Actual Results from a Senior!

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Background info: I’m an asian american male and I go to a public high school in California.

  1. GPA

Weighted GPA (when applying to colleges): 3.94

Unweighted GPA: 3.44

10-12 WGPA: 4.3
10-12 UWGPA: 3.5

  1. Course Load

Freshman Year: Chem Honors, Trig/Precalc Honors, Spanish 2, English Honors, Health/World-Geography

Sophomore Year: AP Calc AB (5), AP Bio (3), AP Stats (3), AP Euro (3), Spanish 3 Honors, English Honors

Junior Year: AP Calc BC (5), AP English Language (5), AP Environmental Science (5), AP Physics B(4), APUSH (3), AP Spanish Language (2)

Senior Year: AP Chemistry(3-4), AP Literature(5), AP Psychology(4-5), Economics Honors. Predicted scores in parentheses

  1. Test Scores SAT: 2210 Single Sitting (740 CR, 750 Math, 720 Writing), 2270 Superscore (740 CR, 770 Math, 760 Writing) ACT: 34 Single Sitting (33 English, 35 Math, 34 Reading, 32 Science) SAT 2: 800 Math, 710 US History, 690 Biology E, 660 Physics PSAT: 199
  2. EC's

Varsity Swim (2 Years)
Varsity Tennis (2 Years)
Treasurer of a local charity
Treasurer of a cultural club
Vice President of a Religious Club
Environmental Engineer for a Robotics Club
Intern for a Fortune 500 Company at the MD&M West Expo
Shadowed 3 different doctors
Worked at a local tutoring business
Volunteered 200 hours at a local hospital

  1. Awards

AP Distinguished Scholar
Top Scholar Award twice (Top 1% for the semester (Had a high GPA during my 10th and 11th grade)

  1. Other

I consider myself a strong writer as I’d earned a 5 on the AP English exam and I receive praise for my writing often.

I applied mostly Biophysics, Bioengineering, Molecular Biology, and Physics to all these schools.

College Results:
Johns Hopkins: Rejected
Stanford: Rejected
UChicago (EA): Deferred -> Waitlisted -> Accepted
Vanderbilt: Rejected
USC : Rejected
NYU: Waitlisted -> Accepted -> ??Given Half-Ride Merit Scholarship??
University of Redlands: Accepted with 30K Merit Scholarship
Virginia Commonwealth University: Accepted with 16K Merit Scholarship
UC Berkeley: Rejected
UCLA: Rejected
UCSD: Accepted
UC Irvine: Accepted with some Merit Based Scholarship for 3000$
UC Davis: Rejected
UC Riverside: Accepted with Chancellor’s Scholarship (5000$)

I chose to attend UC San Diego as they let me into one of the most impacted majors (Bioengineering) in the 5 year BS/MS program. I’m extremely excited to attend in the fall (Hopefully).

I felt bitter when I was rejected to so many places, but you know, college is what you make of it :slight_smile:

BEST OF LUCK TO ALL YOU YOUNG GRASSHOPPERS.

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A big aloha to you for showing the flip side of “Chance Me!” Your generosity to think of doing this, along with your attitude, is going to be a big factor in your future success. :slight_smile:

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To be honest, you are freaking me out because you had so many Extracurricular, decent GPA, and really good SAT scores, but still got rejected!

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Hey, you got into Chicago!! That is a big deal!! You only need one good choice and you had 4, so that is a great result!! Congratulations, and good luck!

PS: what was the merit at NYU? Few people get merit there that I have seen! You did well!

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I got the Franklin Scholarship for 20K plus 10K from the NYU Merit Foundation Scholarship @HRSMom
And thank you! I was ecstatic to see the acceptance, but I was already emotionally invested at UCSD.

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@Focuce Honestly, it’s just a crap shoot. I had friends with lower stuff that got into better schools, and friends with higher stuff that got rejected more. It’s very luck-driven.

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@palm715 My pleasure :slight_smile: I’m glad to help anyone who’s going to fill in my shoes in a few months time.

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Your post should be eye opening for quite a few students and parents. You are a great example of a very strong candidate for acceptance into any college, and still
we’re not accepted into every school you applied to. I’ve been trying to stress this to my son who is a rising senior. He is being fairly realistic , but many of his classmates assume that if they fall within the 25th- 75th percentile for college admissions they’re guaranteed admission and unfortunately this is not the case. Thank you for sharing your experiences . I know it wasn’t an easy decision .

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@carolinamom2boys I’m very thankful for such a humbling from these schools. It’s taught me that there is virtually no top of the ladder which will guarantee me anything.

Again, I personally believe, given the results of many of my classmates, that it’s very luck driven. I had one girl at my school who scored an 1840 SAT who got into UC Berkeley versus another girl who 2320 who was rejected and the girl with the 2320 had a higher GPA as well.

What you should do is to encourage your brilliant boy every step of the way and remind to him that’s more about the journey than the destination. My parents were very supporting which made dealing with rejection a lot easier.

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Also a disclaimer that these are simply the results I attained, however, yours may be very different! So approach these with a astute eye.