<p>I am a Hispanic female, not first generation.
Income- 5-person household, 35K</p>
<p>ACT- 34
SAT- 2150
SAT subject tests- Math I:740 Math II:690 US History:700
AP- French Lang:3 US Hsty:3 Physics B:4 English Lang:5 (AP Scholar w/honors)
Enrolled in- AP:Chem, Calc, French, Gov’t, Econ, English lit, European Hsty
GPA according to QB- 4.0 UW/5.0 W
Rank- 1/400
Location- South Texas
School- low-income public school</p>
<p>Awards/Honors:
Ranked 7th in nation- Nat’l French Exam, level 3
National Merit Scholar- Commended Status
Regional Science fair-1st place, biochemistry
Regional UIL comp- 1st:Editorial Writing 3rd-Headline writing
Regional French competition- 1st:culture team
Other school given awards</p>
<p>ECs:
French club-3 years, current president
Dance Company-4 years, current president (was historian and sergeant in prior years)
National Honor society, Science NHS
Book Club-3 years</p>
<p>Sports:
Train Kajukenbo(mixed martial art) outside of school</p>
<p>Community service- 150+ hours (local hospital, school opportunities)</p>
<p>Essays- loved my biographical essay (about family issues) the other two weren’t my best work (suggestion: take your time and really dedicate effort to the essays)</p>
<p>Recommendations: AP chem teacher, had him previously as a sophomore and my AP Eng lang teacher (suggestion: choose teachers who know you and who you know have only good things to say about you, also give them plenty of time to do your letters)</p>
<p>Essays were alright, I guess. I didn’t like them very much. I presume the recommendations were positive.</p>
<p>Female, South Carolina
Taiwanese (dual citizen)
1st Generation, 30k income, parents are deaf, brother in college
Attending a public magnet school with rigorous graduation requirements </p>
<p>GPA: 4.9 (weighted)
Rank: would be in top 10%
SAT (CR/M/W): (2080) 680/690/710
SAT II: Chemistry (710) US History (780)
ACT: 33 (English 35, Math 32)
AP courses:
Biology (5)
Chemistry (5)
English Lang (5)
US History (5)
currently taking AP Gov, Macroeconomics, Psychology, English Lit, Calc BC</p>
<p>ECs
180+ hours volunteer service at local hospital
summer internship at local aquarium
employed 1.5 years at grocery store
science decathlon (3 years, 2 time national champions)
french national honor society (2 years)
secretary of NHS
junior intermezzo club
city recreational soccer (2 years, all-stars state champions)
JV soccer (1 year)
JV volleyball (1 year)</p>
<p>I was just wondering, how do finalists feel about the short answer portion? I feel like that’s something no one has mentioned but might have been an important deciding factor :)</p>
<p>Gender: Female
1st generation college student, moved to U.S. in 2001,
68K/yr, 5 people in household</p>
<p>GPA: 4.380, weighted
Rank: 10/360
ACT: 31, 32
SAT: Find out Oct. 28!
SAT Subjects: Taking Dec. 4
AP: Chem-4, Eng. Lang-5
APs Taken: 6 out of 8 offered
Honors/Accelerated rigorous courses
I’ll be graduating with 7.5 science credits, that might have something to do with it
I tested out of American Government</p>
<p>To be honest, my essays weren’t all that wonderful–they were really creative though, and I was proud of what I came up with. What I think really did it was my letters of rec–awesome teachers and counselor! (Physics and AP Lang)</p>
<p>EC: Employment (May 2009-Present)
Varsity swimming (1 year; Award for Excellence in Athletics and Academics, All-County)
Freshman Mentoring (Officer, 2 years)
Student Council
Student Senate
Library Volunteering</p>
<p>Congrats to all the finalists! Best of luck to getting matched.
I would love to post my information but it might reveal my identity…rofl. Especially since I know some people from school check this -.-x How awkward.</p>
<p>To all the non-finalists: don’t lose hope. Most finalists will be going to the RD round anyway–except you now get an extra 2 months to polish your applications and essays for your dream schools. :)</p>
<p>Just some general advice for future *borderline applicants<a href=“i.e.%20people%20who%20are%20not%20sure%20they%20qualify”>/i</a>: Don’t forget to explain in detail your economic situation! From what I’ve seen of other peoples’ stats, QB is very subjective in its selections; people with sick stats and low income are still rejected while others (like someone in this thread) with income above 400K can get accepted. I can pretty much guarantee that the difference between those applicants came down to how much effort they put into the essays and how well they explained their financial situation.</p>
SAT II: taking Chinese, US History, and Math II in Nov
ACT: (two diff test dates, equally good in diff ways…)
32 E 34 R 32 M 30 S 8 W 32 C
34 E 31 R 34 M 29 S 8 W 32 C
GPA:3.97 UW (not sure about W)
Rank: N/A
Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): N/A (omg)
</code></pre>
<p>Personal</p>
<pre><code>* Location:Colorado
High School Type:Distance-education (and lots of school-switching)
Ethnicity:Chinese-born American (ABC Banana, oh yeah)
Gender:female
maybe 1st generation? does it count if your father got a Bachelor’s in China, and your mother only attended a little of college? and your sister is in college now, but she was born in China? so confusing.
Attending distance-education school (no AP/Honors classes accepted) with as many courses as possible
Self-studying for AP exams this may (comp gov’t, us gov’t, maybe chinese, english lit + comp, maybe psych, maybe human geo)
</code></pre>
<p>Subjective</p>
<pre><code>* Essays: thought they were pretty good. Bio: about me in general, and my goals. kinda boring, but well-presented. Sig Exp: about my 12-hour day/7-day week paid internship in China. Diversity: about me studying wushu at a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Recs: waived my rights to see them, i feel a little weird about it now…but i think they were decent. both from teachers i had for only one semester at a public high school.
Supplementary Material: sent additional info about my situation. I’m FIFTEEN, people, and I’m graduating this year, and I have switched schools 4 times. And my birthmother doesn’t give child support, and my distance learning school doesn’t offer honors/AP/IB courses.
Summer Activities: volunteered to tutor elementary K-3 rural chinese kids in English, " to teach english to preschool kids, 84 HR/WK paid internship with New Oriental (private english tutoring service provider in China, and yes, you read that number correctly)
Hook: not sure, maybe 1st gen? (see above) who knows…?
</code></pre>
<p>Other</p>
<pre><code>* Extracurriculars (beware, I have never stayed at public schools long enough to get involved in clubs, so my activities are unorthodox/self-initiated!): Studied wushu and qigong in China at a UNESCO World Heritage site, Paid internship teaching SAT and TOEFL level English in China, Became fluent and literate in Mandarin Chinese while living in rural China for six months, Taught English to elementary school, then to preschool children in rural areas of China, Self-studied/took lessons in playing acoustic and electric guitar, Babysitting my younger brother, Self-studied/took lessons in graphic design using software, i.e. Photoshop CS2, CorelDRAW X4, etc., High School Intermediate Choir, Took private lessons in playing piano
Awards: National Society of High School Scholars, National Latin Exam Level III Silver Medal, National Merit Semifinalist (as of now)
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: I have NO idea. My essays were pretty good, and I think my independence kinda showed through my extracurricular explosion there…
Notes: sorry to those who were rejected, congrats to those who are continuing onwards. i didn’t think they would accept me, and i was literally in tears on Sept. 29th night, sobbing my brains out. wow. speechless. thank you, QB!
Income Range: <$30,000, with 5 person household: 2 parents, me, my 4 year old brother, college sister
</code></pre>
<p>Senior year courses: (kind of choppy b/c of my school’s reqs and finishing prev schools’ reqs)</p>
<pre><code>* Environmental Science (yr)
Precalculus (2nd sem)
Foundations of Personal Fitness (sem)
Spanish (yr)
Music History (yr)
Communications Applications (yr)
Psychology (sem)
World History B (2nd sem)
Physics (yr)
undecided…going to add as many classes as possible
</code></pre>
<p>College re-ranking:
Wellesley
Brown
UChicago
UPenn
Swarthmore
Wesleyan
Scripps
Trinity</p>
<p>gosh, still getting over the excitement!! can’t believe it. gl to everyone!</p>
<p>$14k adjusted net income, 5 person household, 1 other in college
First generation to attend college
Permanent resident, primary language is Russian (i.e. English is a secondary language)
740/760 CR/Math SAT
33 ACT composite with writing
3.8 UW 4.5 Weighted
4 on AP English and AP Comp Sci, 3 on Chemistry and European History
I had glowing letters of recommendation (both teachers wanted me to proofread them even though I signed the waiver)
Good essays, I had at least 4 people/teachers look at them
Started an FRC FIRST Robotics team at my school, team leader this year as well
President of technology team for 3 years
Various Honor Societies (science, french, mu alpha theta)
Job at a small 3d-modeling business (I don’t want to be identified so I won’t post the name)
Located in the south</p>
<p>I’m disappointed. Now I either have to hope for good financial aid packages from the colleges I’m applying to or settle for a state school I can afford…</p>
<p>Seconding this advice. My academic stats or recs weren’t borderline, but my financial/family situation was. My mom has a graduate degree and we have an income of around 50k, which is on the high side for QB applicants. But I explained the cost of living of where I live, my relationship (lack thereof) with my father, and wrote my personal statement about adjusting culturally to being both American and Chinese. I basically tried to flesh out my situation the best I could, knowing that the numbers wouldn’t necessarily be on my side. (Of course they weren’t anti-my-side like in the 400k student’s case either). And it worked out :)</p>
<p>Plantsvs, a lot of times top colleges will award the exact same package to you regardless of whether you went through Questbridge or not. I know that’s the case for the ones I applied to. You should look up your colleges’ financial aid policies, they might be more generous than you think.</p>
<p>Finalist:
ACT 36
SAT 2360
AP: State AP Scholar, National AP Scholar, 10 5’s
GPA:4.0 weighted, 4.9
Extracurricular activities, embassador of mexico etc etc (international model un)</p>
<p>ACT: none
SAT: 2150
GPA: 4.0 UW / 4.56 W
Rank: 3/685
APs: AP Euro: 4, APUSH: 3, AP Chemistry: 3, AP Lang&Comp: 3</p>
<p>Location: California
School: Public, sends some grads to top schools
Ethnicity: Asian (Vietnamese)
Gender: Female
Income/Family Situation: ~10,000 adjusted. Living with both parents, sister, niece. One sibling in college, another sibling entering college next year. We get looottss of government help.</p>
<p>EC’s: 3 years Key Club, 1 year Asian Culture Club, 1 year Earth Club, 3 years varsity tennis (captain this year), Little Shop of Horrors Musical school production, Area 51 musical school production, one-acts, 3 years of orchestra (viola)
Work Experience: None.
Awards: AP Scholar with Distinction. League MVP in tennis for doubles. Tennis team CIF qualified.
Recommendations: Pre-calculus teacher who really gets to know many of his students, including me. Knows my family, background, etc. AP Lang&Comp teacher who became familiar with me through writing and class. Aware of my efforts and extracurriculars. Counselor who knows nothing about the students, only through a little form we fill out about our basic info -__-
Essays: Biographical essay connected my personal hardships with orchestra. Significant experience was about tennis. Diversity was a narration on how I was the only Asian in a Mexican church during Saturday confirmation classes.</p>
<p>Yay application process over for QB. Time to apply to UCs :D</p>
Best of luck to getting matched.