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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
The Niche Strategy Behind A Harvard & Stanford Admit
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In this episode, we break down a viral parent forum post from the family of a student allegedly admitted to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and MIT. The post argues that in today’s admissions landscape, even a traditional “spike” or hook––such as a student specialized in computer science, politics, or healthcare––is no longer specific or compelling enough for the most selective colleges.
Using the post as a starting point, we reinforce the growing importance of scarcity, hyper-specific positioning, and niche academic narratives in elite college admissions. At the same time, we also comment on the critical gap between theoretically optimal admissions strategy and what students can realistically sustain and execute over multiple years, as well as why strategy is only one variable within a much broader admissions game.
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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