Can more graduated seniors do "actual results" threads?

Chance Me / Match Me!
2101

My results were

Accepted: Stanford (attending), Northwestern, UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB

Rejected: Caltech, Princeton

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2290 (720 CR, 780 M, 790 W)
ACT (breakdown): n/a
SAT II: 800 Math2, 770 Chem
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.4
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/700
AP (place score in parenthesis): Euro(3), Eng Lang(4), Bio(4), Chem(5), USH(5), Calc BC(5)
IB (place score in parenthesis): n/a
Senior Year Course Load: AP comp sci, ap physics c, ap stats, ap lit, ap us gov, service working
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): national merit commended, ap scholar with distinction

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): girl scouts, red cross club(president), rocketry club(vp), peer tutoring
Job/Work Experience: paid peer tutoring
Volunteer/Community service: volunteer at school library, volunteer thru red cross
Summer Activities: CTY, library’s teen reading club, school’s freshman orientation
Essays (rating 1-10, details): Common app 9/10, Supplements 8/10

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):

Teacher Rec #1: 10/10, called me her best student in 30 years, went into detail about how great she thought i was
Teacher Rec #2: didn’t read, probably about 8/10 (i was close with the teacher, but not as much as teacher #1)
Counselor Rec: didn’t read
Additional Rec: n/a
Interview: did one only (for Princeton), went alright

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: yes
Intended Major: Chem eng
State (if domestic applicant): CA
Country (if international applicant): n/a
School Type: large public
Ethnicity: white
Gender: F
Income Bracket: ~20K
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): first gen

Reflection: I would guess that fit was a major factor in where I ended up getting accepted/rejected. My stats were competitive enough; after all, I got into Stanford and Northwestern (both Top 20 “reach-for-everyone” schools). So why not Pton/Caltech? Aside from the randomness/crapshoot quality of their admissions, those colleges probably weren’t a fit for me, nor was I a fit for them. Perhaps they had already accepted a Girl Scout who does Red Cross and builds rockets, so my niche at those schools was already filled. Also, the admissions officers probably read my application and realized that the person I am won’t fit in there. After applying, I came to realize that Princeton is too preppy for my taste, and Caltech too techy. Maybe that’s why I was rejected?

But I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. I’m proud to be a member of the Stanford class of 2020 (my dream school)! :smiley:

2102

Accepted: UCB (attending), UCLA, Cornell, Umich (ross pre ad), NYU Stern, UCSB, UCSD

Waitlisted: Vanderbilt

Rejected: Upenn (ED), Dartmouth, Northwestern, Stanford, Duke, Columbia

Attend a prep school in California.

ACT: 34 Composite - 33 English, 35 Math, 36 Reading, 31 Science

Sat II: Math II - 800

GPA: 3.9 UW,4.45 W

School does not rank

Extracurriculars: 4 year varsity soccer member (all league first team all four years, and captain senior year), club soccer, community service board, 50+ hours of service all four years, NHS member, varsity club treasurer, chem club member for four years and president for one, volunteer at a homeless shelter, have an internship at a fortune 500 over the summer, four year latin club member

My counselor would consider my courses the most rigorous offered at the school. Junior year I took 3 AP’s and 2 Honors courses and senior year I will be taking 6 AP’s.
Junior Year: AP Physics I, AP US history, AP stats, pre calc Honors, Latin 4 Honors, english (scored a 5 and two 4’s on the AP exams)
Senior Year: AP euro history, AP world History, AP calc ab, AP latin, AP physics C, AP language and composition

Work Exp: ninth and tenth grade worked for a family members company. Junior and senior year I worked for a fortune 500 hedge-fund and real estate group.

I have not yet written my essays or seen my recs but I presume they will both be pretty good.

I have no hooks and am in a high income bracket.

Reflection: I would’ve done something that would have made me stand out, but overall I am happy with the results.

2103

Accepted: Princeton, Penn, UT Austin (Turing and Dean’s), and UTD
Waitlisted: CMU and Caltech
Rejected: Stanford and MIT

Will be attending Princeton!

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2340 superscore #1 (800 M, 800 WR, 690 CR) #2 (800 M, 730 WR, 740 CR)
ACT (breakdown): 33 one timeme (Verbal: 31 Math: 34 Sci: 36 Reading: 32 Composite: 33 Writing: 32) Didn’t send to Princeton
SAT II: 800 Math 2, 800 Chemistry, 800 World History
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA: N/A
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1
AP (place score in parenthesis): 5 human geo, 5 world hist, 5 compsci, 4 spanish, 4 bio, 5 apush, 5 eng, 5 chem, 5 stats
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: Hard as it gets
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Siemens National Semifinalist, Published compsci research in IPCV '15, GHTC and other journals for CS, FBLA Network Design National Qualifier 2nd at State, FBLA State Business Math Finalist, National Merit Semifinalist, National AP Scholar, Science Olympiad State Finalist - Ranked very high out of 300+ teams statewide (many SO awards at district, regional, and state), 4th Place Computer Science Team regionals, Number Sense UIL Regional Finalist x3, Lots of NS and CompSci UIL Invitational Awards, Presidential Service Award Gold x2, Several Piano Regional Championships, Volunteer of the Year at my Chinese School, Hugh O’Brain Leadership Award Winner

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
• Boys Nation Senator (12)
• Computer Science Research at local university (10,11, 12)
• Key Club (Class Officer, Webmaster , VP, won several major state awards and leader in 10+ very major service projects)
• Science Olympiad (9-12, Team Captain)
• Computer Science (10-12 President)
• FBLA (9-12, Co-founder of charter and treasurer x2)
• Math UIL (9-12, President Math UIL Captain)
• Chinese School Regional Head Director of one of the largest Chinese Immersion Programs in the State)
• Piano (13 years)

Job/Work Experience:N/A
Volunteer/Community service: See ec’s
Summer Activities: research, competitions, volunteering at community center, chilling
Essays (rating 1-10, details):

  • Common App Essay 9 : Definitely the most controversial thing about my app. Talked about my socialistic views and how they have taught me compromise. Guess it worked lol

Teacher Rec #1: CS Teacher (9)
Teacher Rec #2: Chem Teacher (9)
Counselor Rec: 8. not really sure
Additional Rec: 9. Research mentor. really talked about my technicalities as a researcher. very good

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Computer science
State (if domestic applicant): TX
Country (if international applicant): USA
School Type: Large Public
Ethnicity: Asian (Chinese)
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: 130-140k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None

Reflection

Strengths: SAT scores, deep involvment in cs, stem, and politics.
Weaknesses:ACT score, “chinese male in cs”
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Combo of cs and other pursuits
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:

2104

If anyone has any questions, feel free to contact me!

2105

Accepted:
Seattle U (Nursing)
CSUCI (Pre-Nursing)
CSU Fullerton (Nursing)
Cal Poly SLO (Nutrition)
Davis (Nutrition)
UC Irvice (Nursing)
SDSU (Nursing)
UCSB (Biology)
UCLA (Nursing) Will Attend

Waitlisted
U of Portland (Nursing)
Gonzaga (Nursing)
Berkeley (Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology)
Penn (Nursing)

Rejected:
U of San Francisco (Nursing)
Stanford (Biology)
USC (Biology)
NYU (Nursing)
Georgetown (Nursing)

SAT I (breakdown): 1730 (Math 640, Writing 600, Critical Reading 490)
ACT (breakdown): 25 (Math 27, Science 25, English 25, Reading 22, Essay 9)

SAT II (place score in parentheses): Spanish 780, Bio-M 650, U.S History 570 Math 2 680

Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.8

UC/CSU GPA: 4.21

Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable):Top 10% 46/460

AP (place score in parentheses): World History - 2 (10th grade) U.S History, Biology, English Language - 3’s (11th grade)

IB (place score in parentheses): N/A School does not offer
Senior Year Course Load: AP Micro/Macro, AP Calc BC/AB, AP Lit, AP U.S Gov, AVID 12, Child Development, Linguistic Anthropology, Cheer/Song PE

Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): CSF, NHS, Majors Award, Seal of Bi-literacy, Gold Level Presidents Service Award, Outstanding Teen of the year finalists/nominee, 2nd at Cheer Regional, 1st at Cheerleading State, Gold Ribbon Award, Highly Competitive Local Leadership Seminar Nominee, HOBY 2014

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): Varsity Football, Basketball, and Competition Cheerleading, All Star Cheer, JV Basketball, JV Track, HOSA (Treasurer), Red Cross, Kindness Club (Pres), Link Crew Leader, Academic Mentor, Part of a competitive academy for minority students, AVID Class of 2016 (Secretary/Treasurere)
Job/Work Experience: Babysitting, Med Center Paid Internship
Volunteer/Community Service: Summer Camp, Girls Inc. Local Hospital, Blood Drives, HOSA Events, etc. Over 600 hours!
I did not receive any hours for this but this fall I was part of the LARGEST student run non-profit which ran out of the AP Micro Econ Class, we raised almost half a million dollars. I tutored local kids, attends events daily, and put on two sold out benefit concerts. I was part of the finance committee.
Summer Activities:
9th: Volunteered at a Summer Camp, All Star Cheer, HS Cheer
10th: Volunteered at Girls Inc, All Star Cheer, HS Cheer
11th: Volunteered at Girls Inc and the Hospital, All Star Cheer, HS Cheer
12th: Took Psych and Communications at a local CC, Volunteered at the Hospital, HS Cheer, Student Run non-profit stuff
Essays: UC 9/10 for both, Common App 5/10 (Said I wanted to do nursing, yet applied under bio to some schools)
Teacher Recommendations: Bio Teacher 10/10 (Only for UCLA and Penn)
Math Teacher 3/10 (Worst Mistake to have him write it, he uses the same letter template for everyone and its such blah…(Only for Common App)
Counselor Rec: 7/10 (UCLA+Common App)
Additional Rec: n/a
Interviews: UPenn 10/10 Georgetown 7/10

Other:
State (if domestic applicant): CA
Country (if international applicant):
School Type:Large Public
Ethnicity: Hispanic
Gender: Female
Income Bracket:80K but the cost of living where I live is expensive.
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM, 1st Gen

Reflection:
Strengths: Grades, EC’s, Course Load
Weaknesses: Test Scores, Common App Essay for sure

My advice for any juniors applying next year is to apply through early action because I know that my slip of two B’s this fall affected my decisions. Also if you can afford it, do get SAT/ACT prep classes, because I regret not investing in those to help raise my score. Also have MULTIPLE people read your essays please. I submitted my common app essay after having only 1 person look at it. And chose teachers who actually care about you as a person, not just a student to write your recs!
I hope this helps future applicants!

2106

Bump

2107

Accepted: University of Pennsylvania Life Sciences and Management dual degree (college/wharton) [early decision]
Deferred: MIT

Didn’t really get a chance to get results from many schools because I got in ED and withdrew my apps when I got in.

School type: Public
Location: Long Island
Race/Gender: Asian(Indian) Male
Major: Business/Biology dual degree
Unweighted GPA: 3.7
Weighted GPA: 3.9
Class rank: top 5% (not ranked)

SAT I: 2350 (800 CR, 790 WR, 760 Math)
Sat II: Biology(780), chemistry (780), math 1 (790)

AP: 5 on bio, chem, world history, lit, lang, compsci, calc BC, Gov, psych, physics C mech and electro. 4 on stat, APUSH, Macroeconomics

Extracurriculars/honors/awards:
Extensive science research (Intel Semifinalist)
President of Robotics club
Founder/President of Garden club
Cofounder of small (failed) startup
National Merit Semifinalist
Science Olympiads member
Volunteering at hospital (80 hrs), local indian cultural center (80 hours), community garden (100+ hours), school abroad for underprivledged children (150+ hours)
National Honors society member.
Took numerous MOOCs (Massive open online courses) online
Numerous other small awards and honors

Essays: Essays were good. my common app essay was an 8/10, why penn a 6/10, and why LSM a 9.5-9.9/10

Rec letters: Got letters from teachers that really loved me and my research mentor. 9/10 for all of them, and the people I chose all augmented my application significantly.

Strengths: standardized test scores, tough workload, good letters and essays, strong ECs and leadership.
weaknesses: GPA

2108

Given that this is such an old thread, I don’t know if anyone has said this, but there are those people who will use results from here to claim to an admission officer after he or she has been denied and say, well THAT person got in!

2109

But anyway, my results:

Accepted: UCLA (currently attending), Georgia Tech (EA), Case Western (with a 25k University Scholarship), University of Pittsburgh, and Penn State

Deferred from EA: U of Michigan (later waitlisted, denied)

Waitlisted: Carnegie Mellon

Denied: USC (CA), Berkeley

High School: public
Location: Pennsylvania
Race/Gender: Asian Male
Unweighted GPA: ~3.8
Weighted GPA: ~4.1 (out of 4.5, Honors and AP were weighted 0.5)
Class Rank: top 10% (around 7%) of ~300
PSAT - 231 (80 Math, 78 Writing, 73 Reading)
SAT I - 2310 (800 Math, 800 Writing, 710 Reading)
SAT II - 800 Math II, 800 Chemistry (I don’t remember which SAT science I took, I believe it was chem)

AP - 5 on Biology, Human Geo, Chem, Physics C Mechanics, Calc BC, Comp Sci, Stats, Macro
4 on Latin and Euro
Also took Physics C E&M and Gov, but didn’t take AP exam

Clubs/Orgs
Swimming competitively for 10+ years (multiple decent, not great, awards associated with)
FBLA for 4 years (multiple States appearances, qualified for Nats senior year)
Math Olympiad of high school for 4 years (Co-president junior and senior years)
Science Olympiad of high school for junior and senior year (VP Senior year)
National Honor Society for junior and senior years
Founder of Video Game Production Club (failed)
Founder of TSA (Technology Student Association) org (failed to gather interest)

Honors:
Distinguished Honor Roll, blah, blah, blah
National Merit Finalist
Plenty of others related to clubs/orgs

Essays:
My common app was solid 9/10 - wrote about how taking AP Bio my freshman year was rocky; I got off to a bad start but used that to build my grade up

UCLA essay was decent 7/10 - wrote about AI and how the future would look; wasn’t my best work but, hey, it worked

USC (my top choice) essays were terrible 3/10. At the time I thought they were OK, and I was really naive. Looking back, I wish I could’ve changed some things (but I also love it at UCLA, so what am I to change?)

Georgia Tech essays 8/10 - write about the school, how it’s famous and reputable. I used the video of Nick Selby’s convocation speech, as my main talking point

For Pitt and Penn State, I was in state so I got in easily

Michigan essays 6/10 - these were decently written. I spent just more than the average time spent on all of my essays on Michigan’s essays. It wasn’t my top choice so it wasn’t a priority, but it was a good enough school to gather my interest. I think my topics and my content was good.

Rec Letters:
Counselors’ were generic, because we had about 50 counselors to one kid.
Teachers’ were great because I’d known them personally throughout the years (after I had them, etc).

Advice:
Use the essays. This is the only part of the application where YOU get to express YOU. Tell them not what you think they want to hear, but rather tell them about yourself. What makes you you? If there’s nothing to tell, think harder. There has to be that one time where everything just suddenly made sense, or your view of the world just changed. When did that happen? What situation gave rise to it (briefly describe it)? What did you get out of this moment?

2110

Will people actually try and use these to show adcoms that they deserve a spot? that would be hilarious.

2111

Accepted: Georgetown, Boston College (Honors College)

Waitlisted: CMU (CS), Cornell, Williams (all rejected eventually)

Rejected: MIT (Deferred), UChicago (Deferred), CalTech (Deferred), Stanford, Harvard, Brown, Dartmouth, UPenn, Columbia, Northwestern, Duke, and JHU

SAT I (breakdown): 2330 (800 math, 800 writing, 730 reading)
ACT (breakdown): did not take ACTs

SAT II (place score in parentheses): Biology (E) 780, Chemistry 800, Math II 800

Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.8

Weighted GPA (out of 5.0): 4.46

Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable):Top 10%

AP (place score in parentheses): Stats 5, APUSH 5, Chem 5, BC Calc 5, Physics C: Mechanics 5, CompSci 5, Bio 5, Psych 5, MacroEcon 5, AP Lit 4

Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Semifinalist, NHS, 2X USAMO qualifier (2 pts off twice from making that 4 times), State Math Olympiad Perfect Scorer (2X), USCF Class A rated Chess Player, USCF certified Tournament Director, Science Olympiad Captain led to 1st place in state all 4 years, National tournament medalist (2X), Math Team Captain (won state, and NE tourneys multiple times), ARML Individual tie-breaker round

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): Conducted Research at BU with Prof. on Comp Bio/Bioinformatics, Math Team (captain), Science Olympiad Team (captain), Piano (over 12 years classical training), Sailing instructor, Chess instructor w/ local community organization, Varsity tennis (freshman to junior year), Ultimate frisbee team, MathCounts coach w/ middleschool
Volunteer/Community Service: Counselor etc. at various summer camps (~200+ hours over high school)

Also took Multivariable Course at Harvard Extension School (earned an A in the class).

Essays: Common App (7/10) Well written essay but cliche/not attention grabbing topic
Teacher Recommendations: Math Teacher 9/10
Chem Teacher 7/10
Counselor Rec: 7/10
Additional Rec: Research Prof
Interviews: felt like they all went fine but then again I got absolutely destroyed by decisions lol (UPenn interviewer even went so far as to say that if he has been known to give borderline/iffy apps the push needed to get in and said he would do his best for me XD) oh well

Other:
School Type:Large Public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: 150k-200k (consider myself very lucky to have little financial worries and capitalize on opportunities and studies).

Reflection:
Strengths: Grades, EC’s, Course Load, almost any Test Score
Weaknesses: Too stereotypical? idk nothing really stands out

I’m sure this won’t just pertain to myself but decisions left me confused (and a bit hurt). While I did apply to pretty much the most selective schools, I just didn’t know why I was rejected to almost all of them (not even waitlisted :/), especially based on data about previous applicants from my school and their stats. In the end, I guess I just overestimated myself. However, it could have been worse though! :slight_smile:

2112

ACCEPTED: Harvard (attending), Columbia, Dartmouth, JHU, BC, Notre Dame, Georgetown
DENIED: Duke, Princeton (applied EA, deferred, rejected), Yale, Northwestern, MIT, Stanford

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 780 CR, 760 Writing, 660 Math
ACT (breakdown): 34C: 36 Reading, 36 English, 32 Science (26 first time, oops), 32 Math
SAT II: 710 US History, 730 Literature
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA: Idk
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/30
AP (place score in parenthesis): APUSH (5), AP Lit (5)
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc and Bio, a few courses through the local community colleges. As rigorous as my school could offer
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): A few Scholastic Art and Writing gold/silver keys, a Silver Medal in Poetry freshman year, Congressional Medal for community service, National Merit Commended, nothing major really

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Jazz Band, Band, All county, Yearbook Club (treasurer), Mock Trial, Student Council and Class President, VP NHS, Varsity soccer and ski team, science club (secretary)

Job/Work Experience: Worked at a local restaurant for two years, babysat

Volunteer/Community service: About 250 hours total doing various activities

Summer Activities: Multitude of academic camps, did go to Harvard summer before junior year, but I don’t think it helped much

Essays (rating 1-10, details):
Common App: 8/10–talked about being on the ski team, though I’m not that great. Definitely demonstrated my voice, though don’t know if that helped me
Supplement: 9/10, wrote about a crazy night at work, much more of a descriptive piece than moralistic essay or whatever

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):

Teacher Rec #1: 10/10, English
Teacher Rec #2: 10/10, history
Teacher Rec #3: 7/10, science
Counselor Rec: 7/10
Additional Rec 1: 10/10, band
Additional Rec 2: 7/10, principal

I’ve had my English/history/science/band teacher for multiple years, so I have a pretty close relationship with all of them and think they all wrote nice things about me.

Interview:
On Campus: 6/10. Did not go as I had hoped, as the interviewer and I were not very compatible in our interests. I was nervous and it clearly showed. I think she thought I didn’t have a genuine interest in Harvard and I left feeling very discouraged.

Alumni: 8.5/10. Lasted for about an hour, my interviewer was very nice and we were able to discuss some things we had in common. She was very receptive and responsive to my questions and we overall had a very nice conversation.

Other

Intended Major: Social Science
State (if domestic applicant): East Coast
School Type: Rural public
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Honestly none that I can think of.
Reflection

Strengths: I honestly don’t know. I have always been very strong in the humanities, taking summer classes since 5th grade in all sorts of social science/historic/writing subjects. I went to Harvard summer and did well, but I don’t think that would have been a game changer. I had a lot of (I think) really positive recommendations because I know my teachers so well. I do have a love of English and writing and perhaps that showed.

Weaknesses: My test scores were not that high in math, and my subject tests were mediocre. I also did not seem concentrated in one area or particularly great at something, just well rounded

This process is very unpredictable, so if things get rough, keep faith! A large part of the college experience is affected by how you get involved in campus life, clubs, etc. You’ll get into the right school for you, even if you don’t realize at first.

2113

Do colleges applications give each student space to fill out all the extra curricularspecial? Because everyone here seems to have more than 15 on their list.

2114

Some colleges give you the option to submit a resume at the same time… MAKE A RESUME and you can send it to their admissions officer…

2115

Do you feel like the interviews really gave your application an added boost? – at Wellesley and MH. Did you interview on campus or with someone in your area? Do you recall some of the interview conversation/questions you could share. Wellesley is my top choice.

2116

I feel like a lot of the people posting have pretty great-looking applications, and are freshman applicants but for my sake (and the sake of other people) I think it would be great if more people would post:
Transfer applications & subsequent results
Also, maybe if some more mediocre students would be willing to give their information. I’ve been trying to help my little brother along who has only around a 3.0 but is still trying to apply as a freshman to some not-terrible colleges.

Edit:
On that note, I’ll definitely post my own transfer results in the spring after my letters start rolling in.

2117

@philbegas Agreed. Also, years of foreign language, please??

2118

You guys are all talking about Cornell and Harvard while I’m sitting here looking for Michigan State posts

2119

I looove this, have been searching for something similar for ages!! thanks to OP for getting the ball rolling, I’ve read a good chunk of this so far

2120

your stats were so good, wish you best of luck in the future. @Pineberry