Can more graduated seniors do "actual results" threads?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1981

Kinda late, but I hope this helps.

Background/Profile
Indian from Maryland

Stats/Course Rigor
4.52 W GPA
3.82 UW
2080 SAT (720 CR, 670 M, 690 W) <-- Didn’t submit to any colleges
ACT: 35C: 36M, 35S, 34E, 33R
AP’s:
US History: 4
Computer Science: 4
Chemistry: 4
Physics C Mech: 4
AP Macroeconomics: 4
AB Calc: 5
BC Calc: 5
AP English Language: 5

EC’s/Hooks
EC:
It’s Academic
4-H, Former VP, Junior Leader of Photography
Tennis, Varsity all 4 years
Treasurer, Model UN
Piano
Vocals
Lockheed Martin Explorers Post- Co-Chair of robotics division

Hooks: None. Absolutely none.

Essays
Common App: Pretty strong

Schools I applied to:

I split it up into categories: Safety, Match and Reach (I know how genius of me)

A (Accepted), R (Rejected), D (Deferred), W (Waitlisted)
Safety:
University of Maryland College Park (Honors was a match) -A (Surprise, surprise! I chose the instate school) 20k award
University of Maryland Baltimore County - A: 60k and 72k award (Meyerhoff)
University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign - A

Match:
Georgia Tech - A
UVa - D -> R (Surprised with this one)

Reach:
Carnegie Mellon - W, but I rejected them
Duke - R
Rice - R

Reflection
Don’t stress. Make yourself a better rounded student to make yourself feel better. If you like music pursue it. If you like debating, pursue it. Colleges look for interest in something. So SHOW IT. It doesn’t mean put your foot in everything, but the few you do put your foot in, dominate it. College selection will become much easier once you realize this.

1982

So that’s Yale in Singapore???

1983

@cug2019 Hi! I was wondering if you would be willing to share whether you put in an early decision to a school?

1984

@princess23101 I didn’t apply ED anywhere, and I only applied early action to my safety schools. I didn’t feel like there was one school that I was 100% sure I wanted to attend, so I didn’t want to make a binding commitment.

In addition, my grades took a slight decline my second semester junior year (nothing drastic, but lower than my norm) and I didn’t want selective schools thinking that my grades were on a downward trend. Instead, I got straight A’s my first semester of senior year and waited until they were on my transcripts to officially apply to most colleges.

1985

Accepted: MIT (Deferred then accepted RD), Brown
Waitlisted: University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, UChicago
Rejected: Harvard, UPenn, Northwestern, Caltech
(Didn’t include the 3 safeties I got into)

SAT I (breakdown M/CR/W/Essay): N/A
SAT I superscore (breakdown M/CR/W/Essay): N/A
ACT (breakdown): 31 C (31 E, 34 M, 30 R, 30 S, 8 Essay)
ACT superscore (breakdown): Same as above
SAT II (subject, score): Math Level 2 (800), Chemistry (770), Physics (780)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.92
Weighted GPA: N/A (school doesn’t weight)
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): N/A (school hasn’t released rankings)
AP (place score in parentheses):
Sophomore Year: AP US History (3), AP Chemistry (5)
Junior Year: AP Physics C Mech. (5), AP Physics E&M (5)
Senior Year: AP Environmental Science, AP Psychology
IB (place score in parentheses): N/A
College Dual Enrollment or Guest Student Classes:
Oakland Community College: Calculus 1 (A), Calculus 2 (A-)
Lawrence Technological University: Calculus 3 (A), Differential Equations (A), Modern [a.k.a. Abstract] Algebra (next semester), Organic Chemistry 1 (A-), Physical Chemistry 1 (A), Physical Chemistry 1 Lab (A), Physical Chemistry 2 (Currently Taking), Independent Study in Chemistry: Statistical Mechanics (Currently Taking, graduate level but univ. doesn’t offer graduate-level science so it ended up being IS), Contemporary Physics (Currently Taking), Intro to Nanotechnology (Currently Taking), Engineering Materials (A), Materials Lab (A), Statics (A), [Engineering] Thermodynamics (A-), Principles of Economics (A, my school doesn’t offer AP Econ)
At Oakland University through their Summer Math Program: Number Theory with Cryptology (3.8), Linear Algebra (3.5), Intro to Advanced Mathematical Thinking (Summer 2015), Linear and Integer Optimization (Summer 2015)

Senior Year Course Load:
Health (A)
Essay Writing (A+)
AP Psychology (A+ both trimesters)
AP Environmental Science IS
World History (A, currently taking 3rd tri)
Novels (3rd tri)
Sociology (3rd tri, had Engineering & Inventions but it was dropped due to low enrollment)
Intro to Computer Science & Programming (3rd Tri)
Physical Chemistry 2 (A-), Contemporary Physics (A), IS in Statistical Mechanics (A), Intro to Nanotech (A), Modern Algebra (In Progress)

Major Awards (USAMO, Intel, etc.): None but competed in Siemens this year, took F=ma exam twice and local Chem Olympiad exam once (didn’t make to next round)
Common Awards (AP Scholar, honor roll, NM things, etc.): AP Scholar with Honor, Honor Roll (High School), Dean’s Honor Roll (at Lawrence Tech. Univ.)

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (name, grade levels, leadership, description): JV Soccer (10th), Robotics (11th and 12th), Boy Scouts (6th-12th plus 3rd to 5th of Cub Scouts, I’ve been Senior Patrol Leader which is top position in troop)
Job/Work Experience: worked very occasionally at my Dad’s Carpet Store, student assistant for Lawrence Tech’s Natural Science Labs for Fall 2013 and helped run their Extreme Science Saturday Program (Fall 2013-Present) and Forensic Science Summer Institute (2013, 2014), Art of Problem Solving Grader (happened a couple weeks after I submitted EA application)
Volunteer/Community Service: A decent amount but mostly through Boy Scouts
Summer Experience: Philmont Scout Ranch, Took Calculus 1&2, Oakland University Summer Math Institute 2014, Thermodynamics

Other Factors:
Submitted Mathematical Biology Research paper (to Caltech, MIT, UChicago only)
Submitted an abstract to Chemistry research project (to MIT, Caltech only)
Competed in a research competition for undergraduate students called the Mathematical Competition in Modelling and submitted the paper.(to MIT, Caltech only)

1986

Accepted: Cornell, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB (all UCs I applied to), NYU, BU, USC (safeties)
Waitlisted: UChicago, Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Rice
Rejected: Columbia ,Caltech

UW gpa: 3.90
W gpa: 4.35
14 AP courses and 2 college (UCSD) math classes

Senior year course load: AP US Government (A-/A), AP Biology (A/A+), AP World History (A/A-), Multivariable calculus (B+), linear algebra (B)

Freshman year: 4.0, all A’s and A+'s but no AP courses, only 1 honors English class if that counts (it didn’t for UC admissions)
Sophomore year: (3 AP’s) AP Physics B (B/B), AP Calc AB (A+/A), AP Euro History (A-/B)
Junior year: (8 AP’s lol) all A’s; AP US History, AP Physics C mechanics, AP Physics C e&m, AP Chemistry, AP Computer Science, AP Chinese (self learned), AP Art History, and AP Calc BC
Senior year: (3 APs) All A’s; AP Biology, AP US Gov, AP World History

AP Scores: all 5’s except Physics B and Chemistry (4’s)

SAT scores: 770 CR, 800 Math, 740 Writing (2310 first try)
Subject tests:
770 physics, 800 math 2, 700 chem, 780 U.S. History, 800 Chinese

EC’s: 2 internships at local hospitals, 1 biomedical lab research internship in China, job at restaurant, academic teams president 4 years, science Olympiad coach 4 years, National merit finalist, president of 2 school clubs (both academic and volunteer) secretary and treasurer of 3 clubs, swim team JV

Awards: AIME, Google science fair semi finalist, Siemens and Intel science fair semi finalists, USAMO, IPhO

race: female Asian, Chinese (affirmative action didn’t help here)
Income: very low <$20k family of 2
ca resident, ended up going to UC Berkeley for CS and physics on a full ride scholarship!

Best of luck y’all!

1987

I have waited three long years to write this post and I was beyond excited with my college results. My parents told me that they would not pay for college unless it was an Ivy or Stanford. If I did not get into those, I would have to stay in-state (which I did not want to do at all) so I applied to all of them

Accepted: Stanford ( ATTENDING), Brown (with likely letter), Dartmouth (likely letter), Cornell (likely letter), University of Pennsylvania (with likely letter), Duke, UGA, GA Tech
Waitlisted: Columbia and Yale (did not accept spot at either)
Rejected: Harvard and Princeton
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): N/A
ACT (breakdown): 33 (i don’t remember the breakdown exactly)
SAT II (place score in parentheses): 780 Math II, 740 US History, 730 Chemistry
Weighted GPA: 99.97/100
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 8/318
AP (place score in parentheses): I had taken 19 AP Classes by the end of high school (trying to get State Scholar) 5s on most, 4s on a couple (this was on my application, but i ended up canceling 1 test this year, and doing pretty badly on a couple exams)
IB (place score in parentheses):

Senior Year Course Load: GA Tech Multivariable Calc, AP CS, AP Lit, AP Spanish Lit, AP Euro, AP Micro, AP Macro

Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): 3rd in the state FBLA Comp, 3rd in the State for Beta Spelling, National Spanish Exam Gold National Award (5th in State), Smith Book Award, Highest score in school for AMC 12 as a sophomore

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): VP National Honor Society, Founder and President of Garden Bandits(Don’t ask), Founder and President of National Social Studies Honors Society, Cross Country and Track(hold the school record in 800m, 1600m, and I had in the 5k for a year), Founder of the Never Forget 9/11 Memorial at my school (its a pretty big community event) , Local School Advisory Council, FBLA secretary and VP, Beta VP, Volunteer on Michelle Nunn’s Senate Campaign

Job/Work Experience: Private Tutor, work at an ACT tutoring place rewriting old ACT tests

Volunteer/Community Service: Not a ton, mostly through clubs.
Summer Activities: Governor’s Honors Program in Math
Essays: Excellent for common app and the supplements…this is what got me in I’m pretty sure
Teacher Recommendations: Hopefully good
Counselor Rec: Really good
Additional Rec: My old xc coach…should have been pretty good
Interview: All of them went well I thought. Stanford’s and Dartmouth’s were by far the best. Brown’s went terribly now that I think about it. Didn’t have one for Cornell or Columbia.

Applied for Financial Aid? yes
State (if domestic applicant): Georgia
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Native American
Gender: Female
Income Bracket. 100-150K
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Native American (registered)

My first piece of advice is to apply to as many top schools as possible. Have one safety school, a couple target schools, and then apply to as many reach schools as you can afford. You really never know what is going to happen, especially if you have great essays. (2) When you apply to the most selective colleges in the world, you can’t be dead set on going to one in particular because you really don’t know which ones you will get into. (3) Also, I really believe that I manifested Stanford. It was all I thought about, it was the background on my lock screen, I talked about it with my parents every day, it was an obsession. (4) ALSO, and VERY importantly, NEVER be embarrassed or feel awkward telling people what colleges you are applying to. You worked really hard and earned the right to say " I’M APPLYING TO STANFORD". And if you don’t get in, it’s okay, and if you do get in, awesome. Don’t be afraid that other people might think you are full of yourself because in order to go to these schools, you really have to believe you BELONG there.

Oh also, NEVER get less than 7 hours of sleep a night. I don’t care what other people say, the most successful people sleep a lot. Your body needs it to recover and to think clearly (especially in math). You are better off skipping mindlessly studying for tests and just sleep. I promise this. Read Thrive by Arianna Huffington.

Okay and one last piece of advice for the high school freshman and sophomores already on this site (good for you). At Stanford Admit Weekend, one of the current kids said something that really hit home with me. When you reach a point in your life where you have multiple paths you could take, ALWAYS pick the hardest one. Pick the one that will make you uncomfortable and cause you to grow. It might be hard and it might be REALLY hard for a long time, but you will always be rewarded (and maybe not in obvious ways) for choosing the more difficult path.

If anyone wants any advice or anything at all, feel free to message me. Good luck!

1988

My son:

3.72 GPA
~1940 SAT

ECs:

Varsity basketball
Spanish Club
Student Government - Member
Volunteer trip to Costa Rica to build homes for the underprivileged
Yearbook committee

Great recs from his basketball coach (coach asked him to be godfather of his second child) and his math teacher.

USC - Spring semester acceptance (they don’t have a waitlist)
UCLA - accepted
UC San Diego - accepted
Stanford - rejected
LMU - accpeted (full ride)

1989

I would choose Penn State!

1990

You got accepted into Northeastern? Did you take the SAT also or just the ACT? I’m very interested in BU and Northeastern. Did you apply to them early action or regular?

1991

Accepted: UCLA, Penn State, University of Pittsburgh

Rejected: Penn, Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Swarthmore (waitlist), UChicago (waitlist), Haverford (waitlist), Johns Hopkins (waitlist), NYU Stern (waitlist)

Unweighted GPA: 4.09/4.33 (all A’s and A+'s, don’t remember my weighted GPA but it was very high due to a lot of APs)

Class Rank: Top 3% at relatively good public high school (this uses weighted GPA)

SAT: 2250

SAT IIs: Math 2 - 730, US History - 720

ACT: 33

AP Classes: Statistics (5), Biology (4), Physics C: Mechanics (4), Microeconomics (4), Macroeconomics (5), Calculus BC (5, AB subscore also 5), US Government and Politics (5), US History (4), Literature and Composition (5), Language and Composition (5), Spanish (4)

Extracurriculars/work: FBLA (second place at regional competition, attended but did not place at states), Orchestra (member of the advanced ensemble), captain of national championship-winning academic team, World Language Honor Society, Math Honor Society, English Honor Society, History Honor Society, National Honor Society, Tutor, assistant manager at a restaurant, volunteered at local religious institution, interned at a primary care physician’s office, JV and occasionally varsity tennis, physics olympiad (won regional competition)… Probably a bit more; I can’t remember it all

Awards: National Merit Finalist, Captain of national championship-winning academic team, bronze medal in National Spanish Exam (three times), Harvard Book Award, Second place at FBLA regional competition, AP scholar awards (forget what they were called exactly), Orchestra won some national awards as well (forget what they were called), physics olympiad regional competition… again, probably some more I am forgetting

Essays: UC - probably 6/10, common app - 5/10 (good but had some spelling errors, I didn’t proofread well enough), specific school essays - probably 7/10 on average

Teacher Recs: both probably 6/10, didn’t really spend too much time getting to know these teachers, though they did both like me

Financial Aid?: No

Hooks: none

Race: Over-represented minority, which probably hurt my chances by a lot

Gender: male

Interviews: all pretty good, though some schools didn’t offer them and I didn’t take the time to schedule any for Swarthmore or Haverford

At the beginning, I thought that my chances at these top universities would be pretty good, and I expected to get into at least one Ivy League. The decisions were extremely disappointing, and I felt like I could have done a lot better and that something must have went very wrong.

My advice would be to spend a lot of time on your essays and make sure they are perfect. Get to know your teachers as well, because their input could mean a lot. Even though all my stats and extracurriculars were above average for every school I applied to, I still did not get in anywhere because of my essays, my lack of connections, and my race. Since the last two can’t be helped, focus more on your essays.

1992

Accepted: Boston University (attending), UMass Amherst, Marist College, Temple University, Roger Williams University, Keene State College, University of New Hampshire, University of Rhode Island, Emmanuel College, and Quinnipiac University

Rejected: Northeastern University

Class of 2019
SAT I (breakdown): 550M 570CR 550W
ACT (breakdown):
SAT II:
GPA (out of 4.0): 3.8W (my school does not do uw)
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 71 out of 211
AP (place score in parenthesis): APUSH (2) Psych (4) Gov (taking now)
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: independent study on public relations (intended major), AP Gov, H english, pre-calc, H physics, marketing, duel enrollment sociology class at a local comm college
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Varisty Cheer, foreign language club, counsel of peer educators, powder puff
Job/Work Experience: six flags new england, local frozen yogurt shop
Volunteer/Community service: youth cheer coach, church events, and other various volunteer work
Summer Activities: my job
Essays: good, wrote about how I love to travel and plan on traveling abroad in college
Teacher Recommendation: did not read but I assume it was good, from my AP Psych teacher
Counselor Rec: did not read but I assume it was good
Additional Rec:
Interview: only interviewed for Marist

Applied for Financial Aid?: no
Intended Major: communications with a concentration in public relations
State (if domestic applicant): MA
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: public
Ethnicity: white
Gender: female
Income Bracket: $500,000+
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): not applying for financial aid might help

I was really happy with my results. I thought my low GPA would hurt me a lot more than it actually did. The only schools I did not receive merit aid from were UMass Amherst and BU. If anyone has any questions about the schools I applied to/my application, feel free to ask!

1993

we really needed this!

1994

we really needed this!

1995

@laurrodes Can you please give advice on how to get accepted for BU? I have about the same situation as you GPA and EC wise, would love some guidance.

1996

@collegeseeker79 my biggest recommendation to you would be to check off “yes” when they ask on the application if you want to be considered for CGS. that is how I got in. I am in CGS now and think it is a great program and love it. Also make sure your essay is unique and have your “why bu” essay well thought out and show some genuine interest in the school.

1997

GPA: 4.67w/3.9uw
Class rank: Top 1%
IB: HL English (7), HL Bio (7), HL Math (7)
Ext. Essay: Independent neurology research at local hospital
Total volunteer hours: 1000, tutoring in math and science
AP: 5: English Lit, Macroecon, Microecon, Calc AB, Bio, Spanish
4: Psych, USHist, World Hist, Comp Sci A

SAT: 2300
ACT: 36
IB total: 24, full diploma awarded

Senior schedule:
AP Econ
IB/AP Bio
IB/AP Spanish
IB/AP English
Theory of Knowledge
IB/AP Calc AB

EC:
National Honor Society
National Merit Finalist
Varsity Cross Country

White, male, first generation to go to college
Recommendations by MD/PhD mentoring research and ToK teacher

Accepted: Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, UPenn, UMich, UCB
Attended: UMich (full-ride/4 yr)
Major: Cellular and Molecular Biology

I’m surprised that more people on here didn’t go for the IB.

J

1998

@enigmatatki , you went to Troy High School? I went for a year haha. I feel you, the chinese and indian people there are scary smart hahahaha.

1999

I have a question. I am a high schooler and use want to know if colleges look at your freshman year grades seriously…thx :slight_smile:

2000

Hey I play squash too @superwizard !! That’s so cool that I actually found someone who plays the same sport as me. Usually, I get made fun of in school if I tell people what sport i play lol. :stuck_out_tongue: