Accepted
- Claremont McKenna (attending)
-UCSB - UCSC
- Cal poly Pomona
- and other state schools
Denied
-USC
- all the top UC"s (berkely, ucla, ucsd, davis, irvine)
-cal poly slo
Will be attending Claremont McKenna
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 720 US history, 720 math2
ACT (breakdown): n/a
SAT II: 2180 / 2200 (super score)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): very low - 3.3ish when i applied , 3.5 after 1st semester senior year
Weighted GPA: not sure 3.6?
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 300ish / 750ish
AP (place score in parenthesis): 5 on us history and 3 on chemistry
IB (place score in parenthesis): n/a
Senior Year Course Load: Ap comp sci, ap calc bc, ap gov, ap lit, honors physics
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): only local community service awards which i got senior year
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): fashion club (co-founder, president) nsbe(co-founder, treasurer) engineering mentorship program for 2 years, community activism
Job/Work Experience: tutor at my shool for 4 years (volunteer and paid) , math tutor for private company
Volunteer/Community service: my fashion club hosts a clothes drive for students to donate clothes and get hours, also do sporadic volunteering at my church and other organization
Summer Activities: boys state ca, cal poly slo EPIC engineering camp for 11th grade. other summers i did summer school hahaa
Essays (rating 1-10, details): 7-9?
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): hopefully a 10 on all fronts! i did win teacher’s fave at my school!
Teacher Rec #1: US history teacher. Got the highest grade in his class and an award for doing so, so im guessing a 10
Teacher Rec #2: hs calc teacher. The only student who actually came to class prepared and stayed afterschool to ask question. He loved me. 9/10
Counselor Rec: 10000. She definitely helped put my disadvantaged background into perspective for the adcoms.
Additional Rec: n/a
Interview: n/a
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: yes!!
Intended Major: computer science
State (if domestic applicant): CA
Country (if international applicant): n/a
School Type: public but top public school in LA (feeds into UC system primarily like 20 kids to each of the top ones)
Ethnicity: ethiopian
Gender: male
Income Bracket: middle class (70-80k)
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM duh, parents didn’t go to a 4 year college in this country so first gen)
- i think my background
Reflection:
Strengths: SAT score duhh (thank GOD!), essay went along with the mission statement of the school i’m atttending (it’s about becoming leaders and doers instead of watching on the sidelines), letters of recs definitely!, also my ethnicity probably helped at a private school, unique extracurriculars ( i didn’t list them all)
Weaknesses: GPA of course
General Comments: i’m so lucky and blessed to have gotten into the top 2 schools i got into (CMC and UCSB). College admissions is getting tougher and tougher every year. If you are a low gpa, high sat student like me please don’t get caught up on public colleges (like the UC) that won’t even give your application a chance because of the low gpa. It’s more prodcutive to apply to private schools that are willing to forgive a low gpa if you have an interesting story to tell, high sat, and/ or can add to their diversity. Good luck to everyone and remember if the haters are hating then keep marching!!!
