Follow An Asian-American's Ivy League Admissions Journey

Applying to College Admission Stories
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Hi all, I’m a senior who currently attends a large public high school in the Northeast. You might wonder why I’m documenting my journey—after all, I’m just another kid in a sea of aspiring applicants.

Well, this is for all the Asian-Americans who struggle through cutthroat STEM-oriented high schools, wondering if it will all be worth it in the end. This is for the humanities kids who are laughed at when they say they want to major in the classics or literature or history. This is for those who desperately want to get into HYPSM despite knowing that neither a label nor a ranking determines the quality or fit of a school. And this is for me—so that maybe, just maybe, I can laugh at the superficialness of it all months from now.

First, some basics stats

SAT (old version, single sitting): 2350
GPA: 3.98 UW
SAT Subject Tests: US History-800 Math II-800 Latin-780 Bio-780
APs: US History-5 // Chemistry-5 // Psych-5 // Stats-5

My counselor will indicate that I took the “most rigorous” courseload.

Extracurriculars:

Creative Writing

My writing has been published in literary magazines and recognized by international+national competitions. I’ll be submitting creative writing supplements to every school that allows applicants to do so.

Editing

I edit for a few national magazines whose missions/causes I strongly believe in, although I won’t name them in the interest of preserving my anonymity.

Classics

President of Classics Club; led team to semifinals at the Yale Certamen (Latin Quiz Bowl)
Gold Medal on National Classical Etymology Exam
Perfect scores on National Latin Exam I, II, and III

Volunteering (200+ hours)

Docent at Children’s Science Museum
Worked with autistic kids at a special education center
Math and English Tutor

Schools I’m Applying To: Princeton (SCEA), UMich EA, UVA EA, UNC Chapel Hill EA, Emory, Georgetown, Penn, Harvard, Yale, Boston College, University of Chicago, Amherst College, Williams College, Columbia University, WUSTL

*Note: I’ve already been accepted by the University of Pittsburgh and will apply to my state flagship, which is a financial and academic safety.

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Interesting thread. I’m not sure I get what you are looking for in a college, other than a top name – your list is all over the place.

Best of luck and keep posting as your results come in.

ETA: I just read some of your previous posts and they explain a lot.

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@GnocchiB yup. They definitely showcase my unfortunate & unremitting obsession w/ prestigious colleges over the years. I know that name means nothing, but something or someone—my high school? peers? parents?—have inculcated this idea that only the “top 20” schools are good, as is apparent from my college list haha.

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I think they all would provide a wonderful education and great experience. That being said, be totally sure you would be happy at Pitt and/or your state flagship, just in case.

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How can you apply to several EA schools when you applied to a SCEA school?

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16 schools???

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@jym626 --Princeton’s SCEA agreement allows students to apply to state schools’ EA programs, so Michigan, Virginia and Chapel Hill are all fine.

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I like your style, kid. I look forward to following your story.

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“…neither a label nor a ranking determines the quality or fit of a school.” Nor do your stats and ECs tell much about your fit and match (including how the colleges will see that.) Wanna fill us in, make this more than a Chance thread??

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@SouthernHope aww thanks :slight_smile:

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@lookingforward I want to major in comparative literature or the classics. As for my ECs: there’s a social justice component to my writing and work with literary magazines which stems from something that happened during my childhood—and I really tried to highlight that in my essays. That said, I don’t want to put too much detail b/c naming specific publications+their missions could identify me. School-wise, I think I’m pretty flexible. My schools are all over the place: East Coast, West Coast, South, Midwest. I think I could be happy at a small LAC or a large public university. I’m obviously drawn to “elite” schools, for many of the wrong reasons, but I guess that’s a different story.

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Thx. It’s the bits that can make one interesting. The stats and an EC list are just the bones. Same with apps.

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Update: offered a University of Pittsburgh Full Tuition Scholarship/Chancellor’s Scholarship nominee!!

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So YoungArts results came out today; my poetry wasn’t recognized, and I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was. Out of the literally hundreds of rejections I’ve received, this one perhaps hurts the most—it’s always been the one competition that I’ve always wanted to place in but never have. At this point, I don’t even know anymore. Don’t know why I bind up all my hopes of getting into Princeton w/ my hopes of getting my writing acknowledged. Don’t know why I even care when all I do is work work work and have nothing to show for it. Although that isn’t necessarily true— it looks like I’ll end up w straight As for first quarter, at least, and my Georgetown interview went really well.

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Officially notified today that I’m my school’s Jefferson Scholarship nominee!

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I think I know what the HYPS in HYPSM stand for. But what does M stand for?

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@mathewjn MIT

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MIT

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Thanks @supercilious & @Houston1021

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I am really glad to see a similar applicant- I’m an Asian applicant, PR status & currently studying in Korea, and planing to major in Art History (like, I’ve never seen anyone trying to major in art history around here- I haven’t seen a single Asian history applicant too). I really love the humanities, so it makes me sad that the field doesn’t get the appreciation it deserves :frowning:

Here are my stats:

SAT I- 2390 (single sitting, W-790, CR-800, M-800)
SAT II- USH 780, WH 780, LIT 800, M2C 800
GPA- my definite weakness, at UW 3.75-8. I went to a really competitive Korean high school and overloaded my junior year course load with AP Phys I and AP Calc AB when I wasn’t ready for it :frowning: I moved school once during my junior year to an international school and really worked my butt off, managing to get an A in AP Bio and A- in Calc BC.
AP- Euro 5, World Hist 5, USH 5, Art History 5, Lang 5, Human Geo 5, Macro 5, Comp Gov 5, US Gov 5, Psych 5, Calc BC 5 (AB Subscore 5), Lit 4, Micro 4

ECs:

Academic Committee Chair, Vice President of the School, English Teaching Club (community service) Captain, Career Search Club Captain, Varsity Soccer (3yrs, MVP in tourney finals), Varsity Lacrosse (1yr), Varsity Volleyball (1yr), Art History Club Captain, Editor & Journalist at both school newspapers

Internships:

National Museum paid reporter, journalist intern at International NYT (sponsored by govt, received best intern prize), docent at Museum of Contemporary Art, curator intern at local museum of history, paid intern at an auction company (really big in Asia)

I applied SCEA to Yale. Good luck to you :slight_smile: