<p>Decision: Rejected </p>
<p>CALS (General Biological Sciences) </p>
<p>Objective:
[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): 2120 750 M, 640 CR, 730 W
[</em>] ACT:
[<em>] SAT II (if submitted): 740 Math I, 690 Math II
[</em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.74
[<em>] Grades in AP/IB/honors classes (if applicable): Took AP US Gov., AP Calc AB, AP Statistics, AP World History, AP English Language, AP English Lit., AP Calc C, AP Human Geography, AP Chemistry, AP Psychology, AP French (1 AP Sophomore, 4 APs Junior, 6 APs Senior)
[</em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 6% UW, Top 4% W
[<em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): All 3’s except 5 and 4 in Calc AB and Statistics, excluding my senior year courses
[</em>] IB (place score in parenthesis):
[<em>] Senior Year Course Load: AP English Lit., AP Calc C, AP Human Geography, AP Chemistry, AP Psychology, AP French, String Orchestra
[</em>] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): MD Distinguished Scholar nominee for both Academic and Arts. The program was canceled. AP Scholar with Distinction
[/ul]Subjective: [ul]
[<em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership and number of years participated in a certain activity in parenthesis): Varsity XC all 4 years, Varsity Tennis all 4 years, NHS, Tri-M Music Society, A Bucketload of MD State Piano Competition titles, UMD Biotech Lab internship, physics competition participant
[</em>] Job/Work Experience: Piano Tutor
[<em>] Volunteer/Community service: NHS, volunteered at University of Maryland Biotech lab in Baltimore
[</em>] EC short answer (subject and personal opinions on it): discussed tennis
[<em>] General Essay (subject and personal opinions on it): discussed my piano competition, put a lot of work into this one
[</em>] Second Essay (subject - and personal opinions on it): discussed my endeavors with biological research opportunities at Cornell
[<em>] Teacher Recommendation (only if you saw it): from my junior year Calculus and English teachers, they had pretty positive opinions
[</em>] Counselor Rec (only if you saw it):
[<em>] Additional Rec (only if you saw it): from my lab professor, I suppose it was good, didn’t see it
[</em>] Interview:
[/ul]Other
[ul]
[<em>] State (if domestic applicant): Maryland
[</em>] Country (if international applicant):
[<em>] School Type: Public
[</em>] Ethnicity: Chinese
[<em>] Gender: Male
[</em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, research, etc.): none
[/ul]Reflection
[ul]
[<em>] Strengths: my essays, my competitive piano awards (mostly 1st places), course rigor, recommendations
[</em>] Weaknesses: terrible GPA, mediocre SAT score, being Asian, terrible AP scores, no backup for the sciences via SAT IIs
[<em>] Why you think you were rejected: reasons stated above
[</em>] Where else were you accepted/rejected/waitlisted: applied to UMD College Park, UChicago, haven’t heard from either so far
[li] Do you like the cold? Yes! =)[/li][/ul]
General Comments: I’m sad, teary, and distressed right now. But I’ll be fine! I’m looking forward to doing well enough in college to transfer someday. Freshman year was easy, giving me straight A’s. Sophomore year was my worst year; I was being stupid and ignorant, not even caring an ounce for my grades or college. It was only until junior year I decided to overwhelm myself with AP classes and get straight A’s, and I did! (well, except a B in honors Physics (GT Physics for those who are in MD)). Senior year right now is practically no fun, dealing with 6 AP classes, but I still get to hang out with friends more so than junior year. I’m probably used to it now.</p>
<p>I probably would have been a slightly better fit for CAS given my really dotted EC’s (varsity XC, varsity tennis, state level piano player, Bio internship, NHS). Either way, I’m very scared right now and I’m looking forward to applying to Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, and other top Bio schools if I don’t make UChicago. What a ride it will be!</p>
<p>Congrats to the rest of you who got accepted! For the rejected, don’t give up! For the waitlisted, don’t give up either!</p>
We get our results tomorrow ;)</p>