Your daughter got into Harvard because you live in Wyoming
SAT I: 800 M, 740 CR, 670 W
GPA: Weighted, 4.17, Unweighted, around 3.4ish?
Class Rank: 97/643 = 15%
National Merit Scholar from Texas
Accepted:
Texas A&M
Rejected:
Georgia Tech (dont get it)
Waitlisted:
Colorado College (didnt understand this one either)
Claremont Mckenna
Still waiting on:
Rice
Emory
Oxford of Emory
Vanderbilt
female- caucasian
tiny competitive public high school (SSAT required for admission) all honors classes
no class ranking, GPA about 3.95 UW
national merit finalist
founded and ran two different clubs (small)
SSAT tutor/ independent tutor (whatever I can do)
SAT I: 2280; 740 CR, 750 M, 790 W
ACT: 34 composite
SAT II: Math II 790, Chem 750
Accepted Early Decision Rice University
Planned to apply RD to Stanford, JHU, Northwestern, Duke, Vanderbilt, Yale, UCLA, UCSD
note: started writing college essays the summer before senior year- believe me, it helps if you’re doing any ED apps because school can and will distract you
Caucasian female from Maine
National Merit Finalist
SAT I: 770 M, 750 CR, 760 W
SAT II: 770 Math II, 740 Chem, 700 Lit
GPA: 94 (~3.8) UW, 103 W
Rank: Top 10%
ECs: Cross country 9-11, Track 10-11 (although I ended up not participating this year…oops), Outdoor Track 11 (hopefully), about 30 volunteer hours
Accepted:
Smith
Mount Holyoke (21st Century Scholar)
Sweet Briar (15k/year)
Loyola Marymount (14k/year and honors at entrance)
New College of Florida (free from Florida Prepaid)
Northeastern (Honors Program and full tuition for NMF)
University of Hawaii Manoa (6k/year)
University of Maine Orono (8k/semester for NMF and accepted into honors college)
Rejected:
Barnard
(+ a few others I’m embarrassed to mention I even applied to, heh)
Attending: Probably UMaine, though not the honors college
So does anybody happen to know if theres a likelihood to get into an ivy if you have a family member currently attending, like your sister?
White female from a good NC public school
GPA: 3.3 UW, 3.9 W (only one B in 11th grade, all As on midyear report, but two Fs and a D earlier on)
Class Rank: top 30% or so
SAT: 800 CR, 700 M, 800 W (took twice)
SAT II: 790 Lit, 770 French, 800 US History
Awards: NMF, AP Scholar, National French exam national placement
Extracurriculars: I was a newspaper editor and co-founded and ran Amnesty Intl. and a tutoring program at my school; all my ECs basically started in 11th grade.
Accepted:
U of Alabama (full ride, honors program)
Tulane (20k scholarship)
Occidental (10 or 15k scholarship I think?)
UNC-CH
University of Southern California (spring admit)
Claremont McKenna
Rejected:
Rice
Princeton
Will be attending CMC and couldn’t be happier! In the end, I guess it all comes down to luck. I think I had strong recs and essays, which must have helped. But seriously, anything’s possible.
Accepted: UF, UMiami, Williams (early write and Tyng scholar), Amherst (early write), Dartmouth (likely), Columbia (likely), Princeton, Yale, Harvard
Waitlisted: None
Rejected: None
Attending: No clue…
Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): 740CR, 750M, 710W
[</em>] ACT: 31
[<em>] SAT II: 740BiologyM, 700USH
[</em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
[<em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/500
[</em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): Calc AB (5), Psychology (5), USH (4), Human Geography (4), English Language (4)
[<em>] IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
[</em>] Senior Year Course Load: AP Stats, AP US Gov, AP Macroeconomics, AP Bio, AP Lit, Forensics, Internship
[<em>] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AP Scholar with Distinction, National Achievement Scholar
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): HOSA (president, treasurer), Mu Alpha Theta (Vice President), NHS, Research after school, Track
[<em>] Job/Work Experience: N/A
[</em>] Volunteer/Community service:20 hours a week tutoring at inner-city youth center since 9th grade (2000+ hours), Church nursery (only about 2 hours a week)
[<em>] Summer Activities: Research at local university, NIH STEP-UP program (another research program)
[</em>] Essays: One about my environment and how it shapes. Extra essay about my research program and the lessons it taught me
[<em>] Teacher Recommendation: Didn’t see
[</em>] Counselor Rec: Excellent. Included detail information about the poverty of our school, lack of resources, and how I had to self-study for most AP exams even though I had a teacher
[<em>] Additional Rec: N/A
[</em>] Interview: Went well.
[/ul]Other[ul]
[<em>] State (if domestic applicant): FL
[</em>] Country (if international applicant):
[<em>] School Type: Inner-city public
[</em>] Ethnicity: African-American
[<em>] Gender: Female
[</em>] Income Bracket: <$50,000
[*] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): first gen[/ul]
Well, my story goes to show that test scores don’t mean anything to adcoms so keep your chins up you poor test takers, there’s hope yet!
Accepted: Rutgers, TCNJ, Rochester
Waitlisted: Vanderbilt
Rejected: JHU, Cornell, UPenn, Harvard
SAT I (taken twice the results shown are superscored):
Reading- 750
Writing- 750 Essay 12/12
Math-800
Superscore= 1550/2300
SAT II:
United States History- 680
Biology M- 720
Math II- 790
ACT:
English- 32
Reading- 33
Science- 34
Math- 36
Composite- 34
AP Tests:
Biology- 5
Calculus BC- 3/4 AB subscore
Psychology- 5
United States History- 4
Took most rigorous possible course load (15 Honors and 9 APs by graduation)
Senior Course load
AP Physics C
AP Chemistry
AP Literature and Composition (English)
AP Probability and Statistics
Honors Organic and Biochemistry
GPA unweighted- 3.40
GPA weighted- 3.952
Class Rank- Not given but reasonably estimated top 10% of 750 or so students in a very competitive school
Extracurricular (some aren’t school related):
200-300 hours of volunteer work with a rescue squad
I am a certified EMT
I am a black belt in TaeKwonDo
I have an Advanced Open Water Scuba diving certification
I am bilingual (Fluent in both Russian and English with Russian
being my native tongue)
I am a member of the National Honor Society
I was a member of stage crew for 2 years
I was Vice-President of the Russian Club in my school for 1 years
I was President of the Russian Club in my school for 2 years
I was Vice-President of the Politics Club in my school for 2 years
I have worked a part-time job from Sophmore year through junior year
Letters of Recommendation-
I will have one amazing letter from my Chemistry teacher
I will have two “good or better” letters from my History teacher
and my guidance councilor
Essays were OK
Awards:
AP Scholar with Honor
National Merit Scholar Commendation
umm… just sayin’…
so anyway, I’ll make this quick. My stats are slightly more average:
White Male from Maine
Kind of low end high school. We may not be accredited after this year.
GPA- 99.3/100
Top 5%, possibly #2, but we don’t really rank until graduation; 120 students/class
National Merit Finalist
SAT I
CR: 740
M: 750
W: 780
ACT: 34
SAT II-
Math II: 730
World History: 800
ECs:
Math Team
JV Tennis
Cross-Country
Pep Band
Volunteering ~60 hrs/yr at a local museum by archiving
Accepted Everywhere
Brown
UChicago
Haverford
Grinnell
Hamilton
Colgate
Lafayette
Trincoll
Ursinus
UMaine
Accepted: Yale (attending), Dartmouth, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Boston University, University of Florida, Auburn.
Waitlisted: Harvard.
Rejected: None
Objective:
<pre><code>* SAT I (breakdown): 800 CR 680 M 800 WR
- ACT: 35
- SAT II: 750 World 720 Chem 700 Bio
- Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
- Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/500
- AP (place score in parenthesis): Lang (5) Art History (5) World (4)
- IB (place score in parenthesis): Chem SL (7)
- Senior Year Course Load: All IB classes plus 3 APs
- Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Finalists, three state awards
</code></pre>
Subjective:
<pre><code>* Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Math team, quiz bowl (state champs), varsity tennis, varsity swimming, writing, muralist, etc. Leadership in everything.
</code></pre>
<ul>
<li>Job/Work Experience: Professional string quartet.
<ul>
<li>Volunteer/Community service: Worked at a nonprofit for migrant workers, taught lifeguarding/beach safety to underprivileged kids</li>
<li>Summer Activities: Painting huge murals. </li>
<li>Essays: One about a club I invented when I was a little kid; one about the paintings of Joan Miro. </li>
<li>Teacher Recommendation: Fabulous. </li>
<li>Counselor Rec: Mundane.
<ul>
<li>Interview: Went well.</li>
</ul></li>
</ul></li>
</ul>
Other
<pre><code>* State (if domestic applicant): FL
- Country (if international applicant):
- School Type: Public
- Ethnicity: White South African
- Gender: Female
- Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None. I’m ecstatic.
</code></pre>
yes, my test scores were good and I still was rejected from every school that I actually wanted to attend. I meant that test scores are not everything, it’s still possible to be rejected with good ones and accepted with bad ones.
^Very true. Test scores only show that you’re qualified. After you pass a certain mark (I’m guessing 2100) they don’t care unless it’s a major accomplishment for you (like if you’re extremely poor, don’t speak English, unstable home, etc.).
^^ lol my bad. I posted that at 5:45 this morning, so I must have been pretty tired
** Accepted: ** St. Mary’s College of Maryland, University of Maryland, College Park (Spring Semester >.<), Virginia Tech, Salisbury University (Honors)
** Waitlisted ** Johns Hopkins University (will stay on), American University (will NOT stay on)
** Straight-up rejected: ** None!
** Attending ** Not sure yet, but probably St. Mary’s.
** Objective: **
[ul][<em>]SAT I (breakdown): 1910 (690 CR, 530, 690 W)
[</em>]ACT: 28 Composite.
[<em>]SAT II: 730 World History, 610 Spanish.
[</em>]Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.57.
[<em>]Weighted GPA: 3.93
[</em>]Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 25%. Not sure of exact rank.
[<em>]AP (place score in parentheses): English Lang. (4), World History (5). Taking 3 more this year.
[</em>]Senior Year Course Load: AP Env Sci, AP English Lit, AP Comp. Politics, Spanish 5, Trig, Newspaper, Intern/Mentor GT
[/ul]
Subjective:
[ul][<em>]Extracurriculars: Band (Section Leader), Swim Team (Captain), Girl Scouts (Council Delegate, Patrol Leader), Cross Country & Track, Newspaper. NHS, Spanish NHS…
[</em>]Job/Work Experience: Intern at the National Institutes of Health. Other assorted stuff.
Volunteer/Community service: Volunteered at a charity thrift store… some through Girl Scouts.
[<em>]Summer Activities: after 9th - Worked at the Pool… After 10th: I don’t even know. After 11th: Internship 3 days a week.
[</em>] Essays: All very different, I thought the common app one was funny. But I honestly struggled with writing them, a lot.
[<em>]Teacher Recommendations: One from Spanish teacher, one from Math teacher/coach. Didn’t see either.
[</em>]Counselor Rec: Didn’t see. Probably generic.
[/ul]
Other:
[ul][<em>]State (if domestic applicant): MD
[</em>]School Type: Competitive Public
[<em>]Ethnicity: White.
[</em>]Gender: Girl.
[<em>]Income Bracket: Varies. Did not qualify for need-based aid.
[</em>]Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Nothing serious
[/ul]
All in all, I’m pretty satisfied. Somethings could’ve gone better, like I really still don’t understand why I didn’t get fall at UMCP or didn’t get into American. But I’m elated with the JHU waitlist and pretty siked for St. Mary’s.
Accepted: UVA (legacy), Elon (presidential scholarship), William and Mary, Davidson, NC State, UNC Charlotte, Purdue Engineering
Waitlisted: Georgia Tech (did no accept)
Straight-up rejected: None!
Attending: UNC Charlotte on full ride (no plans to graduate with debt and might want to go to grad school)
Background:
Location: North Carolina
Ethnicity: African American
Gender: Male
School Type: Private, well respected school among top 30. Most students want UNC so don’t apply to Ivy’s. However the few who have, have been successful.
Major: Will put next to each college
Stats:
GPA: 3.3 UW, 3.50 W ( upward trend in GPA and Numerical Average/Grade)
SAT: 1370/2060 (720 math, 650 critical reading, 690 writing)
ACT:29 Composite
APs (sending): Calc AB (4), US History (3), taking 4 more this year (Calc BC, Physics C, World History, Literature)
Courseload: Counselor has told me that I will be marked under most rigorous
No Class Rank or Percentile
Extracurriculars/Volunteer/Work Experience:
- School Government Position which is elected by School Faculty (12)
- School Admissions Shadowing Program (12)
- Varsity Soccer (11-12)
- JV Soccer (9-10)
- Challenge Level Recreational Soccer (9-11)
- EYC (Episcopal Youth Community) (9-12)
- Stop Hunger Now Volunteer and Intern (11-12)
- Church Acolyte (9-11)
- Appalachian Service Project (9-12)
Also I have over 500 hours of Community Service. (all of which are very unique)
Essays/Recommendations:
Essays: Working hard on them
Teachers Recs: I expect them to be good
Guidance Counselor Rec: Very good Counselor who has mentioned many times how mature I have been in the process and how many times I visit to check on things. Hopefully this will transfer into recommendation
Honors/Awards:
I have a few school based ones but nothing that would really help in admissions.
Yah GPA isn’t everything as you can see. If anybody like me wants some advice on how to get into some top schools with an average GPA just PM and I will tell you what worked for me. You should probably only be going into Junior year or younger though.
Asian girl from Georgia, attending a public magnet with an SAT average in the 1900s. Major was bio or related except for Columbia, where I put Chem E.
SAT: 2380 (800 CR, 780 M, 800 W)
SAT II: 800 Chem, Math II, Lit
AP: 5s in Bio, Chem, Calc BC, Lang, World, USH, and CS AB; 4 in French Lang.
GPA: 3.78 UW / 4.426 W
Rank: 24/430
Courseload: most rigorous, all honors and a total of 13 APs by the end of this year, plus a couple “post-AP” classes and two college calculus classes. This schedule, with some variations, is generally about what the top kids in our class have taken.
Extracurriculars: oh, boy.
- Piano (10 years): non-competitive. I was going to send the colleges a CD, but Columbia was the only one that ended up getting it. Not at that high a level–more an explanation of what on earth I was doing.
- Math team (10-12)
- Creative writing club (11-12) - I do write, a lot. And I did mention that in the interview.
- a couple of meaningless clubs I put on there to fill space. No work experience, no community service, no leadership.
Summer activities: - (10) spent half the summer in China and part of the rest in Boston
- (11) research at Georgia State and Georgia Tech trying to synthesize conotoxins. 350+ hours. I wrote a paper on our findings and submitted it to Siemens and Intel, but didn’t win anything. Caltech got the paper; Columbia (I believe) got the abstract.
Awards: just the normal NMF, honor societies dealio.
Essays:
- Common App: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064505061-post527.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064505061-post527.html</a>
- Chicago supplement: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064299499-post482.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064299499-post482.html</a> (I think I also sent this to Harvard?)
- others: for the most part, my Why ____? essays and supplement answers were bland and uninteresting. I did have a really cool “what do you do for fun?” supplement for Caltech, about cheesy JRPGs.
Recs: from English, math, and chemistry teachers that loved me, but I’ve never been the type to form especially close bonds with teachers. Counselor rec was probably bland.
Interview: Short, but not disastrous, except at Yale.
Accepted: University of Chicago, UGA
Waitlisted: Caltech
Rejected: Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford
Attending: probably Chicago. We’ll see.
URM (Black male) from Virginia
GPA: 3.5 (3.8 weighted)
SAT: 1400/2200 (M 680 CR 720 W 800)
SAT IIs: Lit - 720 US History - 730
-Editor in Chief of the school paper (member for four years)
-President of Key Club (a national community service organization)
-Captain of It’s Academic/Quizbowl (trivia sort of thing; appear on the It’s Academic TV show on the D.C. area NBC affiliate (It’s Academic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) Participate in local meets as well
-Interned at the Washington Post, now I blog occasionally on the washingtonpost.com
-Went to VA Boys State
Dip in grades sophomore year because I started taking care of my sister at night when my mom went to work. Counselor explained in my recommendation and I think that helped. Upward trend since sophomore year.
Notable courses taken: AP World History, AP Chemistry, AP Psychology, AP US History, AP Language/Composition, AP Environmental Science, AP Calculus AB, AP US Government, AP English Literature/Composition
Essays should be pretty good, only getting one teacher rec but I expect it to be good/great.
The List:
University of Virginia (top choice)
Georgetown University
William and Mary
Virginia Tech
VCU (safety)
-Got into VCU (Dean’s Scholarship, half of my costs)
-Got into Virginia Tech, invited to join the honors college
-Got into William and Mary
-Got into UVA (but actually got a call from an admissions officer talking about my dismal first semester calculus grade)
-Waitlisted at Georgetown
GPA: 3.7
WGPA: 4.4
ACT: 35
SAT: Didn’t take
SAT II: 790 Lit
Competitive public school
APs: AP US - 5, AB Calc - 5, AP Euro - 5. Currently taking AP Lit, Stats, Chem, and World.
Accepted - Reed, Whitman, Grinnell, Macalester, Lawrence, Oberlin, Haverford, Vassar
Waitlisted - University of Chicago, Bowdoin, Wesleyan
Rejected - Swarthmore
I don’t really have any hooks or outstanding activities / awards. I did send in an art supplement, and luckily I test pretty well. My grades aren’t really fantastic; my school doesn’t rank, but I don’t think I’d be in the top 10%.
White female from Washington State
Competitive public school
GPA: 3.86 UW
SAT: 2150 (790 CR, 640 M, 720 W- single sitting)
ACT: 32
Class Rank: Top 10%
ECs: School choir for nine years, select women’s singing group for three years, church choir for two years, NHS, Environmental Club for two years (Director of Communications for one year), school musical for two years, church youth group for four years
Other: unusual major (Russian) and career goal (forensic psychiatrist and prison reform advocate) which were both mentioned in my essays
Accepted:
Mount Holyoke (15k Leadership Scholarship)
Smith
Bryn Mawr (15k 125th Anniversary Scholarship- most likely attending)
Hampshire (12.5k Harold F. Johnson Scholarship)
Simmons
University of Washington
Bay Path (13K 1897 Founder’s Scholarship)
Cornell College (16K Trustee Scholarship)
Waitlisted:
Wellesley
Whitman
Rejected:
Amherst
Copied from my Princeton decision post-
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown):790 CR, 760 M, 770 W, 11 E
ACT: N/a
SAT II: 800 World, 790 Chem, 780 Math II, 750 Lit
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.94
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/250
AP (place score in parenthesis): 5,5,5,5,5,5,5,4
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: 6 APs
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): USNCO Semifinalist, All-state Band, National AP Scholar
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Music
Job/Work Experience: Supermarket
Volunteer/Community service: Not enough, but a fair amount
Summer Activities: I wish…
Essays: Pretty good
Teacher Recommendation: Superb
Counselor Rec: Great
Additional Rec: Music Teacher, pretty good
Other
State (if domestic applicant):FL
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Private
Ethnicity: Very White (THERE IS HOPE!!!)
Gender: M
Income Bracket: 100,000-200,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Music, sent in a supplement
Reflection
Strengths: Test Scores, Recs, Music
Weaknesses: Junior Grades, Ethnicity
Accepted:
University of Central Florida (40K National Merit Scholarship)
University of Miami (University Scholarship 26K/year)
Tulane University (Presidential Scholarship, 24K/year)
University of Maryland College Park (Presidential Scholarship, 12K/year)
Boston College
University of Chicago (University Scholarship, 5K/year)
Washington University in St. Louis
Rice University
Brown University
Princeton University
Waitlisted:
Columbia (took my name off literally five minutes after I checked my Princeton decision!)
Rejected:
NONE!!!
Attending: Princeton