Demographics
- International student
- Location of residency: Singapore
- Type of high school: Private, follows the US school system, competitive (based on what people say)
- Gender/Race/Ethnicity: Female, Asian (Korean)
- Other special factors: None
Intended Major(s)
- Biochemistry
- Biology (planning on pursuing grad school)
- Neuroscience
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
- Unweighted HS GPA: 3.8/4.0 (converted to this)
- Weighted HS GPA: n/a
- College GPA: n/a
- Class Rank: n/a
- ACT/SAT Scores: SAT 1530 superscored (730 EBRW, 800 math)
Coursework
- Freshman Year: English, World History, Math Honors, Biology, Chinese (only freshman in my class), Orchestra, 2 required sports classes (each one semester)
- Sophomore Year: English, APUSH, Math Honors, Chemistry Honors, AP Chinese, Orchestra (most advanced one in my school), required health class (one semester), computer science (one semester)
- Junior Year: AP Lang, AP Calculus BC, AP Biology, Advanced Chinese (one of the hardest Chinese courses in my school), Orchestra, Physics Honors, Forensic Science (one semester), required “project-making” class (one semester)
- Senior Year (planned): AP Literature, AP Statistics, AP Chemistry, Advanced Chinese, Performing Arts (weighted the same as an AP), Kinesiology (weighed the same as an AP), AP Psychology
Awards
- Honor Societies (lots of hopefully’s in this one)
- Chinese Honor Society (probably will become officer soon)
- Tri-M Honor Society (maybe will become a VP)
- Science National Honor Society (will become minister/officer hopefully)
- National Honor Society (if there is a chance to become an officer, I will do it
)
- Honor roll since freshman year
- HSK Level 5 (a Chinese proficiency test and Level 5 is near native)
- ABRSM Cello Grade 7 with Distinction (a music placement exam, Grade 7 is the second highest)
- Planning on getting Grade 8 this year
- Competitions
- Gold Medalist at a Life Sciences Competition
- Bronze Medalist at the Korea Science and Engineering Fair
- Excellent Youth Scholar Award at the Korea Scholar’s Conference for Youth Competition
- Semi-Grand Award at the Asean Innovative Science Environmental and Entrepreneur Fair
Extracurriculars
- Summer internships
- Lab assistant at a start-up biotech company
- Lab assistant/shadow at a global pharmaceutical company
- (this summer) will work as a lab assistant at a huge South Korean Stem Cell Therapeutics company
- (this summer) Duke Pre-College Program: Introduction to Human Physiology (offers college credit)
- Teaching assistant at a music charity organization
- Ensemble member at the same organization as above
- Dedicated volunteer at a food bank at the local community center
- Co-Founder of an education club that aims to teach STEM subjects to orphans
- Officer of a STEM Journalism Club, in charge of the Mentorship program with children
- member (and hopefully officer soon) of a service club dedicated to teaching English to Cambodian children
- participated since freshman year
- member (hopefully officer soon) of a biochemistry club
- member (maybe officer depending on application results) of a student organization focused on planning school events and managing the school’s clubs
- published a book on Amazon (only sold 1 copy so I prob won’t write this in my application
)
Essays/LORs/Other
- I have started writing my common app already, and it’s pretty good (based on what my peers say)
- I asked my teachers for my LoRs and I’m very close with them! Both said they would write the best rec possible!
- Pretty close with my college counselor so hopefully a strong LoR from him
Cost Constraints / Budget
Pretty sure it won’t be an issue for my family (fortunately)
Schools (based on what my college counselor says!)
- Safety: My school only starts from Likely
- Likely: UW Madison, UMass Amherst, University of Pittsburgh
- Match: University of Washington, UIUC, Northeastern, BU, Case Western
- Reach: Duke (ED), NYU, UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, WashU, BC (EDII?), Northwestern, USC, UNC Chapel Hill