I know these don’t really mean anything but I just want some comfort in knowing where other people think I stand.
White/Asian girl, upper-middle class, competitive public high school, suburb outside Chicago
ACT: 35
SAT II: Biology-M (730-sophomore year), Literature (780)
AP Scores: (forgot to report these on the Common App, oops, but uploaded them to my portal) AP Language and Composition (5), AP US History (5) (school doesn’t let you take APs until junior year)
GPA: 3.9/4.0 UW 5.07/5.33 W
Current Courseload: AP Government & Politics, AP English Literature and Composition, AP Calculus AB, AP Biology, AP Art, teaching sophomore health class (Illinois state requirement is taking gym all four years), Spanish 4 (high honors), Policy Debate (high honors)
Extracurriculars
Policy Debate (frosh-senior)–biggest one, captain, huge time commitment (20-40 hrs/week depending on whether or not we have a tournament and spending all summer at camp), very nationally competitive and recognized (ranked in the top ten in the country, invited to tournaments, yadda yadda etc.)
School Political Journal (soph-senior)–editor-in-chief/co-head, quarterly publications, i write articles/edit articles/illustrate political cartoons/coordinate meetings and publication
Tutoring (soph-senior)–weekly tutoring kids attending a local private school on scholarships as part of a poverty intervention program
School Art Publication (soph-senior)–member
Girl Up (soph-senior)–member of my school’s organization
Activism Club (senior)–in the process of starting a school club that works with various local organizations supporting disenfranchised/incarcerated woman and lgbtq+ people of color in a variety of ways (ex: sending books to women in prison, providing resources to homeless queer teens, providing legal help for trans folk, etc.). Obviously this isn’t a commitment yet, but I do mention how I became invested in these issues in my essays
swam from childhood-freshman year pretty competitively, hence not doing that many things until afterward
Notable Things
Attendee at the Princeton University Creative Arts & Humanities Symposium in October–perhaps my most notable achievement!!! Selected by my school to be the sole nominee from a class of 975 students to attend a symposium for high school students who excel in the arts and humanities. One of approximately 85 students nationwide selected by Princeton University to attend.
NMSF
History Department Book Award
NCTE Writing Award Nominee
Scholastic Art & Writing Silver Key Awards in 2014,2015,2016 (each year I’ve entered) for flash fiction and poetry
National Spanish Honor Society
Artwork selected for local exhibitions yearly
Spent my past two summers at seven-week debate institutes, and the summer before that at a three-week debate institute.
Volunteer Work
Occasional volunteer work at PAWS Chicago
Fall 2016, orchestrated of a care package for the Dakota Access Pipeline protesters
Essays
Common App–how being a woman in debate has taught me to value empty spaces as a place for growth and embrace of my femininity (this is a terrible summary, it’s quite strange, but I like it and think it’s unique)
Supplement–how I’ve come to peacefully coexist with my perfectionism and how it relates to my academics and extracurriculars
Recs
Teacher #1–fantastic, she shared an excerpt with me where she compared my writing to that of Joan Didion (!!! I was shook)
Teacher #2–sure it’s also fantastic, wasn’t as close with her as Teacher #1 (who I definitely have a unique connection with), but still really enjoyed her class and felt I distinguished myself (she nominated me for the history book award)
Counselor–she read me a modified version of her letter when she had to submit it for my CAHS nomination. She made me sound very good
Debate Coach–I’m sure it’s really good, he knows me outside of a purely academic setting because we travel a lot, etc, and we have a very close relationship.
I have some pull in regards to the debate coach there, who I have been in contact with and writes letters of rec to admissions for the prospective incoming debaters.
My interview went well (I think)–we talked about our mutual love for literature and bonded over some specific texts among the other normal stuff
I don’t really have anything OUTSTANDING in terms of service or extracurriculars, I know. I honestly am just nervous and want some reassurance/something to put me in my place!!!