Hi everyone,
I got rejected from both my ED & EDII (which were to T25 universities) and a lot of people from CC and Reddit said I would get into both so I’m kind of disappointed with their decision, but maybe the admissions department just didn’t understand my circumstances as well as I hoped. Any realistic feedback would be appreciated, my life is kind of in limbo right now just waiting for decisions lol
Asian male trying to do pre-med/psych, attend one of the top STEM schools in the country, doesn’t do class rank but has a national reputation and is known to top colleges by name. Family income is ~300k, not applying for aid.
GPA: 3.97 cumulative after junior year, 4.03 after 1st-semester senior year, 4.49 just for senior year though. My brother had Leukemia in my sophomore year and so my grades really tanked, my GPA for that year was like a 3.65. Since then, I’ve improved by a LOT, with all As this year except for a B in Multivariable Calculus, a class in which I have the hardest teacher at my school who historically always has a lower avg in his class.
ACT: 36 composite, not superscored
SATII: 790 MathII, 730 Chem
PSAT: NMS, 1510
AP Scores:
Bio 4
Mac Econ 5
Mic Econ 5
Psych 5
BC Calc 5
US Hist 3
AP-Level Classes in Senior Year: Multivar (Calc III), AP Gov and AP Lang.
All other classes are honors-level.
Essay: I thought my Why NYU? was pretty good, I’d say about 8.5/10. Common app wrote about my two main passions, cancer research (sparked by my brother) and running, I think that was strong as well.
Recs: Nothing stellar but won’t hinder me, I don’t think.
ECs:
-MVP for Track & Field, Varsity athlete for Fall, Winter, and Spring, State-level competitor, potential D3 runner… track is my main time-consumer outside school. I think I’m a tad outside the NYU coach’s standards but I’ve talked with him before and he’s expressed interest in having me on the team so who knows…
-Officer position for my school’s Cancer Research Society, tied in with my passion and wrote about how it helped me cope with my brother’s condition in my common app.
-Member of school’s medical society, nothing big, just give presentations sometimes and educate people on general human anatomy.
-Had an internship at Georgetown’s Cancer Center, the program had a 5% acceptance rate and I conducted research in the field of predictive toxicology with my knowledge of bio and Python coding.
-Over the summer I coached track at a youth track club for the distance kids. It was a commitment of a few hours per week and it ties in with my love for running.
-During the school year, I regularly tutor math to middle schoolers at a middle school nearby.
-I volunteer at my local temple serving food in the kitchen to devotees, I find it a nice way to give back to my Hindu community for all their positivity and support over the years.
-I was invited to my county’s education excellence ceremony, which basically takes the best kids from each school (based on PSAT scores I think) and celebrates them and their most influential teacher at a banquet.
-I own a gaming YouTube channel with over 10,000 subscribers, over 2 million views, and almost 8 million minutes of watch time.
Thanks again for all your help guys, any questions will be answered ASAP by me.