Students at Noblesville have been applying to Ivy League schools for years, but this summer the game has changed. All Ivy League applications are online this year on the Common App website, and qualified students are applying with ambition.

     Senior Kate Holtkamp is familiar with applications already. She hopes to get into a big Ivy League school such as Brown University and Dartmouth College to study either neuroscience or biology. With that goal in mind and hopes to someday go to medical school after, she is already on top of the game.

     “I attended a program called Summer at Brown, and it was quite an experience because people that go there aren’t just smart,” Holtkamp said. “They have done something different in their life, and it allows you to have a great experience.”

     Along with programs and different college visits of all sorts, Holtkamp volunteers on a regular basis, is an active swimmer and achieves academic success. She hopes that all these extra-curriculars and after school activities will help her get a lead. But Holtkamp, no doubt, knows what she’s getting into.

     “It’s always hard to get into an Ivy League college because there are a lot of qualified people. The acceptance rate for Brown is 8.7% and Dartmouth is 10.3%,” Holtkamp said.

     Kristin Hetzel, a senior guidance counselor, is on the same page as Holtkamp when it comes to the challenge of applying to an Ivy League college.

     “Ivy League’s definitely want to see your best self being put forward, and they are looking for more requests, more letters of recommendation and more subject tests like ones on the SAT, especially this year since every Ivy League school seems to be on the common app,” Hetzel said.

     But nonetheless Hetzel does not want students to be discouraged by the standards of Ivy League schools.

     “The application should not persuade anyone or discourage them to apply. And by looking that only two students applied to one last year, [it] makes me think that they are,” Hetzel said.

     There is at least one one other student here at Noblesville that isn’t discouraged: senior Maxwell Atkins.

     “I’m thinking of studying business at Harvard, Penn or Dartmouth,” Atkins said.

     When asked to name some activities that would make his name stand out, he didn’t hesitate to list fifteen extra-curriculars that he has done during all of high school.

     “Two of my bigger things that I hope will catch a college’s eye is that I own my own clothing company called The Nautical Way, and I’m starting up a disc golf team for the school,” Atkins said.

     Although the stress of applying to Ivy League colleges travels beneath the school, Kate Holtkamp makes sure to mention, “No matter where I end up going to college, I’ll be happy.”