Demographics: Male, Floridian, low income student, permanent resident (recent status, I was an asylee), first generation (5 years) (immigrant, not college. Although my parents did not graduate from an US institution), and latino
Type of high school: really selective magnet stem school
Intended Major(s): physics and philosophy
ACT/SAT/SAT II: 1400 (740 math and 660 reading) I hope to increase it after taking it again this week
UW/W GPA and Rank: 4.53W (5/99) and 3.9 UW
Coursework: AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores, etc
AP: 10 (16 by the end of this year)
DE: 3 (6 by the end of this year)
Took 3 DE last year with UF (developmental psych (88), intro to engineering and astronomy (A in both))
Took 10 AP in the past ( got 3 in two exams (AP physics 1 sophomore year, and AP seminar Junior), one 5 in AP Spanish lang, and the rest 4s)
The classes were: AP physics 1, physics C mechanics, and AP Calculus AB, lang, world, apush, macro, and psych
Took all my other courses honors, with only having Hope (PE requirement) and digital multimedia as normal classes.
This year I’m taking
AP:
Research
Chem
Physics C E&M
Gov
Stats
Lit
Along with intro to programming and calc II through UF
Awards:
Scholar of a state wide organization for low income high achievers
Academic letter
AP scholar distinction
Questbridge prep scholar
Pin award
Extracurriculars:
Created and manage my own tutoring program at my school. I created it as I perceived how people struggled with classes, and office hours were usually too crowded.
Internship on quantum hardware (wrote review paper) with UF professor. This was a position that I got after having a project and good grades in a year long Quantum computing course that was paid by a scholarship of IBM. The course was taught by MIT and Berkeley (along other schools) grad students.
Internship at entrepreneurship think tank (created a business study with two peers)
Finance chairman for interact
Teen court attorney
Library ambassador
School embassador
Worked at howl o scream
Essays/LORS/Other:
I’m making my essay about my work as a scare actor, and how it relates to me overpassing the fear of fleeing the country after death threats to my dad while being personally lonely. I went in deep about how academics became my way to conecting to humanity, the core reason for which I want to obtain a PhD in nuclear physics and do energy research.
Letter of recommendation from my physics (AP 1 and C) teacher and English (Lang and Lit)
My physics teacher talked about how I overcame the challenge of their class even without being fluent in English.
I don’t really know the topic of my other LoR, but I really trust this teacher.
Schools: List of colleges, ED/EA/RD, etc:
ED Swarthmore (Loved their college after attending their fly in. I really think it aligns perfectly with my goals and preferences)
EA
U of Miami (applying solely because they have merit scholarships and are a need met institution)
UF
RD: Williams, Amherst, some other LAC such as Pomona and Reed.
If you have any other recommendations, I would be more than happy to hear them.
I usually prefer small colleges with great financial aid (I need it in order to attend, my predicted EFC is probably 0)
I am also looking for a stimulating intellectual environment (with this, I don’t mean people believing they are better than others. I am looking for an environment of authentic people that feel passionate about their academics, one in which you can have hours of conversations that go from philosophy to math and physics.)
I would be really grateful to hear other points of view.