Can more graduated seniors do "actual results" threads?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1641

Major: Biology

Accepted: UCSD (matriculating), UCI, UCD, UCSB, UCSC, Boston U, Syracuse U.
Waitlisted: NYU
Rejected: Cornell, Duke, UCB, UCLA, USC, Cal Poly SLO (lol what), RPI
Objective:
GPA: 3.8 UW / 4.2 W
SAT I: 2020
SAT II: Bio M 730, US History 720
ACT: 30
Rank: 13/460
AP: Euro (3), APUSH (5), Lang (5)
Senior Yr.: All AP: Bio, stats, macroecon, gov’t/politics, literature.
Major Awards: AP Scholar, various science awards, etc.

Subjective:
ECs: leadership in multiple music ensembles, leadership in various clubs, etc. Strong commitment, especially in music. Also lots of solid volunteering.
Jobs/ Work Experience: none
Essays: Pretty damn good for both UCs and privates
Recommendations: couldn’t see them, but probably good
Counselor Rec: same thing; probably good
Additional Rec: N/A
Interview: Only at Cornell; went great, lasted 2 hours instead of 30 minutes.
Other:
State: CA
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Gender: Male
Hooks: none

Reflection:
Strengths: Essays, EC’s
Weaknesses: GPA, SAT
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: GPA and SAT killed my chances at UCB/UCLA.

Very happy with my choice of UCSD for its top-ranking bio program!

1642

Please chance me!
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1643

This is for actual results. Not chance requests.

1644

Trinity College (Accepted)
Bucknell University (Denied)
College of the Holy Cross (Accepted with Small Scholarship)
Fordham University (Accepted)
University of Scranton (Accepted with Half Tuition Scholarship)
Vanderbilt Univeristy (Denied)
Tulane University (Denied)
Uconn (Accepted)

Applying Undecided

GPA: 3.6712 unwieghted 4.3812 weighted
Class Rank: 22/472
Classes: All honors, with the exception of Latin freshman through junior year, and AP classes.
AP Classes: US History, English Language, Environmental Science, English Literature, Psychology, Government, Biology

ACT: (From two test dates)
Composite: 30
Math: 35
English: 30
Science: 30
Writing: 8
Reading: 28
Comined English/Writing: 28

AP Exams:
AP Environmental Science: 4
AP US History: 3

Extra Curriculars:
buildOn (Community Service Organization): Junior & Senior year (VP senior year), selected to build a school in Nicaragua
Friendly Faces (Community Service): Junior & Senior year
Chemistry Club: Sophomore, Junior & Senior year (Co-President, Founder)
Biology Club: Senior year (Co-founder)
Netraisers (Community Service/ Fundraising): Senior Year (Co-Founder, VP)
Bullying Awareness Club: Junior & Senior year

Volunteering totals most at high school with over 130 hours in school year, volunteered at local library over each summer.

Overall my essay and supplements are average, not spectacular.

1645

Accepted: Hamilton, Colgate, Vassar, Colby, Skidmore, Boston College, Brandeis, Holy Cross, Dickinson (merit), Hobart & William Smith (merit), Carleton, Macalaster, Grinnell
Waitlisted: Wesleyan, Bates (showed no interest in both)

Decision: it’s all about financial aid - therefore, Hamilton or Colby (no-loan policies)

Objective:
GPA: 4.0
SAT I: 2210
SAT II: 650; 730
Rank: Top 5%
AP: 7 of them
Senior Yr.: all AP and Honors
Major Awards: NMCS, book award from an Ivy

Subjective:
ECs: leadership positions in clubs, student gov’t, athletics, and community organizations
Jobs/ Work Experience: part time jobs
Essays: excellent/very good
Recommendations: didn’t see them
Counselor Rec: excellent
Interview: excellent

Other:
State: Maine
School Type: Highly-Ranked Public
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Gender: Female
Hooks: none

Reflection:
Competition is crazy.

1646

Accepted: University of Illinois, University of Wisconsin, UCLA, USC (Presidential Scholar 1/2 Tuition), Northwestern University, Harvard University
Waitlisted: University of Michigan, Cornell
Rejected: Stanford (REA), Dartmouth, UC Berkeley

Will Attend: Harvard, DUH

Reflection: Take a risk. Do what you love. Don’t do things for college, do them for yourself. I never did anything in school solely to put it on my application. Also, be creative in your essays. I wrote my CommonApp essay about thrift shopping, which probably cost me admission at some schools, but it paid off at Harvard. I am so excited to go to Harvard next year. High school was great, but college should be even better!!

Harvard interview was not incredible, but I think I came off as someone very personable and easy to talk to. It was probably a nice change of pace from the student who focused solely on school and research. I like to watch TV, hang out with friends, go to parties, be a teenager, cause trouble, etc

Age - senior
Sex - Male
Ethnicity - Caucasian
$ Bracket -Middle
Intended Majors - Bio/Biomedical Engineering (or ChemE at schools that don’t have it)
State - Illinois
School Type - Medium/Large Public (somewhat competitive)

Will apply to:

Stanford (REA) - already applied
Harvard
University of Michigan
UW - Madison

UCLA
USC - already applied
University of Illinois - already applied
Berkeley
Northwestern

HARD STATS!
UW GPA - 3.99/4.0
W GPA - 4.99 (school has weird weighted system)
Class Rank - 4/500
SAT - not taking
SAT Subject Tests - USH 740 (not sent), math II 780 (ouch) and biology e (750) both sent
ACT - 35 (33 E 36 M 34 R 36 S)
AP - Human Geography (5) USH (5) - Junior APs - AP Lang+Comp (5), AP bio (5), AP Macro (5), AP Environmental science (5), AP Comp Gov (5), AP US gov (5) - Senior APs - AP Physics C E+M, AP Calc BC, AP Chem, AP European History

Schedule:
FRESH
Honors English
Honors Geometry
Honors Biology
CP Western civ (world history)
Engineering and Design/Piano I

SOPH
Honors English II
Honors Alg. 2 + Trig
Honors Chemistry
AP US History
Auto Mechanics
Spanish I

Junior
Spanish II
Pre Calc Honors
AP US Gov
AP Macro
AP Biology
English III
Honors Physics

English IV over the summer

SENIOR
AP Chemistry
AP Calc BC
AP Physics (will take both C tests)
AP European History
Spanish III honors
Music Technology

EC’s
Soccer - Varsity since Freshman year, started every game, Regional Champions (9,11,12), All Conference, All Sectional (10,11,12), Team MVP (10), 2x most outstanding athlete (highest gpa for fall sports), all-area, chicago fire player of the week, academic all state (12), potential walk on (?) just sent recruiting info

Mathletes - 3 time individual regional champion, 3 time state qualifier, vice president (11), president senior year, 2 time individual conference champion, all conference, AMC12 school winner/AIME qualifier (108)

NHS president - 11,12

Scholastic Bowl - JV (9, 10, 11, 12) Capt. both years of JV team, capt. varsity

I played travel soccer for 8 years, went to nationals in florida twice, went to state championships twice, currently play for club team outside of school

Science Club member

Mu Alpha Theta Member

Honors/Awards/Etc -
Soccer All conference
academic all state
most outstanding player
Soccer all sectional
Soccer team MVP
Soccer freshman of the year
Mathletes multiple conference, regional awards, state qualifier
Mathletes all conference
AMC 12 - 108 (AIME QUAL.)

Summers -
I spend a lot of time volunteering for JDRF - juvenile diabetes research foundation because I am a type 1 diabetic. I participate in the JDRF walk to cure diabetes and I host a garage sale every year in which all $$$ goes to JDRF. Overall I have made over $10,000.

Rec’s - one from history teacher was awesome, didn’t read one from math teacher, also got supplemental one from soccer coach
Essay - took a unique angle on diabetes and soccer

Strength’s - Soccer, GPA, ACT
Weaknesses - lack of big awards

1647

Intended Major: Statistics
Accepted: UW-Seattle, ASU (14k scholarship if I declare first choice on National Merit), Carnegie Mellon University, UC Berkeley, Cornell (CAS), CWRU (30k scholarship)
Waitlisted: None :frowning:
Rejected: Stanford (sister went there so weak legacy), Harvard, Columbia, UChicago
Objective:
GPA: 4.0/4.8 UW/W
SAT I: 2330 (M: 800, CR: 800, 730)
SAT II: Math II 800, Chemistry 800
ACT: 33: M:36, S: 35, E:31, R: 30
Rank: 2/770
AP: Calc AB, Calc BC, Psychology, U.S. History, Chemistry, Human Geography, Comparative Government and Politics, English Language and Composition (All 5s)
Senior Yr.: AP Lit, AP Physics C Mechanics, AP Spanish 5, AP Micro/Macroecon, AP Statistics
Major Awards: National AP Scholar, National Merit Finalist Winner (At the time of application, was listed as Semifinalist, didn’t bother to change to finalist status as ~90+% of Semis become finalists)

Subjective:
ECs: NHS, some tutoring, recreational weightlifting, video gaming
Jobs/ Work Experience: Private Tutoring for a week
Essays: Personal statement I thought was above average, school essays varied from decent to crap.
Recommendations: Very good, both teachers liked me a lot.
Counselor Rec: Average, counselor didn’t know much about me because of school size.
Interview: Cornell (Was really awkward, I thought there would be questions for me but it was literally “ask me questions about cornell.” From what I understand, it doesn’t count anyways) , Harvard (I want to say it went well, but I’m guessing it was below average, I had pretty generic answers from some questions I should have been prepared for. I was honestly hoping I’d get another interview from another school and I could use the mistakes I learned from my Harvard interview, but nope).

Other:
State: AZ
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Male
Hooks:

Reflection: I definitely made a lot of blunders that could have been avoided during the entire college selection process. I was way too cocky and ignored deadlines/didn’t bother to look up college acceptance rates (I thought Uchicago was 12% acceptance rate for example). I also applied to a lot of schools without even doing in-depth research to see if I’d like the school. For example, when I found out I got rejected from Uchicago, I honestly didn’t even care because I couldn’t see myself liking it. I got lucky and still managed to get accepted into two of the schools that I was interested in going to, but you should never be banking on luck.
I also procrastinated my essays for way too long and ended up not applying to some schools because of that. I prioritized writing the wrong essays; I spent so long writing my why CMU essay and one of Uchicago’s essays (while writing a terrible second essay for that school). And neither of those schools were ones that I was particularly going to.
If I could go back and do everything again, I’d probably start the college selection process a lot earlier and apply somewhere early.
Strengths: SAT, Grades
Weaknesses: ECs, college-specific essays
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Showed too much disinterest in general, wrote some really terrible essays.

Also, to all of those people who are putting “Asian” on their weaknesses or rationale for not getting into college, can we be real here. I’m not going to pretend like AA doesn’t affect admissions, but in most cases, you’re not going to be rejected solely because of your ethnicity. If you did get rejected and that’s literally the only thing you can think could have caused it, it’s probably because you weren’t “real” enough to the admissions committee. People get into the top schools partially because they’re smart, but mostly because they’re hardworking (and I’ll be the first to admit that I’m lazy as hell and didn’t deserve admissions to any of those schools).

1648

Thanks to all. these were extremely helpful. And Petersuu, I love yours :slight_smile: You sound like my kid but you’ve got better stats and mine is not as cocky. But you both have pretty laid back thoughts on this whole admissions thing.

1649

Accepted: USC, Middlebury, Vassar, Oberlin, Grinnell, Macalester, Occidental, Whitman, Colorado College, and a bunch of safeties
Waitlisted: Carleton, Wesleyan, Georgetown, WUSTL (showed no interest)
Rejected: Pomona

Objective:
GPA: 3.8 UW
ACT: 33 (35 E, 32 M, 32 S, 34 R, 10 W)
SAT I: Only took it once, didn’t like my score. 2080 or so? Only sent to Georgetown b/c they require all scores.
SAT II: A bunch of 690s and a 740 in US History (sent only to a few)
Rank: 17/665 (top 3%)
AP: Four 5’s (Psych, Lang, US, Spanish), one 4 (Comp Sci).
Senior Year: APs (Physics C, Calc AB, Lit, Euro) + Advanced Spanish
Major Awards: Hah. None.

Subjective:
ECs: President of two unique clubs, VP of another, some theater, private and peer tutor.
Work Experience: Movie theater job throughout HS.
Essays: Probably the strongest part of my application.
Recommendations: Hopefully good.
Counselor Rec: I assume it was great.
Interview: All but a few went really well.

Other:
State: Illinois
School Type: Decent suburban public
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Hooks: none

Reflection:
I put a lot into this process and applied to a lot more schools than most of my peers. My main concern going into the college search was affordability, so I applied to places that met full-need. In the end only a few of the colleges are affordable, which is what I was expecting, but I was hoping to have gotten better aid. I also appealed the financial aid decisions of most of my schools, supplying the good offers I got, which were from Colorado College, Whitman, and Grinnell (the best).

Grinnell was my third choice, so I’m really happy to have gotten in, but for several days I was very depressed about Oberlin and Macalester’s financial aid. I have since called the cops on that pity party, and Oberlin is currently reviewing my FA appeal. Not getting my hopes up though, so I’m probably going to Grinnell, which is awesome. Macalester and Vassar flat-out said “No, we will not give you any more money,” so they’re off the table. Visiting Colorado College in two weeks, but I don’t really see myself there.

I was shocked to have gotten into Middlebury and to an extent Vassar, which was my biggest reach along with Pomona. I was also pretty sad about not getting into Carleton, though I realized I sort of liked it for the wrong reasons, because it was prestigious, because some of my friends are going there, etc., so maybe it truly wasn’t meant to be. However, Midd and Vassar gave me personally the least aid, so they’re off the table.

I also sort of only applied because those schools are more well-regarded, same thing with WUSTL and Georgetown, so maybe it’s all right that I won’t be able to attend them. Grinnell and Oberlin were the best fits from the get-go, and they are very similar, so I am extremely lucky to have this wonderful opportunity. It really is important that you go where you’re comfortable, I think, not where is the most highly ranked. CC was an incredible resource during my four years of looking at colleges and I would probably be heading to U of I if not for the brilliant minds on this site. If any incoming seniors see this and want advice with any of my schools, please feel free to message me.

1650

I can’t wait to post my results on this thread next year and have nobody recognize a single college on my list :slight_smile:

1651

Accepted: Florida International University (w/ scholarship), University of Central Florida (w/ scholarship), Florida State University (w/ scholarship), Fordham University (w/ scholarship), University of Denver (w/ scholarship), Drexel University (w/ scholarship), University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins University (which I will be attending)
Waitlisted: None
Rejected: None
Objective:
GPA: 3.8 (unweighted) and 6.82 (weighted)
SAT I: 2000 COMBINED, 680 M, 600 CR, 710 W
SAT II: Math 1 640, Math 2 680, Spanish 800
Rank: My school doesn’t rank
AP: English Lit (3)
Senior Yr.: AP English Lang, AP Calculus A/B, AP United States History, Leadership Seminar 3, Dual Enrollment Chemistry 1, Dual Enrollment Chemistry 1 Lab, Dual Enrollment Anatomy and Physiology 1, Dual Enrollment Anatomy and Physiology 1 Lab, Dual Enrollment Human Sexuality, Dual Enrollment English Composition 2, Dual Enrollment Abnormal Psychology, Dual Enrollment Intro to Logic
P.S. Dual enrollment just means college classes at the same time

Subjective:
ECs: Mock Trial Bailiff, GSA (4 years), officer in Newspaper, officer in World Religions club, Bible Club, Math Club, National Honors Society, Pre-Med Society, Sports Club
Jobs/ Work Experience: OfficeMax for 2 years.
Essays: I had my AP Lit teacher from junior year read over my essays, but my essays were great. I believe they were the highlight of my applications.
Recommendations: I had letters from my Pre-Cal teacher and my AP Lit teacher, and they both love me so I’m assuming they were good
Counselor Rec: I have a very great relationship with my guidance counselor, so I’m assuming it was good as well
Additional Rec: Nope
Interview: None

Other:
State: FL
School Type: Public, (School for Advanced Studies: #12 high school in the nation)
Ethnicity: Hispanic
Gender: Female
$ Bracket: 17,000 per year (very low)
Hooks: I have a good “story”, seeing as my father has been nonexistent in my life since I was 3 years old, but I didn’t really speak of that too much in my essays, so it shouldn’t have made an impact

Reflection:
Strengths: Essays
Weaknesses: Test Scores
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: All listed above

1652

Also, my community service hours were 823

1653

Accepted: Cornell Engineering (most likely to attend), Vassar, Trinity College, Syracuse Engineering, Stevens, NYU Poly, Macaulay Honors CCNY (School of Architecture), Drexel, Fordham, CUNY Baruch, CUNY Hunter, SUNY Binghamton.

Waitlist: Vanderbilt, Oberlin, Bowdoin, UCLA, Boston U.

Rejected: Yale, Dartmouth, Columbia, Cooper Union, Northwestern, U of Penn.

I am a first generation college student, white, jewish, male, immigrated from Russia in '96.

According to these conversion systems from CollegeBoard and Princeton Review I would have a 4.0 uw gpa. Not sure what it would be for the weighted one, but it is 97/100 on a 100 point scale.

SAT Superscore: 2130----> CR: 690, M:750, W:690
Single-Sitting: 2080-----> CR:690, M: 700, W: 690

SAT II: Math 2: 720 US History: 720 Physics: 730

AP: USH: 4 Calc AB: 5 Spanish: 3 Euro: 3

AP Scholar with Honor, Discus Award Winner

Taking AP Physics B, AP Govt, AP stat senior year in a very rigorous and competitive high school in NYC.

My school doesn’t rank but I know I’m def in top 10%. Probably even top 5%.

Extracurriculars: co-captain of Vars XC and Track teams (4 years, captain senior year), Sports Editor for School Newspaper (4 years, editor for junior and senior years), Chairperson of NHS (3 years, chairperson senior year), Student Liason to the Alumni Board of directors. Not official, but I’m going to be an Eagle Scout in about a month or two. I am going to have a community health fair with the local hospital and red cross volunteering to help.

Work/ Volunteering: Worked at some summer camps where I personally taught classes to kids ranging in age from 6 to 18. Worked as an assistant chef at a cafe. Worked as an intern for a big real estate company. Worked with famous Med School professor to create visuals for presentations to first year med school students, which included research and finding/ making visual representations of biological processes. 50 hours at a community mural project (Volunteer). Worked in the Parent Coordinator’s office during the summer for 175 hours (Volunteer). Around 70 hours from a camp I worked at (volunteer).

Solid recommendations coming from APUSH and AP Calc AB teachers. Principal of school also wrote one. The college professor I worked with worte one as well about the success of the presentations we developed.

1654

Applied: Northeastern University, NYU (7 year dental), Columbia University, Rutgers University, University at Buffalo (7 year dental), University of Rochester (8 year med), Drexel University (7 year med), Temple University, Villanova University (7 year dental), University of Pittsburgh, VCU (8 year dental), University of Michigan, Northwestern University, WashU St. Louis (8 year dental), University of Southern California, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Accepted: Northeastern University (20k/year), NYU (7 year program, no money), Rutgers University (16k/year), UB (7 year program, 12k/year), Drexel University (no program, 24k/year), Temple University (full tuition), Villanova University (no program, 6k/year), University of Pittsburgh (5k/year), VCU (no program, 2k/year), University of Michigan

Waitlisted: WashU St. Louis (accepted spot), Northwestern University (accepted spot), University of Rochester (did not accept spot)

Rejected: Columbia, USC, UNC

Attending: University of Pittsburgh

Here is why I decided on Pitt:
-Cost, Cost, Cost. At Pitt i can pay for my entire undergrad + 3 years of dental school for the cost of Michigan undergrad OOS. I will be saving around $350k vs NYU.
-Location. Probably the warmest choice out of all my choices. really didn’t want to be miserable in the snow for 4 to 7/8 years. Plus being close to home has benefits for networking (parents are bound to know people who can help you out - i.e. dentists for me - if you stay close to home. but do make sure (and I plan on) not going home every weekend)
-Campus. I loved Oakland during the day when I visited. It was basically it’s own small city filled with a ton of college kids but it wasn’t as big as NYU/NYC something that I don’t think I was ready for.
Because of the money i’m saving on undergrad my parents said they would let me go to any dental school better than Pitt (harvard, columbia, upenn, unc, michigan) if i want plus they’d help out with a car, house/apartment, or buying into a practice.

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1470/2210 - 780M, 690R, 740W 9E
ACT: 32C (did not send)
SAT II: 800 Math II, 770 Bio M, 710 US History
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 24/644
AP (place score in parenthesis): APUSH (5), AP Calc AB (5), AP Bio (4)
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: AP Psych, Honors English IV, AP Stats, AP Econ (Macro+Micro), Honors Physics, AP Chem
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Siemens Competition 2011 Regional Semifinalist, AP Scholar, NMS Commended

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Speech & Debate, NHS (VP), Bhangra dancer
Job/Work Experience:
Volunteer/Community service: Hospital volunteer (3 summers), MLK Day of Service
Summer Activities: PTEI High School Summer camp, PFEW, UPCI Summer Academy
Essays: Pretty good
Teacher Recommendation: Great
Counselor Rec: Great
Additional Rec: Great

Other
State (if domestic applicant): PA
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Indian
Gender:Male
Income Bracket: 200,00+
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): lol
Reflection
Strengths:
Weaknesses:

1655

(In response to my post: don’t know why I put 2/316 for rank, there was this weird thing with my district that reported me as second when I was applying to transfer this year. I was actually ninth in my class)

1656

Accepted:
University of St. Andrews (Management and Economics), University of Edinburgh (International Business), Kings College London (Management), American University (Honors Program + 18k per year), Boston University (Honors at SMG), George Washington University, University of Southern California (Marshall)
Waitlisted: NYU Stern
Rejected: Georgetown, Tufts (Showed literally no interest, last minute add on), University of Warwick (International Business)

Attending: USC!

Objective:
GPA: 3.67 (unweighted) and I don’t know :)(weighted)
SAT I: 2170 COMBINED, 770 M, 740 CR, 660 W
SAT II: Math 2 660, English Lit: 720
Rank: My school doesn’t rank
AP: English Lit (5) US History (4) European History (3)
Senior Yr.: One AP Class with Three Honors Classes, heaviest course load I can take

Subjective:
ECs: Varsity Athlete for 3 years, Girl Scout, 400+ hours of community service outside of that
Jobs/ Work Experience: Worked Retail for one Summer, Camp Counselor
Essays: Good Essays, didn’t spend too much time re-reading them and changing them, just tried to be genuine.
Recommendations: Good, both teachers that wrote them like me… Or else I wouldn’t have asked them…
Counselor Rec: Nothing to Complain about

Interview: USC, (No Georgetown Interview, my interviewer was a complete flake and never was able to meet with me, so I called the head of interviews for my area and got it waived)

Other:
State: CA
School Type: Private, top 10 in the nation
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female
$ Bracket: $200,000+
Hooks: None that come to mind.

Reflection:
Strengths: Essays, Test Scores
Weaknesses: GPA definitely. If I had a 4.0 or at least a 3.8 or 3.9 I could have considered some Ivies, not having any real hooks or struggles I’ve been through that would make me stand out.
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I think I just talked about my passions and got the admissions officers interested.

BIGGEST ADVICE I CAN GIVE: Try hard in high school. It wasn’t until my Junior year that I really started to think about my grades and although they are in no way bad, a 3.67 does not stack up well against a 4.0. Maybe If I had gotten better grades I could have gotten a Merit Scholarship at USC, but oh well. :slight_smile: Definitely Message me if you are interested in applying abroad! This year I learned all about the process and the amazing schools over there. Although I decided not to go, I do plan to go there for graduate school once I have a more focused subject I want to study. Good luck to everyone reading this!

Fight on!!

1657

Perhaps I represent a more average student in this thread. Applied for Fall 2010.

Accepted: UCI, UCR, BU
Waitlisted: UCD
Rejected: UCLA, UCB, USC, UCSD
Attending: BU!! (admitted College of Arts & Sciences, International Relations)

GPA: 3.4 unweighted; 3.7 weighted
SAT I: 2000 superscore SAT II: i can’t remember
AP: US History (3) Gov (3) Human Geo (4)
IB: Hist of Americas HL (5), English HL (5), Spanish SL (6), Geography SL (6), Biology HL (4)–over 120 hrs community service, 34/45 IB Diploma

Subjective:
ECs: After-school mentoring program for all of high school. Had to be interviewed in order to join, various clubs, piano.

Jobs/ Work Experience: Worked a summer job or two
Essays: Honestly my CommonApp essays probably brought me down. I didn’t really know how to express myself, and probably came across dull. My essay to BU took me the least amount of time but I knew exactly what I was writing and why.
Recommendations: Excellent

State: CA
School Type: Public, top 100 in the nation
Ethnicity: White/Asian
Gender: Female
$ Bracket: $100,000+
Hooks: None probably

Weaknesses: GPA definitely. Took difficult classes (usually honors, AP, or IB) and did not do well. Should have taken moderately difficult classes and boosted my GPA. Would have had more free time to do a little more ECs than studying all the time. Do ECs you genuinely care about instead of “what will look good” on your application. Dedication/passion will be rewarded more than numbers in my opinion.

ADVICE!!: I would recommend setting realistic expectations for yourself; don’t do what your friends or parents want you to do. You are the one going to college, not them. Leave time so that you can edit your essays–ask others you trust to proofread. Take them seriously. Colleges want to get you know YOU outside of test scores. Take advantage of the essays to show how amazing you really are!!

1658

My Son’s Stats (age 17)

Attended #2 HS in the nation
IB degree
Member of NHS (requires leadership as well as grades)
ACT = 34
SAT Physics subject test score 780
SAT Math2 subject test core 760
GPA 3.6 (every class AP and IB)
Hours and hours of tutoring
Hours and hours volunteering
Soccer player at High School and Club Soccer (entire life)
Teaching soccer to young students
Self taught guitar
Many other achievements
Fluent in Spanish and English
Department award in Physics (very difficult to get)

Applied to:
MIT = denied
Cal Tec = denied
UC Berkley = denied
University of Michigan = waitlist
Purdue = accepted into honors engineering

This year, apparently colleges received thousands and thousands of applications, esp. for engineering.

While engineering has always been competive, we are now have many international applications, much more so than 25 yrs ago when I applied to Univ of Mi (accepted) and what was then General Motors Institute, now Kettering (accepted).

The cost and amout of time to go through applications has gone from an hour handwritten with a small check if any, to hours and hours with a rather large check. Admissions offices have grown from small to huge organizations with high pay rates.

That is today’s reality.

While I suggest the US colleges put some preference on US applicants, so our US students can build and grow businesses and create jobs in our country, our colleges seem not to share the same insight which is sad.

We keep hearing how the US is falling behind in jobs and job creation; if we do not educate our own, and educate those that leave with a freshly minted degree and go back home to create jobs and teach, the US will continue to fall behind.

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@EEdegree
I wouldn’t blame international students as the reason for your sons rejections from top tier engineering programs… Sounds a bit bitter.

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It is not blame; simply the truth of our now worldwide economy and competition vs. what it was 20 or so years ago when most kids that filled the few engineering spots were from the US. There are only so many positions. When you add thousands and thousands more applicants, the chance of getting in is much reduced. Not bitterness; simply prob and stats talking here.

The issue with our economy is again, not to blame international students but to suggest we put more emphasis on educating our own who tend to create companies and jobs in the USA.

We here non stop that “the USA is falling behind in science and lacks job creation”. This is what happens when you do not prioritize educating your own; many that are internationals take their education with them and go back home.

Same for the US allowing a free market; whereas other countries impose high and huge taxes and tarrifs for imported goods. Your people have no jobs.

One can argue for a level playing field in both cases however, it is true we do need to educate our own so they can go out and produce, create, develop companies and lead the US.

That applies to my kid, as well as every kid in the US that is qualified for a college. Either grow the number of slots available, or prioritize our own so that the USA can gain some steam here, and not continue to fall behind.