Asian female, Virginia, nationally ranked public school. Income bracket is unlikely to get me any financial aid at all, lol.
Intended Major: Applying to JHU BME program, if not probably ChemBE or Computer Science.
Academics:
SAT I: 800 Math, 800 CR, 780 Writing (first sitting)
SAT II: 800 Math 2, 800 Biology-E (taking the Chemistry SAT later this year, but probably won’t submit if it’s below 780)
GPA: 3.9 unweighted, 4.4 weighted
Classes are rigorous by any other high schooler’s standards (all honors and APs when possible, including some post-AP courses with 5.0 weighting offered by my school) but nowhere near the hardest schedule in my class. There are kids who will take BC Calculus freshman year that I can’t really compete with, lol.
5s on CS and Bio AP exams taken during sophomore year, haven’t taken this years yet, but should be fine.
School doesn’t rank.
Extracurriculars:
Teaching Coordinator (2nd highest position after president) of Policy Debate team senior year; member of team for 4+ years, various state-level and regional awards. Placed once at a national tournament, but nothing major outside of that. Was also Publicist junior year (created and ran a website).
Played Lacrosse for my school team freshman and sophomore year. Planning on playing senior year.
Member of school yearbook for 4 years.
Chief Technology Officer for a student-run nonprofit. Probably accumulated over 200 hours of volunteering through it over the summer. Also created and ran website.
Applied for either a computer science internship with a local nonprofit summer after junior year or a TA job with my school’s summer chemistry department. If I do get the TA job, I know my AP chemistry teacher will write me a fantastic rec. If I don’t get either, lol, I’ll probably design some more websites or create a portfolio. Other summers have been uninteresting, just some volunteering, summer school, travel, etc.
Small things like NHS, Chinese Honor Society, etc.
I plan on applying early decision to JHU’s BME program, and hopefully will still go even if I don’t make BME. Also applying early action to UVA and UMich. I’m really counting on getting ED to JHU because I’m not really interested in playing the college admissions game, just want to get it over with.
Most of my contributions to my extracurriculars have been running/creating websites, such as for my debate team and for the nonprofit. I like to design websites in my spare time - stuff like tumblr themes, etc. Would it be worthwhile to submit a portfolio of some projects? I was considering it since it would probably be similar to an art supplement, but websites you really need to get onto a computer and click around to get the full experience… not sure how adcomms would deal with it, if it would even help me, or even be all that impressive, lol.
I think my stats are pretty solid (GPA is in ballpark of JHU’s admitted freshman class, and sat score should be high), but I’m worried that my course rigor wasn’t as difficult compared to my highly competitive school. On the other hand, my high school is nationally recognized so I’m sure that they will take that into account, but I’m not sure if it will help me any either. I also don’t think my extracurriculars stand out very much. No significant national awards like intel or anything, lol.
