My College Journey (URM if you care)

Applying to College Admission Stories
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I’ve decided to document my college journey, so that after it’s all over I can come back and look at what I thought would happen versus what actually happened. Feel free to comment if you like, I will come back and update periodically.

Now in proper CC fashion, here are my stats…

ACT (breakdown): (33 Superscore)
Sept 2016- 32; E: 34; M: 27; R: 35; S: 33
Feb 2016-31; E:25; M:28, R:33; S:36; W:25

SAT II: Bio-M-750; Chem-720
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 4/445
AP (place score in parenthesis): Environmental Science(4); Human Geo(4); Biology(5); World History(2) (not reporting); US History(4); Chemistry(5)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc AB, AP English Literature, AP Physics 1 & C, Vet internship, Government, Band, Organic Chemistry
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.) AP Scholar with Distinction

Extracurriculars (will probably put more detail later, maybe lol)
Band/Marching Band (4 years)
Color Guard (3 years; captain)
School Ambassador (4 years; president)
Research (4 years)

Job/Work Experience: Intern at local animal hospital
Volunteer/Community service: Work with a therapy dog training place
Summer Activites: Intern at research lab for 2 months this past summer (worked 40 hrs/wk)
Essays (rating 1-10, details): uhhh I think they’re good and my editors agree, wrote about my experience interning over the summer and the unexpected things I learned and gained from it.

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Neuroscience or Biochemistry or Biology (depending on the school) (I also plan on pursuing the pre-vet track)
State : GA
School Type: Public High school (about 1800 students)
Ethnicity: Black
Gender: Female
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM

Schools: (after a LOT of changes)
Columbia (First Choice)
UPenn
Yale
Northeastern(EA)
Johns Hopkins
GA Tech (EA)
UGA (EA)

I have already applied to all my of EA schools, and I’m currently working on my supplements for my 4 RD schools. I plan on talking about dance more and making them a bit more light-heated overall than compared to my common app essay. I’m excited to see how everything will pan out and I’ll be back in a few months with updates!

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My original list of schools: (for reference)

Columbia
Uchicago
Swarthmore (visited and didn’t like it)
Tufts (liked it but not over my other schools)
GA Tech
UGA
Duke
UPenn
Barnard
Boston University

Only four of these schools stayed after I did a huge college road trip over fall break and discovered that most of these schools aren’t for me. Part of me still wants to apply to some of these schools just to widen my options, but my parents have limited me to seven schools (for $$$ reasons) and I had to seriously think about what I wanted in a school and trim my list. Now my plan is to pour my heart into my last four applications to help maximize my chances at each school. :slight_smile:

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Good luck!

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Quick Update: I was accepted into UGA with the Zell Miller Scholarship (state funded full tuition) and the One UGA scholarship for diversity! (1.5k a year wasn’t expecting this one!) I hear back from Northeastern next week and GA Tech on Jan 14. I am also considering adding NYU to my list but I’m not sure. :confused:

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Update! I was accepted into Northeastern’s honors college as a Behavioral Neuroscience major!! I was also offered $20,000 a year in merit scholarships! Next up: GA Tech

I have submitted my Columbia app :open_mouth: , and I finished my JHU and Penn app (just need to hit submit) Lastly I need to finish Yale and then we wait! :slight_smile:

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Congratulations! Good luck with the rest of your schools!

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Update: I was accepted EA to Georgia Tech about 3 weeks ago (I forgot to update then), however I was not selected as a semi-finalist for the presidential scholarship. I submitted my last 4 applications at the beginning of January and I’m patiently (aka anxiously) waiting for my decisions in March. In other news my research project was selected as the top project at my regional fair this past Friday and I was selected to go to ISEF this upcoming May in LA! I will definitely be updating all my colleges with this news!!

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I received a likely letter from Columbia University today!! My dream school!!!

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CONGRATULATIONS!! :slight_smile:

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Congrats!!!

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Congrats! Sounds like you will have a big decision to make or is it for sure Columbia? @popper345

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It’s my top choice but I have to wait for all my financial aid offers and I would like to visit again

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Good luck to you! I totally get weighing all options. I also applied to UChicago but was deferred, accepted at GT with Dean’s Scholarship, and waiting to hear back on JHU. We share some of the same schools. I applied to Northwestern and Cornell also. The wait is painful! :slight_smile: @popper345

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I got my financial aid estimate from Columbia and my expected parental contribution is higher than my EFC so that’s dissapointing… I am going to appeal the package in April but unless I can get more money than I can not go :frowning: I hear from Hopkins this Friday so I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

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is it higher than what the NPC indicated? Can you call and ask if the package’s an estimate or if it’s the actual package? Asking why parental contribution is higher than EFC perhaps?

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@MYOS1634 I actually did call them the next day (I got the mail last Monday), and since my dad is self-employed they added back in his business deductions/depreciation to our total income. They used this inflated income to make my package which I don’t think is an accurate reflection of my financial situation. I’m going to email them soon and ask which deductions they added back in so I can figure out how they got that higher income.

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I also considered setting up an in-person appointment for when I visit in April so I can talk to them, but my parents wouldn’t be there so I don’t think it would be as effective since it is my father’s business.

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I was accepted to JHU today as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow!! (10K to pursue my own independent research project!) I also got a scholarship that makes my financial aid loan free and no freshman work study!! Plus my family would only have to pay ~5K per year!! JHU has left me speechless…and made my decision a lot harder. How can I walk away from a $10,000 research scholarship to do my OWN work?? I’m going to be visiting like crazy during April so I can make this decision…

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Hey guys!! So here’s is my final update on college decisions now that Ivy Day has passed

Accepted:
Columbia!
Penn!
Johns Hopkins!
GA Tech
UGA
Northeastern University

Rejected: Yale (lol)

I will be visiting Columbia and JHU next week since they are my top two as of right now, I didn’t get any financial aid info from Penn yet since they are requesting additional information. Columbia is still #1 but my visit to JHU may change that! So happy and blessed with so many amazing options :slight_smile:

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I’m a little late but I officially committed to Columbia last week! It was HARD to turn down everything Johns Hopkins was offering me. However after visiting both I really did feel that I would be happier at Columbia. It feels good to have this entire process behind me and I am very happy with how it turned out! Excited to be a lion in the fall, Roar,Lion,Roar!!!