<p>"Hook (if any): I have won a lot of awards and have done a lot of community service and clubs, so I am pretty sure that was my hook, because I know it definitely was not my SAT/ACT scores. I won things internationally and nationally in many different areas, so that probably made me stand out."</p>
<p>I don't mean to downplay your achievements (you must be very bright, congratulations on Princeton!) but that is not what your hook is. Your hook is being a black girl from Indiana.</p>
<p>Um, no. Being a URM is helpful, but it is by no means a hook, especially if you have stats as low (for Princeton) as HerAirness. International awards like Intel definitely supersede race.</p>
<p>Being a URM is the quintessential example of a hook (also, being a legacy from Alaska). I did not mean to imply that she was accepted due to her race - she must have been a very compelling candidate to be accepted, and I won't make any assumptions about what the admissions officers were thinking. I'm sure that they made the right choice and she fully deserved it, and congratulations.</p>
<p>(I'm sure the international awards helped a lot, too.)</p>
<p>Thanks. I completely understand where you are coming from. I am still wondering somewhat why I was admitted, with princeton being more selective than usual this year, but I like to know that princeton at each applicant wholly, not by how well they take tests.</p>
<p>Copied this format over from another thread.</p>
<p>Decision: Rejected</p>
<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT Verbal: 760
[</em>] SAT Math: 790
[<em>] SAT Writing: 720
[</em>] SAT Total: 2270
[<em>] SAT II: 770 Math I, 800 Math II, 800 Latin
[</em>] ACT: n/a
[<em>] AP/IB taken/scores: Lang&Comp - 5; US History - 5; Latin Lit - 5; taking BC Calc, Physics, Gov, Lit & Stats this year
[</em>] GPA weighted: 4.81
[<em>] GPA unweighted: 4.0
[</em>] Rank or % estimate: School doesn't rank, but I'm somewhere from 1-3 / 145</p>
<p>[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] Essays: One on being kicked out of AP Chem to fulfill art requirements (I thought it was pretty good); the other was a bit more abstract & had to do with my being an analytical thinker.
[</em>] Teacher Recs: Very good
[<em>] Counselor Rec: Extremely good
[</em>] Interview: Very good, I thought. The woman talked constantly about how she really hoped Princeton took someone from the community this year, and seemed excited that I played field hockey--she said I should've tried to talk to the coach/get recruited, and said I should definitely try and walk-on if I got in. In hindsight, I kinda wish I had.
[li] Hook (if any): Thought Girl Scouts may help, but it didn't. I had a connection that I didn't pull originally, but I'm trying to pull it now--don't see who gets off the waitlist without that, unfortunately. >.<</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[<em>] State or Country: MA
[</em>] School Type: Extremely small, elite public school--feeder school for Harvard (4/145 got in this year); sends dozens to top schools each year
[<em>] Ethnicity: White
[</em>] Gender: Female
[<em>] Income: 100,000++... not sure, but it's very high
[</em>] Legacy Yes/No: No
[li] Important ECs: Mock Trial (2 yr Captain), Math Team (Captain), Model UN (founder/secretary general), AAU Co-Pres, Literary Magazine secretary, Student Council, School Council, Varsity Field Hockey (1st team All-Star), Varsity Tennis, Physics Olympics, Peer Ministry, Girl Scouts</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Other Factors: Princeton has issues with my school, for some reason (no one's gotten in in aaaages--same with Yale) so I wasn't expecting much.</p>
<p>General Comments/Congratulations/etc: Congrats to those who got in! I'm headed to Duke, probably, so I don't have much to complain about.</p>
<p>Decision: ACCEPTED!</p>
<p>Stats:
Fee Waiver Used?: No
SAT I (by section): 2400 (800 CR, 800 M, 800 V)
SAT IIs: 800 Math L2, 800 World Hist, 750 US Hist, 740 Lit
APs: 5s on AP US Hist, World Hist, Human Geo
IBs: nada
GPA, Weighted and Unweighted: 4.0 UW
Rank: 1/425
Senior Yr Courseload: AP Calc BC, AP Psych, AP US Gov, AP Macro, AP Euro, AP Lit, Chamber Ensemble</p>
<p>Subjective:
ECs listed on app: NHS, Beta, Varsity Tennis, County Leadership Team, Model Atlanta Regional Commission, State Student Advisory Council, Piano, Orchestra (Violin), Youth Group, Foster Children's Foundation, etc.
Job/Work Experience: Swim Instructor, Tennis Instructor, Assistant Tutor
Essays (subject and responses): One related first experience at karaoke bar to mishap at piano recital and how I learned from the latter. Another one about my Italian-American priest who spoke Chinese and how he inspired me to follow my dreams. Supplemental one about my involvement in tennis and what I've learned from it.
Teacher Recs: Good
Counselor Rec: Good
Interview (feel and general location): About an hour long at a law firm... well, everyone in the area who applied had it there. I probably didn't have the best interview, but the interviewer guy was really nice.
Hook (if any): I think I'm fairly well-rounded. And very involved.</p>
<p>Location/Person:
State or Country: GA
School Type, Average Stats of School (if available): Public, sends few kids to top colleges
Ethnicity: Asian
Income Bracket: It's complicated.
Gender: Male
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/denied: I spent a lot of time on this application making sure everything was complete, down to the very last detail. Having them understand me as a person I think helped me a lot.</p>
<p>General Comments/Congratulations/Venting/Commiserations,etc: I am really, really happy :)</p>
<p>Decision: ACCEPTED!</p>
<p>Stats:[ul][<em>] Fee Waiver Used?: Yes
[</em>] SAT Reasoning (by section): 800 CR, 740 M, 800 V
[<em>] SAT Subject tests: 800 Lit, 780 World Hist, 780 French, 760 Latin, 700 German
[</em>] ACT: -
[<em>] APs: English Comp (5), Latin V (5), Mod Eur Hist (5), French Lang (5)
[</em>] IBs: -
[<em>] GPA, Weighted and Unweighted: 4.0
[</em>] Rank: 1/180
[<em>] Senior Yr. Courseload: AP Lit, AP Latin C/O, APUSH, AP French Lit, AP German Lang, AP Music Theory, Latin Poetry H, Calculus H
[</em>] Number of Apps from Your School: 6
[<em>] Common or Princeton App?: Common
[</em>] Other stats: National Merit finalist; National Young Musician awards; State music awards; State debate; National Latin Exam awards; National High School Essay Contest prize; couple of state writing awards
[/ul]Subjective:[ul][<em>] ECs listed on app: Varsity tennis; school, all-state & nh orchestras (piano, violin, viola); yearbook & lit magazine ed; speech & debate team; model UN; academic challenge team; couple of other club leaderships
[</em>] Job/Work Experience: Tutoring, newspaper columnist, play in a string quartet at weddings, etc
[<em>] Essays (subject and responses): I wrote about poker and memory and questions you shouldn't ask.
[</em>] Teacher Recs: Good
[<em>] Counselor Rec: No idea
[</em>] Interview (feel and general location): I thought it was horrific! I couldn't remember a single thing I had said afterwards but I was sure it was all stupid.
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul][<em>] State or Country: North East
[</em>] School Type, Average Stats of School (if available): Public
[<em>] Ethnicity: White
[</em>] Income Bracket: <40K
[<em>] Gender: Female
[</em>] Hooks: I was born in the USSR (now Ukraine) and lived in France before coming to the US as a stateless person when I was six. I don't know if that really had an impact, I didn't particularly mention it anywhere except the stats section, but I guess it's a bit different
[<em>] Strengths/Weaknesses: Strengths: I've focussed for a long time on particular areas of interest that relate to my proposed major (comparative literature)- I write a lot and speak 5 languages with varying degrees of fluency. I guess my essays were good, or well written at least. Weaknessess: My ECs were pretty unexceptional. I have taken the absolute minimum recommended math and science classes.
[</em>] Why you think you were accepted or rejected: I was lucky.
[/ul]Other Factors:
General Comments/Congratulations/Venting/Commiserations,etc:
I'm guess my overwhelming feelings are relief and happiness. I hope everyone here finds somewhere they will be happy.</p>
<p>Decision: Waitlisted</p>
<p>Stats:[ul][<em>] Fee Waiver Used?: no
[</em>] SAT Reasoning (by section): 800cr, 800m 800w
[<em>] SAT Subject tests: 700 latin, 740 math ii, 680 us history, 650 bio (yeah, i think it was these...)
[</em>] ACT: n/a
[<em>] APs: 5 this year--lit, gov, calc bc, physics b, spanish...have taken lang (5), world (5), and u.s. history (4)
[</em>] IBs: n/a
[<em>] GPA, Weighted and Unweighted: 4.34 (w), 3.9 (uw)
[</em>] Rank: ~7/409...we don't officially rank but i'm in top 2%
[<em>] Senior Yr. Courseload: 5 aps listed earlier, latin iii, shakespeare (& gym)
[</em>] Number of Apps from Your School: idk...maybe 2
[<em>] Common or Princeton App?: common
[</em>] Other stats: commended scholar, coca cola scholar, candidate for presidential scholars, have been ranked nationally for spanish, won many local community service awards, won several poetry contests
[/ul]Subjective:[ul][<em>] ECs listed on app: math league, model un (was treasurer), SADD (was prez & founder), ed-in-c of school newspaper (have been on staff for 3 years), ummm...youth group, 2 town committees...what else...teach sunday school at church...oh, yeah, and am a chair of an nhs committee...methinks that's it.
[</em>] Job/Work Experience: promoted to shift leader at dunkin' donuts...before that i had an office job...and i babysit constantly
[<em>] Essays (subject and responses): your own quote...i used my senior quote...but it wasn't that good....my common app essay was, though.
[</em>] Teacher Recs: stellar...they got me full rides at other schools
[<em>] Counselor Rec: i'm sure it was fine...she knows me well
[</em>] Interview (feel and general location): great...interviewer's house...
[<em>] Hook (if any): nada...i would have been the first in my family to go ivy.
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul][</em>] State or Country:
[<em>] School Type, Average Stats of School (if available): public, 1600-1700 students...suburbs, it's decent...sends a few to top schools...mostly just cornell, though.
[</em>] Ethnicity: yeah i'm white. tough.
[<em>] Income Bracket: ummm...not rich enough to afford p-ton? =p
[</em>] Gender: female
[<em>] Hooks: none
[</em>] Strengths/Weaknesses: strengths--sats, ECs, leadership, recs...weaknesses--essay, sat ii scores...
[li] Why you think you were accepted or rejected: see above![/li][/ul]Other Factors:
General Comments/Congratulations/Venting/Commiserations,etc:
i'm not so upset about this...i've got a full ride to SU that i'm going to take, so g'luck to all of you next year!</p>
<p>Decision: ACCEPTED from the Waitlist!!</p>
<p>Ahhh!!! I was recently called by the admissions office! I am SOOOO relieved!!</p>
<p>Stats:[ul][<em>] Fee Waiver Used?: Yes
[</em>] SAT Reasoning (by section): 2380 (800CR, 800W, 780M)
[<em>] SAT Subject tests: 800Spanish, 800French, 800USH, 800Physics
[</em>] ACT: N/A
[<em>] APs: 5Eng Lang, 5Eng Lit, 5USH, 5Span, 5Fre, 5Ita, 5Phys B, 5Psych, 5Bio
[</em>] IBs: N/A
[<em>] GPA, Weighted and Unweighted: 3.94
[</em>] Rank: 1/1276
[<em>] Senior Yr. Courseload: All APs and some courses at Harvard and MIT
[</em>] Number of Apps from Your School: 23 (16 acceptances)
[<em>] Common or Princeton App?: Common
[/ul]
Subjective:[ul][</em>] ECs listed on app: Drama, Mock Trial, Model UN, LGBT, Community Service
[<em>] Job/Work Experience: Senate internship (summer of ’06)
[</em>] Essays (subject and responses): heartfelt
[<em>] Teacher Recs: good
[</em>] Counselor Rec: good
[li] Interview (feel and general location): great. I came out of the closet to my interviewer and she was amazed at the guts I had. I bet that was central in her write-up about me. I also rescued her cat, which was stuck in a tree at some point after our interview.</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[<em>] State or Country:NY
[</em>] School Type, Average Stats of School (if available): Catholic/Private, 16Princeton, 24Harvard, 18Yale, 29Dartmouth, 11Brown, 37Cornell, 14UPenn, 6Columbia, 22MIT, 15Stanford, 19CalTech (many of these are cross-acceptances)
[<em>] Ethnicity: Hispanic American
[</em>] Income Bracket: Lower Middle Class (attending school on generous financial aid)
[<em>] Gender: M
[</em>] Hooks: Being gay, Hispanic, an intern with high profile senators, and among the youngest Americans to issue IR policies with the United Nations.
[<em>] Strengths/Weaknesses: S: Academics, Initiative; W: fortunately, no glaring ones
[</em>] Why you think you were accepted or rejected: Hey it’s a crapshoot – especially at this stage in the game! I asked the admissions officer about the waitlist admissions and apparently they accepted ~30 of us to build the target class size. Clearly he didn’t intend to tell me this when he called but, it was obvious! So the yield goes down and a lucky and talented group of young men and women get the most exciting news of their lives!! I still believe I deserve my acceptance and I’m really excited!</p>
<p>[/ul]Other Factors:
General Comments/Congratulations/Venting/Commiserations,etc: Congrats to everyone else who was pulled off the waitlist! I can’t wait to meet my fellow ‘11s!!</p>
<p>*** Top Bottom those stats and hooks are amazing. How did you not get in the first time?</p>
<p>Oh well congrats.</p>
<p>People like you scare me. If you got waitlisted how am I someone with much inferior stats going to get in next year.</p>
<p>Hey there! I have no idea why I wasn't admitted initially. Like I said before, Ivy League admissions is a total crapshoot -- a lottery -- a game that many play and few win; NO ONE is guaranteed!</p>
<p>That said: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I'm going to Princeton in the fall!!!</p>
<p>I'm really happy for you Topbottom...I'm sure you were very disappointed not to get in the first time, but it looks like you were very deserving =)</p>
<p>See you in September!</p>
<p>congrats! may I ask what you are turning down for Princeton?</p>
<p>congratulations, topbottom!</p>
<p>btw, you have amazing stats! see you in the fall ;)</p>
<p>Hey westcoast, I'm turning down Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Cornell, Amherst, Williams, NYU, and some SUNY schools.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! I'm so excited about Princeton. Really, it's been #1 in my heart for a long time!!</p>
<p>Also, are there any other gay '11s out there? I'm sure there are many... just maybe not here on CC. Well if you are, PM me!</p>
<p>Congrats to everyone else!!! Wooooooooooo hoooooooooooo!!!</p>
<p>wow, those are amazing acceptances, and congrats again!</p>
<p>wow, how did you not get in eariler!! :)</p>
<p>Ummm Topbottom, where the hell do you go? I cant even count all the Ivy acceptances by your school...I thought 23 was pretty good for my school, but damn...</p>
<p>Bump...</p>
<p>Just thought the 2012 applicants might like to browse over this thread!</p>
<p>The thread brings back a lot of memories of a stressful time that ended up with an acceptance for my son. The other posters gave each other a lot of support. Good luck to all this year.</p>