I have no idea where I stand to be honest (compared to a lot of people who post throughout this website lol) so I’d appreciate it if I can get a chance from a few people.
Brown (PLME?), Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern (HPME?), Princeton, UPenn, Yale
Accepted already: UChicago and other safety schools
Academic:
ACT: 34 Composite (34 English, 33 Math, 33 Reading, 35 Science, 8 Essay don’t ask how idk)
SAT II’s: Chemistry: 780; Physics: 800; Math 2: 800; Biology E: 790
GPA: 4.0 (unweighted), 4.174 (weighted grades 9-11, maximum at my school is a 4.209); with 1st semester senior year this becomes 4.22 (with the maximum being 4.257)
School does not rank, although academic counselor did tell me I have the highest GPA she’s ever seen (only academic counselor in the school, has been in the school for over 15 years)
AP’s: Chemistry (4), AP Calc BC and AB subscore, Physics 1, Physics 2, Psychology (all 5)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Bio, AP English Language, AP Computer Science, other school electives
Awards: Does AP Scholar with Distinction count? I also won two math competitions. Also placed 1st in WYSE Computer Science, Engineering Graphics (both 10th grade Regional level), Math (11th grade Regional level), and Chemistry (11th grade Sectional and State levels)
Subjective Info:
Extracurriculars: I’m the team captain for a competition team at my school (all of high school). This competition is a weekend that includes contests in everything: math, reading, science fair, social media, debate, writing, speech, you name it. I was also the vice president of my school’s IT Squad (Information Technology club thing) last year and this year. Also mentored and programmed for FTC and FLL Robotics
Job Experience: Employed at a Physical Therapy clinic part-time ever since June 2014
Summer Activities: Courses at a community college and work
Essays: My common app essay is pretty bad in all honesty. I’d rate it a 4/10. I kept it way too vague due to personal reasons. Thinking about it now, I should have mentioned that it was for personal reasons, but oh well.
As for my other essays, I’m rating each at least 8/10. I worked really hard on them and had multiple people review them, including several English majors.
Teacher Recommendations: AP Calc BC teacher (at least a 9/10, I was the top of the class and I was in a double accelerated math program at my school, one of only three people to do so); Junior year Honors English teacher (I’d say 7/10, I did miss out on a few homework assignments and she did get mad, but she generally loved me as a student. After all she did write a successful recommendation letter to bump me up into AP English this year!)
Counselor Recommendation: She loves me, but she got sick and only had a week to write 30 recommendation letters (and I’m third-last in the alphabetic ordering so… maybe 7/10?)
Additional Recommendation: Having my friend write a peer recommendation for Dartmouth for me. We’ve been friends since kindergarden so he knows me really well. I’d say at least 8.5/10
Financia Aid: They’re all need blind anyways but yes I did
Projected Concentration: Computational Biology OR Biohemistry with an indication that I would pursue a Computer Science degree as well, if possible.
State: Illinois
School type: private
Ethnicity: I put North African American (I’m Egyptian)
Gender: Male
Hooks: Dad worked at Northwestern Medical School a long time ago, and I have a friend at Brown’s office of admissions… do those count?
I’d appreciate any and all thoughts, Also there’s no need to sugarcoat anything, I’d rather have blunt comments. Anything helps!