***Official Class of 2015 Decisions Thread***

<p>Congrats to those accepted (and waitlisted, that in itself seems to be a feat to be proud of nowadays). To those rejected, don't worry about it - we have proven ourselves to be among the elite in Canada anyways! </p>

<p>Copy and paste, then delete the spaces. I'm trying to find a way to make it less of a hassle and not have to delete spaces but I'm not sure how. If any one knows then feel free to post on here or PM me.</p>

<p>
[quote]

[ b]Objective:[ /b][list]
[ ] SAT I (breakdown):
[ *] ACT:
[ *] SAT II:
[ *] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0):
[ *] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable):
[ *] AP (place score in parenthesis):
[ *] IB (place score in parenthesis):
[ *] Senior Year Course Load:
[ *] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):
[ /list]
Subjective:[ /b][list]
[ *] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
[ *] Job/Work Experience:
[ *] Volunteer/Community service:
[ *] Summer Activities:
[ *] Essays:
[ *] Teacher Recommendation:
[ *] Counselor Rec:
[ *] Additional Rec:
[ *] Interview:
[ /list][ b]Other
[list]
[ *] State (if domestic applicant):
[ *] Country (if international applicant):
[ *] School Type:
[ *] Ethnicity:
[ *] Gender:
[ *] Income Bracket:
[ *] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):
[ /list]
Reflection[list]
[ *] Strengths:
[ *] Weaknesses:
[ *] ACCEPTED:
[ *] WAIT-LISTED:
[ *] REJECTED:
[ /list]
General Comments (and view on the whole process, advice for future Canadian CC'ers and where you are headed!):*

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): 2220 M 770 CR 780 W 670
[</em>] SAT II: Bio M 760, Math II 750
[<em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): I’m gonna go with 3.7, to be honest lol.
[</em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): unofficially top 5%
[<em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): n/a
[</em>] IB (place score in parenthesis): n/a
[<em>] Senior Year Course Load: Toughest
[</em>] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): none whatsoever
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[li] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):[/li]Student company (president)
Local advocacy group (part-leader)
Business club (president)
Ambassadors (co-president)
Music council (secretary)
two other school clubs…(non president, executive)</p>

<p>[<em>] Job/Work Experience: nada
[</em>] Volunteer/Community service: see EC
[<em>] Summer Activities: nada
[</em>] Essays: Okayish
[<em>] Teacher Recommendation: nothing spectacular
[</em>] Counselor Rec: pretty boring to read
[<em>] Additional Rec: nope
[</em>] Interview: so so, never really hit it off with an interviewer
[/ul]Other[ul]
[<em>] State (if domestic applicant):
[</em>] Country (if international applicant): Canada
[<em>] School Type: Large public
[</em>] Ethnicity: Asian
[<em>] Gender: F
[</em>] Income Bracket: Low
[<em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): nothing
[/ul]Reflection[ul]
[li] Strengths: I’m supposedly well rounded…but nothing stands out I guess[/li][</em>] Weaknesses: Academics, no awards, overall strength of application
[<em>] ACCEPTED: NONE!!
[</em>] WAIT-LISTED: Harvard
[li] REJECTED: Yale Princeton Wharton Dartmouth Uchicago Amherst :([/li][/ul]General Comments (and view on the whole process, advice for future Canadian CC’ers and where you are headed!): </p>

<p>Getting my Amherst rejection just now made me quite depressed, so pardon this hurried and depressing profile. If anyone want to know more detail about my application I’m sure you can find it in one of my chance threads.</p>

<p>I seriously don’t know how I got onto Harvard’s waitlist, considering my other decisions. In my mind, however, I always viewed Harvard as the most “random”, in that it may look past the lack of achievement in favour of some hint of personal qualities. Maybe that’s why? I don’t know. But I will hope everyday that I can get off the list. Emotional pain? Heh. I’ve got nothing to lose at this point.</p>

<p>To future applicants: apply, and give it your best shot. Don’t make the mistake of spreading the news of your applying to the US before you get your acceptances. Have hope. But if it doesn’t work out, you’ll be fine.</p>

<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>]SAT I (breakdown): 2270 composite (700M, 770CR, 800W)
[</em>]SAT II: 750 French w/ Listening, 750 English Literature
[<em>]Unweighted Cumulative GPA (out of 4.0): ~93%
[</em>]Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/400 (unweighted)
[<em>]AP (place score in parenthesis): none
[</em>]IB (place score in parenthesis): none
[<em>]Major Awards: A few national writing ones
[/ul]Other[ul]
[</em>]Ethnicity: Chinese
[<em>]Gender: Female
[</em>]Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): none
[/ul]Reflection[ul]
[<em>]Strengths: Essays, recommendations
[</em>]Weaknesses: Math and science skills :S
[<em>]ACCEPTED: Yale
[</em>]WAIT-LISTED: Columbia
[/ul]
To Future Applicants: I don’t want to post all of my stats, but this website has really helped me to get an idea of the calibre of applicants/acceptees to these schools, so if anybody has specific questions regarding my application, PM me and I would love to answer them. </p>

<p>In my opinion, the best piece of advice I can offer is a quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “This above all: to thine own self be true.” I never did any extracurriculars that I disliked. If I hadn’t been accepted to Yale, I would still be able to look back at my high school years with no regrets. Live life on your own terms. A school does not define you.</p>

<p>And remember: be passionate.</p>

<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): 750 CR, 690 M, 800 W
[</em>] ACT:
[<em>] SAT II: 750 U.S. History, 760 Literature
[</em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): My average is 95%
[<em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/92
[</em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): n/a
[<em>] IB (place score in parenthesis): n/a
[</em>] Senior Year Course Load: Literature 12, AP European History, History 12, Comparative Civilizations 12, Theatre Performance 12, Guitar 11, ICT 11, Christian Education 11, Calculus 12
[<em>] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): None
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Show Choir, Concert Choir, Theatre, Yearbook, Light Volunteering, Student Council, Grad Committee
[<em>] Job/Work Experience: None
[</em>] Volunteer/Community service: Light community service
[<em>] Summer Activities: Summer school?
[</em>] Essays: Very unique and somewhat risky
[<em>] Teacher Recommendation: Very good
[</em>] Counselor Rec: Good
[<em>] Additional Rec: Good
[</em>] Interview: Interviewed for Middlebury, Yale, Princeton
[/ul]Other[ul]
[<em>] Province: British Columbia
[</em>] Country (if international applicant): Canada
[<em>] School Type: Private Catholic
[</em>] Ethnicity: Filipino
[<em>] Gender: Male
[</em>] Income Bracket: Don’t know but not a lot
[<em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None, so far as I know
[/ul]Reflection[ul]
[</em>] Strengths: ESSAY.
[<em>] Weaknesses: Lack of meaningful ECs so far as I can tell
[</em>] ACCEPTED: UPenn, Notre Dame, Middlebury, Vassar, NYU, UMiami, McGill, Boston College, Fordham
[<em>] WAIT-LISTED: UChicago, Cornell
[</em>] REJECTED: Columbia, Swarthmore, Stanford, Dartmouth, Yale, Princeton, Harvard
[/ul]General Comments (and view on the whole process, advice for future Canadian CC’ers and where you are headed!): If you wish to have the best chance at getting into a prestigious university in the states, apply to a lot of them, because you’ll be rejected by many, and some schools that accept you will be not feasible financially.</p>

<p>However, the best advice is to follow your heart.</p>

<p>POSTERS!
Include whether you had requested F/A, cause it does play a role especially in int’l admission in many schools. Sorry to interrupt and let it roll. Will post mine in a bit. lol</p>

<p>Those who have already posted, update the F/A info, please?</p>

<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): 2300 one sitting (750 W, 760 M, 790 CR)
[</em>] ACT: N/A
[<em>] SAT II: 700 French, 700 Math II, 740 Bio (M)
[</em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.8
[<em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 5%
[</em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): N/A
[<em>] IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
[</em>] Senior Year Course Load: “Toughest” (Calc, Bio, Eng, French, Phil, Drama, Func, Law)
[<em>] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Sears Ontario Drama Fest best play in province, school awards
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Theatre (principal roles in community and at school), Students Council (Pres 2 yrs), anti-bullying committee (cofounder), MUN club (cofounder/pres)
[<em>] Job/Work Experience: Theatre camp in summer, sales associate
[</em>] Volunteer/Community service: None
[<em>] Summer Activities: Work, travel
[</em>] Essays: Well it’s subjective but yeah, I think they made me stand out.
[<em>] Teacher Recommendation: Good I’m sure.
[</em>] Counselor Rec: Decent.
[<em>] Additional Rec: Good I’m sure.
[</em>] Interview: 2.5 hours…I was nervous but it went well.
[/ul]Other[ul]
[<em>] State (if domestic applicant): N/A
[</em>] Country (if international applicant): Ontario, Canada
[<em>] School Type: Small rural public
[</em>] Ethnicity: White
[<em>] Gender: Male
[</em>] Income Bracket: ~130 k
[<em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Nope
[/ul]Reflection[ul]
[</em>] Strengths: SAT score, essays, teacher recs (no one at my school applies to states so they probably put a lot of work into them)
[<em>] Weaknesses: SAT II scores
[</em>] ACCEPTED: Penn (Wharton)
[<em>] WAIT-LISTED: None
[</em>] REJECTED: None
[/ul]General Comments (and view on the whole process, advice for future Canadian CC’ers and where you are headed!):</p>

<p>I’m really annoyed at the lack of luck that a lot of other Canucks have had. I feel that many of you are just as, if not more, qualified to get into the top schools to which you applied.</p>

<p>I think ED gave me a big boost, and my regional adcom emailed me before decisions came out asking for another paragraph or 2 about my career interests, which was a good sign. Oh, and I did apply for FA (but Penn is need-blind for Canadians). Got a good chunk too!</p>

<p>Like everyone says, holy crap this process is…not random… but subjective. Adcoms can’t control the effect that little things like how their drive into work went or the coffee they spilled on their pants have on their decisions. Like Viggy says, life is too short so future Canadian applicants (or any future applicants), do what you want in high school and roll the dice when the time comes. I pretty much did that (decided I wanted to apply to US in late Gr. 11) and it worked out for me. And stats aren’t nearly as important as anyone thinks.</p>

<p>Keep it going Canadians! This will be so helpful for future classes. You don’t have to show everything, but at least it will give future students an idea of what it took to get in/what people had even if they were rejected or waitlisted.</p>

<p>In the mean time, I will try to get a mod to sticky this for us.</p>

<p>I’ve always wondered why people always post that difficult format with the spaces inside the BBcode tags. The template can be wrapped in a [noparse]


[/noparse] and a [noparse][noparse][/noparse] tag (code outside noparse) as long as everything is double-spaced.</p>

<p>Hope this helps.</p>

<p>

[noparse]Objective:[ul]

[li] SAT I (breakdown):

[/li]

[li] ACT:

[/li]

[li] SAT II:

[/li]

[li] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0):

[/li]

[li] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable):

[/li]

[li] AP (place score in parenthesis):

[/li]

[li] IB (place score in parenthesis):

[/li]

[li] Senior Year Course Load:

[/li]

[li] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):

[/li]

[/ul]**Subjective:**[ul]

[li] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):

[/li]

[li] Job/Work Experience:

[/li]

[li] Volunteer/Community service:

[/li]

[li] Summer Activities:

[/li]

[li] Essays:

[/li]

[li] Teacher Recommendation:

[/li]

[li] Counselor Rec:

[/li]

[li] Additional Rec:

[/li]

[li] Interview:

[/li]

[/ul]**Other**[ul]

[li] State (if domestic applicant):

[/li]

[li] Country (if international applicant):

[/li]

[li] School Type:

[/li]

[li] Ethnicity:

[/li]

[li] Gender:

[/li]

[li] Income Bracket:

[/li]

[li] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):

[/li]

[/ul]**Reflection**[ul]

[li] Strengths:

[/li]

[li] Weaknesses:

[/li]

[li] ACCEPTED:

[/li]

[li] WAITLISTED:

[/li]

[li] REJECTED:

[/li]

[/ul]

**General Comments/b:[/noparse]


&lt;/p&gt;

<p>^Thanks. I’m not great with technology, so I was hoping that someone would come through with a much better template. Continue to fill out your results everyone. This will help future Canadian applicants! I’m sure this newer, easier template will entice you. :slight_smile: </p>

<p>In the mean time, I’ll try to get a mod to sticky this for us…</p>

<p>@prjiki</p>

<p>Ah, well, yes, I did apply for financial aid. But if it seems like I got into a disproportionate number of schools for my stats — considering my international status, which should really make it harder to get in — I did. I am a U.S. citizen, and as such, the schools that accepted me treated me under domestic applicant need-blind policies.</p>

<p>In any case, I am shocked that so few Canadians this year managed to secure spots in top U.S. universities (as evidenced in <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/canada/1045004-unofficial-class-15-decisions-9.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/canada/1045004-unofficial-class-15-decisions-9.html&lt;/a&gt;). I sincerely congratulate those who did, but it does discourage me that there are quite a few people who literally received 0 acceptances from American schools…</p>

<p>In my case, the decision was between UPenn and Notre Dame. Barring an awful FA package, I will attend Notre Dame.</p>

<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I: 2270 (R750, M800, W720)- taken once.
[</em>] ACT: 34 (E32, M36, R34, Sci35)- Sent to low ranking schools only.
[<em>] SAT II: MathII 800, Physics 780, Chem 800, (Korean800)
[</em>] Unweighted GPA: 93/100 in my school, GC put 4.0.
[<em>] Rank: GC put ‘top 1% out of 400 seniors’
[</em>] AP: All self-study from a Non-AP school:
AP Calculus(5), Physics B(5), Physics C-Mechanics(5)
[<em>] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Nothing international, but one national and some state and metropolitan city level awards in math/science/physics, alongside a few school-wide contest awards in essay(!)/math/science.
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Extracurriculars: Continuously learning math/physics two grades above my level through self-study, clubs, and much reading-Took advanced function in gr.10; Article publication in Korea’s most famous science magazine(10); UofToronto’s six-month Int’l Physics Olympiad program(11); one physics research paper(11); co-founder/chair of chess club(10); school’s education leader(9); NGO’s youth tranlation team leader(11); junior ski instructor certificate(11); local ski-racing team(10-12); hobby tennis and certificates(8-12); hobby guitar(10-12); Mensa Int’l member.
[<em>] Volunteer/Community service: 200 hours focused primarily on three activities - translation, adopted (from Korea) children service, and tutoing.
[</em>] Summer Activities:Was selected to district’s “advanced science lab program for sudents gifted in science”(9), math/physics summer camp and subsequent awards(10), a month-long residential physics research program with college credits(11); summer camp counselor for adopted children(8-11); volunteer translation; tennis
[<em>] Essays:Worked hard on each piece.
[</em>] Teacher Recommendation: Physics and English teacher. Both adored me but I didn’t read’em.
[<em>] Counselor Rec: Very good. She showed me draft and final, and made sure we both liked it. xD
[</em>] Additional Rec: 0
[<em>] Interview: So so.
[/ul]Other[ul]
[</em>] State: Toronto, Ontario
[<em>] School Type: tough public.
[</em>] Ethnicity: ORM
[<em>] Gender: male
[</em>] Income Bracket: 55k
[<em>] F/A: Yes
[</em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): 0
[/ul]Reflection[ul]
[<em>] Strengths: A burning passion for physics/sci, Took SATII math(800) and physics(780) way early in October 2009, three AP’s from a non-AP school, I came to Canada from Korea, 2.5 years ago, so my school considers my performance insane.
[</em>] Weaknesses: 'O’RM + Requesting F/AID
[<em>] ACCEPTED: Berkeley, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, URochester, Carnegie Mellon, UMiami, UTDallas, McGill. Many offered good scholarship.<br>
[</em>] WAITLISTED: JHU, Dartmouth.

  • A JHU physics professor had written an email to me in February and said that they had a lot to offer for a student like me. I was excited, and we exchanged a couple of emails. Yet, they waitliested me! WTH!
    [li] REJECTED: by many IVY’s.[/li][/ul]
    General Comments</p>

<h2>Lucky to have been admitted to some good schools with unexpected big scholarships. Still, I cannot believe I did not get any clean acceptance to any of the IVY’s. I am trying to get past it, but can’t. Pain lingers. I feel that my passion filled devotion of the past few years deserves IVY recognition, at least one. I do feel somewhat cheated and robbed. Don’t start on me, please. Allow me to vent and grieve on my IVY results just as many of you guys must be doing. </h2>

<p>Good luck, I mean, the BEST of the BEST of luck on everyone’s future academic paths!!</p>

<p>Reflection:
My daughter has worked very hard over the past 4 yrs to give herself a shot at US Ivy League. She has endured a tremendous amount of hard work, sacrifice and loneliness. She was one of the lucky ones and received one acceptance at a US Ivy League. It is incredible to think that all this work and sacrifice resulted in only one acceptance. It does not seem fair, yet I know after reading these posts that she was very lucky, since so many cdns got rejected this year. Her scores were nowhere close to being as good as many of the ones posted here. Despite the absolute unpredictability, sheer randomness and heartbreak of the process, we are glad that we did it. My daughter is a better person for having challenged herself to do this. For those who did not achieve their dreams, please believe that you will be better for having gone through this. With many of the accomplishments posted here, there is no doubt that you will be successful as you have already demonstrated the drive and determination required to achieve your dreams. Good Luck.</p>

<p>Reflection:
My daughter has worked very hard over the past 4 yrs to give herself a shot at US Ivy League. She has endured a tremendous amount of hard work, sacrifice and loneliness. She was one of the lucky ones and received one acceptance at a US Ivy League. It is incredible to think that all this work and sacrifice resulted in only one acceptance. It does not seem fair, yet I know after reading these posts that she was very lucky, since so many cdns got rejected this year. Her scores were nowhere close to being as good as many of the ones posted here. Despite the absolute unpredictability, sheer randomness and heartbreak of the process, we are glad that we did it. My daughter is a better person for having challenged herself to do this. For those who did not achieve their dreams, please believe that you will be better for having gone through this. With many of the accomplishments posted here, there is no doubt that you will be successful as you have already demonstrated the drive and determination required to achieve your dreams. Good Luck.</p>

<p>Hey, I was just looking at these cause I like to help out other Canadians applying to American schools. I just want to tell everybody who’s disheartened by any rejections (Ivy or other) to not take it too hard. It’s damn hard getting accepted into an Ivy League school, or any top school for that matter. Y’all have stellar stats and it’s their loss. I mean, I didn’t get into any Ivy’s, and I’d been running a goddamn company for 5 years. I know I felt like complete s**t and was completely disheartened at the fact that I wouldn’t be going to any school that I actually wanted to go to. If it wasn’t for my parents, I’d have had a negative outlook coming to college, and that is definitely not a good thing. Whatever school you do end up going to, trust me, it will be the best time of your life. It is what you make of it.</p>

<p>Also keep in mind that it’s not so much where you did your undergrad, but more about grad school. Get good grades, do extracurriculars (and for god’s sake do the ones you like, not do ones to fill up your resume), and most importantly have a good ****ing time. That’s what college is about.</p>

<p>^^ Thank you, both. :)</p>

<p>The past few days, I have thought a lot about my past and future, and I realized how stupid I was about my IVY results. IVY is just a name, meaning its substance should still meet MY wants and needs! Many of them do not fit me, really. One of the primary reasons I applied to IVYs was that they tend to award big need-based aid.</p>

<p>Today, I realized I would end up not enjoying most of the IVY’s even if I had been accepted (except Princeton, HAHA, which my credentials may have been tiny bit below XD) I also realized that I somehow began hanging up on the ‘name’ recently, - the exterior! How idiotic!!</p>

<p>Now I am truly excited. I have excellent schools that tell me I am amazing and want me back badly. UTDallas, for one. When I had initially decided to apply to it last winter, I was elated to find that its physics faculty were world-class + top-notch. It also provided more than amazing research opportunities and ‘incredible’ dorms. UTD loved me back w a full-ride since Feb. It bears little fame, but it is a perfect school for me.</p>

<p>Trying to make a decision, I flashed back and remembered all the good reasons why I applied to all of my schools. Why on earth have I forgotten how good each of these schools was/is to me? and instead moped about IVYs? I am ashamed of my previous negative, full-of-myself comments. </p>

<p>Now I can have a closure to my U.S. college application process. It was fun and yet ***king hard and oftentimes frustrating. In all, though, it was rewarding in every sense. </p>

<p>Happy College Life to All of You! :D</p>

<p>^ Hey prjiki, have you decided which college to attend yet?</p>

<p>Hi everyone,
You can find my full stats on the brown page, but the quick run-down is 2340 sats, 3.9 gpa, tons of extracurriculars ( I’m really proud of the fact that I’m working towards two associate degrees from the royal conservatory)…and I got rejected from all my American universities.</p>

<p>The funny thing is, I got early acceptances (and a couple merit scholarships) to all my Canadian universities, including queens, Toronto, and McGill. Unfortunately, what I really wanted was the small liberal arts environment that so many topnotch american universities have. That just made it harder, because their class sizes are so small - I found out after my rejection that Williams only took TWO canadiens last year…yeesh. </p>

<p>I really thought I was one of those passionate, curious, quirky people that they look for, but I guess it didn’t show through. Also a word of advice for next years applicants: DONT compare yourself with the domestic applicant threads too much. Remember that you are vying for a spot with an incredibly competitive international pool, with a lot of applicants from more exotic and ‘diverse’ countries. Sorry if i make it sound too daunting, there is deinitelu still a chance.</p>

<p>I’m going to McGill for arts and business next year…it’s still a great university, and we should be proud of what we have in Canada. But I think I’m still going to attempt a transfer to my dream school, brown, next year, and hope that things work out better this time around.</p>

<p>^Great post and I agree. That is why I want this thread to be posted on by as many Canadians from the class of '15 as possible. A thread with many results from just Canadians is a much better point of comparison that those decision threads that are filled with domestic applicants.</p>

<p>I have posted your stats below beccaz. I hope you don’t mind as you said that others could look them up. I think it would be helpful if they were on here because you do have great stats and great ECs and your rejections surprise me a lot. This goes to show how competitive admissions to top US schools are becoming.</p>

<p>Beccaz’s stats:</p>

<p>Objective:</p>

<pre><code>* SAT I (breakdown): 2340 single sitting (800 reading, 790 writing, 750 math)

  • SAT II: 750 Literature, 730 Math II
  • Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.9
  • Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 5%
  • IB (place score in parenthesis): no exams taken, but predicted 39/45 points
  • Senior Year Course Load: IB English, IB Math, IB History, IB Geography, IB Biology, IB French, Writer’s Craft
    </code></pre>

<p>Subjective:</p>

<pre><code>* Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Playing piano (13 years, currently working on two associate level degrees, one for performance and one for pedagogy), choir (6 years), Arts Council (Head), School Play (Actress and Stage Manager), Cappies (Lead Critic), hot yoga (3 years)

  • Job/Work Experience: teaching piano to six students for over three years, Kumon tutor for two years
  • Volunteer/Community service: Volunteered at senior home for three years, as data analyst for autism research program…easily 150+ hours
  • Summer Activities: Summer@Brown course in psychology
  • Essays: Supposedly flawless - one about how allowing myself freedom in learning helped me excel (perfect for Brown and its open curriculum). The supplementary essay was about my struggles with teaching piano to obstinate children, but to try to give them a genuine love for music, like I had. My counselor said that it could get me to any teacher’s college in Canada.
  • Teacher Recommendation: didn’t read, but both teachers loved me
  • Counselor Rec: Lengthy, but good. She told me that she really tried to highlight my integrity and honesty as well as my academics.
  • Additional Rec: I got one from my prof from Summer@Brown. I didn’t know her for very long, but she offered to write it, and I thought it would help to get one from an actual Brown prof…apparently not though.
  • Interview: My first interviewer cancelled on me, so I had to pursue the alumni office until they gave me another one. It was a phone interview and only lasted 30 minutes.
    </code></pre>

<p>Other[list][<em>] Country (if international applicant): Canada[</em>] School Type: public[<em>] Ethnicity: ASIAN[</em>] Gender: female[li] Income Bracket: 200K +[/li]list]
Reflection</p>

<pre><code>* Strengths: SAT score, good extracurrics and essays

  • Weaknesses: being asian and international
  • Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I honestly can’t figure out where I went wrong. Neither can my counselor, or anyone else for that matter. I suppose it’s just because there were so many deserving applicants, especially those who were domestic and URMs. It just sucks to get rejected outright from your dream school.
  • Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Rejected: Harvard, Dartmouth, Swarthmore, Williams. Accepted: McMasters, Queens, McGill. So it looks like I’ll go to McGill on scholarship.
    </code></pre>

<p>General Comments: Well it sucks to be an asian international. And I guess I somehow just wasn’t good enough.</p>

<p>1029384’s stats and results: (I hope you don’t mind) </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/12324614-post95.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/12324614-post95.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I superscore (breakdown): 2350 (M 770, R 780, W 800/12)
[</em>] SAT II: Math II 800, Physics 800, Chemistry 800
[<em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 100): ~96 (senior year)
[</em>] Weighted GPA: not calculated
[<em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): not ranked
[</em>] AP (place score in parentheses): English Lang (5), Microeconomics (5), Physics (TBD), Chemistry (TBD), French (TBD), Biology (TBD), Calc BC (TBD)
[<em>] IB (place score in parentheses): n/a
[</em>] Senior Year Course Load: AP Bio, AP Chem, AP Phys, AP Calc, AP Eng Lit, French, Data Mgmt
[<em>] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Avogadro Chem Exam (National): 99th %-ile
[</em>] Minor Awards: Top-of-class, French (2 years), German, Chemistry, Physics, Comp. Sci; Science Olympics: 1st place overall regional (2 years), 1st, 2nd, 3rd at various regional events; Physics contest: 6th place in province[/ul] </p>

<p>Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): Student Council (Webmaster): 2 years; Mentorship program (at a research lab at University of Toronto): ~50 hrs; Science Olympics team member: 2 years (+ lots of regional awards); Prefect: 2 years; French tutor: 3 years; Summer engineering program @ Univ. of Toronto; Elementary school volunteer: 3+ years; Teaching Assistant for AP Chem class: 120+ hours, etc.
[</em>] Job/Work Experience: Part-time programmer: 2-3 years; Private French tutor: 1 year
[<em>] Volunteer/Community service: Total: ~310 hours[/ul]
Writing/Recs[ul]
[</em>] Essays: Common App essay was pretty good, apparently. Supplements idk some were good some sucked.
[<em>] Teacher Recommendation: One was likely the best I’ve seen, the other was pretty good too.
[</em>] Counselor Rec: Very thorough
[li] Interview?: Didn’t flow as nicely as some of my other ones, but the interviewer showed a genuine interest in the things I had to say. Left me with a good impression.</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Other[ul]
[<em>] Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes.
[</em>] Intended Major: Bioengineering
[<em>] State (if domestic applicant):
[</em>] Country (if international applicant): Canada (ON)
[<em>] School Type: Public (~1700 students)
[</em>] Ethnicity: Caucasian (Russian)
[<em>] Gender: Male
[</em>] Income Bracket: 100,000-130,000
[li] Hooks (first generation college, etc.): n/a</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Reflection[ul]
[<em>] Strengths: Scores, awards, ECs showed depth in my field of interest
[</em>] Weaknesses: Did all of my supplement essays in the last two days. I wasn’t too happy with some of them, especially Penn’s.
[/ul]Results[ul]
[<em>] Accepted: Penn (SEAS), Duke (Pratt), Johns Hopkins (BME), UC Berkeley (Bioengineering)
[</em>] Accepted (Canada): U of T Engineering Science (early, U of T scholar), U of T Life Sciences (early, U of T scholar), Western biomed (early), McGill biomed (early)
[<em>] Rejected: Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Cornell
[</em>] Waitlisted: Brown</p>

<p>[/ul]General Comments: There’s a lot unpredictability in this process. I thought I had the highest chance at Cornell, because it has the highest acceptance rate and I liked my supplement essays for it. Penn’s acceptance rate is considerably lower and its supplement was the last one I did, by which point I just wanted to get it over with. I thought it sucked. I guess the lesson to be learned is that you should never try to estimate your own chances. You never know what will happen.</p>