applied early but was too lazy to post until now
Decision: Accepted
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 720M/800R/800W -> 2320
ACT (breakdown):35E/36M/35R/35S/32W -> 35 (both in one sitting)
SAT II: 720 Microbiology 790 US History 800 Math 2
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA: 5.3 (for context my school weighs Pre-AP classes with 1.2 multiplier, AP classes with 1.3, and doesn’t factor in any class that doesn’t fall under a core subject or language, e.g. Art was excluded)
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 3/852
AP (place score in parenthesis): 5 on Human Geo, Spanish Lang, World History, Psych, Stats, US History, English Lang, Calc BC and AB subscore, and 4 on Bio
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Enviro, AP Lit, AP Physics C Mech and E&M, AP Chem, AP Govt, AP Econ
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): CTY Cogito Research Finalist, National Merit Finalist, published in peer-reviewed scientific journal, National AP Scholar, Science/English/Social Studies/Debate Student of the Year (school award), qualified multiple times to debate tournaments and swim meets on national, state, and regional levels.
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): NHS (treasurer), Science Honor Society (VP), Debate (Prez), Rho Kappa, Mu Alpha Theta, swim (quit sophomore year due to injury), research internship from summer before senior year to end of March at a university, UIL Social Studies and Spelling.
Job/Work Experience: Tutored Pre-AP Physics, Algebra II, Calc AB, and Pre-AP Bio
Volunteer/Community service: Volunteered as clerical assistant at a doctor’s office, tutor/mentor for an organization at a middle school, food pantry, Special Olympics swim coach, online work for two debate charities
Summer Activities: swimming and debate camp for summer before freshman and sophomore year, coding camp (really all I learned was that coding is not for me), debate camp and Stanford HEAT Institute summer before junior, research internship, work for debate charities, and Special Olympics coaching summer before senior. For the app I mentioned that I also learned how to drive summer before senior year, probably did not affect admission
Essays (rating 1-10, details):
Common app: 9/10 wrote about research which felt pretty generic but I put it in a creative format and made it more about how the project forced me to grow up than the content of the project itself
Room mate: 9/10 finished this hours before the deadline, basically filled it with facts about myself based on an ordinary day with me. Had a clever-ish hook about social media. I would’ve originally scored this lower but my admissions counselor wrote in her letter to me that she liked it so I guess it was better than I thought.
Intellectual vitality: 10/10 one of the best essays I’ve ever written, was about confronting privilege and why I (mostly) quit debate. felt sort of ballsy because it was about quitting a major extracurricular but I thought it turned out well
What matters to you: 7/10 despite many warnings to explicitly not do this, I wrote about religion (I’m Buddhist). used Buddhism to explain some facets of my character. Didn’t love it but it was okay.
Short answers: 9/10 Probably didn’t affect admission but I had a lot of fun with these.
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: 10/10, read it for a later scholarship, was so good it made me cry. Teachers rock.
Teacher Rec #2: 9/10, equally as good as first in terms of content but slightly less eloquent.
Counselor Rec: 10/10 presumably, have been close with my counselor for years, and I don’t think the counselor rec usually consists of much beyond “she was a good student and she didn’t commit any felonies”
Additional Rec: 10/10, doctor at the doctor’s office I volunteered at, she liked me a lot and her writing was excellent
Interview: Didn’t get one although others from my school did
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Biology
State (if domestic applicant): TX
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Large Public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: 130k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): I don’t think Viet counts as URM, sister attended Stanford for undergrad and uncle attended for grad
Reflection
Strengths: Essays, teacher recs, community service, unsure whether to say test scores/grades bc I feel like many who get rejected have better scores/grades than I did
Weaknesses: Lack of major scientific awards to show for the amount of research I did, less extracurriculars than many/not well rounded in extracurriculars
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: lots of luck. I felt like essays were my strongest point, but the more I think about it I suspect my quasi-legacy through my sister and uncle probably helped.
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Accepted to UT but rejected from UT honors :(, waiting to hear from Harvard.
General Comments: For someone with my socioeconomic position I didn’t feel like I achieved way more than I was expected to, and I’m still in shock at my acceptance. When I was doing applications and lurking on all the 2020 applicant threads I felt sure that my single-minded extracurriculars and lack of any major scientific award would screw me over, but it didn’t. Assuming I wasn’t solely a legacy admit, what I learned from this is that it’s okay to only pursue activities that you really care about rather than do a slew of ECs that mean nothing to you. I probably could’ve stacked my ECs more but there’s no way I would’ve been as successful in debate and research if I did; heck I straight up quit piano and swim once I got more into debate because I wanted to spend all my time in debate and nowhere else. For those of you who really hate a lot of the ECs you’re doing and want to quit and focus on one thing, I encourage you to do so if that’s truly what you’re most passionate about. Good luck to those of you waiting to hear from RD!
