wow, this thread is really useful, and congrats to every one
This is a great thread. Most useful is the info from white students because they are more or less based on stats (not on affirmative action programs), and therefore, convenient for calibrating the chances of juniors. It will be nice if the seniors also list their intended major.
Thanks.
I’m doing Biomedical Engineering at LA Tech.
Hi,
I will be attending the awesome University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. What are you going to major in? My name is Michael Kimani.
Thanx
Graduation year: 2005
Accepted: JHU, Northwestern, U Chicago, NYU (w/ a scholarship), Fordham, Wellesley, Trinity
Rejected: Columbia (deferred ED) and UPenn
W/listed: Yale (legacy) and Emory
SATs: 1480
SAT IIs: Writing-760, US History-760, Math IC-700
Rank: n/a
AP: 5 European History, 5 American; 4 more APs senior year
GPA: about a 4.5/5.0 scale
Recommendations: Pretty good, an excellent one from my English teacher; and one from an English Yale professor at a summer course i took saying i was the best in her class that included Yale undergrads
EC’s: Captain of the V Tennis team, BBball for four years, Captain of my traveling bball team, altar server, SAT tutor, some work with the drama club…
Comments: thats about it…nothing too extraordinary
Is it me or is everyone who’s listing there stats caucasian, I read about 40 listings most of which were from white males.
You guys will love this…
at my time of applying, my UC record (all the grades factored into the UC GPA, including some select junior high classes) contained NINE Bs, and no Cs. I do suspect quite heavily that my ethnicity certainly played some factor into my admission; although employing race/ethnicity as a factor is banned by Proposition 209, purportedly affirmative action is employed via a proxy, that is, the financial standing of the applicant (being that the average minority family has a lesser income than that of a caucasian or Asian family). Then again, my family’s income isn’t in the lower economic brackets, and the methods employed by the Berkeley admissions department (Comprehensive Review) are still classified, so who really knows what happened in those smoky rooms behind closed doors…
Anyway I also think my ECs were probably the most important element (year-round club swimming and water polo throughout high school, 3-5 hours daily during the school year and 7+ in the summer). Or maybe it was the APs I took or my SATs (which are insane compared to the Mexican minority averages)…Who knows, a black male from my high school with an academic record arguably better than mine got into Harvard, but was rejected from Berkeley. In my opinion, Berkeley is a wild crapshoot for the students not in the highest academic tiers.
Accepted: Harvard, Princeton, Penn, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, MIT, Brown, Georgetown, Cornell, UC Berkeley, Northwestern
Rejected: Duke
Stats:
SAT: 800 M 800 CR 800 W
SAT IIs: Math IIC 800, US History 800, Chemistry 800, Physics 800
GPA: 4.98 W
Rank: 1
Location/Person:
State or Country: CA
School Type: Public
omg sephiroth, whats your ECs and race?
wow… disgusting…
Attending: Wash U St. Louis (Olin)
Accepted: Wash U, Wake Forest, George Washington, Lehigh, U Richmond, U Rochester
Waitlisted >>rejected: Emory
Rejected: Duke, UVA
HS: Great public outside of Boston
Intended major: Finance
GPA: ~3.5 UW
School does not rank students or weight grades.
SAT: 2240 (790 CR, 730 Writing, 720 Math)
SAT II: 730 US History, 720 Math 1C, 700 Chem
APs: AP US History: 5
AP Macroeconomics: 5
AP Statistics: 4
AP Biology: 4
Extracurricular Activities:
National Ocean Sciences Bowl team fall for 3 years
Yearbook editor fall 2002-2005. Staff member 2005-2006.
Co-founder and President Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School Investors Group.
Athletics:
Tennis x 4 years, varsity last 3 years
Awards and Honors:
National Ocean Sciences Bowl regional champions 2003, 2004, 2005.
Second place at national championship of National Ocean Sciences Bowl in 2005. Team won all-expense paid trip to Bermuda to study coral reef ecology at the Bermuda Biological Station for Research.
National Merit Commended Student.
Yearbook won the Top Journalism Award, Class I, New England Scholastic Press Association.
Dual County League All-Star in Tennis in Spring 2005.
Certificate of Merit for Excellence on National Spanish Exam at Levels 2, 3, and 4
Employment:
Works at REI and had for over a year when he applied
Volunteer Work:
Volunteer tutoring in geological sciences and advanced algebra for peers having academic difficulty.
Attending: Duke
Accepted: Duke, UVA, Cornell, RPI, Northeastern
Intended Engineering Major
GPA 4.0, No rank
SAT 2160 (taken 2x)
SAT Subject: Chem 780, US 750, Math 1 740, World 720
AP Chem 5
AP Language 4
AP US 5
AP World History 4
ECs:
FBLA, Student Government Officer, NHS, Leo Club (Lion’s Club), Math Team, Newspaper. No incredible awards. Just A LOT of participation and effort.
Athletics:
-Cross Country 4 years
-Indoor/Outdoor Track 4 years
-Placed at Leagues many times… but no All-County or All-State honors
Awards:
-Semi-finalist UVA Jefferson Scholars
-RPI Medal
-AP Scholar with Honor
-Club Awards, etc. FBLA state placements
-Scholarship from NY State Edu. Dept.
-No National Merit Scholarship or Commendation
Work:
-Summer Work at A&P, Parks and Rec, mowing lawns…
what I’m trying to say is… you don’t have to be stellar to get accepted into your dream school. Write a good essay and have a teacher edit it, not a guidance counselor.
Accepted: Yale (attending), Stanford (SCEA, legacy), Princeton, Amherst, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego
Rejected/Waitlisted: nowhere
White male from strong public school in Southern California
GPA: 4.0 UW, 4.46 W
Rank: school does not rank
SAT: 2400
SAT II: Math IIC 800, US History 800, Biology-E 800
APs: US History 5, Calculus BC 5, European History 5, Biology 5
6 additional Sr year AP classes: Spanish Language, Physics B, English Literature, US Government (semester), Macroeconomics (semester), Computer Science AB
ECs were weak compared to most CC people
MUN: 4 yrs, 3 yrs board, President Sr year, lots of awards including best delegate
Mock Trial: only Sr year, pre-trial lawyer
Violin: 3 yrs in high school (9th-11th, but started in 4th)
Orchestra: 2 yrs
Research: Summer research at a field station in Colorado
Awards:
National Merit semifinalist (eventually finalist)
AP Scholar with Honor
A bunch of school level awards
Essays: excellent
Recommendations: probably amazing though I never got to read them
Interviews (Yale and Princeton only): Yale interview was great, Princeton interview was ok, but hardly wonderful
A note to any prospective business majors who will be applying to colleges this year:
My stats were pretty bad by CC standards, and I am not an Indiana resident. Nevertheless, Indiana gave me nearly a full-ride and direct-admission to their business school, arguably one of the 10 best in the country. Not only that, I got my acceptance letter two weeks after applying.
So if any of you business majors are looking for a safe school or are worried about cost, I recommend applying to Indiana.
based on this thread, I realized that many people on “what are my chances” are exaggerated on the difficulty of chances
typo sorry, I mean they are exaggerating about the difficulty of chances of colleges
ok… firstly… this is what was on my application, some things changed (like I coached jv softball instead of playing varsity in my senior year)
Attending: NYU (GSP(1 year) -> Tisch)
Accepted: American (COM), BU (COM), Emerson ( Film/TV), Fordham (LC)
Rejected: Pomona, Brown, WashU, Pitzer
NE prep all-girl’s (10-12)
GPA:
unweighted- 3.55
ACT: 28
SAT II:
math 1- 640
Writing-650
Bio E- 650
USH- 730
APs:
APUSH-4
APBIO-4
APART-TBD
AP Stat- TBD
AP Physics B- TBD
CT resident
Varsity Softball (4 years… 2- time new england champions/3 time founder’s league champions)
Club Softball (8 years) (highlight was 5th at national tournament last year)
Award-winning Literary Magazine AND Student Newspaper Editor (3 years)
GSA (3 years)
Volunteered at School’s art summer program 1 year
3 year volunteer for student art sale (last 2 yearswere the highest grossing sales… proceeds go to voted charities)
created and co-ran a holiday card drive for hospital patients senior year.
3 years- Therapeutic Riding Volunteer
2 years- Worked at subway about 12 hrs a week
Essays: i’d say they were great
Recs: based on how I know the teachers and the comments I get from them… i’ll say AWESOME!
What’s funny is that out of my 3 aps… I got the best score in ap physics… but I’m sure every school questioned the beautiful… C+/B- (depending on the school) in that class. too bad the last quarter I got a B+ and ended up with a B average. 
in regards to the kid with the perfect stats above, and the question about his/her race and ecs…you dont need ecs…or a race…or really anything if your stats are that good
lol, of course I was just curious.
lville06,
I disagree, I think ethnicity counts for quite a bit, as does being a recruited athlete. EC’s matter some. But please don’t think for a minute that brilliance and perfect stats will necessarily get you where you want to go.
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