Accepted, Rejected, or Deferred: Accepted
Intended Major/School: Cognitive Science & Neuroscience
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1420 (R 720, M 700, W 21) (I ask myself why I submitted this a lot)
ACT: 33 (E 36, M 27, R 34, S 34, W 8)
SAT II: Chemistry 620, Literature 660 (Yes, I actually submitted those â– â– â– â– â– ) ((wait till u hear by bio score))
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/479
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Chemistry (2 LOL), AP Language Arts (4), AP Psychology (4), AP Biology, AP Literature, AP Statistics
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: AP Biology, AP Literature, AP Statistics, STEM Capstone, Band 4, Japanese 4
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): US Representative for the National High School Festival in Hiroshima, Japan (11), HOSA Medical Spelling 2nd place states (10, qualified for nationals but couldn’t afford it, couldn’t even participate in states last year lmao)
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Chess Club (President 12, VP 11, Treasurer 10), Japanese Club (Treasurer 12), Leo Club, HOSA, Varsity Soft Tennis (Captain 12), Student government (Charity Drives Chair, Social Chair, Awards Chair), Band
Job/Work Experience: First job cleaning classrooms at 15 y/o (10 hrs/wk), currently work at a drugstore/pharmacy as a cross-trained pharmacy technician and front store associate (19 hrs/wk)
Volunteer/Community service: Internship - Neuroscience clinic research intern - published 3 research posters/abstracts with 2 papers in the making, assisted with ~7 clinical trials (i dunno how many tbh) - data entry, reviewing data, shadowing visit sessions, etc. Hospital - 4 years working in geriatrics with 500+ hours, Church - 6 years teaching children, probably 1000+ hours (never really kept track), 1 year leadership program - in which students plan and execute a community service project. My group’s one was on Mental Health awareness, with a focus on different people groups (students, community members, counselors & teachers, etc). I wrote my supplement on this project so it added a little more depth to it
Summer Activities: I kinda just did everything else I do over the summer as well, with a good 35 hrs/wk for work and 30 hrs/wk for my internship
Essays: PS 9/10 imo, 6/10(or lower) in other ppl’s opinion - It was about my mom and how much I hate her parenting but also how much I learned from it. Ngl I was crying as I was writing it bc it was just that traumatic. Had some others read it (a JHU admit too). They thought it was too negative and that I should scrap it. Turned it in anyways lol. Supplement - 7/10 it’s ok but I thought it was a tad generic
Teacher Recommendation: 10/10 AP Language Arts teacher who knows me pretty well, 8/10 AP Psychology teacher who knows me decently well but was pressed for time
Counselor Rec: 8/10 I know her well since 9th so it would’ve been a 10/10 except… my school’s college career counselor is the only one with access to my app and when my counselor sent her a draft to review, she submitted it and then couldn’t un-submit it haha…
Additional Rec: 10/10 Doctor from my internship who wrote me a very great letter
Interview: 8/10, was awfully nervous and sick af but my interviewer was very friendly (and also sick lol) and though I may have rambled more than I should’ve, I think I showed great enthusiasm about JHU.
Other
State (if domestic applicant): Hawaii
Country (if international applicant):
Intended major(s): Cognitive Science & Neuroscience
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: <<<$100k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First generation college student (though my brother is in graduate school so I dunno if that really counts anymore)
Reflection
Strengths: I think that I had great ECs, especially with the internship as I played a more active role than most in the whole research/medical field stuff. dunno if this would count toward anything but my job as a cross-trained pharmacy tech probably stood out from other kids who worked.
Weaknesses: Standardized test scores - not that they were absolutely horrid but quite low for JHU standards, AP Scores were meh
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: I might not have the best test scores in the world, but I put in 110% effort into everything I do and I think it really showed in my app.
General Comments: Probably shouldn’t have worked myself to death and studied a little more but I kinda also wanted to go to prom and stuff so //shrugs. tbh I would’ve rejected myself but a huge thank you to the admissions officer who decided to give me a chance ily
