Just made my CC account last night and @TheGuy1 suggested I make my own thread. Still not entirely sure if I’m doing this correctly, but this is what I’ve been posting on the other pages. I applied to
Brown
Cornell (CALS)
Columbia
Dartmouth
Duke
Princeton
Stanford
Yale
For all the schools except Cornell, I applied to the Arts and Sciences. I applied to Yale REA and was deferred (sent in my letter of continued interest) and I just recently got waitlisted at UChicago.
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): N/A
ACT (breakdown): 31 (35E, 34R, 28M, 29S)
SAT II: 740 Spanish
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.921
Weighted GPA: 4.946
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 5%
AP (place score in parenthesis): 4’s: English Lang, English Lit, Environmental 3’s: World History, Biology, Human Geography, Calculus AB, Physics 1
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: Journalism 6 Honors, AP Gov, AP Macroeconomics, AP Computer Science A, The Great Books and the Great Ideas, AP French, AP Calc BC
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Nothing truly major. Presidential Bryn Mawr award, I was published in a community college’s (Doral College) literary journal, fundraiser of the year for the national english honor society club
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
- Red Cross Club Founder and President: I conduct educational lectures, collected 160 gallons of water for South Africa, CPR certified over 80 members, and organized blood drives. (grades 10,11,12)
- Red Cross Volunteer & Youth Ambassador: I conduct public CPR seminars, help at disaster shelters when needed, and write reports on local events the Red Cross aids with. (grades 9, 10, 11, 12)
- Language Learning/iTalki Language Learning Partner: I self studied two languages and serve as a Language Learning Partner on the iTalki platform, where I help other people learn English and Spanish. (grades 9, 10, 11, 12)
- National English Honor Society Public Relations: I have applied and been given $1500 worth of grants, run the social media page, and I am a tutor for the club’s College Essay Incubator Program. (grades, 10, 11, 12)
- Miami Children’s Hospital Volunteer: I shadowed doctors, entertained children in the waiting room, restocked and cleaned rooms, and helped the radiologist with x-rays. (grades 11, 12)
- Science National Honor Society Member: I was a member of various science competition teams and volunteered in over 30 science related events (Miami Heart Walk, Walk to Cure Arthitis, etc). (grades 9, 10, 11, 12)
- National Honor Society Member: I volunteered in over 20 volunteering events (Ironman, Turkey Trot, etc) and participated in 6 food and clothing drives. (grades 9, 10, 11, 12)
Job/Work Experience: I tutor every week ever since I started high school and also did a paid internship (data entry) at a marketing agency.
Volunteer/Community service: I listed everything above but I also was a camp counselor every year of high school.
Summer Activities: I go to Puerto Rico every year.
Essays (rating 1-10, details):
Common App: 10. Writing is my strong suit and I think this is the strongest part of my app. Wrote about how my adventures in my community pool were the catalyst to my intellectual curiosity.
Brown essays: 10
Cornell essays: 10
Columbia essays: 7. I described each item on my list which significantly reduced the number of things I could write about. It’s not that they’re not well written, but a friend who got in ED wrote a lot more than my 5/
Dartmouth essays: 9
Duke essays: 10
Princeton essays: 10. I think my short responses were strong too.
Stanford essays: short, 8. long,
Yale essays: 9. Wrote about the environment in one and reading it now, I don’t like it as much as before.
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: AP Environmental teacher. 9. I had the chance to read it. Spoke highly of my work with the Red Cross and the research we conducted in class, as well as a thorough analysis of my character.
Teacher Rec #2: AP Lit teacher. 10. Also had a chance to read it. Described me as “infinitely inquisitive” and spoke more highly of me than some of my friends would lol.
Counselor Rec: Didn’t read it. I assume it’s above average as she knows some of the work I do around school but I assume it’s rather basic.
Additional Rec: N/A
Interview:
Brown interview: Went well. He studied cognitive science so we had a lot to talk about
Cornell interview: We really connected over our love of foreign languages and even did part of the interview in Korean. We grew up in the same neighborhood and went to the same middle school, so we connected fairly quickly.
Columbia interview: Didn’t have one
Dartmouth interview: Amazing. Told me he had no idea how I looked on paper, but that if it was up to the interview, he’d accept me in a heartbeat. He has written me three emails since our meeting.
Duke interview: Didn’t have one
Princeton interview: My best interview hands down. She and I genuinely clicked and she seemed really impressed with everything we talked about and my future aspirations. Said I was among the most impressive applicants she’d ever interviewed.
Stanford interview: Didn’t have one
Yale interview: Really good. She said my Why Yale answer was absolutely perfect and that it was the best answer she’d ever received.
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Biology
State (if domestic applicant):
Country (if international applicant): USA, Florida
School Type: Charter
Ethnicity: Puerto Rican (adopted from Russian)
Gender: F
Income Bracket: 60,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): I was told on another thread that being Puerto Rican would make me URM but I’m not sure how heavily they consider that because I do indicate in my app that I was adopted.
Strengths: Essays and grades
Weaknesses: Scores. I know my ACT score is in the range for some of them, but it’s definitely the lower 25th percentile.
My EC’s were kind of in the middle.