<p>Decision: Accepted</p>
<p>Objective:</p>
<ul>
<li>SAT I (breakdown): **2400<a href=“800%20CR,%20800%20M,%20800%20W”>/b</a></li>
<li>ACT: 35</li>
<li>SAT II: 790 Spanish w/ Listening, 770 Biology E, 750 Literature</li>
<li>Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.9</li>
<li>Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/~350</li>
<li>AP (place score in parenthesis):
Sophomore year: Biology (5), English Language (5), Spanish Language (5), US History (5).
Junior year: Calculus BC (5), English Literature (5), European History (5), Spanish Literature (5), US Government (5), Microeconomics (4), Chemistry (3).
Senior year: Environmental Science, Physics.</li>
<li>IB (place score in parenthesis):</li>
<li>Senior Year Course Load: AP Physics, AP Environmental Science, English independent study (medieval English literature 1st sem., Shakespeare 2nd sem.), college English, college Spanish, Health, PE.</li>
<li>Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): None that are extremely notable</li>
</ul>
<p>Subjective:</p>
<ul>
<li>Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Music: local youth orchestra (concertmaster); local string quartet (manager/first violinist); various awards from local musical composition contest; violin, viola, and piano lessons.
Science: Science Olympiad (captain since 2007); various awards from Science Olympiad.
Spanish: Spanish Honor Society (president); various Spanish writing/academic awards.
Other: National Honor Society; FIRST Robotics (leader); volunteer award from local library; Mayor’s Teens program; local software group (founder/manager).</li>
<li>Job/Work Experience: Freelance web design and development since 2004, creative direction at local firm 2007-2009, web developer at larger firm 2009-2010.</li>
<li>Volunteer/Community service: Lots of work for local library district.</li>
<li>Summer Activities: Traveled to Brazil, concert tours to China and Australia/NZ. Also participated in summer musical composition festival multiple years.</li>
<li>Essays: Both of my essays were intensely personal, and I spent a LONG time on them. I think they were easily the best part of my application. One was partially about speaking at an international convention and the other was partially about becoming fluent in Portuguese and doing community work in Brazil.</li>
<li>Teacher Recommendation: For all schools, I had my English teacher write my rec. I’m certain he wrote a stellar letter. I also had my freshman Spanish teacher write my recs for all except MIT and Yale. I applied early to Yale and used my Spanish prof instead (big, big mistake), and I asked my AP Chemistry teacher to do my math/science rec for MIT. Did not get into either school. I think recs play a big role.</li>
<li>Counselor Rec: At the beginning of the year my counselor and I had a long conversation about me, etc., so that he could write me a good rec. Probably amazing.</li>
<li>Additional Rec: See above.</li>
<li>Interview: I had two interviews for Harvard. No joke. The first time was just a regular run-of-the-mill interview with an ancient lawyer. I thought it was marginally good. The second time was an interview conducted by the local alumni coordinator with only the top 10% of all applicants to Harvard. Two students in my school got into the top 10%. He got waitlisted, I got in. The second interview was excellent, mostly because I already knew my interviewer through orchestra.</li>
</ul>
<p>Other</p>
<ul>
<li>State (if domestic applicant): CO</li>
<li>Country (if international applicant):</li>
<li>School Type: Public, less than 1,500 students</li>
<li>Ethnicity: Asian</li>
<li>Gender: Male</li>
<li>Income Bracket: Low-middle</li>
<li>Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None</li>
</ul>
<p>Reflection</p>
<ul>
<li>Strengths: My essays were phenomenal, my test scores were perfect, and my course selection was challenging. I think my letters of recommendation were also great, but the clincher for me was probably the writing that I did for Harvard. After getting deferred at Yale for SCEA, I focused and churned out some really awesome essays. I also switched out my Spanish prof’s recommendation for my freshman Spanish teacher’s recommendation mainly because I felt the first one was probably not very good. I guess it worked!</li>
<li>Weaknesses: I thought my first interview was a little strained; the interviewer kept asking me questions that I didn’t think were related to the subject at hand. Otherwise, I don’t think I had any real weaknesses that were jarring, apart from the few B’s that dotted my transcript.</li>
<li>Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I think my interviews and the success I had at my second one for Harvard really solidified my acceptance. It all comes down to how well you can present yourself both on paper and in person, in my opinion.</li>
</ul>
<p>General Comments:</p>
<p>I will be attending Harvard on full financial aid! When I looked at my Harvard aid letter I almost wanted to frame it, I was so happy. The same was the case for Princeton and Stanford. I could attend any of these three schools for free because of the amazing aid programs they have. I’m really happy with how my apps came out. HARVARD 2014!!!</p>
<p>Accepted: Chicago, Colorado, Cornell (LL), Dartmouth (LL), Georgetown (Walsh SFS), Harvard, Northwestern, Penn (Huntsman), Princeton, Stanford
Waitlisted: Brown, Columbia, MIT
Rejected: Yale (deferred)</p>