<p>Decision: Accepted (Kluge Scholar)
Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown):2170 (710CR, 740M, 720W – 10 essay) 2nd sitting, 1st sitting was 2050 (690/640/720 – 12 essay)
[</em>] ACT: n/a
[<em>] SAT II: 690 Lit, 750 Math2 (1st sitting was something like 650 and 540)
[</em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): UK applicant, so n/a but GCSE’s were 11A<em>,AS Levels were 4 A’s in Maths, History, Philosophy and Chemistry, then an A</em> in Maths A level (did ‘further maths’ which basically ended up being maths a2 in a year, then running screaming from the actual further maths a level in y13)
[<em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): UK applicant, so n/a but as a general guide, if you have straight A</em>’s at gcse, straight A’s at AS and straight A* predictions, you’re gpa is 4.0 and you’re basically #1 in your year (even though, I understand quite a few people tick two or more of these boxes and don’t necessarily get flooded with ucas offers, don’t let it bother you. In fact, even with the odd A or B, you’re still competitive for HYPSMC, it’s no biggie, they’re not looking for a brain in a jar, they want ‘leaders of the future’ and fulfilling THAT criteria is what you should be focussing on, not collecting meanignless qualifications )
[<em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): n/a
[</em>] IB (place score in parenthesis): n/a
[<em>] Senior Year Course Load: Chemistry, History and Philosophy A-Level and then EPQ and Critical Thinking AS level.
[</em>] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): no national academic prizes except Silver award UK Maths Challenge (Intermediate). School awards: academic awards for gcse results etc, prize for languages after gcse’s, philosophy scholarship for sixth from and subject awards: history, for getting full marks at AS, maths, for getting full marks in S1, M1 and C3 and also full marks in philosophy AS level. But I repeat, in y12, just get your A’s and concentrate on the ‘subjectives.’ they are what will make you stand out.
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
elected member of youth parliament for my city,
voted regional debate leader,
made speech at the house of commons at the dispatch box and submitted the YouTube video of my speech as the ‘supplementary material’ thing to all the colleges that accepted extra stuff.
Other youth parliament things include attending council meetings, sitting on boards etc and in particular, negotiating with our bus companies to lower the fares for under 18s.
former member of our city’s youth council ,
founded and led something called ‘freedom of voice’ that I’ll talk about later.
Founder and captain of school debating society,
finalist at various comps eg oxford schools, European youth parl comp, Durham etc also was the first winner of the national chrystall public speaking prize from the north of England,
youth researcher for children in need (only a local project about social issues in highly diverse areas in city).
Did bronze, silver and gold duke of Edinburgh awards,
head of marketing in young enterprise (School business team)
played netball since y4, repped school and county,
got coaching and umpiring qualifications and got nominated for this leadership programme though netball.
Head of 6th form events committee,
house captain, and euphonium
grade 5 practical and theory (ABRSM) but didn’t play for any bands or anything, and yeah, alter served at church for about 10yrs (ish)
[</em>] Job/Work Experience: part time job supervising homework club at school (basically free money to sit there and do your homework)
work shadowed local mp at Westminster and local member of European parliament in Brussels.
Shadowed a number of barristers at Hardwicke chambers in London (absolutely recommend here if you’re struggling to find legal work exp due to the absolute endemic of nepotism in the bar)
got invited to watch this case in Manchester with a truly phenomenal QC at Kings Chambers
[<em>] Volunteer/Community service: overlaps with ECs, although I will say, don’t list things that don’t contribute to a focused profile of you. Eg I volunteered at the children hospital in our city on and off, even did quite a bit of medical work exp but cos I later decided I didn’t want to be a doctor, I didn’t put ANY of it onto my comm App
[</em>] Summer Activities: debate academy, young leaders camp (netball), various uni taster courses and stuff with youth parliament
[<em>] Essays: comm. App essay about how my dad’s childhood experience of being a refugee in the Nigerian civil war led me to founding Freedom of voice (UK’s first youth led conversation club [teaches English to asylum seeker/refugee young people in the city]) project got cut by the coalition, but if any English people here can find the funding to pick that up, be my guest (and let me know obvs).
Supplement essay: nothing that special I dont think. Talked about how reading a political satire magazine made me appreciate learning more (lol :L) and my thingy about why colubmbia mentioned what I’d do if I got there i.e. making debate outreach work more of a thing. The thing about why you’re interested in ‘x’ subject was like the first paragraph of my ucas personal statement.
[</em>] Teacher Recommendation: begged my head of year not to send my ucas ones (I’d seen it already and it was insanely generic) but of course he sent it anyway. When I found out (in mid January) I showed him (again) the samples on the Fulbright commission and MIT websites and they revised them. Best bit of recs were probs the maths one where it noted that I didn’t find maths easy and was in a particularly able class of further maths students (my school actually has geniuses there…) but persevered anyway. Always a plus if you can get a good rec from a subject that doesn’t come naturally to you
[<em>] Counselor Rec: same thing, sent generic ones then more personal corrective statement later on. The reason my recs were influential is cos they didn’t just list superlatives (i.e. ucas reference) it DESCRIBED why I was ‘x’ superlative. Far more convincing
[</em>] Additional Rec: I sent one from a youth parliament supervisor (because I suspected my school ones wouldn’t be descriptive enough) and he did awesome. Basically talked about the socio-economic diversity within youth parliament, and how I’m good at getting on with a range of ages, backgrounds etc. talked about me taking initiative, being a leadership figure etc. It’s always important to ONLY send additional recs if they can bring something NEW to your app.
[<em>] Interview: not contacted
[/ul]Other[ul]
[</em>] State (if domestic applicant): n/a
[<em>] Country (if international applicant): UK
[</em>] School Type: private girls school, but in the north so on the one hand I wasn’t eligible for ANY support from Sutton trust cos I was a private school kid, but then my school had never sent anyone abroad before and I couldn’t afford an educational consultant (cos private school costs loads - obviously) #***<em>edoff #betterstateschoolsneeded #yorkshire’sdeprived #justdiscoveredtwitter #apologies,iknowthisisannoying
[</em>] Ethnicity: Nigerian born but British citizen and brit school
[<em>] Gender: girl
[</em>] Income Bracket: ineligible for FA
[li] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): dunno, being black british? Northern? </p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Reflection[ul]
[<em>] Strengths:
Comm. App essay told ‘that story only I could tell’ and was written in ‘my voice’ i.e. without silly descriptive words or long sentences.
grades were faultless (which I hasten to add is not uncommon among top brit applicants so you’d best take extra subjects if you want to stand out)
ECs were the sorts I could guarantee no-one else had done, i.e. freedom of voice was a national first, and speaking at the House of Comms, is fairly unique
[</em>] Weaknesses: I refuse to put that my SATs were ‘weaknesses.’ once you break the 700/700/700 barrier, they stop mattering. So do NOT stress about them.
[<em>] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: ECs. Definitely. The fact I was also made a kluge scholar highlights this cos the its awarded to ppl on the basis of leadership and community service stuff during the normal application reading process.
[</em>] Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Accepted: Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Brown, Dartmouth and Cornell. Also offers from Durham (PPE), Warwick (PPE) and UCL(Philosophy and Economics). Waitlisted: nowhere thankfully. Rejected: Harvad, LSE, and Oxford (without an interview…the bastards. AND they had the balls to tell me I wasn’t ‘academically suited’ to their oh so rigorous degree programme. Moral of the story? You need a combined average of 65/99 in the TSA or more to have even a glimmer of a shot at PPE at oxford. Bastards. lol, i joke, i’m not that bitter :P) </p>
<p>[/ul]General Comments:
This forum, as well as giving me literally the most invaluable pointers during this unfamiliar application process, mostly made an impact by filling me with misery, anxiety and immense feelings of inferiority. The amount of bragging that goes on in this forum is just horrendous and at times I really did want to give up on applying cos, judging by what certain people said to others about their ‘stats’ etc, I thought I didn’t have a chance. The only reason why I’m posting on the decision thread is because these are by far the most helpful and I don’t think there is nearly enough free help for british applicants. I know it’s only a minority who use cc to brag and belittle others but it really really hurts. And as for those who’ve been helpful, hopefully this has been as helpful as you’ve been to me. Any further questions from British applicants, feel free to message me somehow (I’ve not quite got round to seeing how that works, so I may take a while replying).</p>
