I’ll do one once all my admissions stuff come in
I’m an Int’l applicant from India who was willing to pay no more than $ 8000 per annum.
DECISIONS:
Harvard ACCEPTED and MATRICULATING
Princeton waitlisted
Penn rejected
Cornell ACCEPTED
Dartmouth waitlisted
Brown ACCEPTED
JHU rejected (because of the MASSIVE fin. aid I’d asked for!)
Chicago rejected
Here’s a brief CV:
Fee waiver used
Offered to pay $ 8000 p.a. (Guess that sure didn’t matter!)
SAT reasoning
math 790
CR 750
W 750
SAT subject
math II 800
Chem 800
Bio M 760
1st in Class of 40
NTSE Scholar (Indian equivalent of National Merit Scholarship given by the govt.)
Selected by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Govt of India for their Program for Youth Leadership in Science
EXTRACURRICULARS
The youngest volunteer for the Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders Society of India, Calcutta Chapter.
Got a Certificate of Distinction signed by Hans Blix at the World Federation of UN Associations’ Global essay comp. on peace and disarmament. ( I was competing against undergrad and even grad students from all over the world)
avid quizzer and debater. traveled all over India and won more than a handful of quizzes and debates. also accomplished at creative writing and essay writing!
teacher recs GREAT (that’s what they told me anyway)
counselor rec (i guess it must have been good too!)
essays: worked really hard on them. they were quite good. one of them was about my love of independent travel (Let’s Go anyone?)
special rec: from the president of the Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders Society of India, Calcutta Chapter.
supplementary stuff: Cartoons with one-line punch lines. (Only a few days ago I realised this: Conan O’Brien drew similar cartoons while with the Harvard Lampoon!)
Moral of the Story: Ultimately I guess the staff of Let’s Go and the Harvard Lampoon make the final decision abt your application!!!
Black Male
Country: USA
State: MD
Major: Biology
ACT:27
SAT II: Bio:610 Math I: 600 Spanish: 500
GPA: 4.2 weighted, 3.75 unweighted
Rank: well within top 10%
ECs:good
1.Boston College: Accepted
2.Cornell University: Denied
3.Elon University: Accepted
4.Hampton University: Accepted
5.University of Maryland- College Park: Accepted
6.University of Maryland- Baltimore County: Accepted
7.University of Miami: Accepted
8.University of Michigan: Accepted
9.University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill- Waitlisted
10. University of Pittsburgh- Accepted
11.University of Virginia- Accepted
12.Princeton University: Denied
13.St. Joseph’s University: Accepted
14.Vanderbilt University: Waitlisted
Stats:
Female, Ghostly white
Small public school in NY
SAT I’ s:
610-Math
770-Verbal
700-Writing
SAT II’s
US History- 750
Chem- 670
Literature- 700
AP Scores
APUSH-5
AP Chem- 4
Average: My school does it out of 100, I have a 102 weighted w/AP and Honors Classes. I’ve taken as many AP’s as my school allows.
Rank:
1/181
Curren Courseload:
AP Stat
AP gov
AP english
AP physics
band
health
gym
AP comparative Gov- (Me and another boy meet with the teacher during free periods,outside of class.)
My school does not seem to really care much about academics, this is as many AP’s I can take.
EC’s
Class secretary since 10, 11,12,
Student government secretary- 12
JV/Varsity Soccer 10,11
Concert Band- Section Leader (12), Member (11), 5 hrs/wk, 40 wks/yr.
Symphonic Band- Section Leader (10), Member (9), 5 hrs/wk, 40 wks/yr.
Private Flute Lessons- (9, 10, 11, 12) 3 hrs/wk, Year Round.
Jazz Band- (9, 10, 11, 12) 2 hrs/week, 35 wks/year.
Pit Orchestra- (10, 11, 12) an average of 8 hrs/wk, 12 wks/yr. Pit Orchestra for the annual school music starts off with about 6 hours per week of rehearsals in January, and by March consists of daily three hour rehearsals, and ultimately four three hour performances.
Cat Tales (School Newspaper)- Senior Co Editor (12), Representative Homecoming Candidate (12), Reporter (11, 10) 2 hrs/wk, 40 wks/yr.
Key Club- President (12), Vice President (11), Member (10)
Humane Society Cruelty Volunteer Work-(11, 12) 1 hr/wk:
Summer Volunteer work at The Humane Society (10, 11) 150+ hours.
Volunteer at The Humane Society Spiedie Fest Booth (11, 12) 5 hrs each year.
Local Flood Relief Dinner Volunteer- (12) 6 hrs. Massive flooding devastated my area.
Volunteer at Local Election Polling- (12) 3 hours spent serving as a runner for election results.
Spring/Summer Relay For Life- (9, 10, 11)- 12 hours each year.
Volunteer Work at NYSSMA- (10, 11) 5 hrs each year ?
FOR Club- member (12).
Pep Club- Member (12) 1hr/week, 35 wks/year.
Tae Bo- (9, 10, 11, 12) 2.5 hrs/wk year round- My silly stress relief.
I also work around 12 hours a week at subway
Award Stuff:
Scottish Rite Masons Outstanding Student Winner (12) - In recognition of exemplifying the values of school, community and family.
Daughters of the American Revolution Good Citizen Award Winner (12) -
Bausch and Lomb Science Award (11) - In recognition of academic excellence in science, and participation in rigorous science courses.
National Honor Society- President (12), Inducted (11)
Tri-M Music Honor Society- Member (12), Inducted (11)
NYS Public High School Athletic Association Scholar Athlete (11)
Jazz All Star Award (11)-
Academic Awards Recipient (9, 10, 11,) ? An academic awards recipient at must have been on at least honor roll ( an average of 90 or above) for at least three markings periods in the school year.
NYSSMA- (9, 10, 11, 12)
BCMEA Concert Band (9, 10, 11,)
BCMEA Jazz Band -First flute in my area to be involved in it.
Empire Girls State- Alcott County Judge
NYS Scholarship for Academic Excellence-Scholarships for Academic Excellence are awarded to outstanding graduates from registered New York State high schools. Awards are based on student grades in certain Regents exams.
I think my letters of recommendation were pretty good, one nearly made me cry.
I put a lot of work into my personal statements, and also sent a copy of an AP English essay I did well on.
Results:
Brown- deferred, rejected
Cornell- rejected
Harvard- rejected
University of Rochester- accepted
Syracuse University- accepted
SUNY Binghamton- accepted
quick question. Can i have some awards I can receive for college resume? it seems that you guys are getting awards that just look good on resume but don’t take much work to get. ex. good citizen award, volunteer work etc. (i have about 230 hours)
also, can someone give me names of colleges that don’t look at freshmen gpa? (i’m still top 5% but could be higher) thanks
Are you hating on good citizen awards? Honestly, I wish I could offer some good advice. Try your guidance department?
National merit scholarship finalist, semifinalist
science Olympiad
AMC math awards
Westinghouse award
wow some instant replies. anyway thanks for responding
STATS:
3.6 UC weighred GPA
1970 SAT
640, 620 SAT II
Recs: N/A (Applied all public)
Essays: Wrote about overcoming personal medical hardships as well as testing my own limitations (blatant lies)
California Distinguished School, top 50%
5 APs, ~8 honors
1 major leadership role
APPLIED TO:
UCD (Mechanical Engineering)
UCI (Biological Sciences)
UCSD (Pharmacological Chemistry)
UCLA (Political Science)
SJSU (Materials Engineering)
Cal Poly SLO (Architectural Engineering)
SFSU (Forgot major)
ACCEPTED:
UCD (Optical Science & Engineering)
UCI (Biological Sciences)
SJSU (Materials Engineering; Like 2 weeks after applying :rolleyes:)
SFSU (Same as above note)
MATRICULATING TO: Most likely Davis or Irvine. Not sure which.
NOTES: I pulled good grades freshman year, then I got lazy. Actually, I was pretty uninformed of the whole college thing until the end of my junior year. If I had known as much as I do now, I would have busted ass sophomore and junior years. I was lazy and unambitious. I also put off taking my SAT subject tests until the very last possible scheduled date, and I didn’t study at all, which was probably a bad idea considering it had been years since I took those courses.
Country: United States
State: California
Major: Electrical Engineering
Accepted:
UC Berkeley
UCLA
UC San Diego (Regents)
UC Irvine (Regents + Honors Program)
UC Davis (Regents + Honors Program)
UC Santa Barbara (Regents + Honors Program)
Cal Poly – SLO (I’m not sure what financial aid I got since I forgot my user name/password 
)
Rejected: N/A
Waitlisted: N/A
Deferred: N/A
EA/ED: N/A
Sex: M
Race: North Indian (I put “other”)
Unweighted GPA: 3.9474
Weighted GPA: 4.4286 (UC GPA: 4.2)
Class Rank: 4 out of 491
SAT I: CR: 690; M: 770; W: 790
SAT II: Biology-M: 740; Math IIC: 740
ACT: 33 (English: 35; Math: 30; Reading: 32; Science: 35)
AP:
European History: 2
United States History: 4
Biology: 5
English Language & Composition: 3
Awards:
Science Olympiad (1st place Regional Division winner: Cell Biology,
Compute This; 3rd place Regional Division winner: Fermi Questions)
Employment: [N/A]
Extra-curriculars:
Science & Technology Club - President
ENTECH Club (Associated with Industrial Engineering Technology course) - Vice President
T-Bots Club (Robotics club)
Science tutoring
Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT: CR:710 M:800 W:690
[</em>] SAT IIs: IIC: 800 US: 770 Physics: 730
[<em>] GPA:3.7/4.3
[</em>] Rank: Top 20%
[<em>] AP/IB scores: All 5’s: US, Euro, Compsci AB
[</em>] Courseload: Full IB Diploma
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] Essays: I thought they were pretty good
[</em>] Recommendations: My teachers liked me
[li] Hook (if any): Half URM?
[/li]
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[<em>] State or Country: CA
[</em>] School Type: Highly competitive public
[<em>] Ethnicity: Half South American, Half Fiipino
[</em>] Gender: Male
[/ul]Other Factors:[ul]
[<em>] Extracurriculars: Marching Band, Jazz Band, Cal State Fullerton Band, Church Choir, 300+ Community Service Hours
[</em>] Summer Activities: Internship at UCI Medical Center
[/ul]
Acceptances: UCR (Regents), UCI (Regents), UCSB, UCSD, UCLA, UCB, USC, Cornell (CAS), STANFORD =)
Waitlists: Duke, WashU
Rejected: Harvard, Yale
Hey, here are my results for all those that are interested.
Gender: M
Race: African American
Location: Southern VA
College Class Year: 2011
High School: Private
High School Type: sends many grads to top schools
High School Curriculum: Very Rigorous
Will apply for financial aid: Yes
Academics:
GPA - Weighted: 3.42 -including 1st semester senior year
Class Size: 83
Rank: School doesn’t rank
Scores:
SAT I Math: 690
SAT I Critical Reading: 670
SAT I Writing: 660
Extracurriculars:
Significant Extracurriculars: Peninsula Youth Orchestra
Jack and Jill of America
Leadership positions: Tri - M Honors Society - Treasurer
President of Strings Chapter
Historian of Jack and Jill
Student Board of Peninsula Youth Orchestra
Athletic Status - list sport and your level: Varsity Track (9-12)
Varsity Cross Country (9,12)
Volunteer/Service Work: Mission Trip to David, Kentucky
100+ hours at Virginia Air and Space Museum
Fed the Homeless many times
Honors and Awards: Director’s Award for Strings (11)
Athlete of the Year - Jack and Jill Chapter (11)
Honor Roll (9-11)
Southeastern Virginia Regional Orchestra (11,12)
College Summer programs: Shenandoah Performs! summer camp (10,11)
Hampton Roads Chamber Players (10,11)
Desired College Characteristics:
Location type: Urban, Small City
Size: Medium Small (2,500 - 5,000), Medium (5,000 - 10,000), Large (10,000 - 18,000)
Area: East Coast, Southeast
Acceptances:
UVA
Vanderbilt
JMU
GMU
Boston University
Morehouse College - Full Scholarship
Hampton Univ - Full Scholarship
Northeastern - 15k/year Scholarship
Ohio Wesleyan
Chowan University
William and Mary
Rejections:
Harvard
Hmm
<h2>ok…I’ll do this fast</h2>
GPA: 3.9UW, 4.6W
SAT: 2250
SATII: 770 Math2, 650 Physics
ECs: Good stuff (Editor of Lit. Journal, MUN, Research at local uni for 2 years, Eng. Club, volunteering)
Acceptances: WashU, Vanderbilt, Local Uni
Rejections: Northwestern (kinda ticked at this one), MIT (expected)
Asian male from AR
Here goes…
Location: CA, US
Major: Economics
Gender: F
Race: White, Chinese
Unweighted GPA: 3.96 (UC GPA)
Weighted: 4.21
Rank: Top 10%
Accepted:
UC Berkeley(spring), UCSD, UCI, UCD, UOP, SJSU, SFSU
Rejection: UCLA
SAT I: CR: 620; M: 660; W:660; Total: 1940
SATII: Math IIC: 750; Chemistry: 630
AP: World History-4, Calculus BC-3(sub4), Chemistry-3, Statistics, Biology
Awards: AP Scholar
ECs: Lion Dancing, martial arts. NHS
Volunteering: Variety of organizations. 60 hours recorded.
Work: Company tutoring service. ~15 hours /wk.
Essays: Great. Covered a lot of ground.
My stats are pretty average. How I got into Berkeley…probably luck? Anyhow, does anyone know how hard Berkeley Extension is? Is it hard to keep the minimum 2.0 for the fall extension to get into the Spring semester? Gah, I’'m having a really hard time deciding.
doctorsboy,
I was just wondering what school you went to because I’m also in the southeast region of VA. I go to Norfolk Collegiate School.
Accepted:
-Dartmouth (Matriculating)
-Tufts
-NYU
-University of Rochester
-SUNY Binghamton
-SUNY Stony Brook (Honors College)
Rejected:
-Columbia ED
-Brown
-Princeton
-Cornell
Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT: 760 M, 750 CR, 720 W
[</em>] SAT IIs: 800 Math IIC, 780 Math IC, 710 USH, 750 Bio, 780 Chem
[<em>] GPA: 97.5
[</em>] Rank: No Rank
[<em>] Other stats: 5s on Psychology, Euro, USH, Physics B, 3 on English Language, AP Scholar with distinction
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Essays: Very bland. I went on the safe side.
[<em>] Teacher Recs: Should be very good
[</em>] Counselor Rec: Should be very good
[<em>] Hook (if any): Well, Dartmouth accepted 7 kids from my school.
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[</em>] State or Country: New York
[<em>] School Type: Extremely Competitive Public School + Most Rigorous Courseload
[</em>] Ethnicity: Asian
[<em>] Gender: Male
[</em>] Intended Major: Sciences
[<em>] Major strength/Weakness: The interview with Dartmouth went absolutely horrible. But in general, I was able to show a strong concentration towards sciences throughout my academic career on the actual application.
[/ul]Other Factors:[ul]
[</em>]President of Astronomy Club, Web Club, Mathletes
[<em>]Around 200 Hours at a local hospital
[</em>]Working at Mickey D’s 1 day a week =)
[<em>]National Merit Finalist
[</em>]AIME Qualifier
[<em>]Rohm Haas and Long Island Science Congress (Honorable Mention) Participant.
[</em>]First summer: Went to China. Second summer: Went to SAT prep classes. Third summer: Did…nothing…
[<em>]Columbia Science Honors Program
-Experiments in Atomic and Nuclear Physics
-Gravity and Relativity
-Astronomy
-Nanotechnology
[</em>]Instructor of Tae Kwon Do
[*]National Honors Society, National Spanish Honors Society[/ul]
School: Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
GPA: 3.75 (Ap/College courses)
Finished Calculus junior year, Differential Equations first semester senior year and taking Multi-variable Calculus now (which probably doesn’t matter)
Some other courses taken: political theory, spanish IV, Advanced Chemistry, General Microbiology, Physiology and disease, Molecular and Cellular biology,
SAT: 2250
ACt:33
SAT 2: math iic: 800 Chem: 720
Siemens Westinghouse Science Competition Semi-finalist
National Taiwan University Scholarship winner
National Society of Highschool Scholars Semi-finalist (twice) I’m waiting for the finalist decision which comes out in a month or so.
Volunteer hours: 220
Research: 2.5 years at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of medicine
-paper written
-paper being published
Varsity tennis and track
Shadowed 3 doctors at Northwestern University
president of modern dance club
founder of Audience of one (christian group)
Facilitator of Student leadership development
Captain of Science Olympiad (4th place state for remote sensing)
Was in varsity track
Thats most of it i guess. Now here is the crazy part… out school got raped by decisions which usually never happens.
Stanford: Waitlisted
Northwestern: Waitlisted
Johns Hopkins: Waitlisted
Brown: Rejected
Washington University: Waitlisted
Saint Louis University Medical Scholars (Straight Medical program): Accepeted/ 16,000
Lehigh/Drexel 7-year BA/MD program: Accepted
GPA: 4.034 (w)
Rank: 14/300 (school does not release ranks)
AP courses: 12 (5 5’s)
SAT: 2310 (800 V, 780 M, 730 W)
SAT II: 800 US Hist, 800 Physics, 780 Bio M, 760 Math II
ECs: First, third in nation (science olympiad), various other state level awards. Presidential Scholar candidate.
Job: 15 hrs/wk. Employee of the month yay.
Schools applied to:
Reed - Accepted
Amherst - Accepted
Chicago - Accepted
Delaware - Accepted (full tuition)
University of Rochester - Accepted (third tuition)
Stanford - Rejected
Yale - Rejected
I’m happy with it :).
School: North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics
GPA: 4.882
Rank: unknown
AP courses: Calc BC, Biology, taking this spring
SAT: 1820
SAT II: Math IIC 710 Chemistry: 6## don’t remember
EC: a lot of them, practically a leadership in everyone
Schools:
Cornell: accepted in Engineering
Carnegie Mellon U: accepted in MCS, CIT
Johns Hopkins U: accepted
University of Southern California: accepted in Engineering
UNC-Chapel Hill: accepted
North Carolina State: accepted
Rejected/Waitlisted: none
What do you think?
International Applicant. Indian, living in the UAE.
In the ICSE/ISC system.
Stats:
SAT: 2360 (800 CR, 780 M, 780 W)
SAT II: 800 Lit, 800 Math IIC, 800 Phys, 800 Chem, 800 Bio E
Asking for Aid at HYPMS, not at the rest.
GPA: 95-98% (Depending on the year).
Rank: 1/2
EC’s: National and International Debate Wins. (5)
National Quizzing. (Won about 25 competitions)
4th in an All-India Essay Competition
School Prefect, House Captain, Debate Captain.
Bunch of the usual Science/Math/Writing stuff
Fundraising.
Volunteering.
Environmental Awareness Campaigns
Film-making
Recs: Great (Best in Career/Excellent)
Essays: Great. Spent quite a bit of time on them
Results:
Acceptances:
Penn
Duke
Rice
Berkeley (Regents)
CMU
Johns Hopkins
Northwestern
Michigan
Waitlist:
Yale
Rejected:
Harvard
Princeton
MIT
Stanford
Cornell.
Large Public High School in SE Texas
Asian Male
GPA (UW) - 3.93 GPA (W) - 4.5
Class Rank - 1/787
Test Scores
SAT – 2310 Critical Reading – 740 | Math – 800 | Writing – 770
PSAT – 234 Critical Reading – 80 | Math – 74 | Writing – 80
SAT II Math IIC – 800 | United States History – 770 | Physics – 730
AP World History – 5 AP Computer Science A - 4 AP Statistics - 5 AP English Language and Composition - 4 AP Physics B - 4 AP United States History - 5
Awards
National Merit Finalist
AP Scholar with Distinction
Took 15 AP Classes
Qualified for the American Invitational Mathematics Examination in 2005, 2006
Texas Junior Varsity Quiz Bowl Champions in 2005
Clear Creek Independent School District Superintendent’s Scholar in 2004, 2006, 2007
Qualified for United States Tennis Association Texas Section Championship Division - 2004
Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation (CKSF) September 2006, January 2007 National High School Internet Challenge Top Scorer
September, November, December 2006, January 2007 CKSF National High School Internet Challenge High School Winner
Fall 2006 Knowledge Master Open State Champions
Member of Regional UIL Number Sense Championship Team in 2005
Extracurriculars
Tennis (2003-2007)
Varsity
Quiz Bowl (2003-2007)
President
Varsity Captain
Service with a Smile (2003-2007)
Vice President
Historian
Mu Alpha Theta (2003-2007)
National Honor Society (2005-2007)
75+ service hours on other various volunteering projects involving Rosemont Assisted Living, Jori Zemel Bone Cancer Foundation, Armand Bayou Nature Center, Freeman Memorial Library
25 service hours at the Texas Seaport Museum on the 1877 National Historic Landmark tall ship Elissa – 2004
Work Experience
June 2006-July 2006 (40 hours per week for eight weeks )
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston High School Student Researcher
worked in the Computational Biology Department on constructing a database of flavivirus sequence alignments as well as a new method of identifying studied flaviviruses
Results
Harvard (EA) - Deferred, then Wait-Listed
Yale - Rejected
Princeton - Rejected
Stanford - Rejected
Duke - Accepted
Penn - Rejected
Columbia - Wait-Listed
Cornell - Accepted
WashU - Accepted
UT Austin - Accepted
Boston U - Accepted
Final Thoughts: For HYPS, it’s really helpful if you have a hook. For you juniors, try to start your college applications in the summer before senior year. You’ll thank yourself later. I ended up submitting a lot of applications late (bonehead move), and I think that factored in to some of my rejections. (Harvard, Penn, Cornell, Boston, UT) Remember that college is just one step in your life, and that education is what you make of it. No matter where you go, opportunities will be there. Good luck!
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