<p>I told myself I would never do this, but it's Christmas break and I have nothing else to do...</p>
<p>Ok, white female. I'm from Mississippi, but I've gone to Phillips Andover since sophomore year. Before then, I went to a public MS high school. No legacies. Not quite first generation, but kind of...my mom left high school a year early to go to college, then left college for art school, then just dropped out of art school, and my dad went to community college when he was about 40 to get his Associate's.</p>
<p>GPA: Andover grades on a 1-6 scale and we don't do conversions to the weighted 4.0 scale, but colleges know this. I have a 5.45; I think the average is somewhere around a 4.5... Also, Andover doesn't rank.</p>
<p>SAT I: M 720; W 800; V 800; 2320 Composite
SAT IIS: Math II 780; Chemistry 750; Lit 690 (ugh)
ACT: Writing 36, Reading 36, Math 31, Science 33, Composite 34</p>
<p>I haven't taken any APs because I have had a weird situation with those...I was in AP US history because all of our history classes prepare us for the AP, but my teacher was under review and I didn't feel prepared, and history isn't my strong suit, so I didn't take that. Then I wound up one trimester of AP Art History, so I hadn't had the whole year... But I will be taking Macro+Microeconomics, BC Calc, and Latin (Vergil) APs, and I indicated that on my apps.</p>
<p>For four trimesters I took six courses (the normal load is five), and I got a Latin tutor last summer so I could skip from Latin 200 to Latin 520 (AP Vergil.)</p>
<p>Courses:
Fall: Latin (AP Vergil), AP BC Calc, Trauma Literature (Honors), Economics (prepares us for the AP but is only classified as H), ceramics
Winter (tentative): AP Vergil; AP BC Calc; Photo II (H); Children's Lit (H); Economics (H); Bioethics (H)
Spring (tentative): AP Vergil; AP BC Calc; Photo II (again, but it's different from the winter syllabus, H); Journalism (H); Economics (H); Trauma Lit (again, but different from fall syllabus, H)</p>
<p>Extra-Curriculars:</p>
<p>My big thing is photography, and I made this VERY clear on my applications. I took a photo class last year, and I went to the Maine Photographic Workshops last summer. I'm the Director of Photography for the Phillipian, our paper here, and that takes about 16 hours a week. I wrote about this on the Common App's "most significant EC" question, about how I love working on the paper, even thought it means staying out until midnight, scrambling to make deadlines, being tired all the time, and spending my weekends shooting sports games and performances, etc. My ECs don't look like much, but I have put my heart and all of my free time into this newspaper. Also, I submitted what I think is a really strong photo portfolio -- it has both film and digital, and a mix of photojournalism (including sports photography) and artsier stuff.</p>
<p>Also, I regularly attend Andover Drug and Alcohol Committee meetings, and was in GSA and Art Club before the paper really geared up. </p>
<p>I'm a Blue Key -- we worked during orientation, helping new students get acclimated to the school and showing parents around during Parents' Weekend and stuff.</p>
<p>I play classical guitar and took lessons for four years.</p>
<p>I co-hosted a weekly radio show last year.</p>
<p>No V/JV sports, but I've tried out a lot of stuff: yoga/fencing/dance/cross-country skiing...I especially loved fencing and mentioned it when I could.</p>
<p>Community Service:</p>
<p>Pretty weak here...</p>
<p>I tutor a fellow student in Latin.</p>
<p>Sophomore year I was in a pen pal program -- we wrote letters to local third-graders.</p>
<p>I have done single events, like picnics for the local soup kitchen, off and on throughout my time at Andover.</p>
<p>Academic Honors, etc.</p>
<p>Honor roll for seven terms (all my time at Andover) and was in Beta Club at my old high school.</p>
<p>Freshman year, I got lots of school awards, like the Accelerated English, Biology, blah blah awards.</p>
<p>Phillips Prize in First-Year Latin (sophomore year)</p>
<p>Prize in translation of second-year Latin at sight (junior year)</p>
<p>National Merit Semifinalist</p>
<p>Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Young Scholar</p>
<p>Summer stuff:
2006: TiP Program at Duke, three-wk ethics class
2007: Maine Photographic Workshops (two-wk "Advanced Young Photographers" class), had a Latin tutor, Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Scholars' Reunion Weekend</p>
<p>Recs: These should be good...</p>
<p>Essays: I wrote the Common App essay about how much I love photographing people, and how photography has made me more confident. Then for a few schools I wrote about a teacher I had in my middle school gifted program, and how she would give me seemingly unrealistic challenges, like asking me to replicate "The Three Musicians" on a queen-sized sheet, but how I grew to love being challenged be her and how great I felt when I completed a project and how that has carried into my academic career now blah blah blah...</p>
<p>Ok, thanks for looking, and here are my schools, in order of preference. I didn't apply early anywhere simply because I hadn't visited anywhere so I didn't really feel justified/confident in applying early when I wasn't positive about what I wanted...</p>
<p>Yale
Brown
U Chicago
Northwestern
BU
NYU
U Penn
Princeton
Wesleyan
Swarthmore
U Rochester</p>