Decision: Accepted
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1580 (800M, 780R) [1530 first attempt]
ACT (breakdown): 36C (36E, 35M, 35R, 36S) [34C first attempt]
SAT II: 800 Physics, 790 Math II, 770 Spanish
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.98 (4.36 W)
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 6/535
AP (place score in parenthesis): World (5), Physics C: Mechanics (5), Physics C: E&M (5), Psychology (5), Spanish Language (5), Calculus AB (5), Chemistry (4), Physics 1 (3)
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Biology, AP English Literature, AP Calculus BC, AP Macroeconomics, AP Spanish Literature, AP Computer Science A, AP U.S. Government, AP Statistics
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Commended, Idaho Science and Aerospace Scholar, AP Scholar w/ Distinction, Boise Rotary Century Scholar, U.S. Presidential Scholar Candidate
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): My school’s Spanish Assistance Center (President/Founder), Math Assistance Center §, Spanish Club §, Guitar Club (P/Founder), Tech Deck/Beyblade Club (P/Founder), International Climate Team (VP), Math NHS (VP), Key Club (Treasurer), NHS, Science NHS, Lead Guitar for Young Life band
Job/Work Experience: Chick-fil-A for about 2 years, Tutor and guitar teacher for past 3 years
Volunteer/Community service: volunteer tutor at elementary school, reading camp with 1st-3rd graders, tutoring centers at my high school, organizing community events through a student-led organization, volunteering at my church’s Latino service, tutoring refugee kids, volunteer guitar teacher at a local elementary school
Summer Activities: Idaho Science and Aerospace Scholars Academy, 1 month Mission Trip to Costa Rica, SAT/ACT tutoring, Young Life Camp, International Climate Team
Essays (rating 1-10, details):
Personal Statement: 7 - could’ve been better; I talked about my bad social habits my sophomore year and how my parents pulled me out of my high school to put me in online school because all that my friends did was party. I reflected on how this changed my outlook and pushed me to have a much more successful high school career.
Why Dartmouth: 8 - I talked about the collegiality and intimate atmosphere at Dartmouth, the D-plan/study abroad, and how Dartmouth’s outdoor activities would help remedy my homesickness for Idaho’s outdoors.
Intellectual Curiosity: 9- I talked about my infatuation with exotic cuisine and used it as a metaphor for my wide variety of academic and intellectual interests.
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: Physics Teacher: didn’t read, but has a reputation for writing incredible recs
Teacher Rec #2: Spanish Teacher: didn’t read, but I’ve had her for 2 years, and she had always told me that I was one of the most naturally gifted Spanish-speakers that she had ever had, so I bet her rec was sincere and high-quality.
Counselor Rec: didn’t read; don’t really know her personally - most likely a generic counselor recommendation.
Additional Rec: AP Music Theory Teacher: didn’t read; I don’t think she took much time to write it because of her busy schedule, so it may have been one of my weaker recommendations.
Peer Rec: Friend who goes to Duke: didn’t read; he kind of gave me a synopsis of what he wrote, and it sounded pretty good to me - he talked a lot about my natural talents in Spanish and music.
Interview: Lasted about an hour and I thought it went really well. The guy told me that he could definitely see me thriving at Dartmouth and that he was confident writing my evaluation.
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Math, Quantitative Social Science, or Spanish (or something else, not really sure yet lmao)
State (if domestic applicant): Idaho
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: ~100k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): lol none really; possibly because I’m from Idaho but that’s pretty much it
Reflection
Strengths: GPA and test scores
Weaknesses: should have started building my resume my freshman year rather than waiting until junior year to actually try to become extracurricularly involved and get into an Ivy lol. I also feel like I’m not the best writer; my essays for other schools weren’t as good as my Dartmouth ones.
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Honestly have no idea; my 36 didn’t really seem to make a difference at any other schools - may have been because my essays were relatively good or because I submitted a guitar arts portfolio? who knows
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Rejected by Stanford EA, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Penn. Waitlisted at WashU, Vanderbilt, Brown, and Cornell.
Accepted at safety schools: (Boise State, University of Utah, Montana State, Baylor, Colorado School of Mines)
General Comments: As of now, I am planning on attending Dartmouth, considering it was the only top school that I was accepted into. If I get off the waitlist at one of these other schools (which I probably won’t), I may have to reconsider my options. Kind of goes to show that GPA/test scores really don’t get you very far when it comes to these top schools; the selection process can seem pretty random and extracurriculars/individuality/essays/hooks/etc. play a bigger part in the application process.
