Hey ya’ll! I EDed to Penn (1st choice Digital Media Design, second choice Communication) and was mortified to see that this was a record breaking year in terms of applicants, and that the area where I’m from spiked in representation of 11 percent. (Or at least I think—I’m assuming since Southwest wasn’t an option, New Mexico is categorized in the “South”)
Scores:
SAT: Did Not Submit
ACT: 35C One sitting BUT my 32C from my first sitting also showed up on my transcripts since my counselor didn’t take them off. I only sent the 35C tho bc $16 a report smh.
SAT Subject: Only sent a 730 in Biology M
AP: 5s on Lang/Psych/Euro/US 4 on Bio 3 on Chem (reported all rip chemistry)
Rank: 3/326 in a 1500 person public high school in New Mexico that sends like 3 kids to Ivys every year and has a really high dropout rate (my class size freshman year was 526 and its already dropped below 300 after submitting my app…)
Senior Year Schedule:
Journalism Editor
AP Calc AB
AP Gov
AP Lit
AP Physics 1 and 2 (semester classes)
AP Comp Principles
ECS:
4 year varsity swim team, district+state qualifier and captain (same for 4 year club swimming)
Model UN President, 3 years (built the club website and started a local UN conference that 3 schools including mine attended)
Amnesty International co-founder+co-president 3 years (raised some funds for kids affected by DACA at my school and did some tibetan + north korean human rights events)
Local and school news publications + own blog and comic strip (3-4 years)
– editor for the school news after two years, author for my local news, and I have my own blog; original comic strip published across all three
intern at film company (3 years)
this mentorship program within my school where seniors are paired with “at risk” freshman to tutor them and make sure they show up to school
new mexico supercomputing team/challenge participant
It seems like my ECs arent connected but its just a spread over computer science (a LOT of journalism) and some digital art here and there.
Awards:
QB Prep Scholar, Won this national comic competition (people’s choice) hosted by National Science Foundation but it’s low key, Supercomputing challenge 1st place, finalist, a couple awards in there like “research symposium finalist” and “best environmental modeling” related to comp sci, and also got academic excellence award in journalism, also did AAJA JCamp (journalism camp) and also won a logo competition for an LA based music store
Things I wasn’t able to list bc I got them post-submission:
Model UN NM Conference Outstanding Delegate (judges choice)
voted most likely to be a standup comedian in HS yearbook (this is just for gags; really proud of this but no college will be lmao)
demographics: 53K income asian female (Korean)
Bonuses(?): I did Penn’s fly in but I dont think it has an impact. I did have an interview and it was pretty awkward/average… he laughed a couple times but I think it went array when I saw him wipe the sweat from MY hands post handshake on his pants… yikes!
I also linked my personal blog, schools news profile, and local news profile because Im genuinely proud of my work… hope it doesnt count against me!
Essays: Common app wasnt bad but wasnt superb;
penn supplement I thought was stronger and showed how I could see myself at penn but I may or may not have focused on how coffee was only ONE DOLLAR at Wawa (honestly that was the dealbreaker for me lol)
Recs: teacher who did my QB rec wrote one and I think its good, same with my journalism advisor. The counselor rec was probably rough considering we didnt meet until two weeks before since he has to handle 400 other kids…
I probably left some stuff out, but overall, how’s it looking? Is there anything else I can do post this point in my other college apps assuming I get rejected? Just want to know some thoughts on if I stand out or if I blend in—especially because I’m Asian (sigh). I don’t do anything musical although I wish I did, and I know it seems like everything is disconnected, but I really do have a passion for advocacy, social reform, communication and public speaking.
Also applying to USC, WashU, Columbia, Dartmouth, Princeton, Stanford and some others
let me know, thanks!