Architecture Major, so stats won’t be everything - the portfolio and whether it fits with what the school’s looking for plays a big part into it as well.
Attending: USC
Accepted: Pratt, RPI, Northeastern
Rejected: Cornell AAP [ED], Syracuse
● Chinese American Male – Born and raised in New York City
● Low income family – Parents are divorced, single parent family with reliance on mom.
● First generation
● Technically Bilingual. English as a second language, though it’s the main language I speak now.
● Major: Architecture
● Mild Sensorineural Hearing Loss - I used to receive hearing education services until sophomore year.
GPA: ~90/100
UW: ~3.5/4.0
School does not weight.
My freshman grades are the ones that are really dragging me down (75 and 80 in Spanish compared to a 90 and 97 sophomore year for example) and my grades are steadily improving
84.33,86.77 Freshman
90.33,90.25 Sophomore
92.10,92.30 Junior
Senior Classes:
Fall: AP Calculus AB, Architecture, Environmental Studies, Shakespearean Literature, Economics
Spring: AP Calculus AB, Advanced Architecture, Geology , Advanced Acting, U.S. Government
APs:
● AP World History: 5
● AP Calculus AB: To be taken in may. (got a 5)
Class Size/School: ~800. Very competitive and prestigious high school - Stuyvesant High School
Rank: School does not rank.
SAT: CR: 690 M: 760 W: 730 – Total 2180
SAT II: Math IIC - 780
EC’s: (Only EC’s listed on my apps are listed)
● Worked for ~100 hours for the United Chinese Association of Brooklyn as a volunteer/communications intern – Had to help organize community events, voter registration, etc. (Sophomore)
● Wall Street Dragons Dragonboat Racing team – our boats placed 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th in the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York Corporate Youth Invitationals. - ~40 hours a week during the summer. (Junior/Senior)
● A.C.E. Mentoring Program (Architecture, Construction, and Engineering): Led final presentation for my team and also closed it off. Students work with professionals in the field on activities encompassing various aspects of architecture and construction. (Junior/Senior)
● President and Founder of The Architecture Club (Junior/Senior)
● President and Founder of The Affinity Graphic Design Club (freshman)
Jobs & Hobbies:
● Freelance web and digital design – I do all sorts of design for commission. I spend a lot of time on my work, and I’ve received numerous commissions(2003-present)
● Clerical work for Blue Ocean Food Trading LLC. (2009)
● I do a lot of digital art on my free time, but I’ve been experimenting with traditional mediums as well – Mask Making, Acrylic painting, Sumi e painting, Chinese Ink and Wash and Shan Shui painting, etc.
Travel: extremely well traveled:
China, 20 different states (Entire east coast from MA. down to FL., KY., TN., NV., AZ., CA., HI.), England, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Bermuda, Mexico, Bahamas, Canada
Recs/Essays/Portfolio: -
Recs: Great relationship with both teachers, Got one from my Architecture teacher (known for 3 years) and one from my current english teacher (known for 1 year)
Essays: Great reviews on them all around, teachers I don’t have (but got to proofread my essays) said my common app was one of the best they’ve seen
Portfolio: Pretty strong imo, and unusual in the large amount of digital art as opposed to the other portfolios I’ve seen. (The gamble paid off for some schools, worked against me for others)
Fit for architecture: A.C.E mentoring program – returning participant for architecture, President of Architecture Club, extremely high grades for architecture, drafting and CAD courses, School’s architecture teacher knows me extremely well and wrote my rec.
PM me for portfolio if you want to see it, contains my name on some of the pieces so i would rather not have it out in the open for everyone to see
Not quite what I was looking for in the beginning but VERY happy that it’s where I ended up.