Amherst Official RD Results Thread Class of 2021

Colleges and Universities A-Z Amherst College
1

(this is 100% copied from an old results thread)
To help future Amherst applicants, this thread is for DECISIONS ONLY. There are other threads for discussion and congratulations/consolations.

Please enter as much info as you can, up to your personal comfort level.

On the decision line: Delete the decisions that don’t apply to you, and remove the 'a’s in the first two brackets. You can preview to make sure it looks right.

[aB][asize=4][acolor=#008000]Decision: Accepted[/color][/size]**
[aB][asize=4][acolor=#FFA500]Decision: Waitlisted[/color][/size]**
[aB][asize=4][acolor=#FF0000]Decision: Rejected[/color][/size]**

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown):
ACT (breakdown):
SAT II:
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0):
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable):
AP (place score in parenthesis):
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load:
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Job/Work Experience:
Volunteer/Community service:
Summer Activities:
Essays (rating 1-10, details):

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1:
Teacher Rec #2:
Counselor Rec:
Additional Rec:
Interview:

Other:

Applied for Financial Aid?:
Intended Major:
State (if domestic applicant):
Country (if international applicant):
School Type:
Ethnicity:
Gender:
Income Bracket:
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):

Reflections:

Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Why you think you were accepted/rejected/deferred?

General Comments:

Other College Decisions:

2

Decision: Accepted

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): Didn’t take
ACT (breakdown): 31C: 29M, 31R, 31E, 31S
SAT II: Didn’t submit
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.96
Weighted GPA: 4.54
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 38/710 5.3%
AP (place score in parenthesis): Took one AP Junior year, but didn’t send the test
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: Health, AP European History, AP Chemistry, AP Spanish Language, AP Government/Microeconomics, Humanities, AP Statistics
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): None although accepted to fly-in programs. Amherst: DIVOH, Oberlin: Multicultural Weekend, Pomona College: The Fall Weekend, Hamilton: Diversity Overnight

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses):
-Choir Council (Treasurer) (9,10,11)
Organized receipts utilizing Microsoft Excel and kept constant communication with choir director and students regarding debts.
-Be A Leader Foundation (President/Founder) (11,12)
Help guide low-income students on the path to college by providing free resources, leadership workshops, mentoring, and college application support.
-Students Passing On Knowledge (SPOK) (10,11,12)
Community service involvement. Attend weekly tutoring sessions at local middle schools, tutoring in subjects including math, science, and english.
-Music For Cure Club ( 9,10,11,12)
Members perform at various genres of music at hospitals and senior living centers to bring joy and support to those in need
-NHS (11,12)
Ya’ll know what this is lol
-Biotechnology (12)
Hands on experience and official lab work with micropipetting, replicating DNA, separating macromolecules & fragmenting DNA using restriction enzymes.
-Summer Programs (10,11,12)
Applied and accepted into ASU Barrett Summer Scholars. National Student Leadership Conference: Medicine and Health Program at Northwestern University.
-Voice & Piano Lessons (9,10,11)
Attended weekly lessons. 1st Chair Bass Regional Honor Choir and 2nd Chair Bass All-State Show Choir
-We The People, Competition Government (Treasurer) (12)
Juniors audition for senior year. Compete in mock congressional hearings on district, state, and national level. Fulfills AP Government credit.
-In n Out Restaurant Associate (11,12)
Order taking, janitorial services, and food slicing at In n Out Restaurant since the beginning of June 2016.

Essays (rating 1-10, details):

  1. Wrote about impact music has had on me!
  2. Submitted a paper about freedom of speech from junior year!

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: Math Teacher 9/10 She allowed me to read it before submitting!
Teacher Rec #2: Chemistry Teacher 10/10 She also allowed me to read it before submitting!
Counselor Rec: I’m guessing very well written! I had to fill out this 9 page rec letter form for her so she could write an amazing letter (which she emphasized she did). 9-10/10
Additional Rec: None
Interview: None

Other:
Applied for Financial Aid?: No
Intended Major: Biochemistry
State (if domestic applicant): Arizona
Country (if international applicant): United States
School Type: Public ~3000 students
Ethnicity: Hispanic and Pacific Islander
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: >$200,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM

Reflection:
Strengths: Essays, EC’s, Rec Letters
Weaknesses: ACT, lack of AP’s, No national awards
Why you think you were accepted: I’m an URM and my essays were very well written and I wrote about things that truly mattered to me!
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Rejected: None (yet) LOL
Deferred: Yale SCEA, USC Scholarship consideration
Accepted: ASU Barrett, Case Western as PPSP Finalist, UMich Defer→ Accept, Amherst
Others I applied to and am waiting on: Harvard, Princeton, Brown, Columbia, UPenn, Dartmouth, Duke, Vanderbilt, Pomona, Hamilton, UChicago, Stanford, UCLA, UC-Berkeley

General Comments:
Test scores, rank, and GPA are NOT everything!!! The essays and extracurriculars mean SO much in the process and I cannot emphasize that enough!! Please please please for future reference, spend a lot of time on the essays and portraying yourself as the best candidate there is! And remember, you will end up where you need to be and in the end, it’s all about what YOU make of your college experience. God was so generous in offering me a place in UMich and he will definitely offer you a place in the school you need to be at! TRUST ME.

3

@DreamforIvy And that’s why I hate affirmative action. I understand why African Americans who live in a ghetto should be given a leg up, but you’re really rich and NOT at all disadvantaged. Don’t understand why you should get any preferences.

4

I just got an email offering me an early admissions place for Class of 2021 RD! I am beyond grateful and excited, although Amherst isn’t my top choice. I never in a million years expected to get an early letter from Amherst, or even get int! I’ll post my stats below and other people should definitely do the same for future applicants!

BTW I apologize for not following the format I posted lol but I’m too lazy to redo all of this from my old chance me threads

Decision: ACCEPTED

Race- white
Dual citizenship with Italy, US citizen/resident

GPA- 4.3 Weighted (out of 4.7), not weighted 3.92 (to give some perspective here, my schools is extremely competitive and the Valedictorian W GPA is usually 4.38-4.4, also I have all A’s)
ACT- 35 C
Class rank- probably top 10%, not reported though
Italian Subject SAT- 770
APs- World History (4), Psychology (5), Biology (5), English Lang (5), US History (4)
Honors- Chem, French (3 yrs), US History, Calc

Senior Course load: I’m taking almost the most rigorous courses possible, 4 APs and 1 Honors

Honors/Awards:
National French Exam- Silver Award: won Sophomore year 2015, one of 2 people to win it
some decent local awards for my projects below
High Honor role- all of HS
AP Scholar
National Merit Commended student

Sports: JV Tennis 2 years, Varsity Tennis 2 years, V Golf 1 year

Leadership: Major one is a grant of $4,000 I applied for and was awarded Junior year to do a project on Healthy Eating for it in my school district (I organized 6 assemblies, 2 parent workshops, and a HS cafeteria tasting, also made a survey, successful impact which added organic and healthier options in the cafeterias, continuously adding more this year to improve the cafeteria food at all schools)
Started the Animal Rights club (president of it for 2 years, not currently)
Pres of Environmental Club
VP of French Club
Applying for 2 more grants on similar topics (one 10K the other 2K) for sustainable gardening and composting, very likely to get it (will find out in March sadly)

Volunteer: my grant project also gives me hours (at least 40, Junior year), Pony Power Therapies (Soph year 25 hrs), I help kids with disabilities (Soph-Senior, 20 hrs per year)

Summer: into Junior year I did a two week college camp at JHU and took a class, into Senior year I took a summer online course at my local community college in Abnormal Psychology

Recommendation Letters: one 10/10 (gave me the highest rec he’s ever given??), the others I’m guessing 8.5/10, also an extra one from my superintendent who worked with me on the grant (7.5/10)

Essays- pretty good but I wouldn’t say excellent: my main essay is maybe a 9/10 and supplements are similar, show my personality/voice, unique interests/qualities (I submitted a graded essay Option B which was decent maybe? my dad just told me he didn’t think it was that good so…)

Extra- I’m bilingual (Italian and English)

Applied for Financial Aid?: yep
Intended Major: Psych or Neuro
State (if domestic applicant): NJ
Country (if international applicant): US
School Type: Public, top-rated
Ethnicity: whiteeee
Gender: female
Income Bracket: middle class
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): the opposite of a hook

Strengths: don’t even know, probably ACT scores, increasing trend in grades, leadership in the grants
Weaknesses: my state, gender, whiteness, average GPA and extracurriculars for the most part
Why you think you were accepted/rejected/deferred? No freaking clue

5

OfnizsihzUHuyYUhzUYUHuHyziyzyyyuyUyUyYzczZ666776.

6

@DreamforIvy Did you get the same early notification email yesterday as I did?

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[aB][asize=4][acolor=#008000]Decision: Accepted[/color][/size]**

I got an email offering me an early admissions place for the class of 2021 also!

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown): I didn’t take it
ACT (breakdown): E36, M29, R31, S28, C31
SAT II: Spanish 800 WH 670
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.94
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Valedictorian (of a class of 20)
AP (place score in parenthesis): English Lit (3), Spanish (5), Calc AB(3)
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: AP English Lang, Macroeconomics, Calc BC, Physics 1, Leadership Development
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Florida League of Christian Schools Festival (Silver Medal Piano Solo Upper, Gold Medal Poetry Upper, Gold Medal Human Video), 6th Place AMCO National Spelling Bee, Outstanding MUN delegate, 1st Place Mexican History competition in Puebla, Mexico.

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Basically the activities I had awards in.
Job/Work Experience: I work in a local dairy farm
Volunteer/Community service: Key Club, SWAT, church volunteering
Summer Activities: Work, church, camp, traveling
Essays (rating 1-10, details): 10 for personal essay (talked about my identity crisis being a Mexican-Spaniard-American who just came to America for college after living my whole life abroad)

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): I didn’t read any of the recs
Teacher Rec #1: 10 (my Calc teacher and counselor… we have a very close teacher-student relationship)
Teacher Rec #2: 10 (my English teacher… we have a bunch of things in common and talks very highly of me)
Counselor Rec: 10
Additional Rec: 8 (my Physics teacher… I don’t know him really well but he’s a great human being)
Interview: I didn’t have an interview

Other:

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: International Relations/ Government/ PoliSci
State (if domestic applicant):
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Private
Ethnicity: Hispanic (25% Native American)
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: Middle-low class
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First generation

Reflections: It was a super surprise!!!

Strengths: My essays, recs and background
Weaknesses: My scores and the fact I came to the US in Jan 2016
Why you think you were accepted/rejected/deferred? I was accepted because of my unique story I think.

General Comments: It was a cool process… I decided to submit a graded essay instead of writing a supplemental essay.

Other College Decisions: Waiting for Johns Hopkins and UChicago’s decisions next week and looking forward to Ivy Day and April Fool’s Day.

8

Decision: Accepted

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown): Superscore: 2290; Math- 750, Reading- 740, Writing- 800
ACT (breakdown): Composite- 34
SAT II: Math 2- 800, Chemistry- 790, Physics- 760
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.98
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/409
AP (place score in parenthesis): Calc AB (5), Biology (5), World History (5), Stats (4), Physics 1 (4), Chem (4), Art History (3), US History (4)
Senior Year Course Load: All APs
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Finalist, AP Scholar, nothing amazing

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Debate (captain)- won a ton of national awards and am highly ranked; Key Club (Secretary, Fundraising Chair); work for two nonprofit organizations, wont name them just for privacy
Job/Work Experience: 2 years working at a tutoring center, interned in a Congressional office
Volunteer/Community service: Key Club stuff and nonprofit work
Summer Activities: Debate Camps, work, internship
Essays (rating 1-10, details): Common App main essay was pretty good (9/10), I submitted a research paper I wrote as the supplement

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: Debate Coach (probably 10)
Teacher Rec #2: Chemistry teacher (I imagine an 8)
Counselor Rec: Good, she let me read it and for a counselor rec is was very personal

Other:

Applied for Financial Aid?: yes
Intended Major: Chemistry
State (if domestic applicant): FL
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: Broke
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First gen

Reflections:

Strengths: Good scores, personal common app essay, high class rank and GPA
Weaknesses: No significant awards

Other College Decisions: Michigan EA (Accepted), UF (Accepted), UCF (Accepted), Harvard EA (Deferred). Waiting for like 15 other schools…

9

Oh my! You guys should have applied to Harvard, Yale and such! xD
Congrats!

10

What an odd thing to say. Why?

11

@OHMomof2 well because their stats match up to Ivy League level!
I’m just kidding though, not literally!

12

@intstudent2021 Stats-wise (in terms of SAT scores) Amherst is right at Ivy level. Higher than Cornell or Dartmouth, lower than Yale, Harvard or Princeton. About the same as Penn or Brown or Columbia.

https://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/Rankings/Details/MedianSAT

Students generally choose Amherst because it offers certain things they want, not because they didn’t think they could get into an Ivy.

OK carry on :slight_smile:

13

@intstudent2021 Some people don’t want to go to Ivies (and the Ivies are just an athletic conference anyway). Places like Amherst and Williams exist to provide Ivy-quality applicants with a different experience.

I’m curious - do you go into the threads for the University of Chicago or Stanford and say “you should have applied to Harvard or Yale instead?”

14

I’m not sure why we are criticizing @intstudent2021. To me, it seemed as if he was just complimenting those who got in for having a very strong application. He doesn’t seem to be insulting Amherst.

15

^^^ I agree, he/she is just saying that applicants who get into top LACs will probably have a great shot at Ivies as well, if that is what they wanted. I applied to Amherst and got an early write and also applied to Harvard and Brown (deferred ED) so I completely understand and support that idea.

16

I don’t understand, have people already received their decisions? What does this mean

17

No the decisions that have been posted here for RD are just from people who got early writes (like likely letters) a few weeks ago.

18

Decision: Accepted

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown): N/A
ACT (breakdown): 35C (36E 35M 35R 35S) 8/12 Essay
SAT II: Math II (800) Bio-E (760)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.87
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 6/529
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Bio (4) AP World History (4)
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: Most rigorous, but I dropped hard classes to take choir and theatre lol
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Boys Nation Senator, Questbridge Finalist

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Chess Club (founder, President)
NHS (Officer)
Book Club (Officer)
SkillsUSA (Officer)
FBLA (Officer)
Concert Choir (Unofficial section leader, I helped restart the club and grow it from 7 members to 100 in 6 months.)
Choir also has sung at district banquets, and we went on tour in LA.
Lead role in school musical

Job/Work Experience: I work 20 hours a week with my Dad.
Volunteer/Community service: 10 hours a week at church, with various events.
Summer Activities: FBLA National Conference
Mission trip to Nicaragua
Boys State and Boys Nation

Essays (rating 1-10, details):

Questbridge Essays -
8/10 - It compared my life to a wooden desk I’ve owned since I was little. I scribbled on it and wrote down my thoughts when I was going through bad times, and the desk became an extension of my personality.
6/10 - I wrote about how chess was an underappreciated art form. I went on to say I found people at school to create a club with.

Common App Essay - 7/10, it was about how I visited my Grandma before she passed from terminal breast cancer. She was playful and humorous even in her last moments, so I wrote about how she didn’t let her condition stop her from having fun with her grandchild for the last time.

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: English teacher, pushed me to pursue politics. 8/10
Teacher Rec #2: Bio teacher, I was funny and over-excited in her class. I wasn’t the best student, but I got close to her as a person. 8/10
Counselor Rec: Generic, I got a new counselor starting junior year. 4/10
Additional Rec: None.
Interview: None.

Other:

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Political Science
State (if domestic applicant): AZ
School Type: Large public, 2500 students total.
Ethnicity: Asian-American (South Korean Immigrant)
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: 35k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First gen, poor (?)

Reflections:

Strengths: Test scores, ECs
Weaknesses: Dat GPA, holy balls I should’ve tried harder for all 4 years.
Why you think you were accepted/rejected/deferred? I just got lucky. Plain and simple, don’t read too much into your decisions because it can seemingly be random at times and they do not determine your worth as a person.

General Comments: I didn’t care at all about school in my freshman year, so my GPA took a beating. I started to wake up and realize that I didn’t want to go to my state school (no offense ASU!) and end up with a desk job, working 9 to 5 and not accomplishing more. I was entitled - I thought I was such a smart kid, and that I was destined to rule the world, cure cancer, marry Emma Watson. So I involved myself in a bunch of clubs that I didn’t care about, started studying for tests that I hated studying for, all in an attempt to pad my application. In my senior year, I took a look at myself and I didn’t know who I was. I was a phony, a hack, who did what he had to do to get to a place that he thought he had to get to. I embraced my quirks and my love for music during this past year, but I regret that it was too late. When I look back on my high school life, I realize that I wasted my time doing things that I didn’t like doing. I can’t think of more than 5 memorable experiences I had in my high school years. I just wish I had accepted myself earlier. Then I could say, “Oh I don’t regret high school. I had a ton of fun!”

Anyways, I’m blessed to be accepted to Amherst. I just feel weird, knowing that Amherst didn’t accept me, per se - they accepted a bluffed-up version of me.

Other College Decisions: UChicago (WL), Northwestern (WL), Pomona (WL), University of Virginia (WL), MIT (Rejected), Columbia ED (Rejected).

19

Decision: Accepted

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown): Didn’t send in
ACT (breakdown): 32C
SAT II: didn’t send in
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.9
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 10%
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Lang (5), AP Art History (3), AP World (5), AP U.S. History (4)
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Bio, AP Literature, AP Spanish, AP U.S. Government, Calculus, & Financial Math
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): N/A

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): An international organization advocating for those with disabilities (president for one year, vice president for two), a general volunteer service club (treasurer one year, vice president the next)
Job/Work Experience: I have been working 20+ hours a week at a local restaurant for about two years.
Volunteer/Community service: Volunteering weekly at a sensory gym to aid those with disabilities with their motor + social skills, mentoring teenagers with autism, helping with fairs/festivals through an environmental group in my area, and then random odd events like Relay for Life & other charity walks
Summer Activities: I went to an international leadership conference last summer for advocacy of those with disabilities and wrote my main essay partially about this
Essays (rating 1-10, details): 10 - Writing is my strong point and definitely helped me. My supplemental for Amherst was my favorite out of all of the ones I had written.

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: 10, 100 if possible. The teacher is practically a second father to me and is also my mentor for my main extracurricular activity. He’s also incredibly intelligent and I know that he must have written me something amazing.
Teacher Rec #2: 8/9. I am very close with the teacher that wrote this but not a deeply personal level. However, she has great knowledge of my work ethic and who I am as a person.
Counselor Rec: 9/10. My counselor and I get along very well and I go to her about everything. Since I go to a very small public school, I have formed a very intimate relationship with her over the last four years.
Additional Rec: N/A
Interview: N/A

Other:

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Law + Spanish double major
State (if domestic applicant): New York
Country (if international applicant): N/A
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: >40k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): N/A

Reflections: I could not be more surprised that this happened. I had been rejected by two of my top choices and had no hope in getting into Amherst. It goes to show that your scores aren’t everything and that just because some schools don’t see your value doesn’t mean it isn’t there!!

Strengths: My essays, recs, and my “pointed” application (I’m basically as pointed as it gets).
Weaknesses: My standardized testing
Why you think you were accepted/rejected/deferred?: I’m not sure if they send out a standard or personalized letter, but mine talked about my stellar recommendations and essays, both of which I think are what probably made my application stand out!

20

Decision: Accepted

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown): n/a
ACT (breakdown): 33
SAT II: Literature-710, US History-670
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.97 UW/4.61 W
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): n/a
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP European History (4), AP English Literature (4), AP US History (3), AP Physics 1 (2) lol
IB (place score in parenthesis): n/a
Senior Year Course Load: AP Government, Theology, AP Biology, AP English Language, AP Spanish Literature, AP Calculus AB
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AP Scholar

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): tennis (league champion 2 years), cross country/track (team captain and many awards), student council (head), piano (certificate of merit every year and state convention), lots more
Job/Work Experience:piano tutor and some work in a law office
Volunteer/Community service: helping at summer camps, assistance league (secretary), lots more
Summer Activities: science trips to other countries, service
Essays (rating 1-10, details): common app 8/10, submitted a literary analysis I was really proud of essay for Amherst 9/10

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1:AP Lit teacher (9)
Teacher Rec #2:Science Head (7)
Counselor Rec: (8) probably just summarized my resume
Additional Rec: n/a
Interview: n/a

Other:

Applied for Financial Aid?: yes but probably not going to get any
Intended Major: Biology or Neuroscience
State (if domestic applicant): CA
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: competitive nationally ranked private
Ethnicity: white
Gender: female
Income Bracket: >200K
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): literally nothing

Reflections: I am super stoked! I was not expecting this, especially after getting rejected from Williams 2 days ago.

Strengths: GPA, essay, lots of extracurricular activities I am passionate about
Weaknesses: whiteness, no significant awards, SAT II scores
Why you think you were accepted/rejected/deferred? I honestly have no idea.

General Comments:

Other College Decisions: mainly deciding between honors program at BC and waiting on Princeton, Yale, Stanford, and Cornell (not expecting anything except rejections haha)