<p>@itsonmars: Maybe because you are honest? There are plenty of people who applied and pretended that their parents did not go to college.</p>
<p>Finalist !! <3</p>
<p>Just wanted to post so that people don’t think that these scores are the only way to become a finalist. My scores do not compete with the other posts, however they got me to the next round. GOODLUCK AND CONGRATS TO EVERYONE!</p>
<p>SAT I : 1720 </p>
<p>ACT: N/A</p>
<p>SAT II: Math2=630 English=580</p>
<p>Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3:83</p>
<p>AP (place score in parenthesis): Enviro(3) Lang(3)</p>
<p>Senior Year Course Load: AP CALC AB, GOV, DANCEe, AP LIT, HNR ANATOMY, LEADERSHIP</p>
<p>Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): none</p>
<p>Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
leadership: Fresh: VP, Sophomore: Deputy, Junior: Chief of Service, Senior: Student body President of 3300 students.
Judo: teach, practice, volunteer</p>
<p>Job/Work Experience: Judo Teacher</p>
<p>Volunteer/Community service: Chief of Service Junior year</p>
<p>Summer Activities: Competing, working summer camp, teaching judo</p>
<p>Essays: Not very good. </p>
<p>Teacher Recommendation: Very good</p>
<p>Counselor Rec: Very Good</p>
<p>State (if domestic applicant): California</p>
<p>School Type: Public 3300 students</p>
<p>Ethnicity: Filipino</p>
<p>Gender: F</p>
<p>Income Bracket: Very low</p>
<p>Hooks: first generation college</p>
<p>Universities Ranked, or Universities you plan to apply to: Stanford Only</p>
<p>@FBaez413 & Olipond - It was probably a freak mix of scores, honesty, essays (I work freakishly well under pressure?), and teacher recommendations… eh. Specifically to FBaez413, yeah, I never fully grasped that while I was growing up, and now it’s much too late. ;;; Regrets.</p>
<p>First: I have no idea how the picked me. </p>
<p>SAT I: 1840</p>
<p>SAT II: Math 650; 700 right now; physics 460…yeah, horrible</p>
<p>UW GPA: 3.983</p>
<p>APs: Chem, World History, Spa Lit, Spa Lan., Eng. Lang, Calculus AB, Physics B, USH,</p>
<p>Total number of APs up to now: 14</p>
<p>Senior courseload: Bio, Env. Sci, Macroeconomics, Eng. Lit, Programming, Digital Imagery, College peer counselor, Multivariable Calculus, Calculus Based Physics through EPGY, Linear Algebra and ODE in the spring, and an Analysis class, maybe, also in the Spring at UCLA. </p>
<p>Major awards…nothing major…just ap scholar, commended by congressman for volunteering, and research at UCLA this summer. </p>
<p>ECS: Elected official, Sylmar Neighborhood Council, scholar at UCLA Anderson. </p>
<p>State: CA</p>
<p>School type: urban-impacted school of 3000+ students, and I am not in its magnet. </p>
<p>Counselor rec: good; English rec: good; Calc Prof: the best ever!</p>
<p>Ethnicity: hispanic. </p>
<p>Gender: Male</p>
<p>Income bracket: low</p>
<p>Hooks: first generation, immigrant since 2009, research job, college classes…</p>
<p>I have no idea why the picked me if they knew from my essays that my dream school is MIT…and I have that SAT score.</p>
<p>But I made it, and hope MIT will see what questbridge saw… </p>
<p>Somehow, those numbers were irrelevant</p>
<p>I just had my interview for Yale match today…didnt do so well… How much does interview affect admissiondecisions??</p>
<p>Why do you think it did not go so well? They say that the interview will not play a role unless you are a candidate that is right on the line.</p>
<p>Really? Since they contacted me three days ago, I’m guessing yale had not read my application yet so how will they know if I’m on the line?? I think they interview ppl who are within range of one of their alumnus. </p>
<p>It didn’t went well because I was grilled on my test scores and gpa</p>
<p>Can you tell us more about the interview you had?
I’m curious because I ranked Yale for the Match also.</p>
<p>Yes, I read that if Yale will arrange a interview if they can find an alumnus near you. Btw, where do you live?</p>
<p>And I thought interviewers wouldn’t focus on test scores/gpa so much…</p>
<p>I live in L.A…so there are several alumnus around. And yes I also thought, based on my mit interview, that interviews were more about learning about me as a person not me as a test score and essay. My interviewer instead asked for my sat score, my sat score break down, why I didn’t get an 800 in math although I’m Asian, if I ever consider taking four or five APs ( I’m taking 3 right now)… So yea… Good luck. Hope your match process goes well.</p>
<p>Wow, that sounds borderline racist and more than a little offensive.</p>
<p>@babylunabi: There is a book authored by a former Dartmouth admissions officer, (sorry, forgot the title) and she has an entire section about what you should do if you feel your alumni interview is/was in any way “inappropriate”. The author’s name is Hernandez I think-and she maintains that you ought to write a note detailing any inappropriate questions etc.</p>
<p>@babylunabi: That’s ridiculous! Especially the “why I didn’t get an 800 in math although I’m Asian” part…</p>
<p>Has anyone who ranked Brown gotten an ID or anything yet? Because I’ve yet to get an email regarding anything and it’s freaking me out a little…</p>
<p>I haven’t gotten anything from Brown (never received any emails from them, unlike Pomona and Yale, actually). I wouldn’t worry too much.</p>
<p>@ antiquekey - Brown hasn’t sent me anything either; they said on the QuestBridge site that they’ll only contact you if they need more information. It’s probably too soon to start freaking out, since they probably haven’t gone through all the applications just yet, so there’s no need to worry. (:</p>
<p>Honestly, the one that’s freaking me out the most is USC. USC doesn’t even do early admission, so the only ones they should be looking at right now are either people who did regular decision freakishly early and us QuestBridge candidates.</p>
<p>@Yale - Did anyone else do their interview yet? How did it go? There were some complications with mine, so it’s scheduled for this Tuesday (the day before the actual forms are due for the interviewers … lol) so I’m kind of freaking out.</p>
<p>@ babylunabi - I can’t edit my post for some reason, but here:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/804985-alumni-campus-interview-faq.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/804985-alumni-campus-interview-faq.html</a></p>
<p>"What should I bring to my interview?</p>
<p>If your interviewer wants you to bring something, he or she will tell you. Interviewers are not supposed to see standardized test scores or GPA information, so if you bring a resume, limit it to extracurricular/job information. I personally do not like it when applicants bring newspaper clippings, art, etc. </p>
<p>What happens at the interview?</p>
<p>You will likely be asked questions about your academic and extracurricular interests as well as why you are applying to Yale. There are some interviewers who will quiz you about random topics, but they are few and far between. Most likely, you’ll have a pleasant conversation without being grilled."</p>
<p>You almost definitely want to tell someone higher up about this if you have not already done so.</p>
<p>@itsonmars: I ranked Yale, but I don’t think I’ll be getting an interview. 
They’ve not contacted me to set one up, and it’s mostly likely because they can’t find an alumnus near me (I live in a rural part of Michigan).</p>
<p>I’m a finalist and I KNOW most of my stuff isn’t near what y’all have. Good luck to all!</p>
<p>I go to a small, very competitive, public arts high school.
I am totally surprised I’m a finalist, but hoping for the best.</p>
<p>Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 630 CR, 640 M, 630 W (11 essay)
ACT: N/A
SAT II: 580 Lit (ewwww), 730 US history
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.8
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 25% (30/172)
AP (place score in parenthesis): US History (5), Lang&Comp (4)</p>
<p>Senior Year Course Load: AP Psychology, AP Lit&Comp, AP Biology, Hn Spanish III, Hn Discrete Math, Advanced Chamber Ensemble, Piano Lab II</p>
<p>Essays: Average. Writing is my weakness…tried my best to highlight my strengths
Teacher Recommendation: I think they’re good.
Counselor Rec: Average, she’s new this year.
Additional Rec: English teacher (probably ok), Chemistry teacher (better than English teacher)
Interview: None</p>
<p>Other
State (if domestic applicant): NC
School Type: Public arts high school
Ethnicity: Half Puerto Rican
Gender: F
Income Bracket: Less than $50,000
Hooks: Well, I’m half Puerto Rican, done a lot of traveling, and a lot of service
EC: 2 mission trips to Brazil (essay), head mentor at Durham Children’s Choir, Founder and President of Future Teachers of America, volunteer at summer camps, tutor refugees from Burma and Iraq</p>
<p>Reflection
Strengths: Essays, adversity, service
Weaknesses: Scores, schedule didn’t allow me to take all the APs I wanted to.
Universities Ranked, or Universities you plan to apply to: QuestBridge: Columbia (as if), Emory, Wellesley. Non-QuestBridge: Vanderbilt (again, as if), Elon University, UNC-Chapel Hill, Macalester College, High Point University</p>
<p>Will I get any message form Caltech, that I dont miss anything.
How many of you guys rank Caltech?
I am nervous.
Caltech didnt download my teacher recommendation nor transcript from Common Application yet?
Stanford did it on Nov.1,</p>