<p>Decision: Accepted
James E. Scholarship Recipient! </p>
<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): 2180 (680 M, 730 CR, 770 W)
[</em>] ACT: 33
[<em>] SAT II: N/A
[</em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.89
[<em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 18/224 (top 10%)
[</em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): APUSH (5), Euro (3), English Lang (5), US Govt (4), Microeconomics, Macroeconomics
[<em>] IB (place score in parenthesis): Diploma Candidate - Chem SL (4), Spanish SL (4), Math SL (equivalent of AB Calc), Psych HL, English HL, History HL
[</em>] Senior Year Course Load: HL Psych, HL English, HL History, SL Math/Calculus 1, AP Microeconomics, AP Macroeconomics, Theory of Knowledge (required IB course). Guidance counselor checked ‘most rigorous’ box.
[<em>] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): NMF, though I’m not sure I ever informed them of anything beyond NMSF?
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
– Theater grades 9-12 - stage manager, director, lighting designer/technician (won Best Lights at a District One Act Festival)
– SGA grades 9-12 - Treasurer, Senator, Senator, Student Body President
– Beta Club grades 11-12 - Secretary
– National Honors Society
[<em>] Job/Work Experience: Bussing tables at a chain restaurant 12-16 hours a week.
[</em>] Volunteer/Community service: Volunteered at a summer day camp the summers of 2009 and 2010, and all of the proceeds of our spring musical last year that I directed and stage managed went to charity.
[<em>] Summer Activities: See volunteer work, otherwise it wasn’t much (though I did take courses over virtual school that bled into the school year in 2011 and 2012).
[</em>] Essays: Excellent, I thought. One focused on the charity production I did last spring. The “Why Scripps?” short answer - looking at it now - was kinda overwrought but I meant every word, and I’m sure they ate it up. Supplemental essay was about how I come from theater, what it’s done for me and to me, etc. It was heartfelt and I had fun letting my creative writing skill show.
[<em>] Teacher Recommendation: The one I read was glowing, if somewhat bordering on generic. The other one, which I didn’t read, was likely very good - he likes to focus less on the student and more as the person and I can assume that only helped me.
[</em>] Counselor Rec: probably the least generic recommendation she wrote all year - I’m in her office all the time, she loves me, she’ll bend over backward for me to make sure I’m all taken care of.
[<em>] Additional Rec: N/A
[</em>] Interview: N/A
[/ul]Other[ul]
[<em>] Applied for Financial Aid?: technically yes, but they’re missing quite a few documents… the next month will be filled with phone calls to FA offices across the country. Heh.
[</em>] Intended Major: Media Studies and/or something in the humanities; likely Politics.
[<em>] State (if domestic applicant): FL
[</em>] School Type: National Blue Ribbon public junior/senior high school, with the both the full IBDP and AP classes available.
[<em>] Ethnicity: Caucasian
[</em>] Gender: Female
[<em>] Income Bracket: 150k +
[</em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): none.
[/ul]Reflection[ul]
[<em>] Strengths: ACT score, essays, recs, leadership
[</em>] What you tried to focus on in your application - any hooks you tried to make for yourself: I focused heavily on theater, tried to show how passionate I can be when I find something I love.
[<em>] Weaknesses: Downward trend in grades (all A’s 9th/10th that slipped to A’s and B’s in 11th/12th), lack of strong volunteer involvement.
[</em>] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I think I showed them how passionate I can be, how much I love this school… I think, on paper and in person, I had everything they were looking for (I sound so conceited but I do think it’s true…).
[li] Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Accepted at New College of FL, UF, Columbia College Chicago (Honors), Emerson College (Honors), Northeastern University (Honors), Boston University. Waitlisted at Kenyon (still don’t quite understand that but eh). Rejected at Pomona (saw that one coming - so grateful I didn’t fall in love with it the way I did Scripps). [/li][/ul]General Comments:
Scripps was already one of my top choices and now with this I can say it’s probably in the top three. So so ecstatic to be named a JES Scholarship recipient - I got the email last night and my cheeks hurt I was smiling so hard. My dad’s pretty excited about the idea of a paid trip to SoCal (our other college visits to Boston and NYC were out-of-pocket), and gah I’m just so pleased. Congrats to everyone else who got in and to everyone else: I wish you the best and I hope you end up someplace you love.</p>