Hi everyone! New to this form but very anxious about college. I plan on ED Columbia and I’m looking at UCs. I am applying to the Columbia flying program for engineering. Let me now if you need any information.
Demographics: Nonbinary w/ male name, Iranian and a little bit Latinx, Canadian-born, Philly suburban student (dual citizenship), Middle Class, Medium sized school
Intended Major(s): Chemistry or BME depending on school. Not sure if I want to apply for Chemistry at COC or some sort of applied biology major
SAT: 1550 SAT, one try
UW/W GPA and Rank:
Okay this part is going to be sort of weird and I’m going to explain further at the bottom.
In my freshman year, my mom suffered a stroke and I spent 3-4 hours a day taking care of her. During this time, a student was also harassing me to the point of he was taking pictures of my house and even attempted to enter my property with a weapon. Mind you this all happened during Covid times as well.
My freshman year GPA wasn’t even that bad but it is not competitive compared to these schools. I think I had a 3.5 unweighted and a 3.7/4.75 at the time. weighted.
Since then, I have had perfect grades and perfect grades in dual enrollment at multiple colleges. I am working on an associates degree in science (taking Organic Chem, Neuroscience, Calc 3, etc) of which I have a 4.0.
So my unweighted has been brought up to like a 3.85, and my weighted is a 4.2/4.75. Which is fine. But my UC GPA (not counting freshman year) is 5.0.
The worst part, however, is my class rank. I am in the top 30% (top quartile) of my class due to rampant grade inflation. I believe my counselor will preface this in the rec letter.
Coursework
Relevant Coursework: AP Calculus BC (5), AP Physics C (didnt take), AP Psychology (5), AP Chemistry (5), AP Government and Politics (pending), AP Human (5), AP English Language (4), AP Computer Science Principles (5), AP Bio (3), APUSH (3)
Dual Enrollment courses at Local CC: Biology 2, Neuroscience, Organic Chemistry, Anatomy and Physiology, English 2, Art (for uc) I also did an Organic Chem independent study at my school bc my school ran out of chem classes (i like chem) and acted as TA for some of my teacher’s AP classes.
Senior Course load: AP Physics C: E&M, AP Lit, AP, AP Stats, Linear Algebra, AP French, uhh and Gym
Awards
Pennsylvania HOSA EMT top 5 placement my advisor didnt tell me lol
Science Olympiad Chemistry 3rd place regional/state
Volunteer of Year Award as a Biomedical Volunteer at my county for the red cross
American Computer Science League, our team had highest score in state
Bunch of STEM research published in high school journals (just for fun)
Extracurriculars
*I’ll start from the beginning to most recent.
So I started a gardening club at my school during 10th grade where we took this abandoned lot in our school that was literally completely rotten and trashed and remodeled it into a garden, building beds and collaborating with the art club to make a mosaic and stepping stones. In 11th grade, I discovered that the lot used to be part of the autistic support class’s space before it was literally stolen by administration, so I helped the teacher of the class reclaim the lot and we do gardening classes for the kids. I was super focused on ACCESSIBILITY and letting people enjoy nature right after school. I also connected with the National Gardening Club and we are on the board of youth for that as well.
Also in my 10th grade year, god I was really frustrated about the lack of ACCESSIBILITY of medical and STEM opportunities (mind you I don’t want to be a doctor, just a scientist). So I create a club where students could access medical professionals, opportunities, and programs that I was aware of and we would do application workshops for those programs, live interviews with doctors or whoever I could get my hands on, etc. I also refounded our schools HOSA chapter and we ran it for the first time, with some students going on to place internationally.
During my freshman year, one of the only activities I found myself able to do with my situation was to act as a red cross blood ‘ambassador’ where I would help check people in, assist staff, etc really basic volunteer stuff. But I did it a lot because I really loved the environment and just how diverse blood sourcing has to be. So I escalated to becoming a volunteer manager and recruiter where I reach out to Hispanic and LGBTQIA+ groups and incentivize them to either become vollies or donate blood. It’s awesome!
Last school thing! During my Sophomore year, my friend introduced me to the world of stage crew. I would spend entire nights building props during the school week just getting stuff done and I really felt like a part of a community. I oversaw the creation and direction of 4 shows, coming to every rehearsal and every event for theatre. Man, I even fell in love in stage crew! It was awesome. I like side tangents. Anyway, This year, the auditorium is doing a complete overhaul and I’m in charge of engineering and fixing all of the lights as well as managing the props and set. Not related to STEM but still awesome thing I did.
Science internship 1 - I did this program with Temple University and Fox Chase Cancer Center called the Teenage Research Internship Program (TRIP), Philly teens, please apply! Anyway, it was a science introduction essentially every Saturday and I created my own project using fruit flies as a medium. I specifically did a 8 week project on Kratom’s effect on development and fertility, as it is an EXTREMELY!!! undocumented drug that is often just pumped out into poor areas with no thought. I presented this research to Temple University staff and I’m trying to publish it in the Journal of Emerging Scientists.
Science Internship 2 - Monell Chemical Senses Center internship for minorities in Science. This is also really awesome for Philly teens! This program is all about ACCESSIBILITY in science. I’ve done 8 weeks of paid, independent (amazing!!) research with a PI and a professor at Rutgers (he’s crazy) and have worked on continuing some of his old (he calls it ‘young love’) research on taste integration with aroma and we have literally made a discovery on aroma perception. Awesome!
Science Internship 3 - NASA SEES program, SEES stands for something something Earth Science. I’ve explored 8 weeks of satellite research where I would go out on the field and compare the data of a satellite in my hand with that of space, to test ‘citizen science’ basically regular people supporting NASA. I completed a final research project developing an app to further citizen science by making it more ACCESSIBLE to everyone (basically unheard of) while also streamlining the very complicated process of modeling data. I also am pursuing a possible STS submission where I am analyzing the relationship of low-income with susceptibility to fly outbreaks (public health) under this internship.
Novel tutoring program - I hope this doesn’t come across as a stupid ‘passion project’ nonprofit. I noticed that a lot of students in my school were afraid of taking AP courses, especially chem and apush, so I started a little tutoring group within my school for students transitioning into AP courses (very busy beginning of year and during AP exams). We have a website and have a group of like eh 20 tutors from two schools, one in NC (my old school) and one in PA. Personally, I’ve tutored about 20 kids atleast once and created 30 Chemistry review videos for students to watch before tests. I’ve also had 6 regular kids over a year to tutors.
EMT training, current vollie - I got bored of being a red cross volunteer so I’m training to be an EMT :). I’m also trying to partner the training program w/ my school to get more involved
Science Internship 4 - Working at a chemistry/physics corporation this coming Fall. I am working as a part time Chemical Engineer and Data Analyst. Very exciting!
Essays/LORs/Other
Personal Statement: 9/10. I’m not sure if its unique, but it’s very special to my heart. It’s about my mom’s heart attack and my dread of her dying and my complete lack of control. I discovered that learning about her condition and understanding it was a way of clawing back a bit of control and confidence in parallel with her.
LOR 1: 8/10 Chem Teacher - Right now its a 6/10 but my Chem teacher told me she was being lazy about my summer program rec and she will really try to write a good one about our story together let’s pray.
LOR 2: 8/10 AP Lang Teacher - 
I love her. She is a very articulate writer and will talk about my love of literature and how she grew up around chemists and how she recognizes me as one.
LOR 3: ~8 or 7 /10 PI from Monell Internship - I have been super on top of that internship and he is consistently impressed with me. I always surprise him with new ideas and I’m secretely pursuing a Psychology research project in his lab without him knowing as a surprise birthday gift.