Stanford 2020 Regular Decision Results Thread

[asize=4]Decision: Accepted[/size]

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown): 2310 (760M, 770CR, 800W w 10 essay)
ACT (breakdown): didn’t take
SAT II: math ii-800, latin-770, world hist-760, bio m-740
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.9/4.0
Weighted GPA: dunno
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/900ish
AP (place score in parenthesis): world hist, stat, chinese lang, bio, apush, calc ab, eng lang, latin, econs, studio art drawing, euro (all 5’s except stat)
IB (place score in parenthesis): didn’t take
Senior Year Course Load: lit, gov, calc bc, chem, art hist (all ap’s) latin v, art (honors)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): national merit finalist, ap scholar, questbridge finalist (not sure if these are major…)

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): art(some regional awards, scholarships, etc.), academic decathlon (captain, regional and state medals), art museum volunteer, peer tutor, chinese culture club (secretary), anime club lol (pres), reading olympics lolll (pres)
Job/Work Experience: worked online over summer for acadec study material company
Volunteer/Community service: volunteer at art museum
Summer Activities: work, chilling (and having existential crises), overpriced summer programs that are generous with finaid e.g. stanford’s summer humanities institute (which is gr8)
Essays (rating 1-10, details): personal statement 9/10-immigrant story, intellectual vitality 9/10-fangirled over my favorite artist who is a actually kinky freak, roommate letter was whack but 9/10-basically me daydreaming about life at stanford, what matter 6/10-eh, family stuff
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):

Teacher Rec #1: latin teacher 9/10-cool dude, likes me, also probably my best class/grade in school
Teacher Rec #2: english teacher 7/10-didn’t know all that well, but writes like a god, and i think/hope liked me
Counselor Rec: 7/10-counselor abhors me; the feeling is mutual. also my school is too big for any kind of real connection
Additional Rec: 8/10-professor from summer humanities institute!! rly short and kinda cliche but it probably helped.
Interview: didn’t get one :confused:

Other:

Applied for Financial Aid?: heck yeah
Intended Major: not sure at all…classics or art history possibly??? but honestly zero idea
State (if domestic applicant): PA
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: oversized and underfunded public
Ethnicity: east asian
Gender: f
Income Bracket: <4k (broke af)
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): hella poor, applied through questbridge program, and i moved from china when i was ten so maybe that helped

Reflection

Strengths: good grades/scores, but that’s nothing special in the stanford pool. probably the short essays?? the first two at least, idk, which in retrospect made me sound kinda ditzy, but i guess that’s just who i am. Also well-roundedness with a little bit extra in art, as well as somewhat interesting background (immigrant, low-income, etc.)
Weaknesses: not all that special as a person, app was kinda rushed; also felt like my ec’s were all over the place (half of it was for fun, half of it was for the resume, and you could definitely tell)
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: shrug emoji i honestly don’t know. there are so many people who are waaaay more qualified than i am who didn’t get accepted. i never had any real hope of getting in and the decision was just a really(really really) pleasant surprise. i’ve come to view the whole admissions process with an apathetic loathing. it’s all a crapshoot in the end and, really, you’ll be fine anywhere you go.
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: accepted-swarthmore, williams, amherst, pomona, and local art school; waitlisted-uchicago, carleton

General Comments: (see above) also want to say more, because this feels like some kind of closure to the mess that’s been my life for the past four years. i never thought i would actually be posting in one of these college results threads as accepted, much less to stanford. the thing is, i never did consider stanford until around this time last year, when i got into one of their summer programs. even then my attitude was mostly just ‘loll it’s probably the only time i’ll get to see california for free, might as well.’ until i got to the school (which is beautiful) and finished the program (which is amazing) and i realized that i was, just a little, in love with stanford. i tried to restrain it throughout the app process, knowing that the chance of even being waitlisted is slim. but i think deep down, i still had my heart set on this one place. and i can finally admit that to myself. point being, you never know what life might throw at you. that one place you laughed at when your friends brought it up, might just be your future home.

another point that i probably didn’t stress enough: if you’re a junior/sophomore/godforbid middleschooler looking at this and you’re from a low-income/disadvantaged background, CHECK OUT QUESTBRIDGE; it’s a great organization that works wonder for some low-income students throughout the admissions process and helps out many others, and has the most fun, brilliant, and supportive community

so long, cc, and thanks for all the fish!

Accepted!! Will post stats soon. Is anyone else having trouble checking their financial aid award? I’m logged into AXESS but when I click ‘Award Letter’ under ‘view award letters’ nothing pops up.

Decision: Accepted

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2130? (idk remember the breakdown but this wasn’t gr8)
ACT (breakdown): 34 C (35 E, 33 M, 35 S, 34 R 29 W)
SAT II (place score in parentheses): 790 Math II, 760 US History
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.982
Weighted GPA: anywhere from 4.5-4.7 I don’t know lol
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): N/A
AP (place score in parentheses): APHG (5), APWH (4), Chem (3), Physics 1 (2 lol), APUSH (5), AP Lang (5), Psych (5), Calc AB (5),
IB (place score in parentheses): None
Senior Year Course Load: AP Statistics, AP Microeconomics, AP Government and Politics, AP Calculus BC, CP En
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AP Scholar with Distinction (lol)

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): Treasurer of American Red Cross, Golf, Officer of Advanced Computer Mechanics club, Internship at my local chamber of commerce
Job/Work Experience: Math Tutoring (calculus and physics for peers & SAT math for younger students)
Volunteer/Community Service: Volunteered ~400 hours at a hospital and ~100 doing other random things
Summer Activities: None
Essays (rating 1-10, details):: Common App (10) I spent a lot of time on this and I had a pretty unique topic. Supplements probably like 9/10, topics were unique but probably could’ve made them more about me.
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):

Teacher Rec #1: idk tbh
Teacher Rec #2: idk tbh
Counselor Rec: idk tbh
Additional Rec:
Interview: none

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Economics
State (if domestic applicant): CA
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: public charter
Ethnicity: black
Gender: male
Income Bracket: 150k+
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM

Reflection

Strengths: Race, grades, maybe essays
Weaknesses: ECs and lack of awards
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Accepted cuz of race tbh
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Accepted: Northwestern, UCLA, USC, UC Berkeley, UCI, UCSB, UCSD, SDSU, Cal Poly Slo and I’m waiting on Harvard, Upenn, and Princeton

Decision: Waitlisted!

Objective:
SAT I: 680 math, 700 reading, 720 writing, 2100 C
ACT: 32 C
SAT II: 740 Literature, 620 Math 2 (yeeeeah I know)
Unweighted GPA: 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.59
Rank: 4
AP: Chem (3), English Language (5), APUSH (4), Euro (4),
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP English Lit, AP Psych, AP Calc AB, AP Bio, CP Gov/Econ, Food &Nutrition
Major Awards: AP Scholar? NHRP Scholar

Subjective:

Extracurriculars: “Most Inspirational” member of Varsity tennis 4 years, Creator of “Bucket List Club”, Witness in Mock Trial, President of the Mural Club,
Job/Work Experience: One art commission haha
Volunteer/Community service: 20 Hours Tutoring for GED
Summer Activities: One summer I put that I was part of a latino youth leadership thing, the other I completed my first official art commission.
Essays: I thought my first essay was strong, it was how art has helped me to become a more confident, self-assured, understanding person. I feel that all my responses did pretty well in embodying me.
Recommendations:

Teacher Rec #1: long (almost 2 pages) from my math teacher who puts a lot of effort into her recommendations, but regarded my art more than anything else
Teacher Rec #2: my government teacher whose was somewhat concise but still spoke well for me I believe
Counselor Rec:I was unable to see my counselor’s, but I talk to her a lot and I feel that she would have wrote a good one.
Additional Rec: N/A
Interview: was not interviewed, wish i was though

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Psychology
State (if domestic applicant): CA
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Latina
Gender: Female
Income Bracket:
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM, maybe my art?

Reflection

Strengths: I feel that my essays were pretty good.
Weaknesses: Test scores maybe. lack of extraordinary extracurricular
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Accepted to ucdavis, ucsd, usc. waitlisted at ucla

General Comments: I’m actually super happy that i even got waitlisted haha. I was expecting a flatout rejection and frankly forced myself to forget I applied here, so even though I know waitlist is the “polite rejection,” I’m still ecstatic that they respect me enough to do that hahaha. I’ll opt in but don’t expect anything.

Decision: Waitlisted

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 800/780/800, 2380 Total
ACT (breakdown): 36
SAT II: 800 Math, US History, Physics, Chemistry, French
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA: Not weighted
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/584
AP (place score in parenthesis): 5s in 10+ APs
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: 5 AP Courses and 2 college level courses
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): USAMO x2, Siemens Semifinalist, Intel STS Semifinalist, USAPHO Qualifier USABO Semifinalist x3, USNCO High Honors x2, bunch of national math tournaments

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Community Yoga Group (7 years), Captain of Soccer (4 years varsity), Captain of swimming & diving (4 years varsity), Head of math team, Head of science bowl, Head of physics team, Mock Trial head, NHS President, Student government vice president, School newspaper editor, Fundraising Drive director
Job/Work Experience: Did 2 summer internships in high school and held a job programming for a website last year
Volunteer/Community service: Volunteered for fundraising drives, peer tutored over summers, volunteered at local library in annual book donation drives
Summer Activities: Performed research at very prestigious (free) research program
Essays (rating 1-10, details): 9/10 for Common App. I wrote about Yoga as a somewhat laughable interest that is easily overlooked but still very refreshing and worthwhile. Otherwise, 7/10, I think I messed up and wrote something too generalized for the third prompt…
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): 8/10 Asked some long-time teachers who know me well to write them

Teacher Rec #1: 8/10
Teacher Rec #2: 9/10
Counselor Rec: 7/10 pretty general but positive
Additional Rec: Research mentor wrote this for me, I believe 8/10
Interview: Lasted for over 1 hr, I think I did well

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: No
Intended Major: Molecular Engineering or CS
State (if domestic applicant): New York
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian…rip
Gender: Male…rip
Income Bracket: High enough that it disqualifies me from FA
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): All antihooks…RIP so much

Reflection

Strengths: I thought I had some pretty solid national awards on top of general academic proficiency.
Weaknesses: Too many antihooks. Put too much faith into the olympiads.
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Sucks to be Asian M applying to colleges these days.
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Was deferred from Stanford REA, got into a bunch of safeties (thankfully)

General Comments:
Affirmative action destroyed me, so much for “holistic admissions”

** Decision : Rejected **

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown):
ACT: 35 Composite, 36 Math, 36 Science, 34 English, 34 Reading
(36 Superscore)
SAT II: 800 Math II , 740 Chem
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.6
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable):
AP (place score in parenthesis): Human Geo 5, World History 5, Chemistry 4, Calc BC 5, Bio 4, Physics 1 4 (self “study”), English Lang & Comp 5, US History 4
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: AP CS, AP Lit, AP Econ, AP Physics C, AP Seminar, Honors Adv Math II, Academic Decathlon, WOOT
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National and state medals for academic decathlon, but really nothing, probs why I got rejected

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Math Team 9-12
Physics Olympiad, 10-12, Captain
Science Bowl 11-12, Co-Captain
Table Tennis 9-12, Co-Captain (ran out of room and put Piano over this I think)
Academic Decathlon 11-12
Piano, 1-12

Job/Work Experience:

Volunteer/Community service: 100+ service hours

Summer Activities:
Math camp at UChicago after 7th, 8th, 9th
Particle Physics Research at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory after 10th
Summer Math Program at MIT after 11th
Astrophysics Research at UChicago after 11th

Essays (rating 1-10, details): Common App 7/10, I thought my roommate essay was funny and showed my personality. I tried to show how much I liked Stanford in my essays and thought they were good. 8/10 for short essays.
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: idk
Teacher Rec #2: idk
Counselor Rec: idk
Additional Rec: none
Interview: none

Other
State (if domestic applicant):
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public Magnet
Race: Black
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: 120k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):none

Reflection
Strengths: none
Weaknesses: GPA, lack of significant awards. Tried to do stuff like math and physics olympiads but never got to the point I should’ve for the amount of work I put in. I sacrificed my grades to try to become good at them in the same way an athlete or musician might, but ultimately it didn’t pay off. no regrets though, still learned a lot.
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: ^
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Rejected Caltech, WashU, Northwestern, UChicago Waitlisted MIT Accepted Carnegie Mellon!

Decision: Accepted

Objective

SAT I (breakdown): Single 2120; Super 2160 (R640, W720, M800)
SAT II: World History-780; Math II-790; Chem-770
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.97
Weighted GPA: 4.11
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): n/52 (n>5)
AP (place score in parenthesis): Chem - 5; Bio - 5; Chinese - 5; Gov - 3; WH - 4
Senior Year Course Load: 5 APs. (CS, both Physics C, Calc, Stats)
Major Awards: None

Subjective

Extracurriculars: Culture and language preservation, linguistics research, cover singing (linguistics and ethnic minority languages related), and meteorology (I am pretty much a “leader” in all these events, because I did those mainly by myself.)
Volunteer/Community service: Education related
Essays (rating 1-10, details): 9 (Those essays sincerely reflected my experience and opinions.)
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): 8

Teacher Rec #1: From my AP-Bio teacher. She knows my personality, so it might be a more comprehensive one.
Teacher Rec #2: From my Calculus teacher. She knows I am good at maths.
Counselor Rec: I don’t know about the details.
Interview: Fairly good. An alumna, who graduated in the 70s and has become a doctor, interviewed me. I expressed almost all the information that I want to provide.

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Linguistics / CS + Linguistics
State: TX
Country (if international applicant): China (On F-1 Visa right now)
School Type: Private school (The average SAT score is about 1800~1900).
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: M
Income Bracket: Probably lower than $40000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First generation college.
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Accepted by UT Austin, TAMU, and Michigan; Rejected by Rice

General Comments: I think I have observed some evidences that Stanford has an interesting and maybe different admission style this year.

Decision: Rejected

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2080 (720CR, 680W, 680M)
ACT (breakdown): didn’t take
SAT II: 750 US, 750 Lit
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.973
Weighted GPA: 4.703
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 3/300
AP (place score in parenthesis): Euro (4), English Lang (5), Human Geography (5), APUSH (5)
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: all AP + honors anatomy class
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Nothing national, the only awards I put were pretty small: student of the year, some from my architecture class, some regional awards for tennis and qb

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): 4 years of tennis (varsity co-captain), 4 years class office (treasurer), 4 years quiz bowl (captain), ASB, spirit ambassador, a few other less time consuming clubs & an ecology club not associated with my school
Job/Work Experience: worked at a rec center ~25 hours a week spring of junior year until fall of senior year when my hours dropped to ~10 hours a week; started another job in December of senior year, but I can’t remember if I put it on my application or not
Volunteer/Community service: coached youth tennis summer camps, lots of beach cleanups
Summer Activities: didn’t have a lot going on, mainly work and tennis
Essays (rating 1-10, details): overall 9/10
Common app 10/10 best thing I’ve ever written, everyone who read it said it portrayed me perfectly and was pretty creative and original. The supplements were probably 8/10 I was very honest and had fun writing them

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: I’m guessing an 8/10 AP calc teacher, I’m not her best student but I spend a lot of time in tutorial and she knows me well
Teacher Rec #2: 10/10 english teacher, he let me read it and it was amazing. He read my common app essay and parts of his rec definitely bolstered what I was trying to communicate, he wrote mainly about my intellectual curiosity and eagerness in his classroom
Counselor Rec: no idea, but probably not that great. She has like 600 students to deal with and I see her once a year so she doesn’t know me that well, but I’m sure she did her best with what info she had haha
Additional Rec: nope
Interview: didn’t have one

Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Political Science
State (if domestic applicant): CA
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: medium sized public
Ethnicity: White
Gender: F
Income Bracket: low
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): first generation

Reflection
Strengths: Essays??
Weaknesses: low SAT, lack of community service + bland ECs
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Who knows! Such an amazing school with high standards and a stellar pool of applicants
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: accepted to SDSU (Weber honors college) USC USD UCSC UCLA UCB, Stanford is my only rejection but I guess I saw that coming haha

General Comments:
Honestly, I’m just really really happy I’m not going to community college next year. I knew applying to Stanford was a huge reach but I’m glad I did, and I can’t say I would do anything different given the chance. Now I’m just waiting for FA packages so I can choose between SDSU and USC. Congratulations to everyone who was accepted, as well as all the other great applicants who weren’t, I’m sure you will end up right where you’re meant to be next year :slight_smile:

Decision: Accepted!!! DAMN!

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2110 (740M, 730CR, 640W w 10 essay)
ACT (breakdown): 30 (29 E, 32 M, 33 S, 25 R 22 W)
SAT II: 710 Math I, 690 Math II
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.06
Weighted GPA: 101.6087 out of 100
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 10 out of 654
AP (place score in parenthesis): Music Theory (5), AP Lang (3), Environmental Science (4), US History (3), Physics 1 (3),
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: Symphonic Band, AP Calc AB, Health/Speech, AP Gov’t, AP Macroeconomics, AP French AP Lit, AP Physics C Mechanics, AP Physics C Electricity & Magnetism
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): 18th Chair, 16th Chair, 2nd Chair, 1st Chair District Band (by year), 18th Chair, 8th Chair, 1st Chair, 1st Chair Region XI Band (by year), 5th Chair, 3rd Chair All-Area Band (Jr and Sr year), 2-year TMEA All-Stater, TSSEC Outstanding Soloist Award

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Symphonic Band and Marching Band all 4 years (Flute/Piccolo Section Leader Senior Year), National Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta, Youth Philharmonic Orchestra of San Antonio, Gay-Straight Alliance Club, Youth Leadership Club, Jazz Band, Varsity Orchestra
Job/Work Experience: Cook Associate at Pizza Hut
Volunteer/Community service: San Antonio Food Bank work, St. Matthew’s Habitat for Humanity group, Children’s Music Liturgy of St. Matthew’s Catholic Church, South Texas Drumline Festival
Summer Activities: Baylor Flute Seminar, High School Band and Orchestra Baylor Camp
Essays (rating 1-10, details): Common App (8) because I worked really hard on them but I personally dislike my writing voice. I discussed a lot of my political views (extremely liberal), and Stanford is also liberal so it helped I guess. Supplement (10) I sent in a musical supplement and I really aced my orchestral excerpts.

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: My physics teacher :)) (Definitely a 10) Not only does he agree with my viewpoints, but he also saw how much I struggled and succeeded in his classroom. He’s also my favorite teacher and I’ve had him for two years.
Teacher Rec #2: My calculus teacher (8.5/10) Also liberal (go figure) and I’ve had her for two years as well. I didn’t struggle as much when I took her Pre-Cal class last year, but she still appreciated my work ethic.
Counselor Rec: I have no idea, yet probably bad because our counselors are so detached from anyone who isn’t legit doing drugs and having sex all the time.
Additional Rec: My band director (8/10) I’ve had this guy for the past 4 years, and he has really seen me mature, as well as the fact that I won so many awards in the band program.
Interview: Wasn’t invited for one.

Other:
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Computer Science + Music Performance
State (if domestic applicant): TX
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public School
Ethnicity: African American
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: 150k+
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM, Special demonstrated talent in the musical area

Reflection:
Strengths: I think I had really interesting extracurriculars and basically resumé in general. Also great supplement.
Weaknesses: Below average ACT/SAT Scores, maybe counselor rec
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Just a really attractive application
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Accepted: Northwestern, Duke, UNT, Seton Hall, Mary Hardin-Baylor, George Mason. Waitlisted: Johns Hopkins. Still waiting on: Dartmouth.

General Comments: I just have to vent that this whole selection process is complete bunk. There are so many applicants that are deserving of a spot at Stanford or at any of the other top-tier universities for that matter. There are so many kids who worked just as hard as I did all for years of high school, but didn’t get in, and it infuriates me. Getting into a great college is so overrated, and although there are obvious perks from attending a great school, it’s utterly ridiculous that these colleges just choose to have 5% acceptance rates to make themselves look prestigious when they could be educating more brilliant people that apply to them.

Decision: Accepted

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2140 (740 CR, 680 M, 720 W)
ACT (breakdown): n/a
SAT II: 680 Math2, 730 Bio M
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.51
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 7/670
AP (place score in parenthesis): Euro(5), English lit(3), Bio(5), APUSH(4),World(4)
IB (place score in parenthesis): n/a
Senior Year Course Load: AP Chem, ap Lang, ap gov, ap calc AB, ap studio art, anatomy honors
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): national Hispanic scholar recognition program(PSAT), ap scholar with distinction, perfect attendance for 13 years lmao

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): track and xc three years JV, secretary of club funding girls education in third world countries in senior year
Job/Work Experience: paid peer tutoring
Volunteer/Community service: 100 hours from hospital
Summer Activities: Travelling, running, volunteering at hospital
Essays (rating 1-10, details): Common app about my background and struggles as first gen 9/10, intellectual vitality 8/10, roommate 9/10, what matters to you about balance in my life 9/10
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):

Teacher Rec #1: 9/10, very detailed letter from a history teacher I had for two different classes
Teacher Rec #2: 7/10 from math teacher very vague
Counselor Rec: didn’t read probably bad lol
Additional Rec: n/a
Interview: n/a

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: yes!!!
Intended Major: bio
State (if domestic applicant): CA
Country (if international applicant): n/a
School Type: large public
Ethnicity: Hispanic
Gender: F
Income Bracket: ~80k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): first gen, URM

Reflection

Strengths: GPA, essays
Weaknesses: test scores were okay, extracurriculars weren’t anything spectacular
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I honestly don’t know. I wasn’t expecting this at all. I think my passion for learning in general and breaking the mold of my family really shone through in my essays.
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Accepted UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCI; Rejected from Pomona

General Comments: I am so happy it feels unreal!!! Did they make a mistake? Lol. I had to reread the letter about 10 times and it still hasn’t sunk in. My best advice is to just let your personality and passions shine in your app! I think that’s what saved me. Congratulations everybody!

Decision: Accepted

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2210 (CR 760, M 720, W 730)

SAT II: Math 2 (800), Literature (750)

Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.46
Rank/Percentile: n/a,

AP (place score in parenthesis): Calc AB (5), English Literature (5), Physics 1 (4)

Senior Year Course Load: Science Fiction / Counterculture Literature 2, Percussion Ensemble, Physics C AP, Religion / Economics, Psychology

Major Academic Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Finalist

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): All about piano, but there was too much so I made a resume and simply linked to it on my application. Here it is: https://www.dropbox.com/s/g8uyntipeyvs1ha/Resume%20and%20Repertoire.docx?dl=0

Job/Work Experience: n/a

Volunteer/Community service: Bay Area Youth Music Society- organized and played in benefit concerts at various local retirement homes, and also played in semi-annual charity concerts at SCU. Also spent time at Sacred Heart and CityTeam Ministry, working in the kitchen.

Summer Activities: Summer before
9: Colburn Academy Piano Festival in Los Angeles, Music@Menlo Chamber Festival (1st time)
10: Tanglewood Music Festival at BUTI, Music@Menlo (2nd time)
11: Invited artist at ICMus Festival in Newcastle, England; played Rachmaninoff’s 3rd Piano Concerto with the Newcastle Sinfonietta. Attended Southeastern Piano Festival at U South Carolina, won 2nd Prize in the Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition there.
12: Music Fest Perugia in Italy; performed with orchestra, chamber groups, and solo. Attended Charles Dickens Universe at UC Santa Cruz. Also started sailing and tennis lessons, which are fun.

Essays (rating 1-10, details):
*Common App: 10/10 Format borrowed from Canterbury Tales- wrote about 2 ridiculous music-related predicaments (1st was about discovering, at 1:30 in the morning, that I had to finish learning a concerto and play it with orchestra the next day in Music Fest Perugia’s opening concert; 2nd was about having no piano to play on at a concert). After that, I tied the two stories together with a brief paragraph about spontaneity. The goal was to show my flexibility and ability to adapt, as well as my experiences at the piano.

*Roommate Essay: 5/10 Not poorly written, but classic example of ignoring the prompt. I wrote a weird, obtuse piece about my obsession with shapes (circles, triangles, squares) and some mathematical and natural ideas/images associated with them. That’s…not a roommate letter. If I could do it again, I’d scrap it and start over.

*Intellectual Vitality: 8/10 Pretty good, if a bit difficult to follow. The main idea was “changing my ideas of right and wrong”. First I talked about how my US History teacher assigned us two textbooks with differing viewpoints (Howard Zinn vs. a group of more nationalistic authors lol), then talked about music: going from a close-minded soloist to learning how to involve the audience/other players in my music. If that was difficult to understand…it was.

*What matters and why: 9/10 Another anecdotel. A friend and I started a club called Chamber Music Society, and we were trying to recruit new members; however, other music appreciation clubs overpowered us with their speakers and loud music. The idea was, it’s more rewarding to play live music than hit play on a recording.

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): couldn’t read 'em

English Lit AP teacher: 10/10 I think his letter was great, because I made a huge effort to succeed in his class, frequently discussing material outside of class time with him; I was rewarded with very high grades (nailed high scores on both research papers, a personal achievement) and, well, a very rewarding year.
US History teacher: 10/10 I started the year off rough, he caught me studying calc in class and cut me a B- for participation for several weeks lol. But I eventually became one of his favorite students and I ended 2nd semester with an A+, which was unprecedented.
Counselor Rec: 7/10 a cool guy, graduated from Yale, but we barely knew each other.
Additional Rec from piano teacher: 9/10 like my English teacher, he’s a great man who’s famous as a performer and teacher. I have no idea what he wrote about, but he taught me for only about 3 years, and he knows about all the competitions/festivals/etc. that I attended.
Interview: n/a

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: No
Intended Major: Piano performance
State (if domestic applicant): California
School Type: Private Catholic
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: M
Income Bracket: $100,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): first gen, strong in music

Reflection

Strengths: Piano, piano, piano. I had a ton of things to say about it, from winning international competitions, to performances around the world, to meeting the best artists of this generation in lessons and festivals (people like Lang Lang, Leon Fleisher, etc.). At the same time my academics were decent.

Weaknesses: Test scores and academics were nothing special, worse than most of the posts here. Lack of academic awards or activities. Lack of leadership at school. And being Asian, heh

Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Music and – important – being PROACTIVE by directly contacting a professor. As part of applying for music, I auditioned for Professor Barth, who’s unique for his scholarly approach to playing the piano focusing especially on Beethoven. He really enjoyed my playing back in October, but then I got deferred from Stanford. A month ago I emailed him, reminding him who I was, re-iterating my interest in Stanford (a place where I can keep playing piano but also explore new fields like literature and science), and asking him specific questions about his work and piano studio (what performance opportunities? how many students do you have? What authors do you suggest I read about Beethoven’s Sonatas?). He replied with a VERY in-depth analysis of the Beethoven I was playing, and answered every single one of my questions. Yes, he remembered me way back from October.

Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
*Accepted: 4 UC’s (San Diego, Davis, LA, Berkeley), Northwestern, Rice (Shepherd School of Music), Carnegie Mellon
*Waitlisted: Johns Hopkins
*Rejected: USC
*Waiting for Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Princeton.

General comments: Look through this thread and you’ll notice that test scores and class selection (the Objective section) are poor predictors of acceptance. Frankly your academics need to be at the level you see here, but that’s just the bare minimum. Even big academic awards sometimes aren’t enough (not that I had any). Getting into a college like Stanford, then, is all about your extracurriculars, most importantly your leadership and entrepreneurship. I took a different path and went extremely focused on music- racking up plenty of awards, performances, and experience, much of it on the international level. Because of this, I was in a good position to take on some leadership/entrepreneurship, like starting clubs and chamber groups (I formed and played in a piano trio for 2 years). However, I sacrificed versatility and my chance to excel at academics.
It worked for me, but barely- I was originally deferred. I think that reaching out to Professor Barth was the deciding factor- he agreed with my goal to become a “scholar-musician”, and answered my emails meticulously. I’d love to study with him.
In the end, throw yourself into anything you do, do it to the best of your ability, and CREATE. Form clubs, lead teams, go to your teacher and engage them in conversations. Find out about a Stanford professor you are interested in, and get to know them, even via email. That personal connection can be very powerful.

Decision: Waitlisted

Objective:

SAT I: 2180
SAT II: 800 Math II, 760 Physics
IB (place score in parenthesis): predicted 45; HL math, physics, econ, french SL chem, lang lit
Senior Year Course Load: same as IB exams, only HL chem course
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): none (international student who is not familiar with award systems and language in own country), but I hold numerous school awards (I messed up in my app and forgot to include awards from competitions I have actually managed to participate in, e.g. FTC robotics awards)

Subjective:

Extracurriculars & Service: A lot (I filled out all 10 fields and ran out of space), but they’re all mostly related to school/school-sponsored so I guess that looked pretty bad. Also, I guess it looks bad if you do “too many” activities, even if you don’t intend to…
Summer Activities: I went to like this Ivy League summer school for 4 weeks, but other than that I was just enjoying life
Essays (rating 1-10, details): I can’t really say. I liked them because they were the quirkiest I’ve written but may not have been what the admissions officer liked. I don’t have these life-changing anecdotes and I’m not a creative writer–I mostly read non-fiction.
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): I waived FERPA but I trust my teacher and counselor that they were excpetionally good.
Interview: none

Other:

Applied for Financial Aid?: No
Intended Major: Undecided
Country (if international applicant): Europe (I know it’s a continent but I don’t want to share too much)
School Type: International
Ethnicity: Asian (we all know what this means…)
Income Bracket: Upper middle
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): none really, I guess my family used to be poor, but through hard work we got wealthier??

Reflection:

Strengths: academic achievements, no financial aid
Weaknesses: ethnicity. extracurriculars. I really enjoyed them, but I couldn’t express it on paper which made me seem quite superficial I think. I also could have tried to do more outside of my school and it’s my fault that I ended up staying in this bubble.
Why you think you were waitlisted: Not good enough–my holistic applications just can’t match all the others, which are amazing. I’m reading through them and I’m like saying to myself: “wow they really deserve it”.
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I was rejected MIT EA (my dream school) lol so I kind of gave up afterwards, but then acceptances came rolling in: 4 UK unis (incl. Maths @ Cambridge), UChicago, Brown Likely letter and now I’m waiting for Harvard next week (no high expectations though–see you on the Harvard decisions thread)! To be honest I didn’t expect to get into Stanford. I knew admit rates would go below 5% this year so I’m happy that I tried :slight_smile: I don’t think I will accept the waitlist place… The chance of getting admitted is too low and the uncertainty would slowly kill me :stuck_out_tongue:

Decision: Rejected

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown): 2020 (670CR 670M 680W) (My parents were divorcing and we almost lost the house during my preparation and am self taught. I sent them an email explaining)
ACT (breakdown): 29
SAT II: 770 Chemistry 760 Bio M
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): Don’t technically have one but I calculated it, around 4
Weighted GPA: N/A
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): N/A
AP (place score in parenthesis): N/A
IB (place score in parenthesis): Chem HL 7; Bio HL 7; Philosophy HL 7; Math SL 5; French SL 5; English SL 6
Senior Year Course Load: IB and self taught SATs
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Best drum kit grade score in country (Exhibition Award)

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): I’ll just copy from the CommonApp:

  1. Rugby Captain for 5 years, we’ve been county champions, I’ve been awarded both Most Improved and Player of the Season awards
  2. Got a full scholarship to the Gilman School in Baltimore to study there for 4 weeks
  3. Head Percussionist of school’s concert and marching band (Toured Germany and Belgium, perform half time show at Lord’s Cricket Ground annually for England, also at Lord Mayor’s Show and St Matthew’s Day)
  4. Grade 8 in Flute, Snare Drum, and Drum Kit (All distinctions, Ist Flautist in flute quartet, and recieved an ‘Exhibition Award’, best mark in country, for a Drum Kit exam)
  5. Hosted website with brother to self-publish essays: http://lucasfmkovacs.wix.com/kotchbrothers.
  6. Published various musical videos and arrangements on YouTube channel. URL = https://www.youtube.com/user/rizzo742
  7. Participated in school’s SATB choir. Recorded for BBC, released CDs, performed for various events including St. Matthews Day and for Archbishop of Canterbury
  8. Will be competing for a Men’s Physique competition. Going to the gym has been a hobby for years, so I decided to finally compete in May 2016
    (Additional Info)
    -My GCSE and IGCSE examination grades (taken between June and July 2013) are as follows:
    -International GCSEs: 6As in Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Mathematics (taken 6 months early), English Literature, English Language
    -GCSEs: 2A
    s in Theology & Philosophy and Music, and 2As in Art and French. (8A*s and 2As overall)
    In the Rugby VIIs county tournament of 2013 we won First place, and thus represented Sussex in future tournaments.
    -Our percussion section of the marching band was asked to perform a Splits performance in the Mansion House in 2014, and we have also been asked to perform in various other events (memorials and weddings primarily).
    -I was awarded the Sixth Form Philosophy Scholarship in 2013.
    -I have traveled to various recording studios in South East England to record drum kit and flute primarily over the summer and Christmas holidays of 2015.
    -I am also self-taught on the piano.
    -Consistently achieved perfect effort grades from year 10 onwards (straight 5.00 averages- 5 being best effort and 1 being the worst).

Job/Work Experience: Have been employed at LA Fitness until we got bought out, so now work at Darlings of Chelsea
Volunteer/Community service: Volunteered at home in local charity stores, at school with a club, and also went busking on my snare drum in Wales for the RSPCA
Summer Activities: Not much other than study, music, and volunteer work. We don’t really have summer stuff in the UK like the US does
Essays (rating 1-10, details): CommonApp = 7 or 8/10, kinda generic but definitely conveyed my passion for political philosophy. Supplements = 7 or 8/10 as well… were kind of bold and certainly reflected my personality well to be fair but I know could have been better
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):

Teacher Rec #1: Probably very nice and sycophantic I suppose, very close teacher. But I felt like he was trying to do me a favour by writing in that manner rather than writing about who i really am I guess
Teacher Rec #2: Never saw, probably more accurate about my personality even though we weren’t as close as my other rep
Counselor Rec: Never saw. I think he hates me.
Additional Rec: N/A
Interview: Really good actually. Although my school put me in a bad light because I can’t pay the school funds at the moment (despite them claiming they’re a charity school). They told my interviewer I wasn’t allowed on campus and that I “would know why…”, so the interview started off kind of like an interrogation to find out why. But after that he was kind of laughing in surprise about my achievements and what I’ve done. Quite the turn around.

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: YES. I CAN’T CONTRIBUTE ■■■■
Intended Major: Philosophy/Political Science
State (if domestic applicant): N/A
Country (if international applicant): UK
School Type: Independent Boarding School but is a ‘charity’-- Christ’s Hospital (check it out, J.K Rowling got idea for Harry Potter from us)
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: <£13,000 or <$19,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First Gen College Student

Reflection

Strengths: My music arrangements on my website were probably my strongest aspects (i.e. that made me stand out the most I guess)
Weaknesses: SCORES. As I said above, it was a really difficult time for me to prepare for the SAT. We couldn’t afford any tuition, my parents were divorcing, we almost lost the house multiple times, my long distance gf broke up with me, and I had a bout of depression and so did my brother haha. Obviously I didn’t explain all of that in the email I sent Stanford, but I gave some contextual information.
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Financial Aid probably didn’t help seeing as I need a full ride. My scores in the SAT and the IB were way lower than anticipated. And the fierce competition is the icing on the cake I guess
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Rejected: Yale NUS and Duke and Stanford and Dartmouth. Still waiting from the rest of the Ivies. Also got unconditionals from LSE (politics and philosophy), UCL (philosophy), and Warwick (PPE)

General Comments: I really hope I get in somewhere. It’s honestly everything I’ve been working for. I know there are far better qualified people than me out there who have also been rejected. Let’s just keep our heads high I suppose haha

Rejected so I am not going to write a lot.
SAT 2390(WR790)
SAT2: Math2, Phy,Chem, BioM, US history 800s Lit740
Rank/GPA top 5%, school doesnt report GPA but I think it’s a 4.0
AP/IB: school doesn’t offer
ECs&essays decent
Ethnicity, gender: male Asian( International)
didnt apply for aid
Did an okay third party interview
Comments: Feel the same way as @LucasKovacs Stanford was my NO.1 school and its a real blow. But I know that more qualified people have been rejected and my heart goes out to them. Also congrats to those admitted. =D>

Decision: Accepted

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2310 (750 CR, 770 M, 790 W, 11 E)
ACT (breakdown): 35 (36 E, 34 R, 34 M, 36 S, 11 E)
SAT II: 800 Bio M, 800 Math II, 780 Chem
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.8
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 4/570 (Top 1%)
AP (place score in parenthesis): Human Geography (5), Environmental Science (5), European History (5), Biology (5), Chemistry (5), Psychology (5, self study), U.S. History (5), English Language (5)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calculus, AP English Literature, AP US Government, AP Economic, Wind Ensemble, AP Physics C Mechanics
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National AP Scholar, National Merit Finalist, other small regional stuff

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Wind Ensemble (9-12, First Chair Saxophone, Librarian), Marching Band (9-12, Flute Section Leader 10-12), All-State Honor Band (9, 11-12), All-County Honor Band (9-12, First Chair), National Honor Society (12, Project Leader), National English Honor Society (11-12, Vice President), Special Olympics Club (11-12), School Writing Tutor (11-12), School Math Tutor (11-12), HOBY Local Leadership Seminar (10), HOBY World Leadership Congress (10), Gay-Straight Alliance (12), Lab Internship at UCLA (12), Hospital Volunteer (11-12, Student Coordinator/Shift Supervisor), Spring and Summer Music Camp Volunteer (10-12), Vacation Bible School Volunteer (9, 11)
Job/Work Experience: Surgical Assistant at an Oral Surgery Office (Summer between Junior and Senior year)
Volunteer/Community service: Tutoring, Hospital, Music Camp, Vacation Bible School; 500+ hours, Gold President’s Volunteer Service Award
Summer Activities: Volunteering, Summer Job, Leadership Camps, Marching Band
Essays (rating 1-10, details): Common App (8): represented myself through a symbol and a short anecdote, revealed a lot about me but could’ve been more eloquent; Extracurricular Activity (8): talked about music; Short Answers (7): I answered them honestly, but they’re so short that it’s pretty trick to hit the nail on the head; Intellectual Vitality (9): employed a framework story to discuss my interest in science; Letter to Roommate (8): Decent, maybe a bit generic; What Matters to You? (9): this is the one where I really went out on a limb and tried to be unique - it guess it paid off?

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: English Teacher (8): didn’t read it but we have a good relationship and she liked me as a student;
Teacher Rec #2: Biology Teacher (7): was less personal with me as a teacher, but I did exceedingly well in the class and she liked me (I hope)
Counselor Rec: 7, we’re very friendly with each other but I’m sure it wasn’t anything special
Additional Rec: 9, written by my lab mentor; she said she made me sound amazing in her letter
Interview: N/A

Supplements (8): submitted a music supplement on saxophone… I didn’t realize until around three days before the application was due that I had an earlier deadline since I was submitting something for music. So over the weekend I scrambled to put together my written application and my pieces - while it wasn’t perfect, I think it was pretty decent.

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Bioengineering
State (if domestic applicant): CA
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: White/Asian
Gender: M
Income Bracket: <$50,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): none

Reflection

Strengths: Stats/Score; Some of my writing supplements
Weaknesses: I feel like I’m a pretty generic Asian STEM applicant
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I have no idea - I feel so lucky to be given this opportunity and I couldn’t even begin to imagine how hard it must be to make these decisions. There are so many extremely qualified and amazing students out there - how they decided I was right for Stanford will never make sense to me.
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Accepted: Stanford (obviously), UC Berkeley, Duke
Waitlisted: UCLA
Rejected: Northwestern, USC
Waiting: Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia

General Comments: Congrats to all the other admits! I’m so excited to see you all at Admit Weekend :slight_smile: To everyone else, realize that Stanford is the most selective university in the world and this was the most competitive class ever admitted (4.7% is actually unfathomable). You are all incredible people and will go on to do amazing things!

**Decision: Waitlisted **

Objective:

[ul]
[] SAT I: 2300 (800M, 770W, 730 CR)
[
] ACT: N/A
[] SAT II: 800 Math II, 800 Physics
[
] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): School doesn’t do GPA, but around a 92/100 cumulative
[] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): School doesn’t rank, but probably top 10%
[
] AP (place score in parenthesis): Physics C: Mechanics (5), Physics C: E&M (5), Calc BC (5), Chemistry (5), Eng Lang and Comp (5), Microeconomics (5)
[] IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
[
] Senior Year Course Load: English, Comp Sci, World History, Philosophy, Economics, Statistics
[] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): This is where I thought I really stood out: International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) bronze medallist, International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) bronze medallist, AAPT PhysicsBowl Canadian winner, a few other national/international physics competition awards that I won’t list for the sake of the reader (lol) [/ul]
Subjective:

[ul]
[
] Extracurriculars: Debate Club (President), Physics Club (President), physics olympiad training (this one was huge), astrophysics research and biochemical research at 2 local universities, JV basketball

[] Job/Work Experience: Taught science at a local tutoring hub
[
] Volunteer/Community service: Volunteered at local science centre
[] Essays: Essays were above average at best. Common App was about physics club, and the supplements were pretty generic.
[
] Teacher Recommendations: English Teacher (who is also my debate club coach): 9/10 and Physics Teacher (who is also my physics club mentor): didn’t see but probably 8-9/10
[] Counselor Rec: Didn’t see, probably pretty good though (8/10)
[
] Additional Rec: N/A
[] Interview: N/A [/ul]
Other

[ul]
[
] State (if domestic applicant):
[] Country (if international applicant): CANADA BABY
[
] School Type: Semi-competitive public
[] Ethnicity: Ashun
[
] Gender: Mael
[] Income Bracket: ~ High enough to not qualify for Fin. Aid
[
] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): International awards? Not sure if this counts as a hook [/ul]
Reflection

[list]
[] Strengths: Awards, ECs, recommendations, test scores (I guess)
[
] Weaknesses: ESSAYS, grades
[] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Difficult to say, probably essays though
[
] Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: [list] Accepted: JHU, Duke, COLUMBIA (likely)
Also waitlisted: UChicago,
Rejected: MIT (I cry)
Waiting on: Harvard, Yale, Princeton (deferred EA), UPenn, Dartmouth

General Comments: Well its been a long ride and I’m extremely lucky to be in such a good position. I’ll refrain from being all sentimental and stuff, but for future applicants I would recommend developing a spike (focus alot on something), like I did with physics. I think that was the reason I wasn’t flat-out rejected, and this way, its easier for you to stand out.

Cheers and good luck to everyone!!! :slight_smile:

Decision: Accepted

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown): 2330 (800M 800W 730 CR)
ACT (breakdown): -
SAT II: 800 Math II, 800 Physics, 800 French
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): -
Weighted GPA: -
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): -
AP (place score in parenthesis): -
IB (place score in parenthesis): -
Senior Year Course Load: 4 A Levels (UK system)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): a few national-level awards for math + debate

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): debating (school captain), math (school captain), music (school scholar) + others
Job/Work Experience: -
Volunteer/Community service: around 50 hours at a charity shop
Summer Activities: math + debate camps, international music tour, research, volunteering
Essays (rating 1-10, details): I liked my common app essay - thought it conveyed my passion + commitment to debating in quite an interesting way (8/10? It wasn’t moving or anything like that). Letter to roommate was basically about all the things I wanted to do at Stanford - so potentially a bit off-topic but I think it showed why I would be a good fit for Stanford and how I would take advantage of Stanford (7/10?). Intellectual vitality tried to convey the way I think about random things (8/10?). What matters to me - talked about music, trying to convey 1) my passion for it and 2) the way it brings me closer to other people + strengthens my relationship with people around me (7/10?). Shorter answers were generally pretty good too - I found those very fun to write and am proud of how much I could pack into 50 words.

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): have no idea - waived my rights to see them.

Teacher Rec #1: see above
Teacher Rec #2: see above
Counselor Rec: see above
Additional Rec: -
Interview: pretty bad - my interviewer thought I was being quite inauthentic (I wasn’t - we didn’t really click as people). But he showed me what he wrote at the end and it was actually nice - he said he just really enjoyed pushing people and finding out what they’re really like deep inside so maybe that’s just how he is.

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: no
Intended Major: math
State (if domestic applicant): -
Country (if international applicant): UK (but US citizen)
School Type: private
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: female
Income Bracket: -
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): none

Reflection

Strengths: test scores, grades, extra-curricular commitment
Weaknesses: potentially essays (although I spent ages on these and am proud with what I managed, writing isn’t really my natural strength, and my life really isn’t that interesting), interview
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: really lucky!
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: accepted - Columbia (likely), MIT, UC Berkeley + some UK universities (including Oxford); still waiting on everywhere else (deferred from Harvard EA)

Decision: Accepted

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): did not submit
ACT (breakdown): 36 (single-sitting, E: 36, M: 36, R: 35, S: 36)
SAT II: Math IIC: 800, Bio-M: 790
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): school does not calculate GPA, predicted IB: 40/42
Weighted GPA: N/A
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): school does not rank
AP (place score in parentheses): none
IB (place score in parentheses): Full IB Diploma candidate + certificate in Physics
Senior Year Course Load: IB English Lit A SL, IB French B HL, IB Environmental Systems and Societies SL, IB Biology HL, IB Math HL, IB Chemistry HL, IB Physics HL, IB Theory of Knowledge, AP Comp Sci A, AP Biology, AP Physics C: E/M
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel, etc.): Research Science Institute (RSI) at MIT, Intel Science Talent Search (STS) Semifinalist, Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS) 2nd place in state, United World College (UWC) International Scholar, paper published

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): Research, educational nonprofit founder, multi-instrumentalist, varsity basketball, french drama, model UN
Job/Work Experience: Research internships here and there
Volunteer/Community Service: Founded science/education nonprofit, math and science tutor, volunteer translator
Summer Experience: Stanford EPGY, research internships, RSI
Essays (rating 1-10, details): will not delve into them, but they were good not great. 6.5/10.
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): did not read any of them.
Interview: Very casual. We talked about CS stuff and the startup scene in Palo Alto. 7/10.

Other:
Applied for Financial Aid?: you betcha
Intended Major: Computer Science
State (if domestic applicant): going to international school in NM
Country (if international applicant): Turkey
School Type: private international, IB
Ethnicity: White (Middle Eastern)
Gender: XY
Income Bracket: <20000$ (ayy lmao)
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): first-generation college student

Reflection:
Strengths: I really don’t know… RSI, Intel, and test scores may have helped
Weaknesses: Asking for full financial aid as an international, okay GPA, no olympiad medals, mundane essays, didn’t cure cancer
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I HAVE NO IDEA!!! It feels good to see that my personality was well reflected in my essays.
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Accepted: MIT, Colby
Waitlisted: Caltech, University of Chicago, Washington University in St. Louis
Rejected: none so far :slight_smile:

Also waiting to hear from Harvard (deferred SCEA), Princeton, and Cornell.

General Comments:
So ecstatic. I knew Stanford was a long shot but I decided to take a chance anyway to see how far I could go. Leaning towards Stanford because I got a full ride + no loans. Fear the tree!

Decision: Accepted

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2350 (800 W, 780 M, 770 CR)
ACT (breakdown): 35
SAT II: 800 (Molecular Biology), 800 (Math II), 800 (US History)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.2
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 3 out of 625
AP (place score in parenthesis): 5’s of AP Chemistry, AP Biology, AP English Language and Composition, AP US History, and AP Human Geography
IB (place score in parenthesis): Not offered at my school
Senior Year Course Load: AP Physics C, AP Calculus BC, AP English Literature, AP Gov, AP Macro, and Honors Biotechnology
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Nada

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Varsity and JV Cheer (Co-Captain one year); Level 5 (Top Level) Cheerleader: Placed in top ten at the Cheerleading Worlds in Orlando, FL for three consecutive years and appeared on ESPN News. Independent Tap Dancer and Choreographer; Green Jacket (a leadership role awarded to the top 8 male and female people in my school); UIL Political History Member (State Finalists); Mu Alpha Theta; National Honors Society (Senate Committee Member); Spanish Club (President); Medical Academy (pre-med program for those interested in medicine)
Job/Work Experience: International writer for an online company; articles received 1 million monthly uniques. I also tutor in math and science.
Volunteer/Community service: Leader/Lobbyist for a formal bicycling safety policy proposal in my community. Initiated after a bike/auto tragedy occurred in my town. Appeared on local news station and petitioned to the Mayor and City Council Members. Collaborated with the Police Chief and several metroplex health specialists. Ordinance was eventually passed and implemented in November.
Summer Activities: Summer before 11th grade, I attended Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes for Bioscience and researched mechanisms for contagious cancer. The summer before senior year, I attended Summer@Brown where I learned bioresearch methods such as protein assays, Western blots, etc. I used this as a springboard to work in a lab back at home researching neuronal plaque formation in Alzheimer’s Disease. I also interned with the Fire Department and rode out on Engine One for Medical Calls.

Essays (rating 1-10, details): As Stanford has been my dream school since 8th grade, I began my essays super early. I heard that Stanford valued the essay portion the most so I made sure that each section was as close to perfection as possible. I probably did five drafts for each portion (including the short responses!). Compared with what I sent Harvard (and I got in), my Stanford essays were by far superior.
Common App Essay: (9/10) This was “My Story” and it was very well written. It discussed my political activism after a bike-auto tragedy occurred in my community, and how I took the initiative to pass an updated bicycling safety ordinance. Perhaps it was a little too factual, but I thought this essay had to be meticulous given my months of work on this project.
Intellectual Vitality: (10/10) I focused on my internship as writer for an international online news agency geared towards kids. I talked about the difficulty in simplifying complex scientific concepts so that they are easily comprehensible to a child, and how that has helped me connect-the-dots and simplify concepts in my own life.
Roommate Essay (10/10): Hands down my favorite one. It was true to myself and my personal sense of humor. I mentioned my weird habits such writing sentences right to left to avoid a smudge on my left writing hand and pacing and talking out loud to myself when I study. Also talked about my family, including my sister who works for the FBI.
What Matters to you and Why (10/10): Modified this one from my Harvard app. Essentially this discusses my difficulty with my delayed maturity. It was beautifully written, as I interlaced the entire piece with a metaphor about flight. I ended the piece by including myself as a voice for the younger generation and how we should believe in ourselves and in our capacity to accomplish our dreams.
Short Responses: Each on of these was deliberately crafted, as there are only 50 words you can write max. My favorite one was the five words you get to choose. One of mine was “wabi-sabi” which is Japanese for embracing the beauty in imperfection :slight_smile:
Teacher Rec #1: (10/10) From my APUSH teacher who LOVED me. I read it afterwards for scholarships and it was amazing. He and I were pretty close as I was on his UIL Political History team as well, which he talked about extensively.
Teacher Rec #2: From my AP Calculus AB Teacher. I didn’t read it but she liked me so I believe it was good.
Counselor Rec: Excellent. My counselor has helped me in so many ways, and our relationship is extremely close, as she helped my family overcome a tragedy last year.
Additional Rec: From the Superintendent of my school district. My family and his are friends and the recommendation provided another facet to me.
Interview: Wasn’t offered one.

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: No
Intended Major: Neuroscience
State (if domestic applicant): TX
Country (if international applicant): United States
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Hispanic, White
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: 250,000+
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Nada

Reflection

Strengths: My essays by far. Once over a certain threshold, the test scores, SATs, ACTs, GPAs, 123s are meaningless. What matters is your voice and what you can contribute to Stanford. I believe my essays accomplished that. I also submitted a video, which included my experiences in both dance and cheer. This definitely helped provide a more comprehensive view of my identity.
Weaknesses: Lack of Major awards, getting published, curing cancer, accomplishing the ridiculously implausible, if not impossible things that some applicants end up accomplishing. (I truly am amazed at what people my age are doing. Makes me excited for the future :slight_smile:)
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I had luck on my side. Also, forgive me for being a little superstitious, but I submitted the app on my lucky number (11/25) and I got the decision back on my lucky number (3/25). Obviously that didn’t cause my acceptance, but it has reinforced my faith in its numerical serendipity.

Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Accepted at Harvard, Stanford, Vanderbilt (full ride), UCLA, UCSD, University of Texas (Forty Acres Finalist), and TCU

General Comments: Wow. I still cannot believe I’m part of the 4.69%. As Stanford has been my dream school for so long, it is amazing that I actually got in. To future applicants, don’t give up hope. Work super hard on your app to give yourself the best shot. After that, hope for a little luck. That’s what everyone needs these days.

[aB][asize=4][acolor=#008000]Decision: Accepted[/color][/size]**

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