I’m a senior studying in a prestigious semi-private school (weird systems huh) in Hong Kong. As I will be finally turing legal next Tuesday, I thought it is a good chance to go over what exactly happened in my application. I would also like to wish myself best of luck in next week’s external examination, because that determines finally if my place will be offered or not.
To be honest I’m not a particularly bright applicant, not even in my school. My main subjects are physics, chemistry, biology, and an extra subject called “calculus and statistics”, a college-level course about, as the name goes, calculus and statistics, on top of the compulsory subjects, Chinese, English, math and liberal studies (more or less social studies). My scores on them? Well, except English, math, liberal studies and biology, I failed all of them some point in my four years of study. With mostly A’s and B’s and a C, I know that I shouldn’t even think of HYP (which my parents wanted me to go when I was younger).
What reflects my ability slightly better in my opinion is my standardised test scores. I got a SAT I 1940 (cr 630 w 620 m 690), and I did not bother to take SAT II or ACT or whatever. In fact with this middle-range score, I score worse than the majority of my classmates. The whole reason is that I suffer from mental health issues and I simply cannot focus without dozing off.
And my EC’s? I play the piano, I am a fencer and swimmer, and I joined some writing competitions. I also participated in volunteering and a regional conference. The highest honour I received was a chemistry award for an international quiz, but well, that’s all.
As for my essays, I thought they were good enough, with new angles and stuff, but my counsellor told me I had to rewrite all of them due to “poor content” (he never defined that anyway). By then it was too late because I already handed them in to the colleges. It was already October 20 when he asked me to rewrite them, when the deadline is November 1!
Finally the recommendation letter. Notice I used the singular form, because, obviously, I only sent in one letter of rec. It was from my liberal studies teacher, who also helped me in setting up a community service project for teaching children in preschool. I never got the chance to read it though (school policy), but i believe it is a good one.
Anyway, I believe the largest risk I took was this: I only applied to three colleges.
Reach - UIUC
Match - UW-Madison
Safety - IU-Bloomington
Everyone was shocked when I told them I only chose three. Although I have been applying to local colleges as well, I have always been that “banana” with a heart of a Westerner and looks of a Chinese. Everyone knew I was leaving Hong Kong for further studies, only a matter of time. I understand that if all of them rejects me (which is likely because I’m a stereotypical Asian without doing anything extraordinary), I am left with two options: either apply in 3 hours before the deadline, or stay in Hong Kong for a year before transferring overseas.
But I finally proved those who thought I was just the by-runner wrong.
I got waitlisted by UIUC (as expected, but I thought they would have downright rejected). However, I got accepted by UW-Madison AND IU-Bloomington. After two weeks of thought I decided to go to the former, being my parents’ alma mater. (I sometimes dimly think it’s because of my parents but not myself that I got into UW-Madison…)
Looking back, the biggest mistake I did was to underestimate my ability to succeed as a whole-rounded student. In hindsight, I realised that “holistic” processes do not solely depend on your test scores, unlike in Hong Kong, where you have to have excellent grades but not anything else to enter competitive subjects like medicine. I know my scores are far from high, but some things are able to compensate for this shortcoming, which might not be that “short” after all. Still, choosing only three colleges is not the best thing one should do!
As for FIGS, I’ve checked that out too and I’m thinking on one about the biology of vision. Hope it opens next fall too!