**Decision: Accepted **
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1250; 700 reading and writing, 550 math
ACT (breakdown): Didn’t take
SAT II: Didn’t take
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.8
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): I think 30th in rank
AP (place score in parenthesis): 2 in Bio, 3 in U.S. History, 4 in English Language & Composition
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Psych, AP Environmental Science, AP Literature, AP Government and Economics, Animation (as a student at a CTE school)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Honor Roll since freshman year, Principal’s List, Gold/Silver awards in various subjects
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): PSAL Girl’s Soccer, National Honors Society
Job/Work Experience: Watson Basketball Park as an Summer Youth Employment Participant; Work, Learn, and Grow Participant with the Department of Youth and Community Development; Merchandise Associate at the Bronx Zoo; Future Leaders Program at the Bronx Zoo, Blomberg Arts Intern with El Barrio’s Artspace
Volunteer/Community service: Giving gifts to the homeless during the holiday season, tutoring, open houses, parent-teacher conferences, an internship
Summer Activities: Everything in the job/work experience except the Future Leaders Program
Essays (rating 1-10, details): don’t know 
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): don’t know this either
Signed FERPA
Teacher Rec #1: Sophomore year Honors English teacher, who I’ve spent time with every day since then
Teacher Rec #2: Freshman year English teacher, who I’ve also spent time with every day since then
Teacher Rec #3: Junior tear AP U.S. History Teacher, who I still talk to
Counselor Rec: She didn’t know me very well, so I had to fill it a sheet with all my info. Please be detailed when telling your college counselor about yourself if they don’t know you well!
Interview: It wasn’t actually an interview, but an alumni called me and answered questions I had about the school or applying.
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major and College: CALS, Animal Science
State (if domestic applicant): NY
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: CTE (art school, but high school)
Ethnicity: African-American, Jamaican descent
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: Less than $30k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First generation college student, URM, Child of Deaf Adults (C.O.D.A)
Strengths: Had a pretty good essay, had a job and an internship with the Bronx Zoo, good recommendation letters, (and let’s be honest here) affirmative action
Weaknesses: Low SAT score, never took the ACT, not having exactly a 4.0
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: Honestly, I think it was all about the extracurriculars. In my essay, I talked about how seeing a family of gorillas up close with only glass separating us made me realize that I really wanted to work with animals. It also helped to have gotten a change to sit in on an info session via Exploring Educational Excellence and visiting the campus (Cornell doesn’t take showing interest through attending events into consideration when they admit you; the trick is to include what RELEVANT information you can into your essay).
Where else were you accepted/deferred/rejected: Nowhere; I hadn’t applied to any school other than Cornell which is a BAD idea because they do have a 14% acceptance rate and it’s always good to have a backup plan
General comments:
Super excited about my admission! I was preparing myself for the rejection letter. I just want people to know that even though your application may not be the best (and the person above me has an AWESOME application, I’m upset FOR him, tbh), there’s always still a chance if you believe in yourself enough to apply.