Hi there! I applied to Harvard, Stanford, MIT, McGill, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Santa Cruz. Would be so grateful if you could chance me.
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1540 (780 Reading/Writing, 760 Math, 21 Essay)
SAT II: 800 Math II, 690 Chem
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.96 - my only B in four years was in a community college class
Weighted GPA: My school doesn’t weight GPA
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable):My school doesn’t rank
AP (place score in parenthesis): Chem (4), Calc BC (5), Physics Mech (4)
IB (place score in parenthesis): Spanish B (6), SL Math (6)
Senior Year Course Load: Theory of Knowledge (this is for IB), IB-HL Studio Art, Linear Algebra (at community college), IB-HL History of the Americas, IB-HL English, IB-SL Environmental Systems and Societies
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): My organization won an award from a national law firm
Subjective:
Extracurriculars:
Grassroots Community Organizing (Steering Committee Member 2 yrs, President 2 yrs)
I helped found an organization that fights against sexual harassment and harm in our community. We do policy work and education on top of raising awareness of the issue. We’ve caused a lot of systemic change from getting new administrators hired to address these issues to ensuring education about sexual harm for all students every year. We’ve gotten a good amount of local media coverage and some national.
Ultimate Frisbee (3 yrs) - played at Youth Club Championships (Minnesota), Westerns (Oregon), States (California), I’ve played on teams with boys and just with girls.
Newspaper Illustrator (3 yrs), Illustration Editor (1 yr) - our school newspaper has won national awards every year
Jewish Social Justice Youth Group (3 yrs) - Youth Program Coordinator (1 yr)
Job/Work Experience:
Paid summer camp counselor at a local Jewish day camp every summer, working 45 hrs/week with kids of all ages.
Volunteer/Community service: See community organizing above
Summer Activities: Camp counselor, ultimate frisbee
Essays ): My common app essay was about my community organizing - why I do it, what impact it’s had. My Stanford supplements were about interviewing a family friend about her experiences during the Summer of Love in SF, science education for girls, and why I’m a feminist but I watch The Bachelor. My MIT supplements were about working with kids, studying physics, some personal family struggles, my community organizing, and how my parents have taught me hospitality and intellectual curiosity.
Recommendations:
Teacher Rec #1: One from my Honors Math Analysis/Calc BC teacher who had me for two years. We’re close, and he helped me a lot when I got a concussion second semester Junior year.
Teacher Rec #2: One from my junior year English teacher who I was also close with. I know he wrote about the community I helped create in his class.
Counselor Rec: One from my counselor who has about 400 kids under her belt.
Interview: Interview for MIT was great and nothing memorable came of it. My Harvard interview was fANtastic. By the end, he was saying “when you’re at Harvard” instead of “if you get in.”
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes, at all schools except McGill
Intended Major: Physics
State (if domestic applicant): CA
Country (if international applicant): USA
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: White/Jewish
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: prefer not to say, upper middle class
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): n/a
Legacy: Harvard
Reflection
Strengths: community organizing, essays (I’m a pretty good writer), recommendations
Weaknesses: Chem subject test score
General Comments: I suffered a concussion Junior Year just before testing season, but I still got straight A’s, a 5 on Calc BC test, 4 on Physics Mech test, 6’s on my IB tests. I couldn’t take Physics E&M b/c of it though.