Please reserve discussion for the RD Discussion thread, and use this one only for results. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor!
**Decision: Accepted - RD (with Likely Letter) **
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2140 (800 Math, 700 CR, 640 Writing). Didn’t submit to any school that didn’t require it.
ACT (breakdown): 35 (36 Math, 35 Science, 35 English, 34 Reading)
SAT II: 800 Math II, 780 US History, 730 Physics
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.99
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 8/350
AP (place score in parenthesis):
AP Calc AB (5), AP World History (5), AP US History (5), AP Calc BC (5), AP Physics 1 (5)
IB (place score in parenthesis): School doesn’t do IB
Senior Year Course Load:
AP Computer Science A, AP Spanish, Differential Equations (Dual Enrollment), AP Bio, AP Gov, AP Lit
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): None
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Quiz Bowl (State Champion 11th, Captain 12th)
Boy Scouts (Life Scout)
After-school choir/voice lessons
I also put Fantasy Football Commissioner at the bottom of my activities section just for kicks, maybe that won me some brownie points.
Job/Work Experience: None
Volunteer/Community service: Lots of volunteer service through Boy Scouts throughout high school.
Summer Activities: Stanford Pre-College Program (Theory of Relativity)
Essays (rating 1-10, details):
Common App: 6/10. I wrote it for my EA school (Stanford) and then didn’t edit it between November and January which in hindsight was a big mistake. I talked about how I had learned throughout high school that grades weren’t the only thing that mattered and that it’s important to be a more well-rounded person.
Community: 7/10. Discussed how I’ve recently realized I can find a community of people with varied interests, not just in STEM.
Drawn to Field: 9/10. Talked about how I loved that statistics was multi-faceted.
Skill in Field: 10/10. Probably my best supplement I wrote for any school. I wrote about how my experience trying to create a formula to rank all 128 college football teams grew into my love for statistics.
Where I’ve Lived: 8/10. Talked a bit about my parents’ divorce and the various circumstances that has led to.
Why Brown: 9/10. One of the better supplements I wrote for any school, I talked about the undergrad focus at Brown, open curriculum etc.
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: 9/10 11th grade Honors Physics teacher. Probably my favorite teacher in high school, who knew me quite well. We talked at length about what kind of schools I was applying to and thus how he should write the rec letter.
Teacher Rec #2: 10/10 11th grade Brit Lit teacher. I chose her both because we liked each other quite a bit, but also because she’s a fantastic writer and has had a novel published.
Counselor Rec: 9/10. I had the same counselor for all 4 years, and I met with him relatively frequently and I felt like we knew each other quite well. His past students have mentioned getting good rec letters from him.
Additional Rec: N/A
Interview: 8/10. Seemed like a nice guy, we connected well despite the fact his field is very different from mine. I talked about everything I liked on my visit to Brown, and we discussed how the school has changed over the past 20 years.
Other:
Applied for Financial Aid?: No
Intended Major: Applied Math/Economics
State (if domestic applicant): Michigan
Country (if international applicant): N/A
School Type: Public (pretty strong public, though)
Ethnicity: White and Indian
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: >$150k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Not sure how much of a hook it is, but my dad has received a relatively prestigious award. I mentioned it once in my Common App essay and that was it, didn’t want to make it look like I was dwelling on it or anything.
Reflection:
Strengths: My recommendations and test scores.
Weaknesses: My Common App essay and extracurriculars.
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I tried to make my transition from STEM kid to well-rounded with a STEM focus a theme throughout my application, which would show I wouldn’t get lost in Open Curriculum while still using it proactively.
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Accepted: UCLA, Carleton, Emory, Michigan (in-state)
Waitlisted: Penn, Duke, WUSTL
Rejected: Stanford (ED), Harvey Mudd, MIT
General Comments: I’m very happy I got in. Once I didn’t get into Stanford, Brown became my first choice so I’m almost certainly going to attend.