Ivy League Prep Academy Podcast: Recent Episodes
Steve
Equipping you to successfully pursue the college of your dreams. I believe that the world needs every student to reach their full potential. College admittance shouldn't hold you back. I'm an educator and Harvard grad who has been in your shoes. I designed this podcast to accompany the Ivy League Challenge (my online course) to support my listeners. I've met with graduates, admissions officers, and professors to identify the criteria used to select candidates. I've crafted a road map for success and can share it with you.
If your high school is ultra competitive, and you don't want to step on the backs of your peers in order to land a leadership title, then this training is for you.
There are many different ways to demonstrate leadership, and we discuss WHY colleges are very interested in non-traditional leaders-- not just the titles.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Learn how the top test takers prepare to get such outstanding scores.
If you genuinely follow this approach, you can raise your test score by a significant margin within only 3 months.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Saisha walks us through her journey to an impact project that she is excited about. It took time, probing, and effort for her to land where she is today, and we get to listen in to discover how she has transformed a very frustrating, stressful high school experience into a thriving high school experience.
Listen in to learn from Saisha!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Ava has founded Junior Speakers and Voices Unmuted; two organizations designed to help others to find their voices and speak up.
You can find her websites here:
www.juniorspeakers.com
www.voicesunmuted.org
Listen in to learn how she progressed through multiple ideas to finally land on something she is very passionate about.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Day 2 of our workshop helping teens understand what colleges are looking for and how to complete the five different sections of the Common App so you stand out to the admissions officers who read your applications.
This is day 1 of our workshop helping teens understand what colleges are looking for and how to complete the five different sections of the Common App so that admissions officers will be excited to admit you.
Part two will follow next!
If you are stressed about how to best fill out the Common App, I have good news for you. I'll be hosting a free workshop to help you understand how to fit all five pieces of the Common App together.
You might recognize this from a few months ago-- we are repeating this training due to the high number of requests we received. Also, we will be adding case studies to make the information even more clear and useful.
To register, go to TILC.to/commonapp and give us your name and email address, so we can send you the worksheet, the zoom links, and then the recording when we finish.
See you August 23 & 24th at 8pm eastern time.
For seniors-- it is time to get those essays done.
Listen in to understand what role these essays play in your application, and how to avoid the most common mistakes.
Also, stay tuned next week for part 2!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Sathvic has advice that is wise beyond his years. He has landed multiple research opportunities and internships, including with professors from Harvard Medical School and MIT.
He discusses exactly how he began the outreach, as well as details about the work that he is doing.
Sathvic also shares how younger teens can get started if they want to land amazing opportunities like his.
June 18th & 19th starting at 8 pm eastern time each night, I'll be going through a college essay workshop.
You do not want to miss this!
If you are a rising senior, drop everything and join.
Registration is free, and is available at TILC.to/BestEssay
See you there!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
How do each of the five sections of the Common App come together tell your story to the admissions officers?
What are the most common mistakes people make as they prepare for college?
We address these issues in a two-part podcast. This is a recording from the masterclass I did in early May, 2024.
Be sure to catch both parts of the masterclass
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
How do each of the five sections of the Common App come together tell your story to the admissions officers?
What are the most common mistakes people make as they prepare for college?
We address these issues in a two-part podcast. This is a recording from the masterclass I did in early May, 2024.
Be sure to catch both parts of the masterclass
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
How can we use business principles I learned at Harvard to improve our mentoring and increase our impact?
I go over how to use Lewin's Force-field Analysis as mentors in the Global Impact Council.
Mentors can use this to encourage mentees to take action that will create change, and might help everyone to clarify first steps.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Now that exams have finished up, it is time to shift your focus to your college application essays.
I will be hosting a workshop to help you get started, and to make sure that you avoid the biggest mistakes most people make in these essays.
Participation in the workshop is free, but you need to register.
you can register at TILC.to/BestEssay
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
What do you do when both of your children work hard for an audition, and then one is chosen to perform, but the other is not selected?
How should they each deal with the news?
I find that musicians develop a unique ability to handle criticism, and also to handle rejection. I hope this episode helps teens everywhere (musicians and non-musicians alike) to take a healthy approach to the realities of daring to pursue big goals.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Is an A in a regular class, or a B in an honors/AP class more valuable for me?
How do I decide how many APs to take?
How do I schedule my classes in order to be as competitive as possible for college?
Which high school should I attend?
These are a few of the questions that should be straightforward, but end up being quick difficult to decide, because there are different colleges, and what is a good strategy at one college would be a bad strategy at another college.
Also, teens are different, and what would be a great strategy for one, would be a bad strategy for another.
So how do we know what to do?
I go over the context and background information you need in order to make the right choice for you.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Are you stressed about what is coming when you fill out the Common Application?
Do you worry that you might have gaps in your story that need to be filled, but don't know how to find them ahead of time?
I will be hosting a masterclass on May 8th in order to help you answer these questions, and give you clarity about what is important vs activities that are not important.
At the end of the masterclass, you'll have a good idea of how your application will be read, and which area of your application you will need to supplement in order to have the strongest application possible.
To register (for free), go to TILC.to/college-app
See you there!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
What gaps might exist in your future application? How can you find those gaps so you can fill them before it is too late?
We go through each element of the Common Application to identify how to prepare for every section.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Should you sign up for NHS? Is it worth the effort?
What about volunteering in general? How much should I volunteer? How many hours is enough? Which type of volunteering is best for my application?
Listen in to learn the answers to these questions and more.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
April for high school seniors can be a stressful time-- instead of worrying about which schools might admit their application, many seniors now have multiple acceptances, and are anxious to make sure that they make the right decision.
Listen in to learn my advice about how to best make that decision, and to make sure that you end up loving your choice.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
If you are willing to spend a few minutes listening to this podcast now, you'll be equipped to save most of the stress coming your way when it comes time to write your essays.
You'll need a notebook and a few minutes of time.
Watch for these meaningful moments as they occur, and just keep track of them.
By the time you need to write your essays, instead of stressing over what to write and how to write it-- and struggling to think of examples from your life that represent your values-- you can just open you notebook and pick the ones that work best.
Future you will thank today you.
The link I referenced in the episode is TILC.to/essay
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Join us to hear how to avoid the major mistakes most teens make in their college prep so you can gain an advantage in future college admissions.
Registration is now open and will close before class begins on Saturday night.
Register at TILC.to/register
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Do you ever feel like you don't have enough time?
It is common for stressed teens and adults to say "I wish I had more time!"
But actually, you don't need more time.
You actually need more energy and better clarity.
Listen in to discover why clarity and energy are more important that time.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Because college is difficult to prepare for, many families want to begin early.
But when they ask how to prepare, too often they are told that there is no reason to start so soon.
Many people believe that college prep shouldn't begin until high school.
But as long as we don't get stuck in the impressiveness trap, college prep can be healthy and wonderful.
Listen in to hear about the four things to be sure to do in middle school in order to begin preparing well for college.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Most ambitious teens (and their parents, if we're honest) ask the question "what's most ambitious to an admissions officer" early on in the process.
They figure that they can sacrifice the things they are curious about for a few short years, then later when they get into their dream college they can start doing those things they love so much.
Of course, being as impressive as possible means taking the most rigorous coursework available to them, and then working hard to get great grades in all of those 'impressive' classes.
On top of that, they hear that they should demonstrate leadership. So it's not enough to just join 8 clubs, they need to lead 3 or more of them.
It's not enough to just be on the sports team-- you need to be the captain.
You can't just compete in MUN, you need to be a leader...
Later on they may hear that the most impressive students have published books or won national awards or worked alongside professors and doctoral candidates to conduct biology research.
These families will push and push and push to fit in more and more novel ways to become impressive.
But...
Even if you are successful. Even if you are the ONE in your school who is valedictorian and captain of the team and president of the most clubs-- you are THE MOST impressive student in your school-- the reality is that there are 30,000 high schools in N. America. And each of them has a valedictorian.
So there are tens of thousands of people who spent all four years of high school stuck in what I call The Impressiveness Trap.
And all of those tens of thousands of teens submit applications that look nearly identical.
they look nearly identical because they were all over-scheduled in order to become as impressive as possible.
Ironically, the things that they sacrificed in order to be more impressive-- those things they would have spent time exploring because they were interesting to them-- THOSE are the things that are interesting to an admissions officer.
So that is why it is good advice for your teen to approach activities without considering future admissions officers.
The key is (over time) to explore those curiosities to a deep and meaningful level, and connect that interest and exploration to some positive impact in the community.
This is where parents or mentors can make a big difference.
Listen up to learn more!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Want to increase your chances of getting into Harvard?
My suggestion for you is to cultivate a sincere love of learning.
Figure out a way to inject genuine curiosity and excitement into your learning.
But how?
I've recently read Adam Grant's book Hidden Potential, and I love how a couple of his stories help explain how and why this is such a powerful solution.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Parents are so important to teens' success.
Even if you feel like your teens are annoyed by you, your efforts are very important.
For many reasons, however, parents often have a hard time motivating or inspiring teens. Sometimes the teens assume that the parents are biased and can't see the teens objectively.
Other times teens don't want to be controlled, and so they will resist the advice that comes from parents.
However, teens are much more inclined to listen to mentors or coaches. They are also excited to share and learn from their peers.
Wise parents can leverage this to recruit help in motivating or inspiring their teens.
This is how we do it in the Ivy League Challenge.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
For those who enjoy this podcast, one question remains very important-- when is the best time to join the Ivy League Challenge?
Is grade 8, or 9, or 10, or some other grade the best time?
What if my teen is too busy to add this class to his or her schedule?
Or the opposite issue-- when is my teen old enough to join?
I hope this episode will help answer those questions.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Erica, Claire, and Molly join us to answer questions about what it is like to be in the Ivy League Challenge.
Listen in to learn more about what you can expect in the program.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Attention Juniors! This is the week that you should be sending out your emails to future recommendation letter writers.
You've worked hard to be a great student.
Your teachers love you.
You might think that is enough to ensure you will get a great letter of recommendation.
But the reality is that very few teachers ever receive any kind of training on how to write an outstanding letter of recommendation.
So those letters often end up sounding the same... ("I love having [name] in my class, they are always prepared for class, they ask great questions, they help out their peers... you'd be luck to have him/her on your campus...")
If you plan to apply to a school that is selective, then nearly all of the recommendation letters for nearly all of the applicants will sound nearly identical.
And yet recommendation letters can be the difference maker and ensure you get accepted rather than rejected.
This link takes you to the other podcast episode that I referenced in the show: https://www.theivyleaguechallenge.com/podcast-how-to-get-outstanding-letters-of-recommendation-1
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Many students join the Ivy League Challenge when they are young.
At that stage in your life, it is normal to become excited about executing an impact project, but then to get off track.
Twisha joined the Ivy League Challenge as an 8th grader. She loved it, and was excited to start an impact project, but it never quite got off the ground. Because she was also busy with schoolwork, she just let her project slip.
Today, we discuss her story, how she got back on track, and some great ideas about what listeners can do in order to get back on track as well.
As you learn about how she got back on track, Twisha also shares her progress with her project. Below are the links that we mentioned in the show.
I encourage everyone to check out her website, podcast, and social media channels. She is open for collaboration and willing to help provide content that you might find valuable-- you just need to reach out to her and let her know.
-
The Scientific Soirée Website:
https://sites.google.com/warriorlife.net/the-scientific-soiree/welcome -
The Scientific Soirée Podcast:
-here is episode 1:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2294306/14250380
-here is episode 2:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2294306/14345688
-please check if this link works! This should be the link to the podcast itself, but I’m not sure if it will work or not, which is why I put the links to both episodes above:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2294306/episodes -
Instagram:
-handle: @the_scientific_soiree_
-link: https://www.instagram.com/the_scientific_soiree_igsh=NGVhN2U2NjQ0Yg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- LinkedIn:
-name: Twisha Sharma (student at Valley Christian High)
-link: http://linkedin.com/in/twisha-sharma-04950a277
-if you know anyone who might be interested in the site or podcast, please share with them as well. Twisha's goal is to educate and inspire other young people to like science.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Eliza and Rachel are first cousins and are both elite violin performers.
When they toured Southeast Asia, I was able to attend their concert in Singapore and even attend a practice session with them.
That practice session inspired this discussion on perfectionism in music and in life. One of my favorite interviews of all time.
Enjoy!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Our Hacking College Admissions workshop begins just a few hours after this podcast goes live.
The workshop is free but you must register to attend.
To register, go to TILC.to/hack
In this interview, Asfi shares her interview about how the Ivy League Challenge helped her in her life and her college prep.
She also talks through how she decided on Cornell instead of the many other great college options she had.
enjoy!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Most ambitious teens spend their high school years pursuing the activities that they believe will make them most impressive to an admissions officer.
This takes tremendous effort and sacrifice.
But ironically, even if you are successful-- you become the most impressive person in your entire school-- you will eventually discover that there are 30,000 high schools in North America. And the "most impressive" students almost all did exactly the same things.
So you end up with a boring application.
I will be hosting a workshop from January 15-18, 8-9pm eastern time, on Zoom.
To join (for free), register at TILC.to/hack
See you there!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Is the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program right for you?
Once you are committed to the diploma program, how can you ensure your success?
Nandita Nair is a senior now whose predicted score is well above 40 (she requested I not share the exact predicted score).
In this episode, she discusses the challenges with the IB-- how you should decide if the IB is right for you, and how to succeed once you are in.
This is a tremendously valuable interview.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
I recently spoke at a GradAchiever event online.
The message aligns closely with what I discuss in my own podcast, and because I am so happy with the free platform that is available, I wanted to share my presentation with my own audience, and encourage you to check them out at www.GradAchiever.com
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Katie Silverman joined the Ivy League Challenge as a junior, and did an incredible job with her own impact project and supporting others with their projects.
I didn't learn until preparing for this interview, however, just how much she grew as a person through the course.
In our interview, she discusses how clarifying her core values built her confidence and changed her life for the better.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
For many teens, adding a high-stakes interview to an already stressful application process feels stressful.
But the interview should be a highly enjoyable experience.
To make sure you are prepared, take 15 minutes to listen to this podcast.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Ava DiNapoli recently completed the Ivy League Challenge, and is already making incredible progress in a very important impact project about providing tools for teachers to teach mental health to very young kids.
Hear how her ideas have evolved over time, and about all of the powerful steps she is taking to move her project forward in very effective ways.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Part 2 of 3:
What is leadership?
In the context of teens in high school, applying to college...
What does it mean to "demonstrate leadership"?
And what if your teen is quiet or shy or introverted?
Is there any hope for them?
Too many people believe that admissions officers are looking to fill their campuses with only superchickens - the smartest, hardest-working, and most qualified of the flock...
Don't abandon hope because your teen doesn't fit the mold of what a leader should look like.
Help your teen understand how to show or describe the leadership style that fits them the best in their applications.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Part 2 of 3:
What is leadership?
In the context of teens in high school, applying to college...
What does it mean to "demonstrate leadership"?
And what if your teen is quiet or shy or introverted?
Is there any hope for them?
Too many people believe that admissions officers are looking to fill their campuses with only superchickens - the smartest, hardest-working, and most qualified of the flock...
Don't abandon hope because your teen doesn't fit the mold of what a leader should look like.
Help your teen understand how to show or describe the leadership style that fits them the best in their applications.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
What is leadership?
In the context of teens in high school, applying to college...
What does it mean to "demonstrate leadership"?
And what if your teen is quiet or shy or introverted?
Is there any hope for them?
Too many people believe that admissions officers are looking to fill their campuses with only superchickens - the smartest, hardest-working, and most qualified of the flock...
Don't abandon hope because your teen doesn't fit the mold of what a leader should look like.
Help your teen understand how to show or describe the leadership style that fits them the best in their applications.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
When most people begin to prepare for college, they ask the same question as everyone else;
"what is more/most impressive to the admissions officers?"
And that seems to make sense, until senior year comes along, they submit their applications, and they finally realize that 30,000+ high schools all had ambitious students trying to do the most impressive things, and that means that tens of thousands of applications will all look very similar.
So paradoxically, you work harder than everyone else, only to put together an application that looks like so many others-- a boring application.
Instead, follow this strategy, based on your core values.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Erica shares her experience in the Ivy League Challenge, and how she is making an impact in her community by creating an app to teach the fundamentals of programming to younger people.
We discuss how her priorities have changed as a student, how her choices have given her greater purpose in her life, and how she is taking care of herself in a way that makes life more fun while becoming even more competitive for selective college admissions.
Listen in to learn more about Erica's experience.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Part 3 of 3 for our masterclass about GenAI and education.
I share my advice and answer questions about how education will evolve, as well as what steps we can take today to make the most of the opportunities AI presents for us.
Be sure to catch parts 1 and 2 as well.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Continuing our masterclass recording, we discuss the difference between kind and wicked learning environments, and how that distinction helps us understand how we can prepare to make the most of GenAI.
I also interview an expert in the field, Pavlo Denisov, who wrote a book about how students can use AI to learn and to make themselves more valuable in the open market.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
The fears we have today about Gen AI are not new-- society had the same concerns 30 years ago when the internet was new, and 40 years before that when the first calculators became available to the world.
But just as the internet lowered the barriers to entry into the business world and created countless millionaires, the opportunities coming from GenAI mastery will dwarf the wealth created by the internet decades ago.
Listen in to learn about these ideas and the beginning of my conversation with the head of AI in Asia for Google, Renee Lo.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Aki was stressed throughout his freshman year, because although he was at a very good high school, he just felt like he didn't know how to stand out.
He joined the Ivy League Challenge in order to figure out what to do.
Listen to learn about how he let go of that stress and replaced it with confidence that his time and efforts could be spent focusing on things that aligned with his core values.
He also shares his progress on his impact project, which aligns completely with his values.
He feels like school is more enjoyable, and he is making himself far more competitive for selective college admissions as well.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Too many of us approach life with the philosophy of "play not to lose".
Once, when I was in college, I was able to play on a intramural basketball team. Our team made it all the way to championship game. At half time, we were losing that game so badly that we decided to change our approach.
Instead of playing safe, we were going to play without any fear.
Amazingly, we came all the way back and even won the game at the buzzer.
But playing not-to-lose takes away your power.
Playing not-to-lose means playing safe.
And ironically, when you play that way, ironically, you often lose anyway.
The college prep equivalent is making all your decisions through the filter of "what is most impressive to an admissions officer"?
Listen in to learn why that is the wrong question to answer, and what you can do instead to play to win.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
This Wednesday, October 11th, at 8pm eastern time, I will be hosting a masterclass to discuss how we can help our teens take advantage of the many opportunities of GenAI, and also avoid the pitfalls.
I'm excited to go into detail about how humans and computers will be working together in the future to solve the great problems of the world, and how focusing on the wrong things can become a major tax on even the most ambitious students.
The masterclass free but requires registration.
Register at TILC.to/AI
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Krisha is a sophomore. She loves debate and has ambitions in the medical field.
She joined the Ivy League Challenge last year, and at the time of this interview, was half way through her second time through the course.
She shares about how important and valuable it is to figure out your core values, so you can make the most of the valuable time you have in high school.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Aside from the essays, the activities section of the Common Application is the trickiest section for many teens. But it doesn't have to be.
Listen to learn how to structure your activities section in a way that will make you memorable and competitive for college.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Do you wonder sometimes if it is realistic to be ambitious? Have you ever been frustrated because it seems like setting ambitious goals is just setting yourself up for failure?
Listen in to learn about three keys being both ambitious AND realistic.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
If you've been thinking about the Ivy League Challenge, but have been looking for the right time-- let's get started.
Saturday, September 16, 2023 will be the first class of the last cohort this year.
You don't want to miss this.
To register, go to: https://www.theivyleaguechallenge.com/TILC-registration-page#registration
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Bryana Quintero is working with an NYU professor to college and catalogue immigrant stories.
We get to hear all about how she decided on this project, and how she overcame some of the obstacles she has faced along the way.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
In part 3 (of 3), we discuss HOW to be more productive. The neuroscience says most of us are 'focusing' the wrong way.
Learn all about it here.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Part 2 of 3 in our back-to-school success masterclass recording.
Learn about how to set up the right study environment and why you shouldn't feel like you don't have enough will power to get your studies done. The difference between great students and weak students is not will power or self-discipline... it is the habits built around staying focused for your study sessions.
Listen in to learn all about it
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
How can you make sure that this school year is your best year yet?
Start off strong and use the energy from the beginning of the school year to ensure you create the habits that will create your success.
The first key to your success is discussed in part 1 of the masterclass recording.
Be sure to come back for the rest of the masterclass, coming soon!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Renee is the head of AI at Google for Asia, and previously was the head of AI development at Amazon and Microsoft as well.
She discusses how AI will influence everything from learning to business success in this far-reaching interview.
Renee shares how her parenting has changed as a result of the work she is doing in AI, and her ideas for how students, parents, and professionals can use this powerful tool.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
It is back-to-school time!
You are probably feeling a mixture of excitement, stress, anxiety and anticipation. Join us on August 30th for a free masterclass about how to make sure you transition well into the new school year.
To register for the masterclass, go to: tilc.to/backtoschool
or join us in the facebook group: tilc.to/fb
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
As you've listened to interviews with impressive teens on this podcast, you may have felt like some other parents, who have reached out to me recently to say that they can't relate. They feel like their teen couldn't possibly produce the kind of work that the teens on my interviews have done.
While I understand the frustration, I also think it is important to clarify that these other teens didn't accomplish their incredible results in one go. They had to take one step at a time.
The important thing is figuring out the direction you want to go, and then developing a few skills and the right mindset to be as resourceful as you need to be to able to navigate unforeseen challenges.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
I'm excited to work with your teen. There are a few spots available in this Friday night cohort.
Reach out to me right away if you'd like to join:
my calendar: tilc.to/meet
register at: tilc.to/register
email me: theivyleaguechallenge.com
See you there!
Dimitri joined his cohort of the Ivy League Challenge when it was already half-way completed. Soon after it finished, he joined the Bootcamp (for rising seniors only) and completed the first half of the bootcamp just before joining me for this interview.
He shares his experience in the Ivy League Challenge, as well as his ideas about his ambitions to spread curiosity and excitement about the solar system beyond Earth.
He gives advice for others who also want to create a similar impact project.
His podcast is called Beyond the Blue, and here is a link to his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BeyondTheBlue..
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
During class we did a visualization about what kind of student you would be when you arrive at your dream college.
Two of the students requested that I make the recording available for the public, and I agreed to do that.
Please find a comfortable place where you can close your eyes as you go through this, and have a pen and paper available for when you finish the visualization so you can take some notes on your impressions.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Each summer, we do an intensive bootcamp ONLY for rising seniors, where we go through the entire Ivy League Challenge course in just 2 weeks.
During day 2, we discussed how precious each hour is for the next few months, and that managing our time and energy will be critical to a successful senior summer.
The students committed to deleting social media apps from their phones until applications are turned in, and we discussed how to choose to engage in our studies and in life by increasing our appreciation for what is around us, and to choose to be curious about things.
Here are a few clips from the class.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Corey Fischer and his mom, Robyn Blair, answered questions from my Facebook Group audience.
Among the highlights--
Can teens really figure out their core values?
How did you figure out your impact project?
What was class like?
Can a busy student really add this to their schedule?
and so much more.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Don't miss the free workshop from July 12-15.
register at https://www.theivyleaguechallenge.com/workshop
See you there!
One year ago I met with Ishita and her parents. She was already a very hard worker, but needed some direction and clarity about what mattered most to her.
She has grown so much over this past year, and in such a healthy, duplicatable way, that I want the world to hear her story.
This is part 2 of 2.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
One year ago I met with Ishita and her parents. She was already a very hard worker, but needed some direction and clarity about what mattered most to her.
She has grown so much over this past year, and in such a healthy, duplicatable way, that I want the world to hear her story.
This is part 2 of 2.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
One year ago I met with Ishita and her parents. She was already a very hard worker, but needed some direction and clarity about what mattered most to her.
She has grown so much over this past year, and in such a healthy, duplicatable way, that I want the world to hear her story.
This is part 1 of 2.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
What is the best use of your summer?
The answer might not be as straightforward as you would like it to be.
What would be great advice for one person, might be terrible advice for another.
So in my Facebook group (Parents of Ambitious Teens; Personal Growth & Healthy College Prep) I taught about some of the principals that parents and teens should consider when they figure out the best use of their summer.
This is the fourth & final part of the recording.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
What is the best use of your summer?
The answer might not be as straightforward as you would like it to be.
What would be great advice for one person, might be terrible advice for another.
So in my Facebook group (Parents of Ambitious Teens; Personal Growth & Healthy College Prep) I taught about some of the principals that parents and teens should consider when they figure out the best use of their summer.
This is the third part of the recording.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
What is the best use of your summer?
The answer might not be as straightforward as you would like it to be.
What would be great advice for one person, might be terrible advice for another.
So in my Facebook group (Parents of Ambitious Teens; Personal Growth & Healthy College Prep) I taught about some of the principals that parents and teens should consider when they figure out the best use of their summer.
This is the second part of the recording.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
What is the best use of your summer?
The answer might not be as straightforward as you would like it to be.
What would be great advice for one person, might be terrible advice for another.
So in my Facebook group (Parents of Ambitious Teens; Personal Growth & Healthy College Prep) I taught about some of the principals that parents and teens should consider when they figure out the best use of their summer.
This is the first part of the recording.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
If you choose to work on problems that matter to you, you'll run into bumps along the way.
Sometimes, you'll get stuck.
And that is totally normal.
When you get stuck, listen to this episode.
Because no matter how stuck you feel, you are only one great idea or one relationship away from a breakthrough.
You CAN breakthrough, and when you do, you'll develop even greater confidence and self-efficacy, and before long getting stuck won't be a big deal any more.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Dr. Robyn Blair's son Corey just completed the intensive first part of the Ivy League Challenge. I interviewed him about his inspiring impact project a few weeks ago.
Robyn shares why she was interested in the Ivy League Challenge in the first place, and why she says this program changed her son's life forever.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
The world needs every teen to reach their full potential, and college prep, should not hold them back.
College prep and education should be the vehicle that gives teens the self-efficacy and other skills they need to know they can solve problems that matter to them in the real world.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already showing us how disruptive it can be. Education will need to adjust quickly, because knowledge alone will soon be unimportant. Problem solving and humanity will become more important as well.
Teens have tremendous advantages (like a sense of curiosity and adventure, a willingness to try new things, a desire to become great, etc.) that are mostly wasted in the education industry, and especially in the common approach to college prep.
We need to stop missing out on this incredible opportunity to empower our teens. College prep is the best way to empower them, and the approach we take in the Ivy League Challenge (find core values, begin working to solve real problems that violate those core values, etc) is the best way to give them the skills they actually need.
This podcast is based on Simon Sinek's book "Start with Why"
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
One of the keys to getting into selective colleges, and earning scholarships is a wise use of summer.
Well, May is now here, and many people are asking the question "what is the best use of my summer this year?
Be sure to use some of the summer to recover from burnout. The episode I referenced in the podcast is found here.
This is the episode about how summer camps impact college admissions.
But the MOST effective thing you can do is to clarify your core values, and begin making your community better as you align your daily choices with your core values.
Listen in to learn more about how to do that, and how I can help you.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Asfi has been on the show before when we spoke about her impact project and how she figured out her core values. Today she is a senior and has been admitted to a number of amazing colleges.
She shares how she got into Cornell and why she chose Cornell over her other great options.
Here is a link to the "meet the students" page we referenced throughout the conversation: https://www.theivyleaguechallenge.com/Asfi
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Many among us want to become great.
Others wonder what we can do to help the teens we work with.
When your circumstances are difficult, many around you will complain and struggle. It will seem like the world is full mediocrity.
How do you become an island of excellence in the middle of this sea of mediocrity?
- self-awareness
- discipline
- meaning
- collaboration
Listen in to learn what you can do today to become great.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Corey Fischer is only a few weeks into the Ivy League Challenge, and I've invited him to speak about how he decided on his impact project, and what steps he has taken so far.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
If you've been thinking about what you can do today to increase your chances of getting into a GREAT college (like Harvard), I can give you some practical advice that will work today.
You have the power to increase your chances of getting into your dream college.
To do this, learn to truly love learning.
Love school.
Become unusually resourceful due to your unusual love of school and of learning.
By the way, learning to love learning will continue to pay off long after you've finished high school...
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
How do we take students who are struggling in school-- teens who are so disengaged that they are actively sabotaging classroom learning, into cheerful collaborators or curios creators?
We have to stop thinking that we can create this kind of transformation by focusing on marginal improvements in classroom performance.
Instead, we need to shift our perspective completely.
Effective education should be creating problem solvers and bridge-builders.
But most of the hours teens spend in the classroom do not lead to greater critical thinking or problem-solving.
Just like the best way to learn something is to teach it, the best way to train for problem solving is to begin working to solve problems.
Listen in to learn more about how to begin this process with your teen.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
I ran for my middle school cross country team.
I learned some surprising things.
Because I never ran a single race where I didn't desperately look for a rock to trip on, or a bump to roll my ankle on, so that I can fake an injury and wouldn't have to finish the race.
But I never faked an injury.
And I never quit.
In fact I learned to lean in when my leg muscles started screaming at me to find a way to quit, I could lean my body forward, and just keep one foot in front of the other to keep upright.
I learned that my body can handle more than it first appears to be able to handle.
During middle school, I lived in Billings, Montana. My home was surrounded by cows (literally-- they grazed in my back yard), and I was a short drive from Yellowstone, where I regularly saw buffalo.
Interestingly, cows and buffalo respond to storms in opposite ways.
A cow will look for dry ground and will lay down until the storm has passed. But a buffalo is different. When the winds are strong enough, buffalo face the wind and begin walking into it. They lean in.
This week, join me.
I want to be the buffalo.
I want to walk straight into the storm rather than lying down or faking an injury.
Storms come when I try new things, or do things that really matter to me.
And so I'm okay with storms coming my way. I just want to make sure I treat them like a buffalo.
I recently overheard a conversation that inspired me to set the record straight.
This conversation was about how difficult it is to lead new employees in the workplace, because these young adults are too selfish, too self-absorbed, too lazy, too... whatever.
But I have worked with teens all day, every day, for a loooong time.
And the longer I work with these amazing humans, the more optimistic I am for the future of this planet. Tomorrow's leaders are in high school right now, and I am privileged to be able to work with them full time.
This generation is exceptionally diligent, focused on equity and fairness, and is going to lead the planet to a better future.
Listen in to learn where my confidence comes from.
I was recently asked to speak to Lumiere students to hep them understand how to use the academic research they are doing to help them stand out in college applications.
We discussed how powerful it can be to combine academic research with an aligned impact project.
I also invited them to join me this week in a Hacking College Admissions workshop.
You can register for that workshop at TILC.to/hack
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Janice Kim is the mother of four children, and enrolled her youngest daughter in the Ivy League Challenge.
Because she saw such extreme success guiding her own children to earn admittance to multiple outstanding schools (they attended MIT, Yale, and Harvard, respectively), Janice has helped many families prepare to get admitted to great colleges.
Today we discuss why she wanted to enrol her daughter in the Ivy League Challenge, and what her experience was.
We also discuss some of the most important mistakes to avoid in college prep, and how we can provide the support our teens need to succeed.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
I help teens to figure out their core values and then work to solve problems in their community that violate their core values.
It is very meaningful work, and I love every minute of the journey.
And I have noticed over time, that some teens are ready for the challenge, and others can struggle with the friction and ambiguity of trying to solve real problems in the real world.
A growth mindset, being a responsible decision-maker, and establishing the necessary academic foundation are all critical to healthy, happy teenage years.
And we shouldn't wait until 13 or 14 to learn these foundational traits and skills.
This masterclass goes through how we can support this age group as parents, teachers, and adult mentors.
To join the Early Years Course: register here
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Every loving parent wants their children to be happy.
But happiness can be elusive-- sometimes seeking happiness seems to push the happiness away, but getting lost in another activity and forgetting about pursuing happiness can produce great joy and happiness.
Similarly, many parents and teens want to get into a great college.
And the motivation that teens feel to get into a great college can be exactly the gift they need to do the work to lead a better, more meaningful life.
Along the way, some teens and families of teens find that motivation to get into a great school turns into desperation.
Once that energy has shifted to desperation, college prep shifts from being a healthy, amazingly motivating gift-- to a toxic, overwhelming nightmare.
But it doesn't have to be this way. Listen in to learn how this happens and what we should focus on instead in order to keep college prep both healthy and effective.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
The current college prep environment creates desperation.
But it doesn't have to.
We can replace that desperation with curiosity.
When healthy ambition pushes you to try hard, to take risks and do your best, it leads to wonderful things like skill development, increased confidence, and success.
But when ambition spills over into desperation, anxiety replaces ambition, and comparison replaces reflection. Eventually, desperation will lead the teen to feel that they are not good enough.
Listen in to learn how we can guide ourselves from toxic desperation back to healthy ambition using the three magic words.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
If you listen to me regularly, you know that the best college prep begins with discovering your core values, and then building off of that make a meaningful contribution to your community.
But as I've taught more and more students, I've realized that some students are well prepared to do this work, while others struggle to get there.
For example, if you believe that talent is innate, then you will want to continue doing the things that you are good at, and you'll want to avoid trying new things, because that will make you look like a fool.
But of course real confidence doesn't come from being good at something, it comes from being willing to be bad at something first.
Training our minds is easier when we begin earlier.
Not only does starting this type of training earlier improve your performance, it also sets you up for success in many other ways as well.
To register for the workshop, go to TILC.to/preteen or join my Facebook group: Parents of Ambitious Teens, Personal Growth & Healthy College Prep.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
In the early 1990's, Christ Chabris and Daniel Simons did a study at Harvard. They asked participants to count the number times a basketball was passed between different people. While the people passed the ball, a person in a gorilla suit walked into the middle of them, pounded his chest, and then walked off screen.
Shockingly, roughly half of the participants were so focused on their job-- counting the passes-- that they didn't even see the gorilla.
This experiment reveals two things: that we are missing a lot of what goes on around us, and we all unaware of how much we are missing.
And we do this in our college prep all the time.
Because we focus so much on the task we have been given, we can easily miss the big ideas that are right in front of us-- the gorilla.
Listen in to learn more
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
THIS is what healthy college prep sounds like.
Listen in to hear what it is like to join the Ivy League Challenge as a junior, or a freshman in high school.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Minna Most joined the Ivy League Challenge during the summer before her senior year of high school.
Now she is nearly finished with all of her applications, and she shares her story about all of the progress she has made it the tiny amount of time she had during the summer and the first few months of her senior year.
During this time, she has created an impressive impact in her community, and in this podcast she shares with us how the project evolved as she tested new ideas and took action.
Enjoy this incredible story, from the perspective of the student.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Join us on January 22nd for a free workshop: Hacking College Admissions
learn about college prep that actually works.
(Day 1) January 22nd: What colleges actually want
(Day 2) January 23rd: How to present yourself so that colleges want you
(Day 3) January 24th: The step-by-step guide: what to do instead
(Bonus day 1) January 25th: Q&A with Steve
(Bonus day 2) January 26th: Meet the Students
in order to attend, be sure to register at TILC.to/workshop
also, join the Facebook group at tilc.to/fb
See you there!
When Claire Kim's mom introduced the Ivy League Challenge to her, Claire was incredulous. How could she possibly add another thing to her already-impossibly-busy schedule?
Claire talks about why she decided to join the course, despite her busy schedule, and explains how her improved focus and performance has meant that she gets more done in less time now, even after having added the 12 week online course.
Claire also shares her impact project, and invites teens any where who might be interested to join her in empowering more girls to get into STEM and learn to love science.
If you want to reach out to Claire, please email me directly at theivyeleaguechallenge@gmail.com
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
If you are frustrated by New Year's resolutions that have failed, I'd love to introduce you to my approach.
Instead of massive, revolutionary changes, consider small, evolutionary changes.
I have a system I love to follow several times each year. Grab a piece of paper, and follow along as I explain my system.
Enjoy!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
In the business of high school classes and activities, it can be easy to lose sight of just how incredible it is to be alive and to be working towards a better future.
In fact, because of hedonic adaptation, we generally return to our set baseline of happiness.
But we don't have to settle for that. Listen in to hear my advice for expanding the magic moments we enjoy each day, and also to reduce the amount of frustration we feel day to day.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
You begin the semester with optimism and genuine excitement for the challenges ahead. But as stress builds, that excitement can die out quickly.
If you don't plan for effective recovery during busy periods, you are at risk for chronic stress and, eventually, burnout.
But with appropriate recovery, you can recover your excitement and focus, and reach even your most ambitious goals. Listen in to learn how I believe you should spend your break in order to recover fully.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
final thoughts as I wrapped up the presentation portion of the masterclass.
We did spend an additional 25 minutes discussing answers to some excellent questions. If you want to join these masterclasses live each month, join the Facebook group for free.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1063379861177735
Now that we know what colleges are not looking for, and also what they do care most about, we can create a strategy to ensure that we prioritize the right activities.
We clarify how to create the time for those most important activities, and how to stay on top of everything as you go.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
The myths that lead to the imbalance.
Learn what college admissions officers actually care about when they shape a class.
It's not what you think.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
In part one of our November 2023 masterclass, we learn how and why teens get so far out of balance.
While many people believe that teens have no choice in the matter, the reality is that it is both possible and strategic to create a schedule that allows for plenty of space for balance.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
It is natural and understandable that teens want to find ways to impress admissions officers.
And yet... that desire to impress often leads to the exact opposite effect.
So what can we do instead?
It's not what you expect.
Listen in to learn more.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
In part 2 of this series, we learn what the right amount of AP or IB classes will be for you.
This is part 2-- be sure to listen to part 1 for context.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Although everywhere you turn, everyone talks about how important academic rigor is, there is more to the story.
AP, IBDP, or A-level classes are unquestionably valuable. And yet, sometimes there can be too much of a good thing.
This is certainly one of those times.
Rather than taking a class load that pushes you to the edge of sanity, remember why you want to demonstrate academic rigor, and don't forget the significance of the rest of your application.
Don't exclude yourself from consideration from the schools you want to get into. Listen to understand how to choose a better strategy than taking as many advanced classes as possible.
Exciting announcement for those who feel overwhelmed by school work as we approach the end of the semester.
I am hosting a free masterclass to help you help your teens balance everything. This masterclass is best for both parents and teens to attend together.
Juniors and seniors (grades 11 and 12) are in the middle of the busiest times of their lives so far, and should join this masterclass. Also, please join if your teen is in grade 8, 9, or 10 so that you can avoid some of the biggest mistakes that nearly everyone makes when they schedule their junior and senior years.
To attend the masterclass, join my Facebook Group: Parents of Ambitious Teens; Personal Growth & Healthy College Prep.
You can sign up to join the group here: TILC.to/FB
The Masterclass will be November 22nd, 2022 at 8:00 PM EST.
See you there!
As more and more families realize how valuable academic research is as a college admissions strategy, they come to us to learn how to get started.
But professors are busy, and most high school students don't have the skills or understanding to be able to contribute right away. This means that there are a limited number of professors who are willing to add a high school student to the team.
But because it is difficult for many to find these research opportunities does not mean that they are not available.
Duke Professor Dr. Robert Malkin joins me today to introduce scholarly research as a high school student.
Listen in to learn:
- what academic research is
- why you might want to consider doing academic research
- why it is so impressive to selective admissions teams
- how to get started
- how to be successful in a research lab
- and more
To contact Dr. Malkin:
His Lab: dhtlab.pratt.duke.edu
Company website (IRI): www.iri-nc.org
Personal email: Robert.malkin@duke.edu
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Zuzu (Ivy League Challenge student) and Gulnar (her mom) join me to discuss Zuzu's experience in the Ivy League Challenge.
We discuss each weekly class from phase 1 (the first four weeks of the program) from both the student's and mother's perspective.
Learn why they joined, and what they have experienced during this first month in the program.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Few things are more frustrating than working hard for weeks to put together your best essay, only to get a poor grade.
Essay writing should be preferable to test taking, but because there are too many poor essay writing strategies, many students would rather take a test than write a paper.
I hope that changes with this podcast.
Learn how to be more effective and ensure that all of your essays get great grades.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Do you ever feel frustrated because you spend too much time studying?
Are you not getting the grades you want?
Often some of the hardest workers don't actually get the best grades. This doesn't happen because these hard workers are not as smart.
Many of these hard workers struggle to get better grades because they are using ineffective study strategies.
Listen in today to hear my favorite strategies for humanities, math, and science classes, as well as for memorization.
We're several weeks into the school year. As the excitement of the new school year wears off, have you found yourself procrastinating important tasks?
Join us for a free Defeat Procrastination Facebook group challenge!
I'll give you some tools you can use to overcome procrastination, and then those who earn enough points will received my entire course for free!
Join us at tilc.to/fb
The challenge runs from October 24th-30th, 2022.
It is best if parents and teens do the challenge together.
See you there!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Akaash has just completed the Ivy League Challenge, and is in the beginning stages of executing his impact project-- creating training materials for competitive math students who don't have access to tutors.
Listen in to learn about what it is like as a grade 9 student, and how Akaash decided on his impact project.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Ishita shares her final thoughts about how the Ivy League Challenge impacted her college prep.
Hear her thoughts as she wraps up our interview in part 2.
If you missed part one, you can listen to that episode first. Find it here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1019335/11382451
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Registration for the Fall 2022 cohorts will close soon. To register, go to TILC.to/register
when you sign up, you will receive access to the digital course, and you can also choose if you will join the Friday or Sunday night cohorts.
Fall 2022 options are:
Fridays, beginning September 30th, 8-10 pm EST
or
Sundays, beginning October 2nd, 8-10 pm EST
If you have a question you need answered first, email me or schedule a call with me by going to TILC.to/meet and scheduling a zoom call.
See you in the program!
As an almost-16-year-old, Ishita has already logged more than 800 hours of laboratory research work. Her excellence in the lab has allowed her to enter (and win) research competitions, win money, and even an invite to present at Harvard university.
She discusses how she was able to succeed in the lab, and what other ambitious teens should be doing as well.
Recently she expanded her efforts to create a STEM camp for middle school girls, where she teaches the process to begin and execute research in a real lab, as well as best practices.
Her camps have already garnered media attention, and she discusses her plans to continue making a meaningful impact throughout the rest of her high school years.
This is an interview you do not want to miss!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Have you ever been in such a hurry to get something done, that in your need for speed you make mistakes that cost you time, and the task ends up taking longer than if you hadn't sped up?
Often moving quickly slows you down, because if that urgent desire to achieve comes at the expense of critical fundamentals, then you'll develop the wrong habits, which will end up taking more time to undue later on.
College prep is exactly like this. So many people are so busy taking the hardest classes available, preparing for tests, participating in clubs, and racing to be better than everyone else at everything, that they don't have time to stop and be thoughtful or reflective.
They don't have time to figure out their core values, or what success means to them, or any of the fundamental keys to real success.
In an effort to win an imaginary race, they run the in the wrong direction, away from the real finish line.
The busier we feel, the more important it is to stop, breathe, slow down, and focus on the important things.
Racing to get the best grades and test scores, along with an impressive list of accomplishments feels necessary when everyone around you is doing that. But every year on forums where parents of teens assemble, I hear of parents who feel cheated because their teen worked so hard for so long, got the grades and test scores and accolades, and yet was rejected from all of the colleges they applied to.
And even though this keeps happening over and over again. For families in the middle of college prep, this may be their first time. So they follow the crowd. They see the runners racing their hardest, and they join in.
Soon they too are too busy trying to be the best at everything that they don't have time to figure out their core values. They don't have time to think about their own interests or curiosities, and they don't have time to make their community a better place (aside from volunteer hours carefully logged and tracked...)
And yet, when applications come in, admissions officers at selective colleges will be forced, yet again, to sift through piles of applications from students who don't know their own core values, who don't know how they will contribute to the campus community, and who have worked so hard for so long, that they might not even know what they are genuinely interested in any more.
When you are feeling the busiest, that is a sign that you need to move slower, not faster.
If you want to get to the finish line, make sure you are running in the right direction.
Take the time to discover your core values.
Make daily choices that align with those values.
Not only is this more healthy, it is also your best chance at clearly communicating to the most selective schools how you would fit into their campus, and why they would want to admit you.
The summer before senior year is the busiest of an ambitious teen's life.
Minna Most decided to take two weeks from that summer and dedicate them to participation in the Ivy League Challenge bootcamp.
Listen in as she talks about how participation in The Challenge helped save her time by giving her clarity and confidence, and gave her her sanity back.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Fall 2022 Ivy League Challenge registration is now open.
The two options for Fall, 2022 are:
Sundays, beginning September 25th (8-10 pm EST)
Fridays, beginning September 30th (8-10 pm EST)
For those who register early (at least 7 days before class begins, two additional bonuses are granted;
- a 1:1 Strategy call with me
- Access to the online course Defeat Procrastination (regularly $197.00)
Don't delay! To join the Ivy League Challenge, go to TILC.to/register today.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
Join Facebook group: Parents of Ambitious Teens: Personal Growth & Healthy College Prep
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
In the middle of a hectic senior summer, Maxine Most and her daughter decided to pause their college prep for two weeks in order to participate in the Ivy League Challenge bootcamp.
Listen to the mother's perspective as Maxine describes what life was like before, during, and after the Ivy League Challenge for both her and her daughter.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
In parts 1 & 2 you learned the science that explains why it can be so hard to manage our time better. In part 3, I'll share the tactics I used to get into and through Harvard university. If you haven't listened to the earlier two podcasts, stop and listen to those first-- they set up part 3.
This masterclass was originally taught in my Facebook group-- Parents of Ambitious Teens: Personal Growth & Healthy College Prep.
Join the group and enjoy upcoming masterclasses live so you can get the entire class and also ask questions or comment during the class.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
We all know how important effective time management is-- begin able to focus the way you want to earns you better grades, greater confidence, and more time to do the things you want to be doing in life.
In part two of the highlights from our masterclass, you'll learn about the study John Nash did at Stanford, and how understanding your neuroscience better can empower you to make better choices.
This material comes from the masterclass I taught in my Facebook group-- Parents of Ambitious Teens: Personal Growth & Healthy College Prep.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Effective time management leads to better grades, greater confidence, and more time to do the things you want to do in life.
So why don't more teens better manage their time? How can we help them improve?
We recently did a free masterclass in my Facebook group (Parents of Ambitious Teens: Personal Growth & Healthy College Prep) to help teens and parents of teens find new ways to get those difficult tasks done with appropriate focus so that we can enjoy our lives more.
This is part one (the introduction) of that masterclass. More coming soon!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Are you excited to go back to school? Horrified? Somewhere in between?
Regardless of how you feel, you know that this school year will be important for you to reach your goals and to grow as a person.
Listen in to learn the 5 keys to an amazing start to your school year!
One of the great ironies of life is that making hard choices leads to an easy life, but making easy choices leads to a hard life.
Procrastination, junk food, late nights, etc.-- all easy choices-- lead to a hard life. But self-discipline, eating right, early mornings, and focused effort are all hard choices which lead to an easy life.
But we somehow keep on making choices which obviously make life harder. We do this even though we remind ourselves how important it is to be self-disciplined over and over again.
What if the managing our time and energy could be our natural inclination? If we could change our decision-making strategy so that we were more likely to make the choices which will lead to an easier life?
Join us in my Facebook group for a free masterclass to learn the surprising solution to empowering us to make better choices.
The masterclass will be at 8:00 pm eastern time on August 24th, 2022. Join our Facebook group so that you can participate in the free masterclass.
To join the Facebook group: TILC.to/FB
See you there!
What if the secret to maximizing your odds of success is to choose the right field of competition?
We all know that boiling water will harden an egg, but soften a potato.
And if the reality is that people are born with differences, can we use those differences to move the admissions odds to our favor?
Assuming a strong academic foundation, the best way to put admissions odds in our favor is to align with your core values, and make a meaningful impact in your community.
It may sound too good to be true, but an effective impact project creates a game where the rules put the odds in our favor.
Motivation is overrated. It really is.
Think about it:
1. motivation is NOT the key to winning-- we know this because the winning and losing teams are both motivated to win.
2. Motivation wants fast results-- but real excellence wants consistency over the long haul.
3. Boredom (or any number of other common challenges) can kill motivation.
Here are six things that will help you create the success you want:
- Your environment
- Your peer group
- Habits and systems
- Your self talk & self-identity
- Changing your focus to consistency over grandeur
- A long-term vs. a short-term perspective
Listen in to learn more.
Asfi Tias is a rising senior who is also aspiring to go to a competitive college in preparation for medical school in a few years.
Listen in to hear about her experience before, during, and after the Ivy League Challenge. Hear about her impact projects, her advice for younger ambitious teens, and what she believes are some of the biggest mistakes she made that others can avoid.
You're teen works hard, but just can't seem to get the grades or test scores they need to reach achieve their ambitions.
You know grades aren't everything, but you also know they matter-- a lot.
What do you do?
Camille Roney only graduated high school because it was easier on the administrators to pass her than to get her to score above a D in any of her classes.
She was failing college too, until she experimented with study strategies.
Now she is in medical school.
And she is joining me this week to help give your teen the tools they need to re-examine their mindset and strategies in school.
We are so excited to teach how to get the grades you want-- even in the hardest classes.
Wednesday, July 20th, from 8:00-9:15 pm eastern time.
This will be a HIGHLY INTERACTIVE masterclass and we STRONGLY recommend joining with Zoom rather than Facebook Live.
To request access to the Zoom room, join the Parents of Ambitious Teens: Personal Growth & Healthy College Prep Facebook group (go to TILC.to/FB) or email me at theivyleaguechallenge@gmail.com
See you there!
Do you ever feel like preparing for college is like fighting for limited seats on a train?
This can make you feel anxious, overwhelmed, and frustrated.
After all, there are only so many 'seats' available, right?
There are only so many valedictorians, so many science olympiad winners, and only so many captains of the team. The seats on the "we're better than everyone else at everything" train are indeed very limited. And there are countless people fighting over them.
But there is a better way.
In fact, what if the selective colleges you feel like you are fighting others to get into aren't that interested in passengers of that train?
Because the train tracks were laid by someone else before you, selective colleges are more likely to only want a few of the passengers of the "better than everyone at everything" train, and are more interested in finding students who paved their own path.
How do you pave your own path?
- do the self-reflective, introspective work to figure out your core values.
- identify a problem in your community that violates one of those core values.
- work to begin solving it.
- discover you don't know how to solve it-- yet.
- do effective outreach to professors or other experts who are solving this problem, and either join their team or recruit them to join your team.
- solve the problem (or make meaningful progress)
- effectively communicate your core values and impact project in your college application.
This is not only orders of magnitude more effective than fighting for spots on the train, it is also easier, more enjoyable, and actually prepares you for a successful and fulfilling life.
The ability to align your choices with your core values not only makes your application stand out for admissions officers, but it is also the key to a more fulfilling life.
Being able to identify and solve problems in your community not only provides evidence to the admissions officers that you truly do have those core values but it also shows them that you have the emotional intelligence, communication skills, leadership, grit, and resourcefulness to solve real problems in the real world.
Oh, and if you are able to solve real problems in the real world as a high school student, you will also be empowered to solve real problems in the real world as a professional-- nothing prepares you better to start your own successful business or earn meaningful promotions in a larger company.
I teach all of this in the Ivy League Challenge.
The ideal age for the challenge is grades 8-10, but some students are ready earlier, and any student who is serious about becoming competitive for a selective school will want to learn this before applying-- even if they are rising seniors now.
Registration for the July 14th cohort is now open. We will meet weekly on Thursdays for 12 weeks, beginning July 14th.
Please reach out to me and schedule a discovery call if you need clarification on anything before you register, but don't delay. Registration for this cohort ends at midnight on July 13th.
Links to my Calendar: tilc.to/meet
registration: tilc.to/register
see you in the Ivy League Challenge!
Daniel Waheed shares his impact projects, and talks through how he is tying in his core values and personal history to craft his application narrative.
In this interview, we learn about how to think about an impact project
How being more effective is easier than being less effective (in college prep)
Why his impact project isn't even just about college prep-- it is his genuine calling.
George Banke felt like he was floating along in life, and lacked the focus that he needed to feel confident in his college prep.
In this interview, he shares what happened to give him the clarity he needed, and what he is doing now to prepare for college in a way that is exciting, motivating, and effective.
Listen in to learn about his impact project as well.
In part 3 of our 'sneak peak' into the recent Masterclass about how to help build teen confidence, we learn:
Why feeling nervousness is wonderful-- and how to convert the nervous energy into excitement that can help you focus and perform better.
How to anticipate being bad at something in order to later get good at it.
*A reminder that we always underestimate how much we can accomplish in 5 years, but we overestimate what we can accomplish in 1 year-- because we forget to account for the Valley of Disappointment.
and more
To join the Facebook group and participate in our next masterclass, go to TILC.to/FB
Join today!
In part two, we move on to the second type of confidence: the idea that when I don't have skills or experience, I still know that eventually I can figure out a solution as long as I bring myself to the equation.
This type of confidence requires that we have learned at least some skill at a high level before, so that we can anticipate with accuracy how the Valley of Disappointment will feel.
This is a sneak peak into a masterclass that I gave (for free) in my Facebook group- Parents of Ambitious Teens: Personal Growth & Healthy College Prep.
If you'd like to participate in future masterclasses, be sure to join the Facebook group right away.
Go to TILC.to/FB
See you there!
Teen (and preteen) confidence is one of the most important traits to help develop.
But how?
Unfortunately a lot of advice on the topic is incomplete.
In my Facebook Group (Parents of Ambitious Teens: Personal Growth & Healthy College Prep) I taught a masterclass to help parents help their teens.
In part one, you'll hear about one form of confidence, and why the advice "just do it" or "just get started" can be counterproductive.
To join my Facebook group and be able to participate in future masterclasses, go to TILC.to/FB and don't forget to answer the questions.
See you there!
Harvard professor Dr. Richard Weissbourd is currently a senior lecturer on education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and at the Kennedy School of Government.
In our discussion today, we are particularly excited to hear about the Making Caring Common Project that he directs, and the Turning the Tide initiative, which is a national effort to reform college admissions that has engaged almost 200 college admissions offices in promoting ethical engagement, reducing damaging achievement pressure in high school and increasing equity and access for economically disadvantaged students.
Listen in to get his take on the following questions:
-
Of all the things you could be doing with your time and expertise, you devote a lot of yourself to Making Caring Common & Turning the Tide. Why is this effort so important right now?
-
you know from our previous conversations that I am a strong advocate of Turning the Tide, and many of my listeners are high school guidance counselors and other youth leaders. What can we be doing better to support ambitious teens today?
-
Is it possible for college prep to be the catalyst to inspire teens to find their core values and become healthier rather than stressed out?
-
What advice would you have for the ambitious 14 year-old listening in now?
As someone who has written hundreds of letters of recommendation, and has spent just as much time talking to the admissions officers who read others' letters of recommendation, I know that these letters can make or break your application.
But rec letters feel like something that is completely out of your control.
Or are they?
There are things you can do to ensure you will be getting outstanding recommendation letters. In this podcast, I teach the secret strategy that has helped my students get into Harvard, Stanford, and other amazing schools.
Registration for the Summer 2022 cohort of the Ivy League Challenge is now open!
To participate in the bootcamp (July 3-16) or standard cohort (weekly on Thursdays beginning July 14th) all from 8-10 PM eastern time, go to www.theivyleaguechallenge.com to register!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, go to www.theivyleaguechallenge.com
To schedule a call with me, go to https://calendly.com/theivyleaguechallenge/meet-with-steve
Want to make sure you or your teen are on track in your college prep?
Wondering when college prep should really begin?
This podcast takes you through a free guide that I've created to help you follow a healthy and highly effective timeline of events to know you are fully prepared for college preparation.
To get your FREE guide, go to TILC.to/timeline
Registration for the Summer 2022 cohort of the Ivy League Challenge will open soon, but the date is already set.
Mark your calendars beginning Thursday, July 14, from 8-10 PM Eastern time. The course will run for 12 total weeks (weekly calls).
Also, be sure to listen to this episode to hear the unbelievable great news about this upcoming cohort.
To contact me, email me at theivyleaguechallenge@gmail.com
See you in the program!
No matter how impossible this statement might feel right now, it is still true: YOU can get straight A's, even in your hard classes.
When you create a strong academic foundation (and are willing to go back and fill gaps that might exist), manage your time, manage your energy, and manage your relationships, you can get perfect grades.
Listen up to learn how.
You don't need more time in your day, you need to be more productive with the time you already have.
But how?
Do you get frustrated when you realize that you have ambitions that you are not living up to?
That frustration can lead to procrastination, self-doubt, discouragement, and more.
People who don't have the skills necessary to be more productive often end up dependent on deadlines in order to get things done.
But it doesn't have to be that way.
Listen to learn about the productivity tools I used to get into and through my degree at Harvard, and the system that I teach my students to help them get more done when they choose to do so.
You can be more productive, as long as you know how to focus your mind, and schedule in appropriate recovery at the right time.
Find out how.
If you were asked to create a fictional character to represent total confidence, how would you create that character?
Most people would make this fictional character a combination of Wonder Woman (knows every language, knows everything), Superman (stronger and faster than everyone else), and Captain America (no matter how scary the situation, he has enough courage to always act without struggle).
But know-it-alls and people like Superman or Captain America are not an accurate picture of confidence.
In fact, confidence is not know something already.
It is the belief that you can figure it out.
And how do you develop this belief?
Listen, and enjoy!
Ever wonder what it is like to participate in the Ivy League Challenge?
As a busy high school junior, Anubhav decided to add the Ivy League Challenge to his AP classes and other activities.
Find out what he says about fitting everything in and what advice he has for middle school and high school students who want to make the most of their teenage years as they prepare for selective college admissions.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
Join Facebook group: Parents of Ambitious Teens: Personal Growth & Healthy College Prep
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Media exposure can be the best, most effective way to create legitimacy and credibility for you as the expert or for your impact project as the solution to a problem in your community.
But how do you find the right publications to highlight your project? Can you control that message by writing the article yourself?
Publicity expert PollyAnna Brown, who has helped people get spotlighted in outlets like Forbes or Parenting Magazine, joins us today to help you understand how to find the right publications and how to effectively pitch them.
To reach PollyAnna, go to:
TikTok: @PollyAnnawrites
Instagram: @PollyAnnawrites
Facebook: publicityPollyAnna
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
Join Facebook group: Parents of Ambitious Teens: Personal Growth & Healthy College Prep
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Looking to land a competitive internship or research opportunity?
Having a hard time finding an opportunity that will take you one while you are younger than the eligibility rules allow?
Rather than giving up on the opportunity to connect with experts in the world because you can't 'find an opportunity', learn how to create the kind of opportunities that will help you grow and develop your admissions profile.
In this episode, I'll explain what my peers at Harvard did to create opportunities, and how I teach my students to do the same in the Ivy League Challenge.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
Join Facebook group: Parents of Ambitious Teens: Personal Growth & Healthy College Prep
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Why is it that some people seem to have everything put together?
What's up with these people?
They are smart, they exercise exactly when they say they will, they eat the way they choose to eat, and they are able to focus when they want to focus.
How do you become the person you want to be?
Do you think they want success more than you? That they have more will power? That they care more than you?
The truth is people who are able to accomplish great things in life do not have more will power than you, instead they leverage habit, routines, and triggers in their lives to automate successful behavior.
You can too.
I'll be doing a masterclass about the science of Success Architecture this Thursday, April 21st, at 7:30 PM eastern time inside the Facebook group. To participate in this free masterclass, join the Facebook group now. The group is called Parents of Ambitious Teens: Personal Growth & Healthy College Prep.
See you in the group, and see you at the masterclass!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
Join Facebook group: Parents of Ambitious Teens: Personal Growth & Healthy College Prep
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
How do you show thoughtfulness in your personal statement?
Why not learn from the professionals? Think about your favorite story. Whether a movie or a novel, that story will include a hero, a victim, a villain, and a mentor/guide.
What may not be obvious at first (before adding thoughtfulness)-- is that the hero, the victim, and the villain all begin the same way.
Think about it. Each of them begins as a person who faces injustice. The villain responds by becoming resentful and spending their time making others look small so that they can feel bigger.
The victim responds by staying the same and waiting to be saved by the hero.
The hero responds by accepting the challenge and working to overcome the injustice.
One of the reasons why bright, capable students may appear to be lazy is actually not because they don't care. They probably care a lot. But if they try their best and still fail, it would be humiliating. So they feel like they don't have a good way out, and choose to self-identify as a victim.
Understanding yourself (and humanity) on this deeper level shows an unusual level of thoughtfulness.
Listen to learn more, and to hear how you can step up and self-identify as the hero more often.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
Join Facebook group: Parents of Ambitious Teens: Personal Growth & Healthy College Prep
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Nilambera (Neela) Pradhan explains what attracted her to the Ivy League Challenge and how her impact project aligns so completely with her core values.
To reach out to Neela, email her at spneela002@gmail.com or visit her website at www.atomstomountains.org
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
Join Facebook group: Parents of Ambitious Teens: Personal Growth & Healthy College Prep
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
What if you could gain an incredible advantage in college admissions without sacrificing your childhood?
It's not just a dream.
Real college preparation is about
- Identifying and aligning with core values
- Making your community better in ways that align with your core values
- Developing emotional intelligence, problem solving, self-efficacy, etc.
All of these things should build a teen's confidence while giving them critical success skills as they go.
We help students become the most impressive versions of themselves, not someone else.
And now, we want to make it easier than ever before to benefit from our perspective and expertise.
That's right!
We've created a new Facebook Group:
Parents of Ambitious Teens: Personal Growth & Healthy College Prep
If you're a parent of a teen or preteen and want to know how to build their confidence as they build their resume, join now.
And let me know the single greatest challenge, frustration, or concern you face when it comes to college preparation.
I'll be addressing your biggest issues regularly in the Facebook group.
See you inside!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
Join Facebook group: Parents of Ambitious Teens: Personal Growth & Healthy College Prep
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
What time of year is best?
What age/year in school is the best time to visit colleges?
How do we make the most of those college visits?
How do we make sure we demonstrate interest?
What questions should we ask while on the tour? While on campus?
What else will we wish we knew sooner?
There are a lot of important questions around making the most of college visits and college tours. Today we go over the fundamental ideas that can help you understand HOW to make the most of your visits.
Take the challenge!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Registration for the Spring Cohort closes on March 20th.
You do not want to miss out on:
1) Gaining a significant advantage in your college admissions
2) Avoiding the burnout and overwhelm that is so common among teens who use the wrong strategy.
Instead of burning out and feeling like you let your friends & family down, sign up for the Ivy League Challenge where you will
clarify your core values
begin your impact project
* learn how to leverage your self-awareness and your impact to get into a good school.
to register, go to:
www.tilc.to/register
to schedule a call with me (to answer questions or see if the program is a good fit), go to
www.tilc.to/meet
Sound too good to be true?
Infusing fun into difficult tasks is one of the keys to success before, during, and after college.
Longtime listeners of this podcast are already aware of the science that clearly shows we perform significantly better in a positive emotional state compared to a neutral or negative state... so how do we create that positive emotional state when we are tasked with boring assignments?
You are the only one who can decide to bring the party, because infusing fun into your life is an INSIDE JOB.
Learn how and why to party your way into your dream college in today's episode!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
The Ivy League Challenge is an online course that builds confidence in teens and sets them up to get into their dream colleges without sacrificing sleep or fun and friends along the way.
During the 12 week course, participates move through three phases of growth;
Phase 1: Self-discovery. What are your core values/core drivers and how can you use this understanding to be more confident, more productive, more effective, and happier.
Phase 2: Your Impact Project. You'll learn the 9 different categories of impact projects that are really impressive to admissions officers, along with clear strategies to begin and execute your impact in your community.
Phase 3: The Strategic Application. Learn how to leverage your self-discovery and your impact project to give yourself a real advantage when you apply to college. You'll learn, for example, how to ensure that the teachers who write your recommendation letters can write confidently about your core values and your impact project. You'll also receive the professor outreach program along with all email templates and scripts included in the program at no additional cost.
Who is this for?
The ideal time to begin the Ivy League Challenge is in grade 8 or 9. Many students are mature enough by grade 7 (and a few even by grade 6), and I tell parents that if their children listen to my podcast and enjoy it, they are ready for the course. If they like the podcast, they will love the training.
Although I never encourage students to put off the Ivy League Challenge until grade 10 or 11, we have had tremendous success even with busy juniors, and you can hear about their experiences in interviews I've done with those students (who got into their dream schools like Stanford and Berkeley) on this podcast.
So if you are ready for a confidence-building, mentally healthy and highly effective approach to college admissions, register now! Registration for the Spring 2022 cohort has just opened, and when we reach 15 students, registration will close.
Go to TILC.to/register now to book your spot.
Or schedule a video chat directly with me to see if this is a right fit for your child at TILC.to/meet
To Register: TILC.to/register
To meet with me: TILC.to/meet
Take a peek into a zoom class in the Ivy League Challenge.
Do you ever find you hold yourself back in order to keep yourself safe? Imagine you were a boxer. Would you decide to tie one hand behind your back, just to make sure there was no risk of creating evidence that you aren't good enough at full strength? After all, if you win, you must be incredible! You won with only one hand! And if you lose... well, of course you lost, you only used one hand...
My students created a valuable conversation around understand fear and how we respond to fear that I wanted to share with my audience.
The truth is that when we have enough self-awareness around our strengths, or fears, and our values, we can make better choices. We also enjoy the benefits of greater mental health.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Gallup polls show that the two most common words teens use to describe school were "bored" and "tired".
It doesn't have to be this way.
Dr. Arthur C. Brooks is a Harvard professor who teaches the class "Leadership & Happiness." He teaches that there are three key ingredients to happiness.
When we look at those key ingredients, we can quickly identify ways teens can achieve greater happiness while in school, particularly while preparing for college.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
After reading through tens of thousands of college application essays, professional admissions officers say they see many of the same mistakes resurfacing every year.
DO NOT MAKE THESE COMMON MISTAKES!
Instead, follow the tips I give to show that you are the kind of thoughtful, complex, nuanced candidate that your dream college wants.
To gain access (FOR FREE) to the journal I referenced in the podcast, go to TILC.to/essay
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
If you have dreamed about becoming a doctor since early childhood, is a Direct Medical Program (BS/MD) the solution?
It seems so perfect, apply once, and be guaranteed admittance to both college and medical school at the same time!
But there are some serious drawbacks if it turns out to be a poor fit.
Before you commit, be sure to understand the options that are out there, as well as the pros and cons of selecting one of these programs.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Nearly everyone at some point needs to study something they don't enjoy, but still need to find a way to perform well.
By middle school and high school, students often have enough self-awareness to know what they like and what they don't, but they don't yet have the autonomy to make many choices about how to use their time.
But when you apply to college, your entire GPA is considered, not just the classes you are interested in. So how do you perform well in classes that you aren't interested in?
To purchase my course "Defeating Procrastination" at the discounted price, go here: Buy "Defeating Procrastination" now
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
- Should you attend the summer camp held on your dream college's campus?
- Will attending that camp give you a leg up when you apply later?
- How should you decide which of the many different opportunities will be the best use of your valuable time?
It turns out that some of the answers to these questions are quite clear, while other answers depend significantly on your situation and your core values and interests.
Listen in to learn more about the pros and cons of summer programs, and become more informed about how to choose the best activities for you.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
With about 48 hours before registration for the Ivy League Challenge closes, listen the answers my students gave me at the end of the last cohort when I asked these four questions:
1. What issue or problem were you facing before you discovered the Ivy League Challenge?
2. Having finished the Ivy League Challenge, what would you say is different now?
3. Take us to the moment when you realized the Ivy League Challenge was actually working to solve your problem.
4. What does your life look like now that you have been through the program?
While I love to see the success students are having in networking with professors and creating impressive impact projects, I am most pleased with the personal growth and increased confidence that I see in them.
Listen to hear their answers to those questions.
Registration will close on January 30. Be sure to enrol right away so you don't miss out.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Your environment-- the peers, mentors, teachers, and other adults you surround yourself with-- is more important than you realize.
If you are the only ambitious person in your community, trying to work for your goals can feel like swimming upstream.
But if your peers are also ambitious, and everyone supports you and cheers you on, it is just like swimming with the current, where you can moving in the right direction even when you don't swim as hard (or at all).
The Ivy League Challenge is one opportunity to work with like-minded peers who cheer you on and help you along the way.
Listen to learn how you can do more than you perhaps previously realized to create the environment that will support your ambitions and lead to your success.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
For the first time in 6 months, registration is now open for the Ivy League Challenge!
Unlike other programs, we keep our cohorts small and intimate, in order to give high levels of attention to every one of the 12-15 members of each cohort.
When the cohort fills, we will close registration once again, and interested candidates will need to sign up for the waitlist and wait until registration opens next time.
This cohort will be even more valuable for participants, because we are inviting the director of the Yale Young Scholars program in to speak about her experience with Yale admissions decisions, and what it is like to read application essays.
That is in addition to the life changing program.
in 12 weeks, you will move through three phases of self discovery and elite college admissions preparation:
Phase 1: Self Awareness.This is the most important work you will ever do in your life. Identify your core values, or interests, etc. Catapult your level of confidence as you learn how to align your life choices to your core values.
Phase 2: Make your Impact.With you newly acquired self-awareness, you can eliminate the activities that are wasting your time. Use the time you've freed up to begin solving a program in your community that violates your core values.
Phase 3: Elite College Admissions.Learn how to conduct effective outreach to relevant professors, professionals, admissions officers, and more. You'll receive templates for how to write professional emails that get responses. You'll also learn how to network with your current teachers and college counselor in order to get the best possible letters of recommendation. Network with admissions officers to make sure the very people who will decide if you are admitted or not know who you are and are excited to see your application come in.
Phase 3 is where you scale your impact, and ensure that all the pieces you need for to make yourself memorable to an admissions committee are in place.
Do not delay, sign up for the Ivy League Challenge today.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
College admissions should be the impetus that inspires teens to take time to significantly increase self-awareness, to pursue interests, and to grow as a human.
With a foundation of clarity about one's core values, a teen should develop some key skills-- first of all, investigative journalism.
How do you ask better questions? How do you find better answers to those questions...?
And once you have put in the time to pursue your interests appropriately, you will have a greater understanding of the issues in that field. You won't be so naive about those issues.
You'll get why some of the big problems haven't been solved yet, you'll understand who the big players are in your field (the thought leaders and other experts) and you'll become familiar with their respective contributions.
At this stage you can intelligently reach out to them for support, so that you can take your understanding of the situation and apply it to your community in order to begin making an impact in your community.
That impact-- working towards solving a real problem within your community (aligned with your interest) is the evidence that you not only are aware of your core values, but that you are living your life according to them.
That-- the thoughtfulness and self-awareness that allows you to work to solve problems in your community that violate your core values, is unusual, is memorable, and is impressive.
Not only is it the best way to stand out in a pool of highly ambitious other high school students vying for a spot in your dream school, it is the best use of your teenage years. Period.
The next cohort of the Ivy League Challenge begins soon. Registration is open. Sign up now.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
I am not a parenting expert.
But I can clearly see how teens who have been raised the way I support in this episode are far more willing and capable of overcoming challenges when they face them.
Although this episode is to the parents and adults in the room, I hope some middle and high school students choose to listen in as well, so they can encourage the adults in their lives to give them room to figure things out.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Get into the details of how Ishita figured out what her impact project should be. Learn how she progressed through the steps.
You'll understand how amazing an impact project like this could be for you as you listen to the journey Ishita went through to get where she is today.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Ever wonder what students do in the Ivy League Challenge? Listen in to learn from Ishita. There are two parts to this interview, this is part 1.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
As I continue helping more and more teens get into their dream colleges, and especially as I have become known as the person who specializes in helping students create their 'stand out factor', I have been receiving more and questions about where teens and parents of teens should go to find "opportunities."
Even though I have a lot more to say about it, this podcast is my response to that question.
Please don't fall into the trap/make the common mistakes I help you avoid in this episode.
Those mistakes are too costly.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Try something for me: think of your favorite movie. Next time you watch it, pause the movie 3 or 4 times and ask yourself "is the hero enjoying themselves right now?" "are they learning or growing?"
You will quickly discover that throughout much of the movie, the hero is not actually enjoying himself or herself.
But the important thing is that they grow through their challenges. They not only overcome the external problem (the villain, the race, the relationship, etc), but they also overcome their own internal struggles of self-worth and self-efficacy.
So why should you be any different? If you have great ambitions. If you want to do great things, then you will have times in your life that will not be fun or comfortable.
That is okay. The hero's journey requires that you experience the struggle, and learn or grow from it.
And the growth is so valuable, that once you begin learning from your challenges, you will value those challenges for what they are: catalysts for growth.
Listen to find out how to shift your mindset to be more healthy, so that you can also grow through your challenges, and become the hero of your own story.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us in our Facebook group for parents
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Ivy Day is coming up. If you are one of the tens of thousands who has applied to these outstanding eight colleges, it will be a day of powerful emotions.
But how should you respond to that decision? wether you were accepted, rejected, or waitlisted?
Based on actual quotes from Yale admissions officers (from this podcast: https://www.stitcher.com/show/inside-the-yale-admissions-office/episode/dealing-with-decisions-82872057) and my own conversations with similar people at Harvard, Dartmouth, and others, I share my personal opinion about how you should respond to admissions decisions.
If you have ambitions to apply to a top tier college, check out my introductory online class, Elite College Admissions Made Easy. You can find it here: https://ivy-league-prep-academy.mykajabi.com/ECAMEstarter-course
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Crystal grew up the 7th of 10 children in public housing. She didn't dream of attending a top-tier college until she was older, because she didn't think it was possible and didn't know anyone else who was doing it.
Share shares her incredible story here about overcoming the odds and getting into a highly competitive PhD program at her dream university, Yale.
Check out her book: Crystal Clear
You can also follow her on Instagram at @Crystalharrell_
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
I recently asked Luke, the 17 year-old world-record holder for most burpees in a minute by a male, how he became the best in the world at doing burpees.
His answer... "I realized that the little things are the big things."
In music, in athletics, in academics, in relationships, and in all other areas of life, those who become outstanding learn to make the little thing the big things.
It isn't how many minutes you spend reading your textbook that matters, so much as how aware you are of what you are reading and how it fits in with the bigger picture.
The concert is important to both the amateur and the professional, but the daily practice time is treasured by only the professional.
Listen and learn how emphasizing the little things can make all the difference in middle school, high school, and beyond.
Like what you hear? What more?
Check out the Elite College Admissions Made Easy Starter Course today!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Harvard university created an initiative that has now been signed by all the Ivy League schools, MIT, Stanford, Duke, Michigan, Chicago, etc. and dozens and dozens of other top schools called "Making Caring Common."
Making Caring Common is an attempt to refocus college admissions decisions away from things that require a certain income level or other significant advantages in order to fulfil, towards character traits that lead to a healthy campus and a good life.
The truth is it is difficult to stay positive when all around you people gossip.
If you don't make a sincere effort to rise about your environment, you will be unlikely to develop the kindness that your community needs.
But with a tiny introduction to human psychology, and an understanding of how important kindness, empathy, and support are, you can choose to rise above the negativity around you.
Learn about a student who got into an Ivy League School. Her admissions officer wrote her to welcome her to campus, and emphasized that the student's kindness was the character trait that really stood out for her, and got her admitted.
And learn what you can do today to begin developing your own character. You'll be glad you did!
Get the course, Elite College Admissions Made Easy Starter Course here:
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Have you ever sat down to get your work done, and because you were completely focused, you were able to accomplish more in 60 minutes that you could normally do in a week?
If you have, you have experienced the magic of controlling your attention.
Do you know why we say "pay attention"? Your attention is not only valuable to you, it is valuable to dozens of industries that are designed to divert your attention.
Listen to learn the common causes of distraction and lost focus, and what you can do instead to take back your attention and your ability to get stuff done.
Want more help with your top-tier college ambitions? Check out my starter course, Elite College Admissions Made Easy Starter Course today!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
My students in the Ivy League Challenge are often surprised when I share stories about how 'normal' and 'real' many of my peers at Harvard were.
I find that many high school students put Harvard students on a pedestal.
But what I wish everyone understood, is that these students were not born differently than you and your friends. They weren't bitten by radioactive spiders or anything like that.
My peers at Harvard, for the most part, were 'normal' students, just like you. What makes them great, actually, are just two things:
1) they have healthy mindsets around who they are and what they deserve
2) they have clarified their mission
Really, just those two things.
Because of their healthy mindsets, they approach challenges differently than others. For example, when they face a difficulty, they don't see it as a problem, they are more likely to see it as a challenge to be overcome.
And they have a mission-- something that ties their energy together, that focuses their attention, so that they can solve real problems in the real world.
Listen in to discover six of the most common limiting beliefs I hear from middle school and high school students.
1) I just don't have enough time
2) I'm just not that disciplined
3) I'm not in control of my time
4) Highly productive students are just born that way
5) I tried before and it just didn't work
6) I totally agree that I need to work on my mindset, I'll get to that later when I have more time
Get my guide for middle school students here
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Nothing is as compelling as a hero on a mission.
It is so easy to 'drift' through life.
Especially for teens. Middle school and high school is a 24/7, 365days/year battle to not be embarrassed.
That means trying to fit in.
But that is also a ticket to high anxiety and insecurity, and low self-efficacy.
Some people choose a different path.
Normal, everyday teens can become truly great. What makes them great?
They choose a mission.
When a core value of yours is violated, choose to step up and lead the charge to improve the world by righting that wrong.
Nothing is as compelling as a hero on a mission.
Not only can you begin to make your community better now (instead of waiting until you are older), but it is the mission that makes you great.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Tessa Forshaw changed the way I teach high school students. After earning her BS degree in Australia, she came to the US and attended Stanford, where she earned her masters degree, and Harvard, where she teaches on the side as she pursues her Doctorate degree.
In this podcast, we discuss her experiences at Harvard & Stanford, how she recommends people think about these schools when they need to choose one to attend (she had to choose between Stanford, Harvard, and Oxford), some of the brilliant ideas I learned while taking her Design Thinking class at Harvard, and her advice for ambitious teens.
Tessa also leads the charge towards better business practices through her work at the Harvard Next Level Lab, and professionally as a top executive at People Rocket.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
The Stanford Design school is world-famous and is universally considered the top design program in the world.
Rich Braden is the CEO & founder of People Rocket, a design thinking consulting company. He has also lectured at Stanford & Harvard for years. He currently teaches creativity and innovation at Stanford, the d.school, and Harvard, where I took his class and was blown away by how down to earth and practical his thinking can be.
In this interview he was absolutely brilliant, and among other things, I asked him how we could use design thinking in our impact projects.
Enjoy!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Instead of asking "am I doing enough to get in?"
We should instead be asking if we are spending our time and energy on the activities that matter the most.
Why? because asking the question "am I doing enough to get in" leads us to the point where we are too busy to become less busy. It is suffocating and soul-crushing and very ineffective.
Just as fire requires space between the combustibles in order to survive, your internal fire-- the fuel that can push you to be outstanding in your own way-- cannot survive if it is suffocated by video games or by extreme business.
Instead, make space in your day for quiet reflection, to pursue your interests, and to act on impulse when you are inspired to learn about or ask about something of interest to you.
These are the moments, if acted upon, that turn out to be the difference makers.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Top students believe that the goal of conflict is progress, not proving yourself right.
Conflict is important for growth and improvement, as well as success.
And conflict averse people are generally not chosen to lead.
But when does a group move from healthy conflict to toxic? How do we know if a group has gone from functional to dysfunctional?
The answer will surprise you.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
We all face challenges, including unfairness and injustice.
But imagine your life was a movie or a great story.
If you were playing the victim in this story, then your only role would be to be saved by someone else-- the hero.
The story doesn't get interesting until the hero faces a real challenge.
At the end of the movie, the victim is safe, having been saved by the hero, but is unchanged because they have not grown in any way.
Meanwhile, the hero of the story is bloody and bruised, but has grown and was changed by facing his or her challenge.
When you realize you are the hero of your story, you see challenges-- even unfairness and injustice-- as the reason to rise up and fight for your mission.
The world loves to follow a hero on a mission.
I even argue there is a plot twist here; guess who decides the story? The author of the story... is you. You are the hero, and the writer, of your story.
If you think the movie of your is boring because it is only about a victim waiting to be saved, I challenge you to begin writing your story differently.
Be the hero.
Business expert Donald Miller teaches how businesses should guide their customers through their individual hero's journeys. Borrowing from his brilliant writing in his book Business Made Simple, today's podcast shows how high performing teens can adopt this same winning mindset.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
It turns out that nearly all of the students who get admitted to elite universities share a lot of common traits.
No skill or strategy can compensate for poor character, but what are the traits that these successful students have in common?
Today we'll discuss the first of these common traits: The mindset that you are always part of a team, and your job is to give more value than you take.
Listen to learn more.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
It sure seems like everyone says if you want to get into a top-tier college, you need to:
- take the most rigorous coursework available at your school and do well
- retake ACT or SAT until you can score above a 34 or above a 1550. Hire a tutor if necessary
- Join multiple clubs. But don't just be a participant, become the president or leader of student counsel, MUN, or both.
- Develop your "spike." Become good enough to win national/international awards in science, math competitions, writing, etc.
Sounds exhausting, doesn't it?
Yet tens of thousands of ambitious teens sacrifice sleep, fun, friends, and more in order to accomplish this feat.
Anyone who has had a family member go through college admissions knows what I'm talking about.
Teachers, college counsellors, parents, and peers all support this message.
But it is a terrible strategy.
Think about it. When you apply to [SCHOOL], your application will be one of some 30,000 or more applicants.
A few thousand of these applicants will be valedictorians.
Several thousand will be valedictorians with outstanding test scores and demonstrated leadership.
And, depending on the school, most of these students will be rejected.
Harvard president Faust said they could fill their incoming freshman class twice over with only valedictorians each year.
Yet only a fraction of them actual get in.
Why?
Because it is not the most qualified student who gets in.
Think about it.
If you had to read through 30,000+ applications to choose a group of less than 2k students, how would you decide who was more qualified?
When everyone is following the same strategy-- do all four steps I listed at the top-- then how will you stand out?
The answer for most teens (and their teachers, parents, and counsellors) is "I'll stand out by doing everything better than everyone else."
Look at that. Your "stand out" strategy is to do the same things everyone else is doing, but you'll do them better?
That is not standing out.
It also happens to be exhausting.
Stop.
Just stop.
Doing those things better than everyone else helps you stand out in your own high school. But not to an Ivy League admissions officer.
I've spoken to the people who decide who gets into Harvard, UPenn, Stanford, Dartmouth, and more.
They have no way of knowing which applicant is truly the most impressive or the most qualified.
They wish they knew, but they have no way of truly knowing.
So they choose the most interesting person.
So sacrificing your fun, friends. sleep, and sanity is not only a terribly high price to pay, once you've paid it, you often end up without the admittance letter you were hoping for in the first place.
When I got my MS at Harvard, I discovered that the campus was FULL of students who did not follow that strategy.
Instead, they spent high school and middle school pursuing their genuine interests.
They cultivated impressive curiosity, and learned how to pursue that curiosity to an unusually high level.
And they cared about something.
They weren't just curious, they also wanted to make their communities better in some way.
They made an impact.
They didn't spend their middle school and high school years trying to 'become' the person who might be good enough to get into their dream school--they didn't care about becoming anyone else.
They were just genuinely curious and wanted to make some aspect of the world a little bit better because of that.
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Ambitious Ivy League hopeful, meet the law of diminishing returns.
Grit and effort and a willingness to embrace the grind has helped you achieve great things in life. So more hard work, more grit, and more effort must be the solution to future challenges as well, right?
It turns out, what got you the success you have now will not get you greater success. This is because of the law of diminishing returns.
Instead of doubling down and working even harder when you get diminished returns from your effort, try changing your approach.
- How can you make it easy?
- How can you make it fun?
You'll be surprised at how much more productive you can be when you add these effective approaches to your productivity toolbox.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
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One of my best friends at Harvard had no less than a dozen nerf guns in his closet, and subscribed to Lego magazine. It turns out this friend was doing a lot of things right.
Neuroscience now demonstrates that play stimulates innovation, adaptability, creativity, and more, while simultaneously improving health, relationships, stamina, and other important qualities.
But, obviously, play can also distract from important work and can lead to laziness and inefficiency.
So how do we play like an Ivy League scholar? It's not what you think.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
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Observing my peers at Harvard, interviewing and guiding outstanding successful applicants at many other amazing universities, I can say there is one thread that is nearly universal among these people.
It's not what you think.
Listen to find out why curiosity is so critical to elite admissions success, and how you can cultivate and document the kind of curiosity that will actually make you stand out when you apply.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
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Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Do you think the key to success is to do it all, do it big, and do it now? Smart students don't.
Listen to find out how "starting big" leads to small results, but starting small and building momentum leads to massive results.
Get your free guide "5 Fatal Flaws to Avoid in Middle School if you Want to get into your Dream College" here.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
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Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Dr. Legatt attended a top tier school, worked as an admissions officer for an Ivy League school, and now the founder of Ivy Insight. Her new book Get Real & Get In shares how authentic exploration is better than building an impressive resume. We discuss her book and her advice to high school students in this episode.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
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Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Shellee Howard is the owner and president of College Ready. She is a college graduate and is a Certified Educational Planner. Shellee has a son who graduated from Harvard in the spring of 2016 debt free.
We discuss her unique but effective strategies for helping students identify the ideal school for them. Last year alone her students received over $10 million in scholarship money as well.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
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Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Can you imagine getting bumped to first class on a flight back home, and spending over two hours together with Michael Jordan? My friend Cathy Heller did once, and he gave her some amazing advice about the importance of courage.
His advice, it turns out, aligns with Harvard Dean of Admissions Bill Fitzsimmons' advice around admissions as well. Listen carefully. This advice make all the difference.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
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Meryem Benkirane, a quadrilingual Harvard graduate student, gives great advice as she shares why she loves the Ivy League Challenge and has decided to help the participants in our course.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
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Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Most teens (and their parents) delay college application prep until it is time to actually apply. I don't blame them. Because of bad advice, confusing and complicated differences in college options, and the mystique of the admissions process in general, college applications can be super stressful.
Fortunately, the best preparation for your dream college is not about losing sleep to bump an SAT score by 50 points, logging 500 hours of community service, or sticking with an instrument or sport that you hate. Real college prep is about discovering your core values and and learning how to live them more and more authentically.
Listen in as I explain how.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
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Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Studies show that nearly all students are disengaged in school. The ones who haven't tuned out their teachers are usually intensely pressured. Meanwhile, most of the jobs that today's students will have as adults don't yet exist.
Rather than trying to fit into the school community (like everyone else), I hope my listeners choose to blaze their own paths and create success through specialization.
But how does a teenager gain the confidence necessary to become a specialist?
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
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This is part 3 of 3 podcasts from my interview with Debt Free Degree.
I was asked what age student should begin thinking about college and how the Ivy League Challenge can help them. I go into detail how the Ivy League Challenges so effectively equips students to successfully pursue the college of their dreams and why it is a good idea to start in 8th or 9th grade if possible.
I will host a live Q&A webinar June 26th at 9:00 AM eastern, June 26th at 9:00 PM eastern, and June 29th at 9:00 AM eastern. I will stay on until all questions are answered. Please sign up for that webinar.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge Q&A Webinar, go here
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
In part two, I am asked how the Ivy League Challenges so effectively equips students to successfully pursue the college of their dreams. I go into detail in my answer.
I will host a live Q&A webinar June 26th at 9:00 AM eastern, June 26th at 9:00 PM eastern, and June 29th at 9:00 AM eastern. I will stay on until all questions are answered. Please sign up for that webinar.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge Q&A Webinar, go here
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
With registration for the Ivy League Challenge closing at the end of June, this is the first of three podcasts taken from a recent interview I did with Debt Free Degree podcast. Debt Free Degree is a program that teaches students how to earn scholarships, and the host was interested in the Ivy League Challenge because what we do in the course is exactly the stuff that helps students earn outrageous amounts of scholarship money!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
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Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Are you hoping to use your athletic talents to propel you into an Ivy League or top tier school? Akshay and his twin sister attended UC Berkeley and Stanford where they excelled in athletics and in life. After university, they came back to Singapore and founded AddedEducation, which is an elite university counselling company.
Akshay shares valuable wisdom about the right mindset to take into college admissions, and what it is like to go to a top tier school on an athletic scholarship.
Akshay's college counselling company can be accessed here.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
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Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
What are the best strategies for gaining scholarships through music or other impact projects? Trisha Craig is an expert who has helped students earn admittance to top music schools, and also helped musicians earn admittance to top-tier schools like Yale on music scholarships. There is a lot of bad advice out there, and Trisha clarifies some of the best practices.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
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Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
In previous episodes we talked about impact projects leading to successful admissions to Stanford, Princeton, Dartmouth, Harvard, and other amazing schools. The success stories never get old.
Hear how a recent participant in the Ivy League Challenge recently used his impact project to earn admittance to his dream school.
Registration for the Ivy League Challenge is now open. Don't delay!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
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Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Among the 5 fatal pitfalls middle school students should avoid if they want to be admitted into their dream universities is the failure to appropriately manage relationships. Peer groups will have a significant influence on your motivations and actions. Additionally, teachers and college counsellors will be writing your recommendation letters, and relationships with those key teachers will also be critical.
In 10 minutes, identify how to surround yourself with the right peer group, how to build trust with key teachers, and how to take this all to the next level by reaching out to college professors and even admissions officers. These strategies can change everything for you.
The podcast How To Get Straight A's is found here.
The guide for middle school students to avoid the five fatal pitfalls is here.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
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Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
You know you are capable of getting into a world-class college.
But let's be honest, the college admissions process looks daunting, and you have more questions than answers.
At a time when you should feel excited about the future, you feel uncertain. You may even be doubting if you have what it takes.
I believe that the world needs every student to reach their full potential.
College admittance shouldn't hold you back.
That's why I created the Ivy League Challenge. I'm a Harvard grad, and an educator, who has been in your shoes. I designed the Ivy League Challenge after meeting with Ivy League graduates, admissions counselors, and professors to identify the criteria used to select candidates. Now you have a road map for success that I'd love to share with you.
Taking the Ivy League Challenge is the strongest way to develop you for what's ahead. Sign up today and we can work to identify your theme and create an impact project that will separate you from the field. By the time you've completed the 12-week course, you will be able to flex your unique strengths, know how to demonstrate your history of success, and confidently get accepted to a school you used to think was out of reach.
Don't miss out on your potential because competitive college admissions look daunting. See you in the program!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
I record this just hours after I watched my grade 12 students, in tears, hugging and signing each other shirts and saying goodbyes on their last day of school. They are excited for the future, but genuinely sad as they realize this is the end of an important period of their lives.
You too will have many "lasts". You will one day enjoy your last meal. You will have last conversations with people before they pass on from this life. Some of them unexpectedly.
One of the ways to increase our gratitude in this moment is to remember that life continues to change. If these days will be remembered as the good ole days later on, are we appreciating them enough right now while we are still living them?
If you have participated in the Ivy League Challenge, this conversation is not new to you. Throughout the program I regularly emphasize the fact that middle school is not merely a time to prepare for high school. High school is not merely a time to prepare for college.
College is not merely a time to prepare for your first job, etc. The irony is that those who decide to live out their personal values to the fullest while in middle school will be the most confident and best prepared for high school. Those high school students who live out their personal values to the fullest while in high school will be head and shoulders above their peers in the eyes of elite university admissions officers. Those who see each stage of life as a preparation for the next stage of life will lack the skills, mindset, and confidence to take advantage of life's opportunities.
Download my guide 5 Fatal Pitfalls to Avoid in Middle School if You Want to Get In to Your Dream University here.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Avoiding frustration and discomfort is not the ticket to a good life. Just as our immune systems would become weak in a sterile environment, our personal fortitude-- our inner strength-- cannot grow when life is too comfortable.
So why do so many try so hard to avoid discomfort, even when it is good for them? What if we shifted our mindset around frustrations so that we saw life as a good coach-- not someone who pampers their players, but someone who willingly toughens up the players so they will compete at a higher level and win the game.
The next time you are insulted, or surprised in unpleasant ways, try this technique instead of reacting with anger: pretend that life is your coach, and this is the test that is toughening you up. Say to yourself "that is a pretty good challenge, I didn't see that coming, but I'm up for it..."
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
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Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Ata participated in our most recent Ivy League Challenge (online version) and was willing to share his experience with us.
You can get a feel for what to expect if you join our community, and hear about his amazing impact project as well!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
One of the things that I heard over and over again at Harvard was "great solutions depend on great questions." If you want to get better answers, you have got to learn to ask better questions.
While I have used many different less-effective approaches to problem-solving in my life, over time I have arrived at a 3-step problem solving process that actually works. Today, I'm sharing it with you.
The podcast episodes I referenced were this and this.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
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A few days after beginning classes at Harvard, I felt something that I later realized was common among my peers-- imposture syndrome. It took some time to realize that I belonged there alongside some of the most brilliant minds in the world-- even if I considered myself average and normal.
I tried to hide what I felt, and appear confident and in control. However, under the surface I "knew" I was a fraud. I now realize that I spent a lot of energy keeping a mask over my "real" identity (the imposture) because at the time I was afraid he was the 'real' me.
Of course the imposture was also not me, any more than my mask was. The real me, was one layer deeper-- my core values. Identifying our core values is perhaps some of the most important work we can do in our lives, but my observation is that few people are willing to do it. I hope this episode will convince a few more to give it a try.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
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Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Have you ever wondered what it is like in the room where admissions decisions happen? Understanding the process can be critically valuable in helping you decide how to present yourself in your application. Listen to find out what you can do to ensure your application is more memorable.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
If competence were a prerequisite for confidence, the world would be full of timid people. You don't need to know everything and you don't need to be able to do anything particularly well in order to be confident. Instead, you must believe in your ability to figure things out.
Taking the mindset that you can figure out what you will need to succeed allows you to approach new ideas and take the risks that will lead to growth, and eventually, to success and competence. At this point, the competence, confidence loop is real and will continue to build you up.
In the meantime, get started! Be willing to take some risks, to fall down, and give yourself an opportunity to get back up and grow into your own confidence.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Somehow the myth of the "well-rounded strategy" continues to thrive today. Don't buy into it. I've seen students drive themselves to exhaustion chasing extra clubs, competing in sports they don't like, playing instruments that drive them crazy, and volunteering for hundreds of hours in community service chosen because they believed it was the thing that admission officers "wanted to see."
Don't buy the hype. You'll make yourself sick with exhaustion, and will likely make your admittance less likely than if you follow a better way.
The episode I referenced on deliberate practice is here.
My interview with Iris is here and part 2 of that interview is here.
To Download the 5 Fatal Pitfalls to Avoid in Middle School if you Want to Get into Your Dream University go here.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Sick of making and then breaking goals? You are almost certainly doing it wrong. Find out why most resolutions/goals are never achieved, and what you can do instead.
To make it easier to use, I've broken down a seamless process into 10 defined steps. I'll list them here, and you'll want to be in a position to pause the podcast as you go so you can make the most of this advice.
The link to the free guide 5 Fatal Pitfalls to Avoid in Middle School if You Want to Get Into Your Dream University can be downloaded here.
The 10 Steps to Successfully Reach Your Goals:
- Begin with a clear picture of the kind of person you want to be after 1 year
- Brainstorm some "wouldn't it be cool if..." aspirations
- Write them down
- Figure out the priority (which one do you want to act on now?)
- Rephrase the aspiration as a S.M.A.R.T. goal
- Think of potential obstacles to reaching that goal
- Create a plan for when you face the obstacle or challenge
- Think about the identity of the version of yourself who has reached this goal
- Adjust your environment and your thinking to match that identity
- Choose your friends wisely-- you will become the average of the five people you spend the most time with.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Correctly defining success and failure may be the single most important step on the road to success.
We know that no one develops any meaningful skill without pushing themselves to do things that are outside their abilities. Of course this leads to a lot of falling down and getting back up.
The master becomes great because she is willing to fail more than others. So if "failure" is a necessary step on the road to "success," then what does failure actually mean? What does success mean?
Once we correctly define these terms, we immediately have direction and forward momentum.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
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Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
On more than one occasion in business classrooms at Harvard, I heard how important it is to measure the things that you want to improve. What you measure, grows. It was no surprise to me, then, to learn that LeBron James tracks his progress on everything from weightlifting to diet to flexibility and more. Like so many other elite performers, he clearly knows that he will get more of what he measures.
Learn how to get what you want by shifting your focus and measuring the things that matter to your success.
I believe that everyone deserves to live up to their potential, and the admissions process shouldn't hold you back.
Here is a link to the Ivy League Challenge Daily Planner that I mentioned in this episode.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Do you focus your energy on issues that are outside your control? Do you spend time thinking about how wonderful it would be if the things around you changed for you? Learn what you can do today to begin making your world work for you. Changing yourself, rather than asking that your circumstances change for you, is the key to expanding your sphere of influence.
Learn how today!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Following up on last week's episode about how helpful stress can be for us, this episode teaches you HOW to make use of stress. Each time you experience stress, you can understand that your body is giving you extra energy and focus in order to help you perform better.
But in the moment when you feel overwhelmed, it may be hard to shift your perspective to this healthier mindset. Listen to discover the quick and effective three-step process you can use to shift your mindset, and your results!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
You've heard that stress leads to health issues, strained relations, and premature death (among other things.) What compelling research now shows, however, is that stress only has these negative effects on those people who believe that stress is bad for them.
In fact, the "fight or flight" stress response is only one of several types of naturally-occurring stress responses. When I was at Harvard, I was impressed with how many people saw stress as natural, normal, and often, positive.
Now I understand why. Listen to find out what the healthy responses to stress are, and also to understand why the highest performers in the world-- athletes, first-responders, NASA astronauts, chefs, musicians, or Navy Seals-- all invite extra levels of stress into their lives and their practice, in order to make use of the extra focus, energy, and momentum that stress brings to them.
Change your assumptions about stress, and you too can benefit from the tremendous gift of stress.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
My journalism class with Nneka Faison is legendary for how difficult it is to get into-- it is so popular at Harvard. When I was close to graduating and could register early, I took Nneka's class and discovered the hype was completely justified.
Nneka's parents came to America with their six children from Nigeria. One of the middle children, Nneka, did her undergraduate work at Princeton, her graduate studies at Columbia, and studied as a Fellow at Harvard. Now, she teaches journalism at Harvard in addition to running an award-winning newsroom.
In this podcast she gives valuable advice for my listeners who wish to make their impact through some form of journalism, like starting a newspaper or a podcast. She confirms the importance of the Ivy League Challenge for students who do have Ivy League and top-tier university ambitions, and gives practical advice to interested students.
This is part 2 of a 2-part series with her.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
My journalism class with Nneka Faison is legendary for how difficult it is to get into-- it is so popular at Harvard. When I was close to graduating and could register early, I took Nneka's class and discovered the hype was completely justified.
Nneka's parents came to America with their six children from Nigeria. One of the middle children, Nneka, did her undergraduate work at Princeton, her graduate studies at Columbia, and studied as a Fellow at Harvard. Now, she teaches journalism at Harvard in addition to running an award-winning newsroom.
In this podcast she discusses and compares these three Ivy League schools. She shares real stories of her experiences and helps us get a much clearer picture of both the good and the bad at these elite schools. She also confirms the importance of the Ivy League Challenge for students who do have Ivy League and top-tier university ambitions.
This is part 1 of a 2-part series with her.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
One of my favorite researchers in the world has dedicated much of his life to identifying the things that make some people luckier than others. I have really good news! Significantly better luck is within your control. Listen to learn more about the role curiosity and awareness make you more lucky, and how you can ensure that today is luckier for you than yesterday.
If you want to increase your chances of being lucky enough to join an Ivy League or other top-tier college, check out the Ivy League Challenge today.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
I have been fortunate enough to spend time with some highly successful people. Perhaps surprizingly, there is one (and only one) thing that ALL of them have in common.
Listen to find out that one critical success trait.
Mentioned in the episode is pillar 3 of the Ivy League Challenge: Develop Your Authentic Impact Project.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
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Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Frustrated that you haven't stuck with your New Year's resolutions? Listen up. When our results don't measure up to our ambitious expectations, it is tempting to seek out dramatic, revolutionary changes, like in the movies.
That strategy can be effective in many circumstances, but if it isn't working for you, consider taking a page out of nature's book. While dramatic events regularly occur in nature, by far the more common (but still very real) growth and change occurs evolutionarily, not revolutionarily. Tiny improvements, compounded by the consistency and time, create tremendous success.
I discuss an exercise you can do alone or with a group, that can help you identify one or more tiny shifts you'd like to make in your life, right now. This is the kind of work that my students do in pillar one of the Ivy League Challenge, entitled "Optimize Yourself."
Check out three episodes in season 1 if you'd like the science behind this strategy of tiny but consistent positive efforts. Those episodes are "Atomic Habits, episode 1, 2, &3."
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
When stressful deadlines pile on top of each other and you begin to feel overwhelmed, use this quick and easy strategy to shift your mindset and eliminate the stress.
Stress gives us headaches, tense muscles in the shoulders or lower back, a depleted immune system, and more. But it doesn't have to be this way. Once you learn this mindset shift, you may decide to follow my lead, and actually schedule "champions days" into your life in order to increase productivity without any stress, and free yourself up to enjoy other more meaningful activities in your life.
To learn more about this strategy and so many others which equip you to confidently pursue the university of your dreams, sign up for the Ivy League Challenge waitlist. I believe the world needs every student to reach their full potential, and college admittance shouldn't hold you back. That's why I (a Harvard graduate and educator whose been in your shoes) designed the Ivy League Challenge.
Play like a champion today!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
I have a challenge for you; to help you begin a new habit you want to adopt, or lose a habit you'd love to ditch. Follow these two steps for the rest of the month (plus a bonus activity for when your will power dips low...)
- Decide the identity of the person you want to be (a healthy eater, an active person, a star student, etc.)
- prove it to yourself with multiple wins
Once you have decided what kind of person you want to become, realize that you naturally will be showing the way to others and therefore will be a role model. So each day when you are faced with a choice, make the choice that you as the role model would make. Each time you make the choice that the role model would make, you are proving your identity to yourself once again.
But while you are motivated to add or remove a habit, I want you to leverage the power of gratitude into this process, and make a list of 10 ways that your life and the world around you becomes better when you live your new identity and make choices accordingly.
In other words, when you are tempted to eat junk food instead of the choice that the role model would make, the way you describe your situation will play a big role in how well you continue supporting your new identity. For example, instead of thinking "I really hate eating raw cucumbers, I wish I could have potato chips again!" switch your mindset to the list of things that focuses on how your choices are making your life and the world around you a better place, like "I love how making healthy choices gives me greater control over my body!" or "I really appreciate the miracle of my body and I'm so glad I can supply it with the healthy nutrients it needs to be in top shape."
Follow these simple steps and begin to develop the confidence that comes from making a choice and sticking with it. You got this!
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
We know that you are capable of getting into a world-class college.
But let’s be honest, the college admissions process looks daunting, and you have more questions than answers. Are you too young to be preparing for the next step? Which classes or activities will set you apart to an admissions counselor? Is beating the odds and getting accepted to a top-tier school even within your control?
At a time when you should feel excited about the future, you feel uncertain. You may even be doubting if you have what it takes.
We believe that the world needs every student to reach their full potential. College admittance shouldn’t hold you back.
That’s why Steve Gardner, an educator and Harvard graduate who's been in your shoes, designed The Ivy League Challenge. He has met with graduates, admissions counselors, and professors to identify the criteria used to select candidates. He's crafted a road map for success and can share it with you.
Taking the Ivy League Challenge is the strongest way to develop you for what’s ahead. Sign up for the waitlist and gain admittance when the next cohort opens. In this cohort, we will get to work identifying your theme and creating an impact project that will separate you from the field. By the time you’ve completed the course, you will be able to flex your unique strengths, demonstrate your history of success, and confidently get accepted to a school you used to think was out of reach.
Don’t miss out on your potential because competitive college admissions look daunting. Join us today!
Season two will be our most exciting yet.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
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Much of the research that went into the book Outliers by Malcom Gladwell was actually done by a researcher named Anders Ericsson. Purposeful practice is the conscious, deliberate style of practice that the top performers in the world use to become the best. Learn this method of practicing, and you too can be world-class!
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Let's say you were able to vacation in a city you had never before been to-- say, Paris. Can you imagine how frustrating it would be to try and find where you want to go if your map were 50 years old?
The methods that worked to get students admitted to top schools 20 years ago no longer apply, but so many parents and even college counselors give advice that will only lead to stress and frustration, because it is outdated. Learn a couple of the myths in admissions that used to work, but are not longer relevant.
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Another amazing interview with an impressive student. Ata identified a problem with organization and communication at Model United Nations conferences and decided to create an app to solve it. We discuss his journey and what he has learned throughout this impressive process.
app store link of Ata's app: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1534288426
and here is the google play store link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.saismun.app
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Nicole and Ethan are waiting to hear back from Stanford, NYU, Georgetown, and several UC's, and in this interview they share the back story of their impressive impact project, and how they used it in their college applications.
The link to the website they created can be found here: https://ibdp-guides.weebly.com
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In the last episode (Pick your hard) we argued that doing excellent work is better and easier than doing mediocre work. I explained the virtuous cycle that begins when you focus effectively and do great work.
But what about when you focus and it doesn't work? It is not motivating, there is nothing to show for it, and there is no virtuous cycle, even though there was genuine focus? Listen up to find out why your effort is not wasted and you can be confident that you are doing the right thing by being intentional in your work and in life.
Shout out to James Clear for clarifying this message so well in the book Atomic Habits.
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Why is it easier to perform at a high level than a mediocre one? How can you get better grades and make a bigger impact while feeling less stressed, and enjoying life much more? Listen to find out.
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Are you ready for the Ivy League Challenge? Enjoy a sneak peak into the Ivy League Challenge and see for yourself just how life-changing this program will be. Develop yourself, gain valuable experience, set yourself apart, by improving your community in real and meaningful ways.
Music Info: Inspiring Uplifting Motivational Cinematic by RomanSenykMusic.
Music Link: https://youtu.be/EuzOJ0wT99U
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Experience is the best teacher only if you are able to pause and reflect on your experiences.
This is more and more difficult in the age of social media and digital hyper-connectivity.
It’s not what you did, it’s what you learned from what you did. Learning without application quickly becomes lost.
When you sit and ponder something, you develop questions to attain more insight.
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The key to personal growth is consistency. Listen to develop the mindset you will need to grow more consistently.
The problem we face is that we think a magical moment of motivation will take us where we need to go. Instead, it is the compounded effect of our daily habits and routines. You have to be constantly doing something every day to grow. Maxwell says discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments – and that bridge must be crossed daily.
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Josh Waitzkin's new book "The Art of Learning" teaches what it takes to become a world champion. Josh was the national or world champion for his age group in chess for over a decade, and was the subject of the popular Hollywood film "Searching for Bobby Fisher." After he quit competitive chess, he started studying martial arts, and a few years later was declared world champion in Tai Chi Chuan.
He teaches how dangerous it can be to get stuck in a downward spiral, and I teach the ancient Hawaii'n healing art of Ho'oponopono to help you break free from that downward spiral before it begins.
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How do you achieve your goals? What about the one that is not exciting for you, but you know you need to get it done?
We hear about Luke Aikins, who jumped out of a plane at 25,000 feet without a parachute and landed safely in a net on the land.
Joan Benoit Samuelson is one of the greatest athletes in US history. She won the gold medal for women's marathon in the 1984 Olympic Games, and has one dozens of other major competitions.
Both of these elite athletes use a goal hack called Narrow Focus to achieve their goals, and according to New York University professor Emily Balcetis, you and I can use that same strategy to reach out goals as well. Using this "narrow focus" hack not only helps us reach the finish line faster while exerting less energy, we also feel like the finish line is closer when we use this.
Listen now and start using this strategy immediately. You can generate tremendous momentum and reach your goals faster than you thought possible.
You got this!
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Hate exercising but want to be a great student? These 16 minutes will tell you what to do.
You can get tremendous increase in many "learning" skills:
- Improved concentration
- Sharper memory
- Faster learning
- Prolonged mental stamina
- Enhanced creativity
- Lower stress
- Elevated mood which leads to better interpersonal relationships
Learn about the most effective way to get these results, and how it doesn't take nearly as much time or effort as you might have thought.
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Iris was just admitted to her dream school, Stanford University! Her amazing journey includes advice on time management, your impact project (her two impact projects were meaningful and amazing), choosing friends wisely, and so much more.
This is an episode you don't want to miss.
You can learn more about Iris from her Youtube channel or website as well.
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Iris was just admitted to her dream school, Stanford University! Her amazing journey includes advice on time management, your impact project (her two impact projects were meaningful and amazing), choosing friends wisely, and so much more.
This is an episode you don't want to miss.
You can learn more about Iris from her Youtube channel or website as well.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
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Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
As part of the Ivy League Challenge, our students commit to getting 9(!) hours of sleep each night. Why? What's the big deal with sleep?
I discuss the effect of sleep deprivation on cognition, as well as the rejuvenating effect of sleep on both our minds and our bodies.
Remember, common sense is not common practice, but consistently taking action that is common sense is usually what separates the highest performers from the average performers.
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Maddie tells us about devoting herself to figure skating and academics ahead of applying for and being accepted to Dartmouth college.
She shares her experiences growing up with two parents who attended Harvard college, her thoughts on her admissions process, and her experience interviewing Dartmouth applicants.
She also gives excellent advice for high school and junior high students getting ready to apply to Ivy League schools like Dartmouth.
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I think you’ll hear an extra level of excitement in this episode. There's a reason for that, I'm interviewing my hero-- and one of my best friends. Dr. Joe Vitale was once penniless and homeless living on the streets of Dallas Texas, but after shifting his mindset to be more productive, he clawed his way out and today is a serial entrepreneur, the author of dozens of best-selling books, a singer, a songwriter, and even a movie star.
But to me, he is more than that. Joe Vitale is my mentor and good friend. In fact he is one of the kindest people I know. The reason I’ve created the Ivy League Challenge is to inspire my listeners the same way Joe inspired me.
We talk about maximizing your mind to make the most of each day, the importance of taking action when you get an inspired idea, and Dr. Vitale shares with us the power of gratitude through the true story of how he shifted his own mindset by choosing to be grateful… for a pencil.
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I discuss with High School/Middle School counselor Isabel Pacios wellness during these school years which can be very stressful and emotionally challenging.
Among other important questions, we discuss:
How should a student best handle the stresses of a rigorous program like the IBDP?
How should a student communicate that he/she needs help?
What should teachers look out for to identify students who need support? How should teachers speak to those students?
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The most practical guide you've ever heard about improving your grades. Advice from Harvard students.
Here is a link to the Daily Planner training, it is a video that takes you through exactly how to use the planner, and also contains a link to download the planner, free of charge. Get the planner and change your grades right away!
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Today we are so excited to have with us one of the most caring and competent people I’ve ever met. I was fortunate enough to sit in Dr. John Paul Rollert’s Leadership class while pursuing my masters degree in business management. My classmates from this class and I still keep in touch and everyone is eagerly looking forward to this podcast, as well as part one from last week.
John Paul Rollert’s teaching is legendary at Harvard. I hope to give you a taste of why he is so respected and appreciated in these two podcast episodes, even though nothing can replace sitting in his actual class. Dr. Rollert is well respected in law, education, business, and ethics, and a quick google search will bring up articles he has written for the New York Times, The Atlantic, the Yale Law Journal, to name a few. Look out for his upcoming book about his experience working on the 2008 Barack Obama Presidential Campaign. A graduate from Harvard College, he earned his law degree at Yale and his PhD from the University of Chicago. Most of all, to me, he is an inspiring teacher, and I feel fortunate to count myself among the students he has taught both at Harvard and at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
In this podcast, which is part two of two, you can hear about his experiences in high school leading up to being accepted to Harvard College, as well as his advice for teenagers today. His advice about finding your values and pursuing ways to make a meaningful impact while in high school rather than chasing trophies is some of the best advice you'll hear around admissions to Harvard and other Ivy League or top-tier universities.
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Hello everyone, today we are so excited to have with us one of the most caring and competent people I’ve ever met. I was fortunate enough to sit in Dr. John Paul Rollert’s Leadership class while pursuing my masters degree in business management. My classmates from this class and I still keep in touch and everyone is eagerly looking forward to this podcast, as well as part 2, which will go live next week. In about 10 minutes you’ll know what the excitement is all about.
John Paul Rollert’s teaching is legendary at Harvard. I hope to give you a taste of why he is so respected and appreciated in these two podcast episodes, even though nothing can replace sitting in his actual class. Dr. Rollert is well respected in law, education, business, and ethics, and a quick google search will bring up articles he has written for the New York Times, The Atlantic, the Yale Law Journal, to name a few. Look out for his upcoming book about his experience working on the 2008 Barack Obama Presidential Campaign. A graduate from Harvard College, he earned his law degree at Yale and his PhD from the University of Chicago. Most of all, to me, he is an inspiring teacher, and I feel fortunate to count myself among the students he has taught both at Harvard and at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
In this first podcast, I will share the last few minutes of my conversation with Dr. Rollert, who prefers to go by John Paul. Next week, in part 2, you can hear about his experiences in high school leading up to being accepted to Harvard College, as well as his advice for teenagers today. You WON’T want to miss that.
In this episode, I’m going to cut in to the point where I asked John Paul to share with us the concluding message from his Leadership class. I am not exaggerating to say that our class, as I’m sure so many others before us, spontaneously stood up for a standing ovation when he finished. Everyone was touched, as was evident by the number of people drying their eyes. Please enjoy this message from John Paul Rollert.
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After an amazing class with my private students, I share the highlights of our discussion around the origin of fear, and what to do with the fear we feel.
According to Brendon Burchard, emotional fear comes from three sources: fear of loss, fear of process pain, and outcome pain. We share what this means for high school students and I summarize my brilliant students' strategies for getting the most out of the energy that fear creates in us.
This is a can't-miss episode!
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Steve and Nathaniel review Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink
Highlights include:
- True leaders don’t shift blame to others. They own mistakes and failures of those on their teams recognizing that they have control over what happens on their team.
- If a member of the team is not performing well, leaders train them to help them improve, they don’t blame them. Leaders find ways to use their influence to improve outcomes.
- Leadership attitude is contagious
- We can all expand our sphere of influence by first focusing on the things we can control rather than worrying about the things we can't control.
- Join us for a "no complaining challenge" for the rest of the day and see how you feel.
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Law 3. The Law of the Mirror: You Must See Value in Yourself to Add Value to Yourself
You will not give yourself time to grow if you think you are not worthy of it.
Low self-esteem, or lack of self-confidence, is one of the biggest barriers that prevent people from growing and reaching their potential.
“Every time you take a step, think a positive thought, make a good choice, practice a small discipline, you’re moving one step closer. Just keep moving forward, and keep believing.” -John Maxwell.
To counter this,
a) Guard your self-talk. We tend to be tougher on ourselves more than anyone else.
b) Stop comparing yourself to others.
c) Move beyond your limiting beliefs.
d) Add value to others.
e) Practice a small discipline daily in a specific area of your life.
f) Take responsibility for your life.
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Few topics we could discuss would be able to change someone's life as much as learning about metacognitive skills-- learning how to learn better.
In this episode we discuss speed reading-- how to do it, and why many people don't. We also points out numerous studies that show how a larger vocabulary leads to promotions and greater income potential.
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Law #2 from The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth by John Maxwell
Awareness; Know Yourself to Grow Yourself
Identify the gap between what you want to do and what you are able to do. Then work to close that gap.
One of the best ways to do this is raise your EQ so you are more accurate about your current ability compared to where you need to be to reach your goals.
Another way to gain awareness is to get appropriate feedback from people who know you well.
Perhaps the most effective method is to seek out a mentor; someone who has been down the same path you are on now, who can give you the "cheat codes" to get where you want to be faster and more effectively.
Steve and Nathaniel discuss how do increase your self awareness, ask for feedback, and find and keep a valuable mentor along the way.
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Law #1: Law of Intentionality; Growth doesn't just happen.
Growth doesn’t just happen automatically. It is an intentional process.
We discuss 8 major traps Maxwell identifies that prevent personal growth.
1. The Assumption Gap “I assume I will automatically grow”
2. The Knowledge Gap “I don’t know how to grow”
3. The Timing Gap – “It’s not the right time to begin”
4. The Mistake Gap – “I’m afraid of making mistakes”
5. The Perfection Gap – “I have to find the best way before I start”
6. The Inspiration Gap – “I don’t feel like doing it”
7. The Comparison Gap – “Others are better than I am”
8. The Expectation Gap – “I thought it would be easier than this”
We discuss these barriers to personal growth and what to do about it. This is part 2 of 2.
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Law #1: Law of Intentionality; Growth doesn't just happen.
Growth doesn’t just happen automatically. It is an intentional process.
We discuss 8 major traps Maxwell identifies that prevent personal growth.
1. The Assumption Gap “I assume I will automatically grow”
2. The Knowledge Gap “I don’t know how to grow”
3. The Timing Gap – “It’s not the right time to begin”
4. The Mistake Gap – “I’m afraid of making mistakes”
5. The Perfection Gap – “I have to find the best way before I start”
6. The Inspiration Gap – “I don’t feel like doing it”
7. The Comparison Gap – “Others are better than I am”
8. The Expectation Gap – “I thought it would be easier than this”
We discuss these barriers to personal growth and what to do about it.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
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Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Nathaniel and Steve discuss Triumphs of Experience, by By George Vaillant
What if we could watch people from when they are teenagers to the time they die to study how they lived and what made them triumph?
They did
Researchers spent $20 million as of 2012 tracking 724 men from Harvard University since 1938 (and now tracking their children)
Listen to hear about the study, the take aways, and Nathaniel's advice after reading the book.
Just a hint, the lessons learned from this study aren’t about wealth, fame, working hard. The clearest message from the study is that good relationships keep us happier and healthier.
Enjoy!
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Every student writing or preparing to write their Extended Essay (EE) and every supervisor should listen to Ms. Stein and her brilliant advice. After reading hundreds of essays and successfully coordinating the EE at Stamford American International School (a large international school in Singapore) for years,
Rebecca Stein gives advice about how to choose a good research question, how and when to focus your energy (hint, writing the essay is the easy part), and the best kind of mindset a student should have while producing their essay. We also discuss the role of the supervisor and Rebecca gives excellent advice about what kind of support is allowed, encouraged, and needed for supervisors to help students appropriately.
I recommend every grade 10 and grade 11 student and every EE supervisor to listen to this interview, and take notes!
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Steve and Nathaniel discuss The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. This is a book Steve read and discussed in his Managing Complex Teams class at Harvard. You'll hear all about the five dysfunctions that go to the very heart of why teams--even the best ones--often struggle. We also give some of the tips Steve received in class from his professor and classmates. If you've ever wanted to lead a more effective team, you'll love this episode!
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Steve and Nathaniel discuss Atomic Habits, by James Clear. Highlights include:
Why goals (especially New Year's Resolutions!) often don't work and can be so frustrating!
The power of taking tiny steps in the correct direction
How important systems and choices are in shaping the people we become.
the correct mindset needed for genuine positive change
how to develop that mindset
how our habits and activities each day reinforce our mindset
*what four steps we can take to form new good habits or break bad habits.
This recording was done at home, and the ages of the two children heard throughout the three episodes are 3 & 5. Hopefully you enjoy the background noise.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
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Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Steve and Nathaniel discuss Atomic Habits, by James Clear. Highlights include:
Why goals (especially New Year's Resolutions!) often don't work and can be so frustrating!
The power of taking tiny steps in the correct direction
How important systems and choices are in shaping the people we become.
the correct mindset needed for genuine positive change
how to develop that mindset
how our habits and activities each day reinforce our mindset
*what four steps we can take to form new good habits or break bad habits.
This recording was done at home, and the ages of the two children heard throughout the three episodes are 3 & 5. Hopefully you enjoy the background noise.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Steve and Nathaniel discuss Atomic Habits, by James Clear. Highlights include:
Why goals (especially New Year's Resolutions!) often don't work and can be so frustrating!
The power of taking tiny steps in the correct direction
*How important systems and choices are in shaping the people we become.
Over the course of three podcasts we will continue with the content, including:
the correct mindset needed for genuine positive change
how to develop that mindset
how our habits and activities each day reinforce our mindset
what four steps we can take to form new good habits or break bad habits.
This recording was done at home, and the ages of the two children heard throughout the three episodes are 3 & 5. Hopefully you enjoy the background noise.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
To follow on Instagram: @TheIvyLeagueChallenge
To join us on our Facebook group for parents:
Or schedule a meeting with Steve here
Ivy League Prep Academy hosts Steve and Nathaniel discuss how the books they read help them and others prepare for studying at places like Harvard.
In this episode we discuss The Happiness Advantage, by Shawn Achor.
To register for the Ivy League Challenge, visit our website.
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Ivy League Prep Academy hosts Steve and Nathaniel discuss how the books they read help them and others prepare for studying at places like Harvard.
In this episode we discuss How Full is Your Bucket? by Tom Rath and Donald Clifton
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