Accepted: Cornell (ED)
School Type: Public
Location: Ontario, Canada
Race/Gender: Korean Male
Prospective Major: Biological Sciences
Unweighted GPA: 3.9
Class Rank: top 10%
SAT I: 2170
SAT Reading: 700
SAT Math: 800
SAT Writing: 670 with 8 on essay
SAT II
Bio-M: 740
Math2C: 780
CommonApp Essay: excellent (at least i think…)
Accepted:
Emory Oxford
UIUC
Tulane
Pitt
Iowa
Rejected: None
White Male, IL
GPA: 3.6/3.9
Top 10%
Act: 32
Lots of good ECs
Good essays/recs
Accepted:
W&M (ED)
Michigan
Illinois
Tennessee
Xavier
Deferred:
University of Chicago
would have applied:
Emory
Georgetown
Boston College
Northwestern
Vanderbilt
also applied to UNC-Chapel Hill but withdrew application when i got into my early decision school.
Female, southeast
GPA:3.7
Top 10%
ACT:30
very rigorous courseload
good essays/excellent recs
What have I learned from all of this?
*Don’t apply to more than five colleges, cause your probably going get into your first or second choice (if your realistic)
*Spend more time on your essays, and less time on CC. Seriously, I was told W&M & Michigan were everywhere from a match to an very high reach.
*When in doubt, do the interview. My interview for UChicago was probably what saved me from being denied outright instead of being deferred (not that it mattered)
*To high school juniors:don’t sweat it. If you take really hard classes and put a lot of motivation into them, someone will notice.
sorry but what is WUSTL??
Washington University in St. Louis!!
Accepted: Duke E.D.
School Type: Public/Competitive
Location: Mass.
Race/Gender: White
Prospective Major: Public Policy or Sociology
Unweighted GPA: around 3.6 maybe
Weighted GPA: 3.9 something
Class Rank: my school doesn’t rank
SAT I: 2250
SAT Reading: 740
SAT Math: 760
SAT Writing: 770
SAT II
Bio-E 720
Math2C: 800
Chem: 740
Extracurriculars:
4 years Varsity Wrestling (Captain Senior Year)
3 years Football (Freshman, J.V., Varsity)
1 year Varsity Track
Freshman Lacrosse
Elected to Student Senate senior year
Member of J.S.A
Member National Honors Society
French Exchange
(nominated to attend two social studies programs in D.C. and some other small things)
Essay: i dont really want to talk about what i wrote. If it makes anyone feel better after i sent my application in I realized that i made 2 or three typos on my essay.
Male caucasian:
SAT:
Critical Reading - 680
Math - 690
Writing - 680
AP Scholar w/ Distinction:
Comp. Science A - 5
Comp. Science AB - 5
Calculus AB - 5
Physics B - 4
Eng. Lit. - 3
Eng. Lang. - 3
GPA - 3.9
Rank - 2 out of 28 (yes, very small high school!)
Accepted: UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, Santa Clara, University of San Francisco, Cal Poly SLO, U. of San Diego, U. of Puget Sound.
Rejected: Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, Harvey Mudd.
Attending: U. of San Francisco - University Scholar worth $19,500/year.
Moral of the story - if you want money and you’re a good student, apply to a school in which you will be at (or near) the top of the heap. U. of Puget Sound offered me $24K/year; U. of San Diego, $16K/year. In the end I chose USF because of the scholarship offer, the chance to go to school in SF, and a computer science major.
I hate Millburn.
My god, you are truly something (to fizix on pg. 48)
Accepted: Cornell ED (Class of 2011)
High School: Large public in Brooklyn, New York (4000 students)
Honors/AP Courses: Math A and B, Statistics, U.S. History, Global History English Literature.
GPA/ACT: 3.9/27 (fyi my SAT scores were really bad)
Rank: 16/500
Essays: Terrific (most people only say they have great essays, but mine really were good). Dealt with my life on 9/11, life lessons, the need to be compassionate. I had a lot of personal information in there.
Recs: Awesome!! One teacher (AP English teacher) wrote a 2-3 page letter of recommendation.
-President of the Student Government; involved with gov. for 2 years
-Captain of the Boys Varsity Track Team; on team for 3 years
-Editor in Chief of “Sojourn,” senior yearbook
-Co-prior of Alpha Phi Omicron, senior honor society
-Mock Trial (Expert Witness); 3 years
-National Honor Society; 2 years
-New York City Department of Education School Leadership Team
-NYC Department of Education Chancellor’s Student Advisory Council
-Brooklyn Region 7 West High Schools Council
-Chinese Cultural Club (I’m not Chinese)
-Book Club
-Manager, Boys Varsity/Jr. Varsity Basketball Teams; 3 years
-Physics Club
-Arkon Service Society
-Environmentalist Club
-Key Club
-Patrol Leader, Boy Scouts of America Troop 777
-Volunteer for the Campaign to Re-Elect Congressman Vito Fossella
-Volunteer/Worked for the Campaign to Elect Sadique Wai to the NYC Council, district 35
-Volunteer/Worked for the Campaign to Elect Abdur Rahman Farrakhan to the NYS Assembly, district 55
-Organized my block party for 7 consecutive years (with a friend)
-Over 3000 community service hours
-Worked on several NYS Assembly campaigns
-Worked as a Statistician for the NYC Department of Education, senior year
…a lot more (all i can think of right now)
Accepted: Claremont McKenna College (will attend)
GPA: 94/100
SAT: 2230 composite
Courseload: toughest
Recs: good
Essays: great
ECs: great
Applied: Stanford (EA), UC Berkeley --class of 2012
Accepted: Stanford
*Still waiting to hear back from Berkeley although it won’t matter because I’ve already submitted my response to Stanford.
School: Public
Location: Oryygunn
Me: Wasian girl (white/asian)
Scores:
ACT - 32
(first time: 30, second time: 31, third: 32, writing scores of 12 on all three)
SAT I -
CR: 660
M: 710
W: 730 (essay 11)
SAT II -
Math II: 650 (oh noes!)
Math I: 720 (taken to make myself feel better about math II… didnt work)
US History: 620 (ouch)
Literature: 710
Essays: I definitely sounded like myself (talked about Johnny Depp in my letter to a roommate)
Recs: I have no idea… didn’t get to see them! Good I hope.
Extras:
-tri-sport athlete, captain of all three teams (not a recruited athlete for D1)
-president of community service club
-president of human rights youth group
-mock trial, MUN
-senior editor of award-winning school paper
-10 years of piano, syllabus, recital clubs and what not
Awards:
not very many… mostly just school-based things
-3-time tennis MVP
-district athletic-scholar award
-American Association of University Women Scholar in Science
Work:
-Lifeguard, Swim Instructor, Diving Instructor, Head Swim Team Coach
-Work-related awards: employee of the month, session, outstanding coaching team of the summer, etc.
AP’s (not pretty):
-APUSH - 4
-USGOV - 3
-CALC AB - 4
Ummm and I was in the process of applying to:
Whitman, Pomona, Northwestern (2nd choice), UofO Honors, and Harvard
*And I’m not a legacy to Stanford and didn’t enroll in the guidance of a college counselor.
CaliDreamin,
I don’t want to sound like a jerk, but what do you think helped you gain admission to Stanford? I know many people who have much better scores than you (ACT, SAT, SAT 2s) and just as good ECs that were rejected from Stanford. I’m just curious because you’re not a legacy or a recruited athlete. Sorry if I sound mean. I’m not trying to be.
Accepted: University of Pennsylvania (ED)
School Type: LARGE Public
Location: New York
Race/Gender: Caucasian
Prospective Major: I’m going in undecided
Unweighted GPA: 102
Weighted GPA: Noo idea
Class rank: 2/957
SAT I Scores
SAT I Math: 750
SAT I Critical Reading: 720
SAT I Writing: 760
SAT II Scores
SAT II Biology M: 750
SAT II World History: 650
SAT II U.S. History: 720
SAT II Math IIC: 740
Essays- I had to write 3. My common app one wasn’t great- well written but not exciting; My optional Penn and Why Penn were definitely a lot better
Recommendations- I saw one of my teacher’s and it was really good. My counselor wrote me a really long one and was very excited about it and I assume my other teacher rec was pretty good…
Long-form Info
Extracurricular Info
Dance (tap/jazz)- 11 years
Key Club- 4 years (Secretary)
Volunteering at an environmental center for a term
Co-Started group at school to raise money for St Judes Childrens Hospital
ARISTA (National Honors Society) member
Writer for school’s science newspaper
Work Experience
2 year summer job as camp counselor
Awards (nothing special):
AP Scholar with Honor
Semi-finalist in NYS Math fair
Saludatorian of graduating class (if that counts?)
Other Factors
Legacy- No
Recruited- Definitely not
some suprises with these acceptances, that’s for sure.
we<em>tard</em>it,
I’ll never know - but my guess would be 1 of 2 things: my essays, which definitely flowed well and felt great submitting, or my scores - and I know, it’s weird because my scores aren’t all that great… but I don’t think Stanford wants a perfect 800 in every subject. I think what they want to see is that you’re at least competant, and then after that, it’s important for one’s time to be spent doing other things (other EC’s, etc.). I didn’t study for more than an hour, tops, on any standardized test I took (seems like I would’ve, taking the ACT 3 times… but I ran out of time before each test to seriously sit down and study), but maybe if I had the time or the money to go to some prep class or had hired an SAT tutor, my scores would have come out looking more like most of the profiles on CC. Instead, they came out average, but I was able to diverge my attention to other things. I definitely didn’t post my entire resume on CC, nor do I know what any of my recommendations look like. I didn’t post my GPA, HS classes, college classes I took, etc. (I forgot to!), so maybe that’s why my post looks a little lacking to you.
I probably shouldn’t have posted in the first place because I knew this would happen.
^^ you should probably wait till all decisions come out.
Then again, aren’t you supposed to withdraw applications elsewhere if you enroll at Stanford SCEA? (I don’t know whether you’ve enrolled, but I would assume you have given that it’s your first choice.)
CaliDreamin:
hey, don’t let anything get to you. people expect these top schools to only accept applicants with near-perfect SAT/ACT scores, seemingly forgetting that standardized testing is only one part of the application. then, as if having some sense of entitlement, many (and i’m talking about my life experience, not anyone from this thread in particular) curse the university for not taking them as well as bad-mouthing you for “stealing” their spot.
i remember when i got into cornell last year and one of the dean’s at my school son didn’t get in. i heard it from my COSA and this dean that cornell’s decision was “disgusting!” how, they said, could this kid (who btw had a higher gpa and standardized test scores than me) be “denied admission to cornell??” little did these people know, or maybe they did know but just didn’t care, that by saying these things they were basically delivering verbal slaps to my face each and every day.
now why didn’t cornell take this dean’s son?? maybe they saw something in him that they didn’t like? who knows. but lets just say that i ended up getting a higher first semester gpa than this kid did at his eventual college (a college in maryland which shall go unnamed). basically, when it all boils down, all that matters is what you make of your college years (gpa, etc.) stanford obviously felt that you were a qualified applicant or else they would not have accepted you : )
Sorry, I didn’t mean to enter the above, and now I can’t delete it.
Accepted: Arizona State (rolling), Michigan (rolling), UChicago (EA), Penn (ED Wharton: will attend)
Withdrew my applications to UC Berkeley, UCLA, and USC 
Asian Female from Arizona
4.0 GPA, 11/675 rank (actually 2nd; 10 valedictorians)
2380 SAT
AP Scholar with Distinction (5 5’s, 4 on Chem… and Calc AB subscore, lmao)
National Merit Semifinalist (as of yet)
SAT II: 800 Math II, 790 Chinese, 750 Spanish
Speech Captain in Speech and Debate
Founded my own club (random acts of kindness)
Student Council Elections Supervisor
Associate Editor of school literary magazine
Violinist in community orchestra
Autistic center volunteer
Reading buddy at local library 
Congressional intern (…twice)
My essays were cute. Yes, cute is the best word for them. My recommendations were good, I’m sure.
Looking back (because now, I can look back), I would say that I was just really, really lucky. The admissions process was somehow a breeze for me, and quite frankly, I’m not sure I know why. Overall, I worked hard at my academics, but took time to volunteer or join clubs that truly interested me. I didn’t try to do extraordinary things like “feed orphans in Africa”- I just did the best I could with modest activities. If I hadn’t been accepted to Chicago or Penn, I would’ve kept on applying but not been discouraged, because I’m proud of all of my accomplishments, and would have been no matter where I ended up. I hope that everyone is able to say that about their high school experience.
And now I’m going to Wharton! Hooray!