The decision will be out this friday. Excited and nervous ,both at a time.ugh!! I was thinking that posting our decision here(along with our test scores and ECs)will help the deferred ones and next year’s applicants.So, the accepted ones are requested to share their scores and experiences. Thank you!
My stats are nowhere near what’s “deemed” desirable. Hope this helps if you fall in the same range!
Also I understand that we all have different opinions about “good” stats, but as an international student applying for FA, I knew my bar was higher…
Result: Accepted ED1
SAT I (breakdown): superscore 2130, CR 640 – M 740 – W 750
SAT II: Math II 750
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.57
Weighted GPA: 3.86
Rank: top half
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Calc AB (5), AP Comp Sci (4)
TOEFL: 113
Senior Year Course Load: English electives, Multivariable Calc, AP Physics, AP Enviro, Neuropsych (1 term), Hinduism & Buddhism (1 term), Sculpture (1 term)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Nothing special really. (A environmental fellowship at my school, participated in HMMT)
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Robotics club, Math team, International student ambassador, Math tutor, Chinese tutor, service trip abroad, tour guide, Ukulele club (founder)
Job/Work Experience: co-founded a non-profit publication for youth internationally
Volunteer/Community service: all 3 years
Summer Activities: the publication thing I mentioned above
Essays: pretty ok
Teacher Recommendation: hmmm so I asked for rec letters from my English teacher and Physics teacher. My physics teacher was also my advisor and my robotics coach, so his letter probs was good. My English teacher though, he's the most unpredictable human on the planet... I love his class and although I got a B+ average, I felt like it was the class in which I had made some pretty clear progress throughout the school year.
Counselor Rec: good
Additional Rec: none
Interview: oh man it was the gloomiest day in late October I'll tell ya...
Other
State (if domestic applicant):
Country (if international applicant): Vietnam
School Type: US boarding school
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: F
Income Bracket: prefer not to say
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):
Reflection: I fell in love with Smith after the virtual tour on the website and reading reviews on Niche (honestly though hahaha) I also really love how Smith has an open curriculum-- this wins over other LACs that I was gonna apply to. I visited campus for an interview and spent the rest of the day exploring NoHo-- fell in love again. About the application process, it was "interesting" because the stats (25-75th percentile SAT etc.) posted on Smith website is actually pretty high, but the stats I saw in Naviance (which are of students from my school in the past few years) are lower. For that reason, although my counselor at school evaluated Smith as my safety school, I didn't feel like it was a safety at all. Also Smith is the most generous in giving aid to int'l students out of all the schools in my list, so I had no doubt about ED-ing here (based on the released common data set last year). I ended up receiving an aid package considerably bigger than what our family asked for, so I'm just extremely grateful for that.
Strengths: I think I portrayed myself pretty consistently in everything (essays, activities, rec letters) -- showing some serious interests academically and non-academically (?)
Weaknesses: GPA and grade trend (I kind of effed up last half of junior year...)
Why you think you were accepted: I think ED-ing definitely meant something. I was also very very serious about going to Smith (like, I have no desire to go to any other school but Smith), and this was probably shown in my counselor's rec letter.
