Update Minerva now requires you and your parents to be on a call together. For international students whose parents speak a different language, you’re most likely required to translate what your parents are saying in English to the admissions officer.

I applied to Minerva class of 2021 and chose the early action (deadline November 1st) “binding option”. The advantage you will receive from this is an expedited response within 3 weeks of submission and exclusive online sessions with the Head of Admissions, Neagheen Homaifar. It’s a good option if Minerva is your first choice because you can avoid spending time and pay application fees if you are applying to other colleges. If admitted binding, you must pay a $500 deposit within 10 days to secure your enrollment.

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Good to know:

Minerva consists of 2 entities:

• Minerva at KGI – actual college that’s a non-profit accredited by the Keck Graduate Institute, member of the Claremont Consortium in California
• Minerva Project – for-profit part of Minerva that licenses out its Active Learning Forum and curriculums
• For a longer explanation of this, click here (credits to Minerva’s Outreach Lead Michael Lai)

Minerva’s application process is highly selective (acceptance rate ~ 2%), but not at all competitive. That’s because as long as a student passed a certain “bar”, they will be accepted regardless of any other factors, such as race, gender, family income. No quotas, no limited space resulted in only 20% Americans in the class. There is also no waiting list; you either pass the bar and get accepted, or you don’t. Though vs other elite universities that sometimes getting accepted into depends on luck, Minerva holistically evaluates the 3 parts of your application so it’s not a crapshoot. You can’t apply twice in one year. However if denied this year, you can try next year.

Things Minerva look for in a candidate:

• intellectual capacity and curiosity
• someone with a high impact who has achieved extraordinary things (even in an unconventional sense)
• someone open-minded and independent who can readily adapt to the different cultures of the world

Regardless of the education you’ve been through, you will always start with the first year’s cornerstone courses. That’s because Minerva teaches a completely different system than traditional education, which means they don’t accept AP scores or any college course replacements. However, students are expected to come in having the knowledge of basic college classes and skills, such as Calculus, advanced English, and Python through MOOCs. One of the key skill you should have before attending is knowing how to manage your time – simply put, there will be no time to “mess around”.

Minerva raised its tuition from $10,000 to $12,500 per year. The total cost of attendance is a little below $30,000 per year, which is still much affordable than many private, prestigious institutions. Minerva encourages its students to do work-study, internships, low-interest loans, and if there are still gaps in between, Minerva will provide financial aid.

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Update: Minerva is offering a $10,000 need-based scholarship to those who are ZeeMee participants, see details below. This is the link.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/qImSB04tYdalb0qHVWG9AWat_ytqtLEje6zRxvdBPSF2l0cfzu4djbCt6iQsDYuM8mVeuN7Y3Lptuz4DP_kZD7g08Wcyb991lynO9atxBG_M8Lmj0kbb9PW6vejuzbpYPahq3iMn