Decision: Accepted
Objective:
ACT (breakdown): 34C (35S, 35E, 34M, 33R)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 2nd of 412 students
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP US Gov (3) AP Physics 1 (5)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calculus, AP German, AP Macro, College English, Business Management 2, Sociology, Internship
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): 7th at International DECA as a sophomore and a junior, best test in my area at International DECA as a junior, state champion in DECA and WAC.
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
DECA (State President) - lots of leadership and winning, I LOVE DECA. I talked about it (in some way or shape) in every single essay.
WAC (Wyoming Academic Challenge) - lots of winning, got selected to represent WY against Montana. I like this too, but didn’t talk much about it.
Job/Work Experience:
Intern for my high school marketing/management program, usually given to the best DECA student in my school.
Volunteer/Community service:
Local angel tree for wounded vets - this was the focus of one of my essays, both my parents are Navy vets so veterans’ affairs mean a lot to me.
Blessings in a Backpack - I think this is nationwide, but our local chapter has been working doubletime with the local recession.
Peanut Butter Drive - Collect peanut butter for local women’s shelter, this sounds kinda dumb but young mothers and their babies need a lot of protein to be healthy.
Summer Activities:
Nothing reported on my Common App, but I did a few political campaigns and worked at a local restaurant
Essays (rating 1-10, details): Common App - I’ve written worse, sort of a fringe topic. 6/10. Why Notre Dame - my best one. I tied an anecdote of touring campus to DECA leadership stuff. 8.5/10. Civil Rights - pretty powerful. Talked about being poor growing up and how I want to use my finance education to advise people in the position that I was once in. 7/10. Home - talked about how being a quadruple legacy from the armed forces has opened my eyes to the needs that disabled vets have and why I do the local Angel Tree. 7.5/10.
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: This was killer. My Physics teacher from last year, he talked about how I was his first student to self-study the AP test from the normal class, and how he admired my leadership and kindness. I almost cried reading it. 10/10.
Counselor Rec: A couple grammar errors and she didn’t know me well but it was about as good as I could ask for. I go to guidance once a year haha. 4/10.
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yee
Intended Major: Finance and Marketing
State (if domestic applicant): WY
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Largest public school in WY
Ethnicity: White and Mexican, only reported white on my application
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: sub $50,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): being from WY
Reflection
Strengths: ACT, DECA stuff
Weaknesses: not taking an AP class until senior year
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I talked a lot about community service and business, this is Mendoza’s bread and butter and that’s why I wanna go there. I think they knew that I understood the mission of Catholicism even tho I’m not super religious – though that may change.
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Accepted to Michigan State, Minnesota, U of WY. Waiting on GA Tech, Michigan, and Penn, Harvard, and Yale in the regular round.
General Comments:
Grateful for a spot in the class of 2021! I am still shaking as I write this, this is the sign of an inter-generational accomplishment in my family. My mom is incredibly emotional. To anyone who didn’t get in – God has a plan! Wherever you end up, you are bound to do great things. To quote Rev. Hesburgh, “surrender to excellence on all fronts.” GO IRISH!
