Caltech Class of 2020 EA Results Thread

Colleges and Universities A-Z California Institute of Technology
1

Here’s the template…

[ color=green][ b]Accepted**[/color]

[ color=red][ b]Rejected**[/color]

[ color=blue][ b]Deferred**[/color]

[ b]Stats:**
[ list]
[]SAT:
[]SAT II:
[]ACT:
[]GPA:
[]Rank:
[]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB):
[/list][ b]Subjective**
[ list]
[]Essays:
[]Teacher Recs:
[]Counselor Rec:
[]Supplementary Material:
[]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize):
[/list]
[ b]Personal:**
[ list]
[]Location:
[]High School Type:
[]Ethnicity:
[]Gender
[/list]
[ b]Other:**
[ list]
[]Extracurriculars:
[]Awards:
[]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:[/list]

2

Rejected
Stats:

  • []SAT: 2360 (800 M, 800 CR, 760 W)
    [    ]SAT II: 800 Math 2, 760 Physics
    []ACT:
    [    ]GPA: 3.9ish unweighted (if they exclude my 7th/8th grade grades which are on my transcript,3.99), 4.64 weighted
    []Rank: 9/220
    [    ]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): 5s on Calc BC, English Lang, U.S. History, and World History. 4 on Physics 1

Subjective

  • []Essays: I thought mine were really good. I like writing. I was a bit risky, maybe, because I wrote my “diversity” essay about how I really think reading is important for the mind, and how I’d start a book club there.
    [    ]Teacher Recs: Supposedly really good from my history teacher, who I’m really close with. Math teacher, who I’m also really close with, hasn’t said anything about it. His rec might not have been that good honestly, I feel like he might be the type to use, like, a template. But he does really like me.
    []Counselor Rec: Probably good
    [    ]Supplementary Material:
    []Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize):

Personal

  • []Location: New Orleans
    []High School Type: Private
    [    ]Ethnicity: White
    []Gender: Male

Other

  • []Extracurriculars: President of Math Club, Science Club, Book Club, and Chess club. Also participated in NHS, Academic Games, and Science Research Team.
    []Awards: 1st individual in Mu Alpha Theta State Convention for Calculus, 1st in State Rally at LSU for Calculus, bunch of other regional tournament victories. Harvard Book Award.
    [    ]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: YO so I definitely messed up the template, whatever. About the decision: Oh well! Feels bad, but there are other schools.
3

Rejected
Stats:[ul]
[]SAT: 2310 (800M 790W 720CR)
[]SAT II: 800 MII 750 Chem 720 USH
[]ACT:
[]GPA: 4.7 weighted
[]Rank: no ranks
[]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): 141 AMC 10, 126 AMC 12, 11 AIME, 5s on Calc BC, USH, Euro, Chem, Stat, 4s on Latin, Bio, Phys 1
[/ul]Subjective[ul]
[]Essays: I thought my essays were pretty good. Having a tough time remembering what I wrote about though.
[]Teacher Recs: Should be pretty good, both teachers (math, ush)know me pretty well and loved me.
[]Counselor Rec: Probably good
[]Supplementary Material: I submitted a math research paper I co-wrote with other people from a math summer camp.
[]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize):
[/ul]Personal[ul]
[]Location: SoCal
[]High School Type: Private
[]Ethnicity: Asian
[]Gender: M
[/ul]Other[ul]
[]Extracurriculars: Math Club President, PROMYS summer camp, Competition Math Tutoring Program Founder, Quizbowl
[]Awards: USAMO Qualifier, ARML National Tiebreaker Qualifier, ARML Division A Top Team, National AP Scholar, National Merit Semifinalist, Distinguished Honor Roll on both AMC 10 and 12
[]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: Didn’t expect to get rejected. Definitely more nervous about the other schools now, but what can I do. [/ul]

4

Deferred

Stats:

  • []SAT: 2300 (800 M, 800 W, 700 CR)
    [    ]SAT II: 800 Math2, 790 Physics, 780 Spanish
    []ACT: 35 composite
    [    ]GPA: N/A
    []Rank: Top 3%

Subjective:

  • []Essays:

    -Honor System: Wrote about how I dealt with dishonest elections in Boy Scouts
    -Fun: Competitive puzzle solving
    -Contributing to the community: DIY attitude that I have
    -Why Caltech: Lots about getting inspired about learning new things, curiosity. I thought this was my best CT essay.
    []Teacher Recs:
    -Physics teacher (10 – he wrote great comments on my report card and I’m taking another class with him this year)
    -History teacher (8 – also good comments, don’t know her as well as my physics teacher).
    [    ]Counselor Rec: I’m guessing it was pretty good (7 or 8?)
    []Supplementary Material: none
    [    ]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): none

Personal:

  • []Location:
    [    ]High School Type: Private, co-ed
    []Ethnicity: White
    [    ]Gender: Male

Other:

[list]
[]Extracurriculars: Puzzle solving (official competition organizer and competitor) 10-12, Mountain Biking 9-12, FTC Robotics (team founder and president) 10-12, Boy Scouts 9-12, TXML Math team 9-12; also two internships in the past two summers (Aerospace and electrical engineering); Venture Crew High Adventure trips (Boy Scouts).
[]Awards: Set records in puzzle solving; Mountain Biking team has placed in the top 3 in the state, Eagle Scout + Eagle Palm awards, top 5 math team scorer at school and 3rd best math team in the state (small school as well), Some Robotics awards at competitions and pretty good finishes for a new team.
[li]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:[/li]I didn’t have anything stellar in the research side (or research supplements), and most of my big awards have come from puzzle solving (non-academic). I’m still happy I didn’t get outright rejected, as there’s always the spring :slight_smile:

5

Rejected

Stats:[ul]
[]SAT: 2360 (800 M, 800 CR, 760 WR)
[]SAT II: 800 MII, 800 Physics
[]ACT:
[]GPA: 3.96ish unweighted
[]Rank:
[]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): BC calc, Physics C Mech and E&M, World History, Comptuer Science (5s), APUSH, Chemistry (4s).
[/ul]
Subjective

  • []Essays: Thought they were pretty good, not gonna rate them.
    [    ]Teacher Recs: good
    []Counselor Rec: good
    [    ]Supplementary Material:
    []Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize):

Personal

  • []Location: east coast
    []High School Type: STEM Magnet
    [    ]Ethnicity: White
    []Gender: Male

Other

  • []Extracurriculars: I don’t really feel like listing them out
    []Awards: NMSF, AP Scholar, AIME qualifier, USACO gold, USAPhO semis
    [    ]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: Must have been tough this year, I was at least expecting a deferral…
6

[ size=+1][ color=blue][ b]Deferred[ /b][ /color][ /size]

[ b]Stats:[ /b][ list]
[ *]SAT: (Superscore) Math: 800 CR: 740 WR: 740 (2280)
[ *]SAT II: Math2c 800 Physics 800 Chem 790
[ *]ACT: N/A
[ *]GPA: 4.07/4.3 ish (moved schools, not sure how the whole composite thing turned out)
[ *]Rank: N/A
[ *]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): IB Predicted scores:
Higher level math, chemistry, physics, economics: 7/7 each
Standard level english lit, french B: 6/7 each

[ /list][ b]Subjective[ /b][ list]
[ *]Essays:
Main: Talked about how Physics is something beyond a subject of research for me. Physics is my life philosophy, a symbol of humanity, and my identity. Felt it was pretty good, really making use of my CERN internships
Fun: making plastic models, used it as a sly metaphor for particle physics (building parts, elegance etc) I liked it
Honor: I dont give answers, I teach the way things work when I am asked for help
Contribution: leadership and international openmindedness
why caltech: opened with a quote from Feynman’s autobiography. Talked about the active research background, the international community, the focus on academics/research as opposed to grades, and talked about how it would be perfect to start a theoretical research career at caltech
[ *]Teacher Recs: My chemistry teacher did her master’s at Caltech and she absolutely loves me, so that one shouldve been amazing. My math teacher REALLY likes me as well, I can only assume that one was great as well. I didn’t get to read them though.
[ *]Counselor Rec: No Idea
[ *]Supplementary Material: Research Paper, “Exploration of the Activation Energy of Acid-Base Reactions through Parallel Reactions” I did as a part of IB under the aforementioned chem teacher.
[ *]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): Really international life (kr->us->kr->switzerland->egypt)?

[ /list][ b]Personal[ /b][ list]
[ *]Location:Cairo
[ *]High School Type: small private international school
[ *]Ethnicity: Korean
[ *]Gender: Male

[ /list][ b]Other[ /b][ list]
[ *]Extracurriculars: Sophomore class president
Junior year NHS secretary
Junior year completely Student Lead Performance executive producer
3 years member of a charity club (fundraising for schools, orphanages in Tanzania)
4 years doing MUN, went to THIMUN2015 and CACMUN2015, CACMUN I was awarded “The Most Likely to Become Secretary General”
Tutored peers for a year, then moved on to tutoring local orphans
Founder and leader of school Science Demonstration Club
Internships at CERN during summer of 2014 and 2015
[ *]Awards: (always) High Honors

Congrats to whoever got in! I hope to be joining you by March ^^
(unless I get into a school which actually offers aid for internationals hehe)

7

Rejected

Stats:[ul]
[]SAT: none
[]SAT II: 800 math II, 800 Physics
[]ACT: (R33, M35, S36, E34, W8) 35 composite
[]GPA: 3.78 uw (a lot of B’s in humanities subjects)
[]Rank: unknown, my school is a bit crazy though, so probably not something really high.
[]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): 5’s on Calc BC, all the Physics tests, Stats, CompSci, 4’s on APUSH, AP French
Pretty high AMC scores.

[/ul]Subjective[ul]
[]Essays: Pretty good, but didn’t spend too long on them. Maybe should not have said the stuff about classes having too much work and not enough thinking at school, especially with that GPA.
[]Teacher Recs: Pretty good, I think.
[]Counselor Rec: Average
[]Supplementary Material: nothing
[li]Hook: Math and physics contests[/li]
[/ul]Personal[ul]
[]Location: NorCal
[]High School Type: Public
[]Ethnicity: Asian
[]Gender: M

[/ul]Other[ul]
[]Extracurriculars: Random hobbies, Some research at NASA, Math Club,
[]Awards: IPhO Silver (team Canada) 2015, MOSP Qualifier 2014 (got into TST by chance too). Other smaller awards too.
[li]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: I might have messed up on filling out the application. Is all the contest stuff supposed to go into the “honors” section of the commonapp? A little worried about application, so I’m doing a little more checking. I honestly didn’t really spend a lot of time on this application.[/li][/ul]

My friends seem more surprised than me, though. \o/

Although being not even deferred makes me think I did something terribly wrong.

8

got deferred unfortunately

9

@ManduIsLove aren’t you supposed to have a humanities and a math/science?

10

Oh yeah, confused myself with Uchicago. Replace “math” with “econ”

11

Accepted, I don’t feel like retyping all my stats so just go to my chances thread http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1790948-chances-at-uc-berkeley-ucla-carnegie-mellon-georgia-tech-stanford-mit-caltech.html#latest

I’m a pretty normal dude. I guess being recruited helps now.

I hated my essays but I hate all of my essays. I think the only one that focused only on STEM was the “Why Caltech” essay. It will be interesting to see how the next batch of decisions works out.

12

Accepted

Stats:[ul]
[]SAT: 2330 combined - 800 math 770 cr 760 writing (1 sitting)
[]SAT II: 790 bio m, 790 chem, 750/760 math 2
[]ACT: didn’t take
[]GPA: 104 weighted, 97 unweighted (my school uses a 100-point scale)
[]Rank: my school doesn’t rank but easily top 10
[]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): ap euro, chem, physics 1, statistics, us history - all 5
[]Current Classes: (adding this section because i think it’s important and i’ve seen it on other results threads) ap physics c, ap calc bc, ap art history, ap us gov, ap lit, independent study research
[/ul]Subjective[ul]
[]Essays: my personal statement was really good, i wrote about my passion for astrophysics and how i wont let anyone tell me it wont give me a career. my supplemental essays were also pretty good; answers ranged from maintaining academic integrity in the face of peer pressure to cosplaying. my answers were really frank and unscripted, i wrote each answer in one go with whatever popped into my head as a good answer and only lightly edited afterward
[]Teacher Recs: physics teacher - we’re really close, i do very well in her class, and she runs scioly in our school, but her english isnt great since she only emigrated to the us around the time the cold war ended
apush/9th grade history teacher - i did okay but he definitely likes me and we share similar taste in tv shows and stuff so we’re pretty tight outside of class too
[]Counselor Rec: he has high hopes for me even though we’re not particularly close so i’m sure it was fine
[]Supplementary Material: research paper; it wasn’t that great though and i was debating whether i should submit it for a while
[]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): i wish…
[/ul]Personal[ul]
[]Location: ny
[]High School Type: public
[]Ethnicity: chinese
[]Gender: nonbinary (dfab)
[/ul]Other[ul]
[]Extracurriculars: summer internship at brookhaven, school astronomy club (president 2 years), school gay-straight alliance (treasurer 2 years), science olympiad, marching band, chinese dance, columbia science honors program
[]Awards: ap scholar with distinction, national honor society
[*]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:[/ul] oh my god i’m shaking. i did not expect to get in at all!! i guess this shows that you don’t need a perfect math 2 score haha. my advice is really just to show who you are in your application! don’t act all stuffy because i think caltech really looks for creative people who know when to have fun while being hard workers! if you’re passionate about something, write about it and make sure everyone knows! especially if it’s a stem-related thing. oh and i have no idea if this played a role but…i answered the gender/sexuality question honestly and even if you’re cisgender and straight i think you should say so, even just to show that you acknowledge that there are more genders and orientations out there and/or that you clicked on the link they gave. or maybe that’s just my active-gsa-member/social justice side talking…

13

Accepted

Stats:
SAT: 2310 combined - 750 Math 760 CR 800 Writing (1 sitting)
SAT II: 800 Physics, 800 Math II, 780 Chem
ACT: N/A
GPA: good question?? I think ~4.5 weighted
Rank: 6/350
Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): AP Physics C Mech, Physics C E&M, Chemistry, Calculus BC - all 5
Current Classes: Honors Art V, AP U.S. Gov., AP Lit., DE Engineering, Honors Forensic Chemistry, DE Differential Equations/Math Modeling, Honors Linear Algebra
Subjective
Essays: My Common App. essay was so solid, I wrote about how I was rejected from my school’s math/science specialty center and how that impacted my education there. My supplemental ones were pretty good as well; I wrote a great essay about why I wanted to go there, and my “for fun” essay was pretty great too. My ethics essay was a little wild because I talked about how I like let a cheating thing slide? It’s not as bad as it sounds but it’s probably not what they were looking for.
Teacher Recs:
Physics teacher - we’re super tight, I’m actually building a Tesla coil and Helmholtz coil on a counter in his room this year. He told me all the time that I was one of the best students he’d ever have, so obviously he thinks highly of me, but then again he wrote my rec the night before? I’d hope it was good but he’s seriously a wild card, so I honestly have no clue.
U.S. History teacher - also pretty tight. I had him last year and he really liked me, I worked pretty hard in his class.
Counselor Rec: holy crap my counselor actually hates me. I literally have no idea
Supplementary Material: IMMC math modeling paper
Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): HiMCM top paper (?? I think that counts? It’s international but idk)
Personal
Location: VA
High School Type: public
Ethnicity: white
Gender: female
Other
Extracurriculars: Like 2 summer NASA programs, summer Governor’s school, president of Physics & Engineering Club, president of ACS Chemistry Club, president of SNHS, some other annoying stuff that doesn’t matter
Awards: HiMCM Outstanding & Top Problem B Paper, IMMC Meritorious paper (one of two U.S. teams), National Merit Semifinalist (didn’t put it on the app), several art/class awards
Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:

I’m honestly dying? I never thought this could happen for me because I’ve honestly been rejected from just about everything I’ve ever applied to. I’m seriously in shock I don’t even know how to start processing this?

14

.

15

[ size=+1][ color=red][ b]Rejected[ /b][ /color][ /size]

[ b]Stats:[ /b][ list]
[ *]SAT: 2350 (770 Math, 800 CR, 780 Writing)
[ *]SAT II: 800 Math II, 800 Chemistry, 790 World History
[ *]ACT: N/A
[ *]GPA: 4.32 weighted
[ *]Rank: School doesn’t rank students
[ *]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): 8 different APs,
[ /list][ b]Subjective[ /b][ list]
[ *]Essays: Pretty good, I think. I don’t really know.
[ *]Teacher Recs: Good
[ *]Counselor Rec: Excellent
[ *]Supplementary Material: N/A
[ *]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): Solid student, strong humanities background
[ /list][ b]Personal[ /b][ list]
[ *]Location: Ohio
[ *]High School Type: Private, College preparatory
[ *]Ethnicity: White
[ *]Gender: Male
[ /list][ b]Other[ /b][ list]
[ *]Extracurriculars: Solid. Plenty of volunteering, worked at a science museum, tutoring. Summer job in fast food.
[ *]Awards: National AP Scholar
[ *]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:[ /list] Not really too broken up about it. Knew it was a crapshoot going in.

16

Accepted

Stats:[ul]
[]SAT: 2270 superscore (760M, 770CR, 740W)
[]SAT II: 800 Math 2, 760 Physics
[]ACT: N/A
[]GPA: 3.94 UW, my school doesn’t do weighted
[]Rank: my school doesn’t rank
[]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): AMC12: 70.5 (lol); AP Spanish, AP CS, AP Calc BC: all 5
[/ul]Subjective[ul]
[]Essays: My CA essay was super unique and I think that definitely helped. I felt pretty good about my supplemental essays also. There’s no point in trying to objectively score any of these though.
[]Teacher Recs: Both of them like me a lot and I’ve been involved in activities that they run outside of class. Never saw the recs and never will so I can’t really speak for how good they were.
[]Counselor Rec: I imagine that it was good but I’ve obviously never read it
[]Supplementary Material: N/A
[]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): URM I guess maybe?
[/ul]Personal[ul]
[]Location: WA
[]High School Type: Private
[]Ethnicity: Native American (registered tribal member, i.e. they know it’s legit) / Asian / White. Who knows if they counted me as a URM or not. I did write about my Native American heritage / involvement with that community in a couple of my essays so that definitely helped.
[]Gender: Female
[/ul]Other[ul]
[]Extracurriculars: Lots of different things that I don’t really feel like sharing here. A pretty even mix of volunteer service, STEM activities, sports, and arts/humanities activities.
[]Awards: some NHD stuff (got to state level), National Merit Commended, AP Scholar… nothing too special
[]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: I was so worried bc I haven’t done any research, my extracurriculars are sort of all over the place, and my only real award is in a history competition; I thought that schools (especially Caltech tbh) wouldn’t see how passionate I really am for science. Turns out that that wasn’t the case – and I think my essays really saved me in that regard. This was my first decision and I was so nervous, but now that I know I am going to college a huge weight has lifted off my shoulders.[/ul]

17

Deferred

Don’t really want to post too many details because my friends read CC and I don’t want to be recognized here.
Gist of it:
Mediocre GPA (3.6 uw 4.0 w) but great upwards trend and almost all hardest classes since 9th grade, hard school
All As senior year so far (don’t think it got sent)
2200 SAT (770 m 700 cr 730 w)
760 math 2
770 chem
720 us history
Half Mexican (national hispanic scholar)
Great essays
Great letters (I read 2 of the 4 submitted)
SoCal, male
Good ECs, lots of engineering experience and leadership + great community service
2 aps 10th grade, 2 aps 11th grade, 3 senior year

I got into Mudd ED, but good luck to everyone else!

18

Rejected

Stats:[ul]
[]SAT: 2040 (didn’t submit)
[]SAT II: 780 Math II, 780 Chemistry
[]ACT: 35C (36E, 35M, 34R, 35S)
[]GPA: 4.0 Unweighted, 4.34-4.42 Weighted
[]Rank: School does not rank
[]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): 4; AP Calc BC, AP Latin. 5; AP Chemistry, AP World, AP Lang
[]Senior Course Load: AP Physics C, Latin V, Advanced Differential Equations/Linear Algebra, AP Lit, Virtual Gov, Swimming
[/ul]Subjective[ul]
[]Essays: I thought they were really good…
[]Teacher Recs: Not sure, didn’t see. I had one teacher for 4 years, though, and the other thinks I’m a genius (haha).
[]Counselor Rec: Probably generic, but she took the time to talk to me, and she knows my name when I walk in the door (for a class size of 720).
[]Supplementary Material: Nada. No research.
[]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): Recruited Athlete
[/ul]Personal[ul]
[]Location: Oklahoma
[]High School Type: Public
[]Ethnicity: White
[]Gender: Female
[/ul]Other[ul]
[]Extracurriculars: Swim Club, Tulsa Honors/Chamber Orchestra, Project Manager of Engineering Club, Consul of Latin Club, NHS
[]Awards: 2015 Chemistry Olympiad Finalist, National Merit
[li]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: Congratulations to all who got in! I think my lack of research/science and math extracurriculars/not perfect SAT II scores were what kept me out.[/li]Well, Caltech was my dream school, so I’ve learned the hard way that where you go to college doesn’t define you. I’m still me, and I still got a 5-foot beanbag for my birthday, and I’m still a nerd, and I still love space. Maybe graduate school, then.[/ul]

19

[ size=+1][ color=blue][ b]Deferred[ /b][ /color][ /size]

[ b]Stats:[ /b][ list]
[ *]SAT: N/A
[ *]SAT II: 710 Chem (as a sophomore), 730 BioM, 760 M2, 760 Lit
[ *]ACT: 35 (36 CR, 36 WR, 34 M, 34 S)
[ *]GPA: N/A
[ *]Rank: N/A
[ *]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): 5 AP Bio, 4 AP French (my school is SUPER selective when it comes to allowing kids to take APs)
[ /list][ b]Subjective[ /b][ list]
[ *]Essays: I thought they were really good. Both of my counselors said they were the best they’d seen in a long time and represented me really well.
[ *]Teacher Recs: One AMAZING, one I have no idea.
[ *]Counselor Rec: Pretty good
[ *]Supplementary Material: N/A
[ *]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): Super high level competitive horse back rider (maybe??)
[ /list][ b]Personal[ /b][ list]
[ *]Location: MA
[ *]High School Type: Private
[ *]Ethnicity: White
[ *]Gender: Female
[ /list][ b]Other[ /b][ list]
[ *]Extracurriculars: Competitive Equestrian (to the Junior Olympic level), a lot of community service, Girl Scouts, a couple of school clubs
[ *]Awards: AP Scholar, Honor Roll (at my school), National Merit Commended Scholar
[ *]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:[ /list] To be completely honest, I thought I was going to get outright rejected. My grades a decent, but nothing special. It feels weird to be proud of a deferral, but cause its Caltech I kind of am. Here’s to hoping that I get in during RD! Congrats to everyone who got accepted!

20

Accepted

Stats:[ul]
[]SAT: 2350
[]SAT II: 800 Chem 800 Phy 800 Math II
[]ACT: not taken
[]GPA: 4.4 weighted
[]Rank: not ranked
[]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): 5 on Calc AB and BC, Bio, US History, Spanish Lang, Chem

[/ul]Subjective[ul]
[]Essays: 7/10 I’m not a good writer when it comes to personal essays… and I procrastinated a bit much when I wrote these
[]Teacher Recs: 9/10 I had 3 teacher recs and I think most of them really liked me
[]Counselor Rec: 7/10 I didn’t get a chance to talk to my counselor much
[]Supplementary Material: I submitted my research posters and a letter of rec from my mentor
[li]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize):[/li]
[/ul]Personal[ul]
[]Location: CA
[]High School Type: public
[]Ethnicity: asian
[]Gender: female
[/ul]Other[ul]
[]Extracurriculars: research, Key Club, Academic Decathlon, teaching kids, dance
[]Awards: AP Scholar with Distinction, National Merit Semifinalist, USNCO semifinalist, Acadeca medals, dance awards, biology competition awards

[li]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:[/ul][/li]Honestly I am so surprised. I didn’t think I would get in. I didn’t think my essays were that great but I guess I was still able to convey my passion for math/sci in them. To everyone - please don’t underestimate yourself in this college applications process. You’re all great people and any school is lucky to have you. Be real and honest in your essays and it will show through to the admissions officers, even if you don’t think so. (but still try to get people to proofread them and please START EARLY)