore AI prevention and control operation among US law schools at this stage. While others are
5 days ago5 min read


Which UC School Offers Better "Financial Prospects" for International Students?
Official Data Proves UCB is Truly Strong, and UCLA is Quite Weak... Which school in the UC system is more beneficial for international students' "financial prospects"? Instead of relying on feelings, it's better to look at the data. As an institution very willing to share its statistics, the UC system has exposed all the post-graduation income data of its international students! Financial Prospects for International Students: University of California, Berkeley (UCB) Median sa
6 days ago7 min read


6 Elite US Universities with Questionable Reputations
After going to college, I finally understood and became one of those people who say, "He's actually quite nice when he's not hitting me." No matter how bad the outside reputation of some universities might be, more than half of the people who receive an offer still end up going, crying and sniffling their way through graduation... Let's take a look at universities with questionable reputations. Universities with Questionable Reputations: University of Chicago If we were to na
Oct 58 min read


What are the Secret Study Bases Used by International Students in Popular US Universities?
A study environment is so important for a person! During finals week, it's always easy to run to places crowded with people, and you end up not studying well~ Today, let's take a look at the popular US universities. What are the secret study bases used by international students? After reading this, my mom will never have to worry about me having nowhere to study again! Secret Study Bases Used by International Students at University of Michigan At Umich, people's first reactio
Oct 29 min read


Someone Averaged Eight College Rankings to Make the "Ultimate" List. The Internet Did Not Take It Well.
Imagine being a Princeton alumnus, opening a viral ranking post, and finding your school sitting at number 14, below UCLA. That's the kind of thing that sends blood pressure through the roof and gets comment sections moving fast. That's exactly what happened recently when a user posted what they called an "ultimate" university ranking, created when they averaged eight different major college rankings and calculating a composite score for each school. The results were, to put
Oct 15 min read


Don't Wait Until After Applications to Figure This Out: Six Dimensions That Reveal What a US University Is Really Like
Choosing a US university is one of the most disorienting parts of the application process. With thousands of schools that look similar on paper, similar names, similar rankings, similar stated requirements, how do you actually figure out which one fits you? Here are six concrete dimensions worth evaluating what a US university is really like, along with a practical tool at the end that most students never use. 1. What a US University Is Really Like: School Size Think about ho
Sep 306 min read


How to Position Yourself for Career Readiness During College
College is a four-year window, and it closes faster than most students expect. The students who leave with strong job offers or graduate school acceptances in hand are almost never the ones who started thinking about their careers in senior year. They're the ones who started early, built deliberately, and treated college as an opportunity to develop a track record, not just a transcript. Here's how to actually do that. Position Yourself for Career Readiness During College: St
Sep 296 min read


What Is Stanford's Symbolic Systems Major?
If you spend any time around Stanford's campus or its alumni network, you will eventually hear someone mention Stanford's Symbolic Systems major. It tends to come up in conversations about AI researchers, tech founders, and linguists in the same breath, which is a hint at what makes the major unusual. Symbolic Systems, often called SymSys by students, is one of the most distinctive undergraduate programs in the country, and understanding what it actually is helps clarify both
Sep 285 min read


ETS Officially Acquires ACT: What It Means for Students and the Future of Standardized Testing
On June 30, 2026, ETS (Educational Testing Service), one of the world's largest educational assessment organizations, formally announced the completion of its acquisition of ACT. The deal, which closed on July 1, brings together the two organizations behind America's two major college entrance exams under a single corporate umbrella for the first time. ETS has stated after it officially acquires ACT that ACT will continue to operate as an independent brand, with existing prod
Sep 254 min read


UNC Drops Essays, Cornell Restructures, Duke Stops Scoring: What the 2027 Application Season's Essay Shifts Mean for You
June 2026 brought a wave of supplemental essay policy changes from several prominent U.S. universities, and the moves collectively signal something significant about where college admissions is heading. Three schools in particular made headlines: UNC Chapel Hill, Cornell, and Duke, each taking a different approach. Understanding what changed and why matters for any family beginning to think about the 2027 application cycle. 2027 Application Season's Essay Shifts: Three School
Sep 245 min read


Navigating Music Majors: A Guide to Degrees, Careers, and Creative Paths
Music Majors Choosing to pursue music in higher education is an exciting step, but it often brings a surprising realization: "majoring in music" isn't a single path. The higher education landscape splits cleanly across creative production, live performance, academic study, and commercial business. Where you belong depends entirely on your personal goals—whether you picture yourself commanding a concert hall stage, sculpting sound behind a mixing console, inspiring students in
Sep 235 min read


UC Berkeley's Intro CS Course Just Failed 35% of Students. Here's What's Really Going On
A widely cited "beginner-friendly" introductory computer science (CS) course at UC Berkeley just posted a failure rate of 35.3%. For a class explicitly designed for students with zero prior coding experience, that number set off alarm bells across the international student community, with plenty of people assuming Berkeley's CS program had simply become brutally difficult. The real story is more uncomfortable than that. The spike in failures was not primarily about course dif
Sep 224 min read


U.S. College Tuition Just Jumped Hard. NYU Breaks $100,000. Here's Your Scholarship Playbook.
Early Decision offers had barely settled and Regular Decision results are still trickling in, and now comes a different piece of news entirely: tuition is rising sharply across U.S. higher education this cycle. The increases span public and private institutions alike, from Ivy League schools to flagship public universities, and the numbers are significant enough to change the calculus for a lot of international families. The UNC System Draws First Blood, and International Stu
Sep 216 min read


"Research Kings" of Academia: Top 10 US Universities Ranked by Real Dollars Spent
When most people think of elite American universities, names like Harvard, Yale, or Princeton immediately spring to mind. We are accustomed to seeing standard college rankings dominated by selectivity rates, peer prestige scores, and alumni donation funds. However, if you want to know which universities are actually driving the future of human technology, medicine, and scientific discovery, traditional rankings miss the single most important metric: real cash spent on Researc
Sep 187 min read


Engineering vs. Science Degrees: What's Actually Different?
Ask a high school student what the difference is between a physics degree and a mechanical engineering degree, and you'll often get a shrug. Both involve math. Both involve labs. Both sound technical and hard. But these two categories of degree, broadly grouped as "science" and "engineering," train students for genuinely different ways of thinking, and that difference shapes everything from coursework to career outcomes. Understanding engineering vs science degrees clearly is
Sep 174 min read


Emerging Job Market for Philosophy Students
Tech companies, particularly AI labs, are aggressively hiring philosophy majors to address complex, non-technical challenges. As models grow more capable, the most pressing issues—such as machine consciousness, ethics, human values alignment, and decision-making logic—require deep philosophical reasoning rather than just coding. Let's look at the job market for philosophy students Leading companies actively recruiting talent for these roles include: Anthropic: Employs philoso
Sep 166 min read


Decoding Brown University’s 17.9% Early Acceptance Rate and Its Favorite Chinese High Schools
When you picture the Ivy League, it’s easy to imagine heavy gothic gates, hushed libraries, and an undercurrent of high-stakes academic pressure. But there is one Ivy that flips this script entirely. Welcome to Brown University, widely known as the "Happy Ivy." If your daily dream consists of waking up naturally, studying exactly what fires up your curiosity, and skipping arbitrary core requirements, Brown is likely your academic soulmate. At Brown, the philosophy isn’t about
Sep 158 min read


The 17 Universities Loved Most by High-Paying U.S. Companies—The #1 Spot is a Complete Surprise
Recently, America's top universities have been making a flurry of major moves. Just last week, the University of Southern California (USC) announced a $200 million donation from venture capitalist Mark Stevens and his wife, Mary. As a result, its computer science school will be renamed the "USC Mark and Mary Stevens School of Artificial Intelligence"—marking one of the largest single donations in USC history. Almost at the exact same time, Stanford University announced the of
Sep 149 min read


Top Liberal Arts Colleges in California: Pomona, Claremont McKenna, and Harvey Mudd
When most people think of elite undergraduate education in California, their minds go straight to Stanford or the UC system. But tucked into the foothill city of Claremont, about 35 miles east of Los Angeles, sits one of the most remarkable concentrations of liberal arts education in the country. The Claremont Colleges consortium brings five undergraduate institutions together on adjacent campuses, each with its own distinct identity, student culture, and academic focus. Thre
Sep 115 min read


Studying Law in the USA vs. Canada vs. the UK
A Complete Guide to Choosing the Right Path to a Legal Career Thinking about becoming a lawyer but unsure which country is the best fit? Although the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom all offer world-class legal education, their pathways to becoming a lawyer are fundamentally different. Unlike many countries, the U.S. and Canada require students to complete a bachelor's degree before attending law school, while the UK allows students to study law directly as under
Sep 104 min read
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