THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU TO ANYONE WHO TAKES THE TIME TO READ THIS AND RESPOND. This may seem like a pretty pointless thread if I’ve already gotten into Harvard, BUT my school is a feeder to Harvard so I’m not sure if I can be so cocky and count on being accepted… Really nervous about Yale :(( I am 90% sure I would choose it over Harvard but I didn’t want to risk not getting into Yale early and then blowing the really great chances I’d have at Harvard early. ANYWAY:
Background Info:
My parents are immigrants from Ethiopia, I’m a female, I was born in Germany, and I go to a prestigious public exam school that is known for sending students to Harvard… and just Harvard (Why couldn’t it be Yale!!!) I think my biggest weakness is the fact that barely anything in my application reflects my interest in astrophysics, but as I’ll explain later I’m trying to counteract that with my supplemental essay. Anyway I don’t want to be a jerk but I really am hoping they’ll look at the minority factor (immigrant, black, a girl) and be more lenient.
Grades/Scores:
GPA: 4.38 weighted (going up to I’m guessing 4.45 by the time mid year grades come out) and 4.0 unweighted
APs: AP World History (5), AP Physics Mech C (5), AP German (4), APUSH (5)
Max amount of APs at my school is 3 a year starting junior year, plus 1 sophomore year. I planned to take 3 last year to make 4 total but enough people didn’t sign up for AP German so I ended up with only 2 APs junior year, which REALLY concerns me. I did self study for the AP German exam though (only got a 4 UGH). I’m putting all this in the additional info section of the common app btw. This year I’m taking AP Calc BC, AP Lit, and AP Econ (both Micro and Macro)
SAT: 2340 (CR: 780, Math: 760, Writing: 800, with a 9 on my essay). one sitting, if that matters
Subject Tests: 800 World History, 800 Math Level II, and 750 Latin
There are no ranks at my school, but if I manage to get my gpa to a 4.45 I’ll be one of the people with a 4.5+ – there were 16 out of 411 students like that as of the end of junior year. This is on my school profile but I don’t know if they’ll update it to reflect senior midyear grades (hopefully not because then a lot more people will have 4.5+ gpas)
Awards:
Gold on the National German Exam two years in a row, silver last year, plus I got something called the Austro-American Award last year
Certificate of Honorable Mention on the National Italian Exam
summa cum laude then maxima cum laude on the National Latin Exam
National Honor Society
National Junior Classical League Latin Honor Society for two years in a row
Societas (it’s like NHS but for languages at my school)
Not an award but I was selected to do public declamation in German for two years (not available last year, hasn’t happened yet this year)
Extracurriculars:
Indoor track for three years now
Student Council for three years, Club Outreach Manager since last year (I manage the Twitter page and communicate with other clubs)
Band all four years (I play the flute, got into the advanced Symphonic Band last year and in tenth grade I was second chair)
Out of school stuff:
I’m a tutor for a nonprofit organization that teaches STEM to young girls (been doing this since 8th grade)
And I do a bunch of stuff for the city, like since last year I’ve been a volunteer for this citywide organization of teens that basically helps the mayor (co-chair of one of the committees). I also volunteered to help out with Participatory Budgeting in my city (this is when young adults get to vote on how to spend a certain amount of money, in our case it’s a million dollars, so I helped write the ballots and proposals. It’s kind of a big deal since last year was only the second year they’ve done it and it’s completely student-run)
Jobs:
Over the summer I interned at a very well known international financial services holding company
Currently intern at a very well known art museum
Summer stuff:
Girls state 2015 (played in the band, won an art contest)
MIT Junction 2013 (wrote a novella… not giving away the plot 
let’s just say it has something to with Ethiopia and space)
Extra Info:
I taught myself first year Italian last summer and placed into Italian 2 but my schedule didn’t work out so I was forced to take Italian 1 last year (taking Italian 2 this year). also taught myself some Japanese (the katakana, haven’t gotten to kanji yet). I also put this in the additional info section
**Questions/Comments:/b
I’m also planning to study astrophysics, if that makes any difference. (BTW - how is that major at Yale? I read that it went through some recent changes)
Also, is there a way to upload your resume for Yale? I had an interview for Harvard so I had the chance to explain my extra curriculars but I’m not having one for Yale because I have since realized I suck at college interviews LOL buuuuut I still want to explain my extracurriculars more, I feel like I had to leave out a lot on the common app so some important details were lost
Btw, my supplement is on why I plan to study astrophysics and how I want to work for nasa (used this for the Harvard supplement too) but Yale already has a short answer (emphasis on short, like 100 words) on explaining your interest in your majors. Would it be a bad idea to waste my supplement on this? It was a REALLY good essay though and I have no idea what else I’d write about! I’ve already covered my Ethiopian heritage in my common app essay… I guess I could write about my interest in languages but I don’t want the emphasis to be on that, I feel like they already get enough of my language obsession from my awards and stuff. Maybe I could write about how I struggled to learn flute? I started it in seventh grade and couldn’t really read music till 9th grade.
So, are my worst fears confirmed… I only got into Harvard because of my school and I don’t stand a chance at Yale? T_T
Besides obvious reasons, I also need to know in case I should apply to more schools (I’m planning to bargain with the school I decide on and ask for more financial aid, but I need to actually get into more than one school first lol). I’m thinking of also applying to UPenn and Tufts (does it matter if it’s not an Ivy League? Like would they take the appeal seriously or no?)
ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED.
