July 25, 2026

Your college essay decides your life

Do you know those kids who were plucked from normal classrooms and put into the "gifted" classes in third grade?

What ended up happening?

Chances are, they got put in "gifted" classes the year after, and the year after that. Eventually, they're the ones taking all the APs in high school, doing the best extracurriculars, getting the best grades.

And you have the exact opposite happening on the other side. Kids put into "lower-level" math early on simply never get good at math.

Because of 1 random aptitude test we all took when we were 6 years old.

This is called the Matthew effect.

It means early advantage compounds.

College applications is the first and only hard reset you will get from that dumb aptitude test back when you were a child.

For the next six months, everyone's back on the field fighting for their future.

Your friends, network, location, education, personal growth, mental and physical health, it is a massive butterfly effect towards the rest of your life.

It is the difference between knowing people who know the president, getting a high-level connection to a golden internship, having intelligent peers to grow with, or just a friend's family yacht to party on for spring break.

You're 18, at the most pivotal age of your life for the person you end up becoming.

1 chance.

Don't mess it up.

August 1.

P.S. If you're curious, the Matthew effect is coined from the Bible verse Matthew 25:29, about those who have being given more.