Hi!
I’m a high school senior interested in applying to the Ivies and BS-MD programs. Here are my stats:
Scores
1570 SAT (800 Math, 770 English)
800 Math II
800 Chemistry
800 Biology
GPA: UW: 3.98, W: 5.45
PSAT: 1460
Rank: In top 5% of class
Transcript:
Freshman year: 3 honors classes, no APs allowed
sophomore year: APUSH (5), APES (5), AP Chemistry (5), AP Biology (4)
junior year: AP GoPo (5), AP Physics C: E & M (5), AP Calc BC(5), AP Calc BC(5), AP Lang (5)
senior year: AP Psychology, AP Stat, AP Euro, AP Lit
Extracurriculars:
National Honor Society
French Honor Society
Volunteered at hospital for the past 3 years
Clinic Assistant at Jothi Clinic in India
Member of Operation Smile’s Regional Leadership Council for past two years
Total of 1,500 volunteer years throughout high school
Editor-in-Chief of school
President of Operation Smile club past two years
President of Assist-3D club for past two years
Varsity tennis member for past two years
Connecting with Kids club: two years
Saints Ambassador for past three years
Student Council Representative for past two years
Earned 2nd place awards in painting and drawing at school art show
School honors list for past three years
Founder/ President of a program dedicated to providing shelter children with backpacks and collected over 250 backpacks; was featured on local news channel and newspaper
Junior writer for community magazine for past three years
Classical Indian dance for past six years
Indian singing for past seven years
Research:
Created novel stent placement technique for use in percutaneous coronary intervention of bifurcation lesions and presented
project at Science and Engineering Fair
Earned Yale Science and Engineering Award
Earned Vectrona “Human Systems Engineering Award”
Placed 2nd in biomedical engineering category
Currently researching at local college
Attended Brown summer program and researched there
Awards:
Earned national finalist status in National Chemistry Olympiad (secured #1 position in region)
Earned semi-finalist status in National Biology olympiad
Princeton Book Award Winner
Bausch & Lomb Honorary Science Award Recipient
Virginian Pilot Scholastic Achievement Award
Dr. K.M. Shah Math and Science Award recipient
National AP Scholar
National Merit qualifier
Received 1 gold key, 2 silver keys, and 3 honorable mentions for entries into Scholastic Art and Writing Competitions
Summer:
Attended NASA’s “Virginia Earth and Space Science Scholars” summer program upon successful completion of class all year (dual-enrolled with community college)
Attended Summer Residential Governor’s Program
Other:
I’ll be getting my rec letters from two science teachers: not expecting anything great
I’m an Asian female at a small private school in southern Virginia
I don’t really have any hooks except legacy at UPenn
snap! Was going to make the same post as @milee30. You are in a small school, so the teachers should know you. You have top marks & test scores, so you must have a strong position in your class academically. It seems unlikely (though possible) that there are only 2 STEM teachers, so in theory you don’t have to pick ones who just don’t click with. Even if you are relatively quiet / shy most teachers would be able to speak to your academic strengths, motivation, etc.
I don’t think teachers really know me as a person, so they can’t speak to that aspect. Unfortunately, basically all of my science teachers moved/left last year and the only two remaining are the ones I’ll be getting letters from.
Makes sense. It is harder to get recommendation from teachers that aren’t at your school any more. But… LoRs are critical for some of the selective schools. Any chance you might be able to track one of those teachers down? My son had that issue; one of the teachers who knew him best and for whom he’d done really advanced work moved 1000+ miles away at the end of his Jr. year. He asked his GC what school she’d started teaching at and was able to track her down at her new school to ask for a recommendation by leaving messages at the school. She was very kind and agreed to write a LoR for him. It turned out to be lucky since she was new at her school, she wasn’t buried under dozens of other requests so had more time to write him one.
Any chance you could find where one of your teachers went? Obviously, be respectful. Don’t track them to their home or outside the school system. But if they’re still employed with a school (likely), there is usually a school email or phone system that you can use to leave them a message with your request.
Let’s not be pedantic, lest someone call you out for using all caps to describe the 8 school athletic league; you knew what she meant. Additionally, the header is grammatically correct; she’s applying to BS/MD programs and Ivy League college, not solely Ivy League BS/MD programs.
You probably want to get a recommendation from a non-STEM teacher as well, most selective colleges, will want one stem, non-stem along with GC, regardless of major. Also you have a lot of ECs, tighten them up to show more focus, the honors will be listed in another section anyway, pick a couple where you made the most impact and write about them. Yeah so as others have said, it’s tough to chance these, even excellent applicants like yourself. You’re applying to maybe the most competitive programs for undergrad in the 7/8 year med programs and you’re in the toughest demographic, Asian females. I would not apply ED anywhere, consider scea to HYP, and EA to UVA and see where you stand and then apply to a couple of bs/md programs and other colleges RD. Good luck.