Background:
An international student from Taiwan(Asian). I’m applying for financial aids.
My scores are:
SAT: 1490
SAT Math 2: 760, Physics: 730 (I know they’re not good tho but I’m not very familiar with these tests:(
GPA: 87.52/100 or 3.94 unweighted ( I went to two different schools so I calculated my GPA in two different ways.)
AP: I don’t take any AP since the curriculum system in Taiwan already covers those levels in AP.
My ECs: (Since I’m an international student, I don’t have a lot of ECs that many successful American applicants have, but I just want to know if mine are unique or not)
I’m a lead singer and conductor in the school choir; won 1 regional 2nd prize; 3 national 2nd prize; 2 national 1st prize. Performed around my country 5 times.
Accepted into a professional choir and held an 800 people concert at which city mayor came.
Done an engineering research project and wrote a paper about it which won third prize nationally. Paper will be published in a book next year with other works from my classmates.
Translator for Japanese students who came from our friend-schools in Japan; took them on a 3 day trip for 3 times in 2017 and 2018.
Done a cultural project about conservation of those traditional sounds in Taiwan; wrote a 1000 essay and won third prize nationally; essay will be published in a book next year.
Organized and held a free summer camp for children in rural areas; taught them about basic English and Egypt myths; raised over 100k NT dollars.
Archaeology; Visited several historical spots around the county; wrote an essay about my experiences; essay won the second prize nationally and will be published next year as well.
Played the leading role in a play in my 9th grade; we won first prize nationally; was invited to perform around Taiwan three times.
Some other voluntary/community works for more than 250 hours.
Tutor for my cousins and some middle schoolers.
Essays:
The common app one is very outstanding. I love lady gaga so I used her as a hook at the beginning and then wrote about my conducting experiences in the school choir. Basically, it is about a change in my perspective of what a “superstar” truly is. Everyone including my teachers was impressed after reading it. Maybe 10/10?
As for Rice essays:
I wonder if the first two 150-word essays are really that important to put on here. I simply just talk about how I love technology and music, and how the residential system at Rice attracts me. So I guess they’re really basic. 8/10
The personal perspective one: My country is very very very small on the map and isn’t even officially recognized yet, so I wrote about my experience about how being a Taiwanese has taught me: small ambitions can evolve into a huge success. I wrote about the summer camp I held for children in rural areas and how I utilize what Taiwan has taught me to overcome the challenges we faced. Also, I talked about my aspiration I’d like to achieve in the future which is to promote music education for kids in rural areas. Probably 9/10?
Letters of rec:
My counselor is my research project teacher. He knows me very well so I guess it is pretty great, probably 10/10.
One is from my Chinese teacher for more than 2 years so I guess 9/10.
Another one is from my English teacher…maybe 8/10?
I understand my grades aren’t good and I don’t know if my ECs are good either. Please chance me and thanks for any thoughts!