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The Game: A Guide to Elite College Admissions
In this podcast series, we break down the complex game that is elite college admissions and the strategies and pitfalls students need to adopt or beware of if they hope to win admission to one of America’s top colleges.
“The Game” is hosted by Sam Hassell and brought to you by Great Minds Advising.
Sam is a published scientist, having spent four years as a neuroscience researcher at Columbia University. Building upon his experiences in research and academia—as well as over a decade in educational services—Sam spearheaded the Great Minds Advising program, a premium college consulting service based in the New York Metropolitan Area and serving students nationwide from NYC to Silicon Valley.
Great Minds Advising’s unique, hands-on mentorship program and its deep strategic insight into the application review process have earned the company a nation-leading track record of excellence, with 100% of its students gaining admission to a top-choice school in the 2025–26 application cycle.
Its students have recently gained admission to Stanford, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Penn, Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Rice, Northwestern, UC-Berkeley, and WashU (among many others) and are admitted to the Ivy League at a rate 14x the national average (90% when applying early).
For the first time, in this podcast, Sam and his team reveal the secrets and strategies they have used to help their students consistently beat the game of elite college admissions.
Web: greatmindsadvising.com
Contact: greatmindsadvising.com/#contact
Newsletter: greatmindsadvising.com/#newsletter
Email: info@greatmindsadvising.com
FB: facebook.com/GreatMindsAdvising
IG: instagram.com/greatmindsadvising
The Game: A Guide to Elite College Admissions
Evaluating A Junior’s Profile For Yale
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In this case study episode, we analyze the profile of a high-achieving junior targeting Yale and other top colleges, with strong grades, near-perfect test scores, and a deep set of extracurriculars spanning environmental conservation, theater, and ethics.
Despite an impressive volume of resume activity, however, the student’s profile currently lacks the level of scarcity and scale required to truly compete at the Yale tier.
These problems are compounded by further strategic liabilities, such as the particular strength of Yale’s environmental and humanities-focused applicant pool, as well as other demographic headwinds (over-represented minority and over-represented as a female in both humanities and Yale’s pool more broadly).
We stress-test the student’s resume against Yale-level standards, identify the most advantageous positioning, and outline specific strategic moves—refining academic course selection, sharpening interdisciplinary narratives, and scaling high-impact initiatives—to close the gap between a strong profile and a truly Yale-caliber candidacy.
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“The Game” is hosted by Sam Hassell and brought to you by Great Minds Advising.
Great Minds Advising’s unique, hands-on mentorship program and its deep strategic insight into the application review process have earned the company a nation-leading track record of excellence, with 100% of its students gaining admission to a top-choice school in the 2024–25 application cycle.
Its students have recently gained admission to Stanford, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Penn, Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Rice, Northwestern, UC-Berkeley, and WashU (among many others) and are admitted to the Ivy League at a rate 14x the national average (90% when applying early).
Web: greatmindsadvising.com
Contact: greatmindsadvising.com/#contact
Newsletter: greatmindsadvising.com/#newsletter
Email: info@greatmindsadvising.com
FB: facebook.com/GreatMindsAdvising/
IG: instagram.com/greatmindsadvising