<p>Decision: ACCEPTED!!! :D</p>
<p>Lol I never do these. This is simply to manifest the idea that you don’t need a 2400 SAT, ostentatious international awards, or pretentious extracurriculars to be accepted into a great school. Simply be yourself, and the true individual will shine through. </p>
<p>—OBJECTIVE—</p>
<p>SAT I: 2090 – 600 CR, 770 M, 720 W (11 Essay) from 3 sittings</p>
<p>ACT: never took it and don’t regret it </p>
<p>SAT II: 530 USH, 620 Spanish, 650 Physics, 770 Math II </p>
<p>Unweighted GPA: 4.0</p>
<p>Class Rank: 4/334 </p>
<p>AP Scores: USH (2), English Lang (2), US Gov & Pol (3), Calc AB (4) – I didn’t send any of them</p>
<p>Senior Year Course Load: (all AP) – Bio, Lit, Spanish, Calc BC, and Psych + marching band </p>
<p>Major Awards: HAH. I didn’t win, nor have I ever HEARD of half of the stuff most of you have won. The only awards I put on the common app were the Junior Class Service Award, Academic Excellence (basically for showing up to school for four years and getting good grades), the President’s Education Awards Program (same idea), a citation for service on the Maryland Youth Advisory Council, and a Superior (1) Rating at the MD State Solo & Ensemble Festival for flute </p>
<p>—SUBJECTIVE—</p>
<p>Extracurriculars: I did a hell of a lot of stuff in school; unfortunately, the dreaded common app only offers place for 10 hahaha so these were the ones I found to be the most cohesive and “goal-oriented” – Rock n’ Roll Revival (9-12, musical production at my high school, it’s the biggest fundraiser we have and it annually brings in >$100,000), Symphonic and Marching Band (9-12, flute section leader, did AllShore and honors bands and what not), worked in my mom’s pediatric office for 3 yrs, Key Club (10-12, Awards Historian 10th grade, President 12th grade), National Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta (10-12, President 12th grade), flute lessons with a university woodwind professor (11-12, I mentioned the International Flute Symposium I attended last summer at WVU), the Maryland Youth Advisory Council, Spanish Honor Society (10-12, President 12th grade) </p>
<p>Job/Work Experience: marching band basically is a job hahah but I kinda already mentioned the doctor’s office </p>
<p>Volunteer/Community Service: I was honestly terrified that this would be my demise. I only managed 270-300ish when most of my friends are up in the 600-800 range, with some up in the stratosphere (2000-3000s) I don’t even know how that’s humanly possible. I worked hard and was very active with Key Club and I really turned it around senior year. I think that, despite not having an astronomical amount of hours, really helped me. </p>
<p>Summer Activities: Jesus Christ you people are mighty specific! Other than working, pretty much the symposium and marching band (and ardently practicing the flute, of course ;)) But aside from that, I do actually have a life and I sleep until 3pm on weekdays and I stay out until 4am with my friends all weekend 
</p>
<p>Essays: I was the proudest of my Stanford essays of all the colleges I applied to.
1.) Common App: Wrote the failure essay and talked about how being rejected from All State Band for 4 years really opened my eyes and made me realize that I am NOT the best flute player around, and that’s okay. I entitled it “All State Banned” and that was just pure gold; I pat myself on the back for that. (8/10)
2.) Extracurricular: wrote about marching band and the sense of unity cus everyone knows that we are a cult incognito haha (7/10)
3.) Intellectual Vitality: I wrote about a time when I was coming out of my lesson and I heard this kid playing “Twinkle Twinkle Litter Star” on violin and he kept missing one of the intervals. He kept going until he got it right, and it showed me that if he can persevere, then all of us can. (8/10)
4.) Letter to Roomate: This was the best essay by far. I really just spoke from the heart and tried to be funny. I talked about all my little quirks and how I’d probably be up at 3am watching the Berlin Philharmonic and how I’d never see my roommate because I’d always be in a practice room or a lab somewhere haha I also made sure to mention specific buildings on campus. One line was like “If you want to talk, we can always meet up at CoHo” one of the coffee shops on campus at Stanford. I also mad a reference to Jordan Hall (the building that houses the psychology department), so I think they really saw that I wanted the SCHOOL and not just the prestige. (169023/10 I’m sorry, I was just really really REALLY proud of this essay)
5.) What Matters: I talked about Spanish (and wrote it in Spanish, I really think that blew them away). I said it’s important that every person learn a second language in order to show others that you’re open to the challenge of learning a new culture. (9/10) </p>
<p>Recommendations: I got one from my AP Lang teacher to justify that I am a good writer and deserved a 5 on the exam. I got the other from my 10th grade English teacher. I went on a trip to Italy with her and 10ish other students last summer so she really got to know me on a personal level. The last was from my band director. I really only asked him because I’d known one person who graduated like 6 or 7 years ago whom he wrote a recc for and he got into Stanford. I DID read his and it was the most beautiful recommendation I’d ever seen (his was the additional recc that I personally mailed). </p>
<p>Couselor Recc: idk and idc</p>
<p>Interview: The closest ones were in DC so I didn’t interview haha but I guess it doesn’t really matter since I got in anyways </p>
<p>—OTHER—</p>
<p>State: MD priddeeee!!!</p>
<p>Country: USA </p>
<p>School Type: public</p>
<p>Race: African American</p>
<p>Gender: male </p>
<p>Income bracket: $100,000-$120,000ish (they didn’t give me any financial aid) </p>
<p>Hooks: I don’t like to say that my race is a “hook”, but I definitely think it played a role in the decision. </p>
<p>—REFLECTION— </p>
<p>Strengths: essays and character, I really didn’t care about numbers; the person who they were evaluating was a lot more important to me. I really tried to manifest that idea in the application. </p>
<p>Weaknesses: Good Lord, my test scores were a joke hahahahha and the community service was on the low side. “Lack of major awards” is not a weakness, fyi. </p>
<p>Why you think you were accepted: Honestly, who knows. The 5% that were accepted probably don’t have a clue. I just told myself to be myself and everything would work out okay. THAT and the fact that I’m a black Spanish speaking male flute player that wants to be a music therapist hahaha I guess that’s pretty unique. </p>
<p>Where else you were accepted: </p>
<p>Accepted: Brown, Cornell, Georgia Tech, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, Northeastern, Oberlin College & Conservatory (flute performance woohoo!!), Salisbury University, Stanford, Syracuse, the University of Miami and the Frost School of Music, Virginia Tech, and a full ride to UMD College Park</p>
<p>Rejected: Peabody Conservatory of Music, and Harvard after SCEA deferral </p>
<p>General Comments: Honestly, you guys stress yourselves out WAAAYYYY too much. Getting on forums like these freaking out if your decision doesn’t come 17 seconds after the posted time? It’s a little ridiculous. I’m sure you’re all highly intelligent kids, much more than myself, but scores and grades are only a small portion of this. The admissions committee is a group of people who have emotions, not robots that throw away apps that have a <2200 SAT score. Do yourselves a favor, and just relax. To those who were accepted, I congratulate you on your accomplisments, and I cannot wait to meet you in the fall. To those that were waitlisted, if you got waitlisted from Stanford, you probably were accepted to some pretty nice places, so consider your great options! And to those of you who were rejected, it’s not the end of the world. Stanford is 1 of the hundreds of colleges in the US and the thousands in the entire world. You will find a place where you belong. </p>