Can more graduated seniors do "actual results" threads?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1841

Just my two cents -

Applied to: Bowdoin, Macalester, Northwestern, Northeastern, Minnesota-Twin Cities, Amherst, and Middlebury.

Accepted: Bowdoin (attending), Macalester, Northeastern, Minnesota
Waitlisted (did not accept): Amherst
Rejected: Middlebury, Northwestern

Stats:

GPA: UW ~3.85 (W: 4.27)
SAT I: M 800 CR 760 W 750
SAT II: Math II 800 US History 780 Latin 760
AP: World History 5, European History 5, US History 5, AB Calc 5, and Latin 5.
Took 5 APs this year.

Extracurriculars/Awards

Young Democrats, Treasurer (9-12)
Environmental Resource Club, VP (11-12)
Latin club/quizbowl-like competitions (9-10)
Kids Are Scientists, Too (we do science lessons at local elementary schools), Lead Facilitator (11-12)
Newspaper, Opinion Editor (9, 12)
Drama + Shakespeare Troupe (11-12)
Volunteering at community events at my church (9-12)

AP Scholar with Distinction
National Merit Semifinalist
Many high-level Latin awards at the state, national, and international levels.
LHS (10-12)
NHS (11-12)

Summer
Before 11th - Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth International Politics camp
Before 12th - Economics for Leaders camp and French immersion in France

Other:
Upper middle class, caucasian, male. My essays are really good and my recs should be amazing.

Reflection:
It’s all a game of chance. It makes no sense, statistically, that I would get into Bowdoin (and waitlisted at Amherst) and not even waitlisted at Middlebury. Northwestern really dislikes my school, so definitely be prepared to apply ED if there seems to be a history of that for wherever you want to go. That said, there’s a point at which you almost know you’ll get into a school. You can never be sure, but you really do need to find safeties and matches that you honestly love. Regarding my application, I guess my GPA was a little low (1 B and 3 B+s over 9-11) and my extracurriculars were slightly sporadic. That said, I think the fact that everything got so much better my 11th and 12th grade years definitely did show something important to the places that accepted me. Good luck everybody!

1842

Stats:
GPA: 4.0 (UW)
SAT I: 710M 710CR 760W (2180 total)
ACT: 34 composite
SAT II: 690 literature, 670 US History
Rank: Top 4% (5th in class)
AP: European History (3), US History (4), US Government and Politics (don’t know yet)

Extracurriculars:
Drama Department (Vice President/Student Director)
Wind Ensemble (Vice President/First Chair flute & piccolo)
Chorus (President/Treasurer/Section Leader)
Jazz Band (First Chair tenor saxophone & flute)
Flute ensemble (Director/First Chair)
All-County (mixed choir & wind ensemble)
Area All-State (mixed choir and orchestra)
Silver Key Scholastic Writing Contest
Work Experience
Volunteering at Suicide Prevention & Crisis Services

Other:
Income ~$150,000, Caucasian, female, good essays, okay recs

Results:
Applied to: Princeton, Brown, Cornell, Amherst, Vassar, Hamilton, Colgate, Ithaca, Binghamton, RPI

Accepted: RPI (Rensselaer Medal Recipient), Binghamton (Scholars Program), Ithaca (Presidential Scholarship), Colgate, Hamilton, Cornell (college of arts and sciences, will be attending)

Waitlisted: Vassar (did not accept place on waitlist)

Rejected: Princeton, Brown, Amherst

Reflection:
Applying to colleges is a game. It’s really awful and you don’t really know whether you’ve won or lost until after you graduate college, I would assume. I feel as though I played the game correctly. I took the SAT twice, the ACT once, and the subject tests 5 times. I was told many times that I wouldn’t be a candidate for high-caliber schools because of the high school I came from. My high school offers only 2 APs. I took both and took an additional one online, and when I was assessed as an applicant, my high school was taken into account. It is also important to apply to the right number of colleges. A lot of people thought that ten was too many, but I’m glad I applied to them because it gave me a lot of options. I gave myself three safeties, a few middle schools I would have been happy to attend, and then a few stretch schools. I have friends who applied to 10 safeties and got into all of them, but now are forced to go to a school below their own abilities. I also have other friends who applied to a few schools way out of their league and then one safety they didn’t want to attend and are now forced to go somewhere they don’t want to be. I pushed myself as hard as my environment and own personal intelligence would allow me. I am not looking back and thinking I could have done better. I honestly think I did the best I could do and I am very proud of what I have accomplished.

1843

Accepted: Penn (attending), Cornell, Northwestern, Wesleyan, Vassar, McGill
Waitlisted: Duke, Rice (though I suspect this may have been to safeguard their yield, as their application explicitly asks applicants to list other institutions they are considering)
Rejected: HYP, Brown

Gender: Male
Race: East Asian
Location: New York City
Prospective Major: Not sure. Sociology or Economics? I said different things for each college, lol.

SAT: 2390
Math: 790
Reading: 800
Writing: 800

SAT II:
Math 2: 800
Literature: 800
Biology: 790

AP Courses:
Junior Year: AP European History (5), Calc AB (5), Biology (4), Eng Literature (4), Eng Language (5)
Senior Year: Calc BC, Physics C Mechanics, Physics C E&M, Chemistry

Senior Year Courses:
-AP Chem
-AP Calc BC
-English
-AP Physics C
-Latin American History
-Music Independent Study
-Orchestra concertmaster

GPA: A-/A (Closer to A- though probably), small private school which does not rank

Your standard overacheiving extracurrics, no major national awards or anything though leadership positions in a couple of clubs.

I applied SCEA to Yale, was deferred and then rejected. My sister goes to Penn, which probably helped get me in. Hope this helps!

1844

RETROSPECT/ADVICE: I would seriously encourage future applicants to ONLY APPLY TO THE SCHOOLS YOU ACTUALLY LIKE AND WOULD HAPPILY ATTEND; all other applications are a waste of money. I only realized what a waste my Duke application was after thinking that even if I got off the waitlist and decided to attend solely for elevated bragging rights, I would be going over schools at which I would likely be happier as Duke simply was not a good fit, which I knew all along-- in fact, the only real reason I applied is because my mother really, really liked the sound of it. Hey, I could have spent Duke’s application fee on a Stanford app. You never know–kids get into Harvard but rejected from Yale or Princeton or even Brown all the time. Refer to page one of this post-- I believe someone got into Stanford while getting rejected from many of its peer institutions. In the end, excited to be a Quaker!!

1845

Applied: Cornell CAS ED, UConn 8-Year Medical Program (EA Program)
Accepted: Both
Attending: Cornell with AFROTC Scholarship

SAT I (breakdown):Comp. 2310, 750 CR, 800 M, 760 W
ACT:-
SAT II:Chem 760, M2 770
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0):3.94
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 6th of 315
AP (place score in parenthesis):Apush 5, Chem 5

Senior Year Course Load:
AP BC Calc
AP Lit
AP Stats
AP Physics C

Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):
Princeton University Book Award
Army ROTC 4 year Scholarship
Navy ROTC 4 year Scholarship
Air Force ROTC Type 1 Scholarship
International Forensic Scientist Internship
National Honor Society
Eagle Scout

Nationality/Gender: Asian/Caribbean Male
Major: Chemistry
Hook: Legacy, Scholarship Recommendation

Hope this helps ROTC candidates who are considering selective schools!
Proud to be Big Red, Proud to Serve

1846

Accepted: UChicago (deferred->accepted, will attend), UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, Macalester (with merit scholarship), Williams, Haverford
Waitlisted: Northwestern, UCLA
Rejected: Nowhere!

Stats:
GPA: 4.36ish/3.97
SAT: 2240 (750CR 760M 730W)
SAT II: 790 US History, 750 Math II
AP (all 5s): Human Geography, Psych, APUSH, Calc AB

ECs/Leadership:
-Lots of music groups, through school or outside, first trombone and section leader in pretty much everything, participated in many regional honor bands
-Cross Country (4 years, 3 years Varsity)
-Human Rights Club

Other:
Female, Asian/White, California
Public School

Hooks:
Legacy at Williams
Music was a major hook for me at Williams and Macalester especially (directors from both schools recruited me), but I sent a supplement to UChicago and Haverford as well. Trombone is always a hook.

Reflection/advice: You seriously don’t need to be president of 5 clubs or win some prominent national award to get into a top school, but managing your time to make the most of whatever ECs you enjoy most will get colleges to take interest in you. Colleges want a diverse student body, not necessarily individuals who do a little of everything (though if that’s what you like, go for it).

Getting deferred is not a soft rejection, either. UChicago, my dream school, deferred me, and I spent my winter moving past it. I was shocked in March (on my birthday) to find that I’d been accepted RD. If you get deferred, take a breath, do something fun/interesting for a couple weeks, and email your regional admissions counselor. Let them know that you’re still interested, and update them on what you’ve done since you first applied.

1847

Accepted: Brown (attending), Johns Hopkins, Bowdoin, Syracuse, Rhodes, Long Beach State, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Davis, UCSB
Waitlisted: UChicago, Kenyon
Rejected: Columbia, Pomona, Stanford

School Type: Very small, rural, public
Location: California
Race/Gender: Caucasian
Prospective Major: Environmental Science
Unweighted GPA: 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.43
Class rank: 1/30

SAT I Scores:
SAT I Math: 660
SAT I Critical Reading: 730
SAT I Writing: 710

SAT II Scores:
SAT II Math II: 720
SAT II Biology E: 710
SAT II World History: 700

AP Scores: Environmental Science (4); English Language (4); Art History (4); World History (4); Calc AB (4); Biology (3)

Senior Year Course-load:
Duel-enrollment US Government and Politics (first semester only)
AP Lit
AP Studio Art
Chemistry
Computer Programming (an intro-level elective)

Extracurricular info:
*4 years volunteer at local senior center
*4 years varsity soccer (captain senior year)
*4 years varsity baseball
*2 years jv basketball, 2 years varsity (captain senior year)
*Students for Environmental Action club president
*School Site Council vice-chair (10th grade) and chairperson (11th and 12th)
*Local school board student rep
*Intern at the University of California Cooperative Extension, Sonoma County’s Coho Salmon Monitoring Program (summer before senior year)

Awards:
*AP Scholar with Distinction
*Various regional sports awards, mostly for soccer

Work Experience:
*Youth soccer referee, ~3 hours/week for 4 soccer seasons
*Referee coordinator for local youth soccer league, ~8 hours/week for one season

<hr>

Reflections/Advice:
As outstanding as this thread is, it’s a skewered sample of applicants. It’s inevitably going to give you an incomplete view of the applicant’s application. You, clearly, don’t have access to the applicants’ letters of recs, essay and supplements, and complete school description. So although I’m sure many users in the 123 pages before me said this, I can’t stress it enough: take these posts for what they’re worth. The stats on this thread, even in aggregate, don’t reflect the tendencies of a school’s admission’s office. Instead, you may want to use these examples as encouragement, or to win a bet against a friend. But try your hardest to stop searching for a causation that’s not there.

I’ll admit it though; this thread is awesome. And it wouldn’t be complete without advice sections – so here goes. First, a lot of people will tell you to spread out your applications and apply to a healthy mix of reaches, matches, and safeties. I’m on that bandwagon. It’s definitely a good idea to (1) expand your college search, and (2) have a backup plan. That isn’t to say you shouldn’t apply to a healthy number of competitive colleges. You totally should, and if you’re on this thread you’re probably already going to. Just make sure that you actually want to go to every one of the schools you apply to. To be clear, that doesn’t mean you have to know exactly what you want. However, if you do know what you want, try your best to be open to change. My list of colleges shrunk and grew as I was writing my applications, usually depending on how much fun I was having with certain supplements and how many fee waivers I had left. The only thing that the schools had in common was that, for one reason or another, I genuinely wanted to be there in the fall. Oh, and the supplements had to not suck.

The best advice I can give for writing essays and supplements is that if you’re not having fun writing it, an admissions officer probably isn’t having fun reading it. For essays I think Harry Bauld’s (great name, btw) On Writing the College Application Essay (dft.ba/-writingthecollegeappessay) should be required reading. Buy, borrow it, read it, and read it again. I mean it.

More broadly, your application is a way for an admissions committee to get to know you. Use it to tell a story of your high school career that presents you as a driven, interesting individual. If you’re not sure where to start, I’d strongly recommend lurking through the archives of Cal Newport’s blog (Study Hacks - Decoding Patterns of Success - Cal Newport) and reading Newport’s How to Be a High School Superstar, which I also think should be required reading for all college-bound students (you can find it at: dft.ba/-howtosuperstar). In addition, check out a CC post by Iamepimetheus titled “Why you didn’t get into Harvard” at dft.ba/-seriouslychecktheselinksout. His post, though caustic in tone, is well-informed.

Lastly, as you put together and review your application, don’t think like an applicant – think like an admissions officer. Would you accept you, in the context of all of the other qualified applicants? What makes you stand out? How would you add to a class of qualified, interesting students? Odds are that you are qualified and interesting enough. Use your application to show that. (If you need some more inspiration, check out admissionsproblems.■■■■■■■■■■ when you’re procrastinating.)

After all that – you’ve read all the books, ■■■■■■■ CC for too many hours, and sent in your apps – detach yourself from your application. I know it may seem a little weird, but trust me. Your application is not you. The admissions officers aren’t reviewing you and your life; they’re reviewing your application. If you dodn’t get in it doesn’t mean you weren’t good enough; it just means your application wasn’t good enough.

TL;DR… only apply to colleges you want to spend 4 years at; have fun writing your essays and supplements so the admissions officer has fun reading it; present yourself as interesting and driven in your application; think like an adcom when you write and review your app.

Good luck!

P.S. If you’re not already convinced, you should seriously read dft.ba/-writingthecollegeappessay, dft.ba/-howtosuperstar, and dft.ba/-seriouslychecktheselinksout. They’ve got some awesome, effective advice.

1848

Hey everyone, thought I’d preface this by saying my stats are from a few years ago (2010). But for those of you applying to schools/ going through the admission process, good luck and stay positive. The admission process is very finicky and difficult to predict. Write what you feel is right, not what you think schools want to hear, and you’ll find the place you belong at. Worked for me. Hope this information helps/ alleviates the pressure a bit.

Objective:
State: CA
Race/ Ethnicity: Hispanic/ Latino (It’s socially constructed!)
Sex: Male
Income: Less than $25,000
Intended Major: Environmental Science / Gender Studies

SAT I: 1230/1600 (CR:630, M:600, lets be real no one actually looks at the writing section)
SAT II: 650 Biology / 550 Math II
GPA: UW- 3.7, W- 4.02
UC GPA: 4.0
School Type: Public, Charter School in large, urban, working class community
Rank: Top 10%
AP Stats: Took all A.P. classes offered at my school at the time
World History, Spanish Language (5), Calculus AB, English Lang. (4), English Lit (4), Biology U.S. History, Government & Politics (3)

Senior Year Course load:
*CSU Physics I / Environmental Science AB / Leadership AB/ A.P. Government and Politics/ A.P. English Literature AB/ Economics/ *CSU Math 206 (Calculus II)/ Lab Research (free period)

<ul>
<li>CSU: California State University courses [exhausted all the classes at my school and was enrolled in these classes to meet graduation requirements) </li>
</ul>

EC:
Founding member of these clubs: the Science Club (President), Year Book, Cheerleading Squad, Make a Wish Foundation (Historian) and Newspaper (I was part of the first graduating class at my school and so we had no clubs, activities, etc.)

Ran five marathons (from the time I was 11) and was chapter founder of a program at my school that helps low-income students train and run marathons

Was founder of the Gay Straight Alliance

Played on the varsity Rugby team

Accepted to both the State and National Institute on Environmental Policy

Did a summer program at U.C. Berkeley

Volunteered at: Ronald McDonald Charity House, Tournament of Roses Parade, tutored/ volunteered at my high school and the local middle school

Helped organize and presented at a health fair hosted in my community

Taken college courses every summer since I started high school for fun/ personal enrichment (classes: Sociology 101, Psychology 101, Survey of Art History I, Graphic Design I; would have taken more but I had to pay for the books myself and it was very costly)

Worked part-time to help with expenses at home (specifically in the Mechanical Engineering department at the college near me)

Hooks: First generation college student, LGBTQ (I’m gay), immigrant parents, part of the first graduating class of my school, low-income community (afflicted by drugs, violence, etc.), father was a habitual drug user who passed away my senior year in high school, my school had no counselors until the end of my Junior year in HS, helped convert a diesel car to run on biodiesel and then manufactured (said biodiesel) from scratch through our Science club

Applied:
UC: UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego
CSU: CSULA, CSU Monterey Bay, San Francisco State, Cal Poly S.L.O.
Private/ Out of state: Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, MIT, Pitzer College, Boston College, Boston U., Williams

Accepted: UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, CSULA, CSU Monterey Bay, San Francisco State, Cal Poly S.L.O., Dartmouth, Brown, Pitzer College, Boston College, Boston U., Williams

Rejected: Harvard, Yale, MIT

Attending: Williams

1849

Objective:
State: MD
Race/ Ethnicity: Asian
Sex: Female
Income: ~ $250,000
Intended Major: Comparative Lit/Comp Sci? Up in the air.

SAT I: 2390
SAT II: 790 Chem / 800 Math II / 800 Lit
GPA: UW - 4.0, W - 4.8
UC GPA: 4.0
School Type: bland, public, and suburban
Rank: Top 5%
AP Stats: 5s on Calc BC, French, Macroecon, Env Sci, US, Euro, Lit, Chem

Senior Year Course load:
Crapload of IB courses. 'nuff said.

EC:
Lots of literary publishing/writing; published scientific research. Awards for the former.

Hooks: Prospective female engineer? Otherwise, nothing but a ton of anti-hooks.

Applied:
HYPSM, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, UVa, UMD, Duke, Cornell, UPenn

Accepted: YPSM, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, UVa, UMD, Duke

Rejected: Harvard, Cornell, UPenn

Attending: Stanford. Go Card!

1850

Wow…

1851

she almost made that asian full sweep, mad props.

1852

Accepted: Purdue (attending with significant scholarships), Virginia Tech, James Madison, Indiana University ($5k/year), Drexel ($32k/year), Case Western ($16k/year), William and Mary (accepted off wait-list)
Waitlisted: Carnegie Mellon
Denied: University of Virginia, Stanford

School Type: Large public school
Location: Virginia
Race/Gender: Caucasian
Prospective Major: Industrial/Operations Management
Unweighted GPA: 3.52
Weighted GPA: 3.80
Class rank: 69/359
Rigor of schedule: 5 APs senior year, 3 junior year.

– Huge note about GPA is huge upward trend (3.0 freshman year to 4.6 senior year)

SAT: 720M, 600W, 600CR
ACT: 35M, 22S, 31E, 29R

ECs:
Ran $10,000/month internet business from 8th-10th grade, occupied all of my time and school took clear second priority
Managed $100,000/year concessions operation at waterpark
Own company which sold three patents
President and Founder of schools FBLA chapter
President and Founder of schools Libertarian club
Varsity lacrosse captain

Essays:
Got a huge jump on these. I started really working hard on them in early July. I believe they were excellent, I talked about the hectic balance of juggling school and a profitable business in addition to how a vast array of injuries forced me to stop playing both basketball and lacrosse.

Conclusion:
I’ve been pouring through this forum since sophomore year searching for a flicker of hope that an underachieving student like myself had been accepted into a top school. If you find this is you, don’t be like me, and quit worrying.
I had terrible time management when I was a freshman, and got mostly B’s and C’s. Once I matured, I found myself scrambling because the chances of pulling my GPA to the range of my dream school, UVA, were rapidly diminishing. While I didn’t quit working on my grades, I quickly realized that I could offer colleges something very unique: A student with an interesting story and strong sense of identity. I even got a response in my Case Western acceptance letter that the dean was very impressed with my entrepreneurial endeavors and hoped I would continue pursuing them at CWRU.
I think the college application is a very sound system that gives all types of applicants a chance to display themselves well. I realized that I had a marginal GPA and test scores, so I focused the majority of my time on my essays, which I believed payed off immensely. They were ballsy, and I knew they had to be, but at the same time I knew that writing “daring” essays would only pan out at some universities.
The average accepted GPA from my school for both UVA and William and Mary is a 4.41, so to say I went 1/2 at those schools with such a low GPA is seen as quite the accomplishment. However, I think such an assumption highlights some major flaws with both threads such as these and GPA/SAT graphs. College admittance is truly a holistic process, so please, please, please, focus on finding your niche versus achieving top scores.
I’m absolutely ecstatic to be attending Purdue next year. Upon visiting, I fell in love with the campus, but most importantly, the people. Everyone was so sincere and nice, and I talked to several students on tours who choosing to attend Purdue over several higher-rated business schools (NYU, Northwestern, IU, to name a few) simply because of the positive vibe both the students and faculty had given off. Additionally, they accept 3’s as undistributed elective credit, so I will be taking 23 credits to college. Their financial aid package was generous, bringing the cost below what I would have paid for in-state, so unless it turns out that everything about the school has been a lie, I will be calling it home for the next four years.

1853

Accepted: University of Kansas (honors program)
Waitlisted: Vanderbilt, Washington University
Rejected: University of Chicago (early action)

High School Type: Large, public, suburban
Location: Kansas
Race/Gender: Caucasian Female
Prospective Major: Biochemistry
Unweighted GPA: 3.97
Weighted GPA: 4.45
Class rank: 8 / 335

SAT I Scores:
SAT I Math: 730
SAT I Critical Reading: 800
SAT I Writing: 750

ACT Score: 35

I didn’t take any SAT II’s.

AP Scores: European History=5, US History=5, Biology=5, English Language=5, English Literature=5, Statistics=5, Psychology=5, US Government=4

Senior Year Course-load:
AP Stats
AP Psych
AP US Government
AP English
Gifted Education
School Newspaper
Zoology

Extracurricular info:
*Advertising manager for school newspaper
*Academic decathlon team captain
*Volunteered at local library
*Volunteered at nursing home
*Shadowed researchers at a lab over one summer
*NHS member
*Relay for Life participant

Awards:
*National AP Scholar
*National Merit scholarship winner
*Quill and Scroll Honor Society
*BioScholar Program scholarship winner

Work Experience:
*Worked as a math tutor at a local tutoring place for 1.5 years

<hr>

Reflections/Advice:
In retrospect, there were some things I could have done better during the college application process. I didn’t take any SAT II’s. I only had three years of foreign language, and one of them was from 8th grade. I did some extracurricular activities, but no sports or other activities that showed I was a well-rounded person. I only applied to 4 colleges because I couldn’t stand the process of writing college essays. In fact, I think my Common App essay was the reason I didn’t get into the schools I wanted. I wrote about being shy and having anxiety, and how I overcame that. I thought it would be a good story, but then I realized that I was “showing weakness” to the admissions committee. Overall, I think I was just hoping my test scores and high GPA would carry me through, but I didn’t take into account how selective some of these schools would be. I ended up going to my safety school, though I did get into the honors program there.

But it’s not all bad. During my freshman year I’ve made some new friends, met an awesome guy, explored the college town, taken honors classes, gotten a 3.96 GPA, started undergraduate research, saved a lot of money on tuition… So you could say I’m making the best of my situation :slight_smile:

So my advice to current applicants is twofold. First, don’t try to coast by on academics/test scores, so be really involved in extracurriculars and make sure you send out applications to lots of different schools. Second, it’s not the end of the world if you don’t get into the college you wanted. You can make a good life for yourself wherever you end up spending those next four years.

1854

Stats:
SAT I: (710 CR, 750 M, 630 W) Total: 2090
SAT IIs: (780 Math Lvl 2, 780 Chem, 790 US Hist)
Unweighted GPA: 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.34
Rank : 1 out of 353
AP Scores : US History (5), Chemistry (5), English Lang (5), Calc AB (5), US Gov (5), Biology (5), Calc BC (5), English Lit (4), European History (5), Physics C: Mech (4).

School Type: Public
Location: Maryland
Race/Gender: Caucasian Male
Prospective Major: Biochemistry

Senior Year Course Load:
AP Biology
Bio Lab for AP
AP Calc BC
AP English Lit
AP Physics C: Mechanics
AP European History

ECs:
3 years in Future Doctors of America (President)
4 years in FBLA
2 years in Enviromental Club (Treasurer)
2 years in Student Class Council
2 years in Young Democrats
2 years of Volunteering at Local Humane Society

Awards:
AP Scholar with Distinction (at time of app)
1st Place at FBLA State Conference (Business Law)
Numerous academic school awards and FBLA regional awards

Essays: Well…I sort of started on them at the beginning of winter break :D. I had “planned” the Common App essay and basically started from scratch on all the rest. Please don’t do this to yourself as it was quite painful for me considering I applied to 11 schools, submitting the last essay 2 hours before the deadline :p.

<hr>

Results:

Rejected: Harvard, Univ. of Pennsylvania, Rice
Waitlisted: Johns Hopkins, Amherst, Yale, Cornell, MIT (SO MANY WAITLISTS!!! :-w )

ACCEPTED: Brown University(attending), Univ. of Virginia, Univ. of Maryland (EA, Honors College, 4500/year for 2 years)

Reflection: You don’t have to be the most amazing person ever to get into an amazing school. Throughout my senior year, I obsessed over the notion that I would be rejected from everywhere besides UMD (my safety) because my stats weren’t good enough by comparison to everyone on this website. Everywhere I looked, I saw 2200+ SATs, multiple national awards, and fifty million extracurriculars. I never thought that I was lazy or dumb, just…inadequate. My advice is not to over extend yourself when going through this process, especially when focusing on standardized testing. Continue to work hard during your senior year, but remember to have fun. Also, plan your essays, but make sure you don’t edit them so much that your voice doesn’t come through. Believe in yourself, and maybe you may find yourself suprised come Ivy Day next year.

Also, you should apply to Brown because it’s awesome…GOOD LUCK INCOMING SENIORS!!

1855

Stats:
ACT: 29 Composite (32 English, 29 Reading, 28 Science, 27 Math)
Weighted GPA: 4.3
Unweighted GPA: 3.72
Rank: 77/801 (top 10%)

School type: Public
Location: Pennsylvania
Race/gender: White female
Prospective major: Environmental science

Senior year course load:
-American Political and Economic Systems Honors
-Sports & Entertainment Marketing
-AP Environmental Science
-Business Law
-English Honors
-Statistics
-Biology II Honors

ECs:
-Cross country and track
-Progressive gender equality club member
-Contributor for school newspaper
-Volunteer (helping children with autism play soccer)
-Worked at a summer camp the summer before senior year (2013)

Essays: I wrote my common app essay on never giving up, tying it into my running career while in high school.
For the two schools that required school-specific essays (Lehigh and Villanova), I tailored it to the school and their fundamentals.

Letters of rec: I got 3 letters of rec, one from my guidance counselor (she knew me well and said I was one of her top students), my 11th grade history teacher (he taught my favorite class of all of high school and I got an A+ in it) and a business teacher (I had taken 3 of his courses, gotten A’s in all of them, and he liked me as a student). My letters of rec were very complimentary and I think this definitely assisted me in the college process.

**I had a leave of absence at the beginning of my sophomore year as I was in treatment for an eating disorder. I successfully took all honors courses my freshman year, but my school has a policy that home bound students can only take classes at the regular level. This negatively impacted my GPA because I had a weighted GPA above 4 and for regular courses, you can’t get above a 4.0 GPA because they aren’t weighted. It didn’t have too much of an affect, but I also was struggling with my own inner demons too.

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Accepted: West Chester University, Quinnipiac University ($72k scholarship), Hofstra University ($100k scholarship/honors college admission), Ithaca College ($32k scholarship), Marist College ($18k scholarship), Drexel University ($12.5k scholarship), Villanova University, Lehigh University

Attending: Villanova University (top choice, applied early action)

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Stats:
SAT I: (680 CR 700 W 780 M) 2160 one sitting
SAT IIs: (800 Math 2, 760 Physics)
Unweighted GPA: 3.7
Weighted GPA: 4.2
Rank : NA
AP Scores : Macro(5), Micro (5), BC Calculus (5, also 5 on AB subscore), Stats(5), Lit(3), Spanish(3), Physics M(4), Physics EM(5)

School Type: Private
Location: Hong Kong
Race/Gender: Asian/Male
Prospective Major: Business/Math

Senior Year Course Load:
AP Econ Micro/Macro
AP Physics C M/EM
AP Literature
Mandarin Level 4
Advanced Math Topics
Business Leadership

ECs:
BSA Eagle Scout, SPL
Taekwando 2nd Dan Black Belt
Varsity Basketball (1 letter)
Spanish Club President
School Newspaper Writer
Service on Saturdays
Habitat for Humanity

Awards:
NMSQT Commended

Accepted:
UCLA (attending), Carnegie Mellon (Tepper), UCSD, UC Davis

Denied:
Berkeley, Stanford(REA), NYU Stern

Some advice: Start early on your apps, especially your essays(as you have probably heard). Most important mart of the essay process is to just get your thoughts out in the beginning; took me a while to get a good idea but spending 15 minutes a day to brainstorm definitely helped. Also, choose your ED/EA because you want to go to that school, not because you think you have a good chance of getting in and being “done” with. I got rejected by Stanford, but I’m glad I gave it a shot because now I know for sure.

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@Boester22 would you have been able to do the 8-year Med program at UConn on an ROTC scholarship? I was told I couldn’t do a 5-year BS-MS program on Navy option NROTC.

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SAT : 2120 (600cr740m780w) ACT : 34 (35e34m31s34r33w)

GPA is 3.8/4.38 (UW/fully W for UC’s). 4.29 for high school weighted (PE and religion courses factored in, after 1st sem senior year)

Math 2- 790. Chem - 740. Bio M-790.

Course Load:
Freshman: Honors Alg 2 Honors English Bio, theatre. religion, pe
Soph: Honors Pre Cal, AP BIO (5), HOnors english, Honors world history, Theatre 1 semester (Got a B :() (random pe religions courses)
Junior: Honors English, AP Chem(5), APUSH(4), AP CALC AB(5), AP Stats(4), random religion courses
Senior: AP English(4), AP Phys B(4), AP CALC BC(5), AP MACRO(4),AP GOV(2, whoops), robotics, html, religion

Extra curricular wise I had a bunch of “regular stuff”: Varsity Swim 4 years, Captain. Varsity XC 2 years, Sectional Qualifier both years. Mock Trial Member, a bunch of tutoring at library and local elementary of underprivileged kids, soup kitchen charity stuff , year round club swim, jr lifeguarding. Math Club President. NHS, CSF

my more important EC’s are: Summer internship at Stanford Mechanical Engineering Department developing an inkjet printer that can print proteins. It’s pretty legit because im defined as a former lab group member. My work was extensive since it was almost a full length work day (9am-4pm) about 3-4 times a week for pretty much all of summer.

Summer Internship at U of Arizona Biomedical Engineering Department where I helped with a Ph.D’s project of analyzing the compatibility of human cells with the electrospun coatings on a stent. Ultimately led to a published Abstract. Wrote about Both of them in my essays

colleges accepted: Berkeley Mat Sci Engineering (attending), Hopkins BME (RD, got lucky af), Cal poly BioE, UCSD ChemE, UC Davis BioE, UCSB ChemE, UIUC BioE

rejected: UCLA BioE (didnt even wanna go, but still butthurt) , Stanford BioE RD

Reflected:
I wish i spent a little more time on my stanford essays, probs wouldnt have gotten in but at least i could say that i tried :D. oh well, berk was my dream school so thats cool. When writing your essays, try to make them succint, yet interesting. I know its hard, but make sure the readers know what you’re about without having to go through all the “fluff” present in fiction novels. make them personal!! and honestly don’t be afraid to apply for the major you actually want to pursue just because it is impacted/difficult (i know i definitely didnt want to apply engineering at Berk or BME at hopkins). oh and don’t assume that one college rejection is a precursor to another, just like i thought with UCLA, since that came out before berkeley. and lastly, have fun senior year!! all your hard work is about to pay off :D. hmu if you need any help!!

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Hey I think you did really well during your high school career!!! Carnegie Mellon will bring you a lot of great opportunities! But in all honesty, your post kind of scares me haha…

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@runorrun‌ I was never expecting to use the nrotc scholarship tbh, but I was never told that I couldn’t do both. I never spoke to the detachment on uconn campus however.