My Results + Ask Me Anything

Applying to College Admission Stories
1

Please note: We don’t allow threads that are off limits to other people answering questions. So while the post is excellent in allowing people to see how they compare to the OP, it still is open for anyone to answer a question such as “What does being wait listed mean?”. - FC

I wanted to do this last year, but just ended up not. So anyways, here are my results (I’m a current sophomore in college) and I thought it might be fun to do a Reddit style AMA. Literally ask me anything you want, about admissions (is what I’m expecting), about college life, or whatever else you want.

Accepted: Columbia, Duke, Georgetown, NYU, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Vanderbilt, Washington University in St. Louis
Waitlisted: Northwestern, University of Chicago, Yale (Deferred, then Waitlisted),
Rejected: Harvard, Stanford, Brown, University of Michigan

Chose Duke after a long and agonizing process

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2350 (no superstore, only took it once) (CR: 800, Writing: 780, Math: 770)
ACT (breakdown): 36 (took it twice, same results both times) (Verbal: 36 Math: 36 Sci: 36 Reading: 36 Composite: 36 Writing: 34)
SAT II: 800 Math 2, 800 Physics, 730 Literature
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.889
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 99th percentile
AP (place score in parenthesis): 5 Physics B, 5 APUSH, 5 Language + Comp, 5 AP Calc BC, 5 Stats, 4 Physics C Mechanics, 4 Physics C E+M
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: Pretty difficult
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Scholar, AP Scholar with Honor, 6th place BPA Nationals (Legal Office Procedures), 3rd, 4th place BPA State (Video Production Team and Legal Office Procedures, respectively), Honorable Mention Toshiba Exploravision Competition (or something like that, I don’t really remember)

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (info in parenthesis):
Cross Country (was not recruited for any sport) 9-12 (JV Captain)
Varsity Tennis 9-12 (Team Captain, State Qualifier)
BPA 10-12 (National Finalist)
Quiz Bowl 9-12 (Team Captain and leading scorer)
Marching Band 9-12 (Section leader)
Concert Band 9-12 (Principal Saxophone player all four years, Principal for All-District two years, All State)
Tri-M (Music Honor Society) 10-12 (President, I organized and did a ton of volunteer work through this)
Classical Piano Lessons for 12 years, Saxophone for 7, Guitar for 5

Job/Work Experience: Coached Tennis for younger children
Volunteer/Community service: Volunteered at my local library, tutored math at school, organized and did music clinics at elementary schools
Summer Activities: Running, Tennis, Eat, Sleep repeat x4 summers
Essays (rating 1-10, details):

  • Common App Essay 8 : I wrote the failure prompt from that year and a lot of the people I showed the essay to said it was good. I wrote about how I learned that sometimes I wouldn’t succeed no matter how hard I worked, and how I learned to be okay with that, because the activity itself was enough

-Other supplemental essays: I really like talking about myself so I thought they were all pretty good. Highlights include my Yale supplement, which was about learning Parkour and how it changed the way I looked at the world, my Duke optional supplement which was about breaking the Asian stereotypes, and my NYU supplement which was structured around their admissions advertisement tagline

Teacher Rec #1: English Teacher (9) Had him sophomore year, so there was a bit of a disconnect there, but I think it was good. He was one of the best to testify about my personal growth from a smart but kind of bad kid (getting into trouble and stuff) to a better person.
Teacher Rec #2: Math Teacher (9) Again, I think it was good because my junior year math teacher saw a lot of my growth as a person, from being kind of arrogantly standoffish to a lot more willing to help my peers and collaborate.
Counselor Rec: 7 My counselor and I loved each other (not in a weird way) but I don’t know if she said anything particularly interesting

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: English
State (if domestic applicant): IL
Country (if international applicant): USA
School Type: Large Public
Ethnicity: Asian (Chinese)
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: 100-110k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None

So, like I said at the beginning, ask me anything that comes to mind, it can have nothing to do with admissions, but if a specific piece of data catches your attention with respect to admissions, then by all means.

2

Thanks for doing this. I’m taking the SAT next week (first time taking the revised version). Do you have any last minute study tips?

Also, what exactly does being waitlisted mean?

3

@Ariz0na

I have no idea about the revised version but practice tests are your friend. I never really studied much for anything in high school but doing a lot of practice tests is just really helpful for getting used to the feel of a test (because they pretty much ask the same kinds of questions over and over).

Underrated tip for all testing: practice reading really fast. I personally think that my ability to read really fast (~1200 words per minute with good comprehension) was the biggest single reason I always did so well on standardized tests. The less time you spend reading stuff the more time you have for other stuff.

Decisiveness. Evidence suggests that people who make decisions and don’t second-guess themselves do much better on multiple choice tests (which I hope the SAT still is lol). I try to never second guess myself on questions. Answer them and move on. A big part of this is staying calm during the test. If you panic (I don’t know about you, but a lot of people actually do), then it’s pretty much all over regardless of how much you studied.

Getting waitlisted means that the college kind of wants you, but not enough to actually admit you. If enough people turn down actual admission that there’s extra space in the class, then you can be admitted off of the waitlist. In my experience it’s like 99% the same as getting rejected.

4

Why Duke over all the other places you were accepted?

5

@psychicphysics

Money. Duke gave me the best financial aid out of any of the schools I was accepted to. I really wanted to go to Columbia or NYU because I love New York and I think that there would be a lot of opportunities to get into journalism or publishing there (which is what I want to get into), but at a certain point, you have to be realistic and Duke was far cheaper than any of the other schools. That being said, I do love Duke too.

6

-Could you go into more detail about your essays/possibly send them to me via PM? (I’m not going to plagiarize, because that would be stupid.) I’m a little confused about how to write a good college admissions essay and I can’t find very many examples online.

-Did you have a “hook” in your extracurriculars? (i.e., literally found the cure to cancer.)

-How’d you study for the Math and Reading portion of the SAT? I have the test next week.

-Also, random question because I’m dropping out of the class (this probably didn’t majorly sway admissions officers, but lol): did you take APUSH?

7

what did you write about in your why duke essay?

8

Dang, I didnt think some of those schools would reject people with your creds. I mean that 36, and your GPA… they are way over the 75th percentile at the schools you got rejected at. Still you got into some very great schools and made a great choice!

Do you think admissions is more or less competitive for english majors then science/math majors?

9

So… late responses, but…

@cliffnotes
College essays came really naturally to me because I like writing and I really like talking about myself, but a general structure that can get you started is: 1. tell a story, 2. explain what you learned from the story, and 3. how what you learned connects to your college/future/whatever. If you have any specific essays you’d like to look at I can send you them. Also remember that adcoms read thousands upon thousands of essays each cycle, so definitely try to do something that’s not cliche or whatnot. I always liked to turn cliches on their heads in my essays (e.g. instead of working really hard to overcome an obstacle, one of my best essays was about a time I worked really hard and failed anyways, and what I learned from that.

No, I don’t think I had a major hook, unless you count being good at standardized tests.

This isn’t going to sound great, but I didn’t study for the SAT. (realizing that by now you’ve already taken the test) If you get your scores back and didn’t do so well, my advice for standardized testing is earlier in the thread.

I did take APUSH. My teacher was crazy. He spent most of class talking shit about Obama instead of teaching. Somehow got a 5 anyways.

@Taylorz
My Why Duke? essay was really short so here it is in it’s entirety (hopefully not violating any rules or anything)

If you are applying to the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences as a first year applicant, please discuss why you consider Duke a good match for you. Is there something particular about Duke that attracts you? (Please limit your response to no more than 150 words.)

My friend sits down, clearly unhappy. “We just got assigned ten page research paper,” he complains.

I am also annoyed at this. “Why didn’t I get one?” I exclaim.

I get weird looks when I ramble about Catch 22 or Paradise Lost. I get weirder looks when I complain about not having a research paper to do. Duke is one of few places where I wouldn’t get those looks all the time, and Duke is one of few universities that encourages – or even offers – research opportunities for English undergraduates. The flexible courses allow for freedom to inquire into the topics that matter to me. Even my current teachers are surprised at my excitement for a research paper, but Duke understands the value of research to all disciplines, not just sciences.

Also, the Blue Devils make the Final Four or better in my March Madness bracket every year. Just saying.

@Cubby208
Depends on the school. Some admit by major, some don’t. I think all the schools I applied to (and I believe most elite schools in general) do not.

10

Nothing much to ask, but congrats on your acceptances. Coincidentally I had the exact same SAT score with the same breakdown.

11

why did you take the act twice if you got a 36 the first time? how do you like duke? looking back, are you satisfied with your decision? was it your first choice? how did you deal with waiting for decisions? i’m waiting for mine right now, and i’m so anxious.

12

I’m from IL, which requires every junior in the state to take the ACT. I had already taken the test as a sophomore, and gotten the first 36, but I still had to take it again. There was a lot more pressure the second time around haha, I felt like I had to “defend my title” or something stupid like that.

I absolutely love Duke, but I’m pretty sure I would’ve absolutely loved any one of the colleges I could’ve gone to. I wonder sometimes what life would be like if I had gone to another school I had been accepted to, especially Columbia, but the bottom line is that I couldn’t afford many of the other schools.

I am satisfied, for now. Thus far, Duke has had everything I could have wanted from a university; a beautiful campus, solid food, interesting classes and material, tons of extracurricular, great people… my only complaint is that it rains too much.

How did I deal with decisions? for the most part, poorly. “How will it feel if I get in?” “What will I do if I don’t?” “What if, what if, what if” made the wait really difficult for me initially, especially after not getting into Yale early. One thing that helped a lot was having decision parties with my friends, waiting, checking, and celebrating/crying together was actually a lot of fun.

13

I applied to Duke ED (and am anxiously awaiting my decision). I heard that in college admissions, it is good to have a “spike” where one is very involved and skilled at a certain activity. Based on your ECs, was tennis your “spike”? I play in USTA tournaments as well as high school tennis (in the spring). I also string racquets and coach kids for some extra pocket money so I could sort of relate to your ECs.

14

how the hell did michigan reject you

15

@TheTennisNinja
Yeah, I agree with the idea of having a spike. The old adage is that schools are looking for very well rounded applicants, but I don’t find that to be true, at least not anymore. Often what is more valuable is for a student to be really really ridiculously good at one thing. I have a friend from high school who focused on CS and web development to the exclusion of almost everything else, including his grades. Surprise, he’s at Stanford now.

But to answer your question, no I don’t think tennis was my spike. I played USTA tournaments and qualified for state and coached and everything, but that’s not nearly what you need to be considered a spike in my opinion. If I had been making finals of national tournaments or starting a volunteer initiative to bring tennis to underprivileged areas, then that would’ve been a spike, but just playing a sport at a high level isn’t good enough, I think.

I considered myself to have been one of those kids that was a “jack of all trades, master of none” which is why I think I got rejected from a lot of the elite schools I applied to, even though my grades and test scores were good.

@EKolin
¯_(ツ)_/¯

16

you were president of many clubs with a bunch of awards to go along with a 3.9 and 36. They must have incorrectly said deny

17

Congrats on your scores and accomplishments thus far. My question to you is - assuming you would score the same on standardized tests - if you could repeat high school, would you change anything? Would you master one thing or remain the jack of all trades?

18

@bzss7x I’m not really sure… I don’t think I would, because I became a jack of all trades because I did the things I wanted to - I swore to myself that I would never do things just to get into college, and only participate in an extracurriculars or whatever because I actually liked them. I really loved everything from my high school, the people and atmosphere and everything, so overall, no.

19

“incorrectly said deny” lol funny me. I cringe looking back at posts from just less than a month ago. Anyways, looking back at this as I was scrolling through my replies, why did you choose duke over columbia? Was it major, visits, etc?

20

@EKolin I really loved the idea of Columbia, as I imagined that living in New York would be very exciting and interesting, and I felt that being in New York would allow me access to a lot of the relevant industries that I want to get into. However, Duke made a far better financial aid offer than Columbia and any other school, and at a certain point I had to be realistic in making that decision.