Bio:
-Citizenship: U.S. Citizen
-State of residence: CA
-Class: upper-middle class, I think
-Race: Asian (Vietnamese)
-Gender: Male
School:
-Type (Public/private & size): Large, very competitive public HS
-Graduates (How many go to Ivy’s/top 20): A lot, not sure how many.
-AP’s Offered: 20
Academic Profile:
-Unweighted GPA: 3.71 (UC 3.84)
-Weighted GPA: 4.22 (UC 4.28)
-Capped & weighted: 4.16
-AP’s: Chemistry (?), Calculus AB (5) Senior year: AP Stats, AP Spanish, AP Physics 1, AP US Gov.
-ACT: N/A
-SAT: 1400 Essay 8/8/8; 1470 5/5/5; will retake final time for 1520+ with essays (UCs require it) on August
-SAT II: Math 2 770; Chemistry 800
-Rank: N/A
-Course Rigor: Moderate, also took a handful of Honors courses
EC (In order of importance/commitment): weakest point imo
-School/youth orchestra 4 years, most advanced ensemble for 3, 1st chair for a semester
-food/clothing shelter 3-5 hours per week, 30+ hours
-studied abroad in Mexico for 10 days. Worked with an orphanage there as well.
-Spanish Club
-Pianist for 10 years, local recitals
Other Notables (College courses you’ve taken, papers published, created own website, TAing a class, ect):
-Psychology 001 summer CC course
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Honors:
-
Work:
-family business at dental office, primarily customer service and billings 5 hrs every weekend
Schools I’m looking at:
-UCs (particularly UCSD, but chance me on others too. Omit UCR and UCM)
-Case Western Reserve (EA probably, but I’m just concerned about my unweighted GPA)
-Carnegie Mellon
-USC
-Wash U St Louis
-Purdue or UIUC
-Occidental (im not too sure about LACs in general but I put one that seems fairly fitting)
-San Diego State (safety?)
-San Jose State (safety)
-willing to take any other suggestions
***The list is more or less in order of preference
Intended Major: Cognitive Science
Intended Minor: Computer Science (maybe as a major depending on school)
I think that all of these schools are possibilities! Wash U and Carnegie Mellon might be tougher, but the rest are about right except for the two you mentioned as safety schools. Your GPA is good along with your SATs. Your EC’s aren’t amazing, but if you write a good essay showing personality, you have a good chance! Chance me back?
Hi! I’m an incoming freshman at UCSD in Eleanor Roosevelt College for cognitive science, so if you have any questions about the admissions process or the school, feel free to ask! Your GPA and SATs look great, and your ECs are good but you should definitely try to do one or two ECs (if possible) that you are passionate about before applying. If not, don’t fret. In the grand scheme of the application process, I don’t think your ECs matter as much as your GPA and SAT scores, but instead just give your admissions counselors an idea of who you are, what your passionate about, and what you can bring to the table if you were at their school. If your ECs don’t completely show it, make sure your essays do.
NOTE ABOUT ESSAYS: Your essays do not need to be earth-shattering revelations. I know everyone says it but it’s 100% true - Just be yourself! Make sure they’re thoughtful and well-written. Put a lot of thought into it, but not so much that you’re stressing excessively. When I went through this process this past year, UCSD was one of the only schools that I didn’t spend weeks or months overanalyzing each essay to death. And in the end, my essays were good and really showed my personality.
I live in PA and I’d say Carnegie Mellon is in your ballpark. I agree with the above poster, make sure your essays shows some personality and offer a unique perspective and you’ll probably get in. A bunch of my older friends got in (didn’t attend) Carnegie with similar stats