Indian American
Intended Major: Computer Science
School: Decent school for STEM in MA
GPA:
- W: 4.72 (5.0 scale)
- UW: 3.97
Scores:
- ACT: 36 composite (35 W, 36 M, 35 R, 36 S)
- SAT II:
- Math II: 800
- Chemistry: 800
AP Courses:
- BC Calculus, Physics C: Mechanics, APUSH, Psychology, Statistics, all 5s
Awards (nothing major):
- 3x AIME Qualifier
- USACO Silver
- NSDA Debate Championships Late Elimination Round Qualifier in Public Forum Debate
- Dartmouth Book Award (book awards given to students
- Science team
- Maybe some Math team awards?
ECs:
- Played Indian Percussion Instrument called Tabla for over 11 years: classically trained, had a solo debut performance, also used this knowledge to pick up other foreign drum instruments like the Djembe from Africa
- Public Forum Debate (4 years): outrounds at a few national tournaments, quarterfinalist in the state, NSDA Late outround qualifier
- National Honor Society: President — NHS group of over 120+ people this year that I have to manage, more than double our school has ever seen, numerous community service and fundraising events, etc.
- Independent research project. Im testing to see whether adding Tabla (the musical instrument I play) or any rhythm for that matter creates changes in the effect of binaural beats. Writing a very basic computer simulation program to simulate experiment. Planning on writing a paper and submitting abstract. I have a mentor and stuff but the research isn’t very good, probably not very publishable and certainly won’t work in research competitions.
- Research with a professor from a local college (summer into Senior Year): Making a statistical model on housing prices using computer software — information will be later used in slides to teach the professor’s statistics class / I can also use it to give sample lectures to students from my own school, also writing a Machine Learning algorithm based on data collected and various statistics principles.
- *Math Team (4 years): Earned a few awards in the State and New England, our school consistently places in the top 2 in the MAML and NEAML competitions. MAML Olympiad Level 2 qualifier (2x). One of the top individual scorers at NEAML competition
- *Volunteering at the Local Science Museum: Played the tabla instrument (listed above) as a Music Therapist for kids with Autism at our local science museum.
- *Speech and Debate Coach / Instructor (4 years): Coach my junior high’s impromptu speaking team and work at a debate camp for middle schoolers in the summer
- Research (summer going into sophomore year): studied Spatial Memory in rats with a local graduate student and wrote a really small (probably unpublishable) paper on it
- *Tutor at local math school (job, 3 years)
- *Science Olympiad Invitational Qualifier — Some medals at Yale invitational
- Student Council elected member 4 years
Essays and Recommendations:
- I’ll try to make it as good as it can be lol
- LoR: One from my math teacher, who also happens to be the NHS advisor and gave me an award for being a top performing Junior in BC Calculus (a senior class) so his will probably be good (maybe “exceptional?”). Another from my English teacher, hers should also be decently good.
TL;DR
- I have good stats, and my ECs aren’t terrible either, but they are kind of scattered and don’t show a major dedication to CS (I think they do show dedication to STEM at least to some extent). I didn’t cure a disease and I am not a Siemens semifinalist, but with a profile like this, what are my chances of getting into UPenn SEAS ED (greater Boston area student) and other top institutions like Cornell, UCBerk, CMU, etc.
Thanks!!!