Decision: Finalist
Schools Ranked: Stanford, Princeton, MIT, UPenn, Duke, Columbia
Rank of Questbridge Essays (1-10): 8-9? I’m not sure, but I did work hard on it
Rank of teacher recommendations (1-10): 8 I think
Rank of counselor recommendation (1-10): 8-9 She knows me pretty well
Unweighted GPA: 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.25 ish
SAT I score (composite, old SAT: R, W, M: old SAT 2220 (720, 730, 770)
ACT (composite, essay, english, math, science): HA no
SAT II (subject, score): Math 2, 790 and Physics 680 I think
Rank (numerical or percentile): 1/300 ish
All AP test scores: Calculus AB 5, Language 4
IB: nope
Senior Year Course Load: Health, Econ, APES, AP Calculus BC, AP Lit, AP Spanish
Major Awards: Poetry Out Loud States 4th; Wellesley Book Award; NMSQT Commended; (I don’t remember anything else tbh)
Extracurriculars: Founder/President of Asian Cultural Club at HS; Piano for 10 years (3 full-year local scholarships)
Job/Work Experience: none
Volunteer/Community Service: full-time pianist at 2 churches-- one in the Navajo rez and one local Korean
State: Arizona
School Type (public, private, online, etc.): public (right next to ghetto)
Ethnicity: Asian (Korean)
Gender: female
Income Bracket: about 43k in 2015, but Dad got a raise
Assets: HA nope
Extenuating Circumstances: uhhh I’m not sure what counts as “extenuating”, but I’m pretty sure we don’t have any
Stand Out Info (e.g. first gen college student): my brother’s in college, I’m a first-gen immigrant, our school (probably our entire state) has relatively bad education, I’m the only Asian at my HS, I was in ESL because I couldn’t speak English when I first came here (but that was in elementary school), I have been a part of the TAG program (which I think is not an appropriate name, but whatevs)
Why do you think you were or were not selected as a finalist?
That’s a really good question to which I don’t fully understand the answer myself. There are so many other people with amazing stats that are overqualified to be finalists. I think it partly has to do with my interesting background story (my dad was sent here as a missionary for the Navajo people, and that’s why we moved here in the first place) that was fairly well put together… also probably because I made sure all of my separate essays and short answers told them about different parts of me that tell my story as a whole. In my biographical essay, I wrote about moving here to the states, and in my 2nd essay I wrote about stereotypes and how I have dealt with it in my own way. In the short answers, I talked mainly about my hobbies and interests, including my seemingly abstract curiosity for physics (ha… ha… sorry). All in all, I think my entire application just made coherent sense and helped them picture me as a holistic person.