<p>Decision: Accepted</p>
<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): 1st Try - 1940 - R 650, M 680, W 610; 2nd Try - 2030 - R 710, M 690, Writing 630
[</em>] ACT: Didn’t take it.
[<em>] SAT II: Literature - 650, Math I - 710, Math II - 630, Bio M - 570 (sigh)
[</em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.61
[<em>] UC GPA: 3.71
[</em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 7% / 10th in the whole 2014 class
[<em>] ELC?: I think so.
[</em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): None.
[<em>] IB (place score in parenthesis): None.
[</em>] Senior Year Course Load: Integrated English IV, Integrated Gov/Econ, Integrated Science IV, Integrated Math IV, AP Calculus (the only AP class @ my school)
[<em>] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): None.
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
- Music Lessons in Drums, Guitar, Bass, Violin, and Vocals since middle school; also participated in school’s music elective for 1.5 years
- Robotics Team for a tournament (Co-President and Solidworks Officer)
- Video editing both for school and personal enjoyment
- Drama - got a role in school musical during my Senior Year [mistakenly left this out in my application, sent in the corrections to the UC App offices on February (which is way too late DON’T DO THAT!)]
- Afterschool Math Program
- Mentorship/Internship at a local music store for school’s senior project
- Recreational Math elective class for a semester
- Weekend Chinese Class at a local Buddhist temple
- Pre-Calc summer class @ my school
[<em>] Job/Work Experience:
[</em>] Volunteer/Community service: Red Cross for a straight year, school events, Photoshop assistant in my school’s ROP Photography class for 3/4th of a year.
[<em>] Personal Statement: I did the ‘my world’ one on how my family’s dire financials had led me to only pursue what I determine to really matter to me (and that would be building robots, learning about the human mind, and cognitive science). And for the one about ‘talent, quality, accomplishment, experience that matters to you’, I did mine on how I refused my friend’s offer to level up my League of Legends account because I value getting my own achievements and learning from my own mistakes.
[/ul]Other[ul]
[</em>] Applied for Financial Aid?: Yep.
[<em>] Intended Major: Cognitive Science
[</em>] State (if domestic applicant): California
[<em>] Country (if international applicant):
[</em>] School Type: Public, charter-like but not really. Small-sized (500 people). Unique. Project-based. Requires 200 hours of community service to graduate. No AP classes provided (so no weighed GPA’s), but they let kids w/ 3.0 GPA’s go take college classes at Cal Poly Pomona. Grading system is different. No advanced math programs until the recent AP Calc class. No music program. No sports program until recently.
[<em>] Ethnicity: Asian
[</em>] Gender: Female
[<em>] Income Bracket: $27,000
[</em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, research, etc.):
First generation college student, immigrant, school is unique, low-income, Dad’s deaf (though I definitely did not let that overwhelm my whole application, since I really hate to use him as an excuse for anything), series of family unemployment recently
[/ul]Reflection[ul]
[<em>] Strengths: Weird school. My hooks are pretty numerous. Personal statement #2 is of a unique topic.
[</em>] Weaknesses: I’m not a good writer, and I wrote my personal statements the day it was due (yeah, don’t do that). Leadership position is only during senior year.
[li] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: My school is weird: there’s a reason why I’m in the top 7% of my grade with only 3.6 GPA.[/li][/ul]General Comments: Note: I got the borderline supplement, so my original app probably isn’t strong enough.</p>
<p>Wrote about how since my school’s standards is different (A is only when you not only fulfilled the requirements, but also impressed the teachers), I understand why my GPA is low and trust my school’s grading system. And also slipped in ‘I understand that I’ve done the best I can with my SAT scores.’ I then talked about my hobby for music, and how while it’s really important to me, I don’t let it get in the way of my academics. Then for the circumstances one, I talked about how I thought my family’s crappy finances limited my opportunities for extra programs (like summer programs and art classes), but after applying for a lot of fee waivers and financial aid for college app-related stuff recently and succeeding frequently, I then found that maybe it’s not so impossible after all.</p>
<p>Had a friend of mine looked over it with me during the last 2 hours of the day it’s due (nail biting moment, definitely). Planned better, though–I started to at least mentally work on it 3 days before it was due, talked about my answers’ topic w/ my friends and got their approvals.</p>
<p>Was really scared I wasn’t getting in–SAT and GPA lower than a lot of people’s. God, I’m so happy! Congrats to those who made it in and best hopes for those who didn’t–we can all end at places where we most belong.</p>