I’ve been psyching myself out over the past few days, so I’m coming here to just get a realistic expectation for my admission chances.
Male
GPA: 4.0 Unweighted (we don’t weight grades at my high school)
Class Rank: 1 out of 105 (Valedictorian)
Class Rigor: I’ve taken every honors and AP class my school has to offer with the exception of AP Stats (I’m taking AP Calc instead)
SAT I: 2180 (Reading 690, Math 730, Writing 760)
Sat II: Math 2 700, US History 760
School Type: Small public school. Doesn’t have a wide class selection and isn’t well funded
ECs:
Varsity Track freshman and junior years
Knowledge Bowl 4 years
Earth Club 3 years (VP this year)
Community Service club 3 years (Leadership team this and last year)
National Honors Society 2 years (Leadership team this year)
Big Brothers Big Sisters 2 years
Equivalent of Big Brothers, but for older people 2 years
(With the exception of track, I’ve been really involved in all of these, especially Earth Club and the Community Service Club)
Others:
A year ago I did a month long immersion program in Taiwan
Last year I interned at a software development company for 5 months
I’ve had a job every summer since freshman year
Great recommendations
I was really happy with my common app main essay, but only so-so with the supplementary ones (waited until late to do them)
Family income is about $110,000
My ethnicity is half Taiwanese/ Chinese (mom was born and raised in Taiwan, but her parents were from China) and half American (dad is from Oklahoma). I actually wrote my main essay about when I stayed as a monk in a Buddhist temple in Taiwan for a few days.
I live in a small town in Northwest Washington
I think my hook is both that
- I come from an underperforming high school in a small rural town
- And, more importantly, I offer a lot of diversity. I know that many people applying to elite schools are half Chinese and half American, but I think I’ve been more immersed in my Chinese/Taiwanese heritage than the majority of Chinese Americans, and I’m positive that I’ve been more immersed in Buddhism than the vast majority of Chinese Americans. I don’t know any other person who has stayed at a Buddhist temple for a few days living as a monk. I went into more detail about that experience in my essay
Thank you so much for the help! If you leave a link for any questions you may have below, I’ll make sure to answer them
PS: Does it even help that I come from a small town and a small, by no means elite, public school