Hey everyone! I’m here to give a little update on my journey as a Stanford hopeful.
To begin: Yes, I have backup schools. Yes, I have other schools I’m very interested in (USC, U of U, BYU, etc). Yes, I am going to work on my ACT score.
Right now, I have a 32 on the ACT (36 E 29 M 33 R 29 S) no superscore and I’m shooting to raise this to a 34 (mostly in math and science ofc). By the time I graduate, I will have taken 8 AP classes, 4 of which are based around social studies (AP human geo, WHAP, APUSH, and APGAP) and 7(?) honors classes as well. I currently have a 3.99 UW GPA (took 1 A- first term of my junior year), and I intend to keep it that way.
Recently, I have become pretty involved with the March for our Lives movement. I helped organize the student-led walkout at my school, and I was selected to represent my school at a gun control conference at my capital with our Lieutenant Governor and various news personnel (I was 1 of about 40 kids max invited). I’ve also been selected as a lead ambassador of my school for my state’s MFOL movement, so I currently work with the main organizers within our state to help plan and execute MFOL-related events. I will most likely have the opportunity to speak at one of these events as well. I’m currently working with my school to start campaigns for greater voter registration and pre-registration on our campus (which, thankfully, is allowed by district policy). I intend to use some of this work as a hook, as my school was a victim of a school stabbing which has compelled me to get involved with MFOL.
Beyond this, I plan to start a GSA at my school (right in the heart of conservative Utah, woo), which will work directly with the faculty and school newspaper to provide more support for LGBTQ+ students that attend my high school. Currently, I’m waiting on results for the GLSEN (Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network) National Student Council semifinal results, as I have made it through the first round of the selection process. We’ll see where that goes, though 
I’m also very active on my school’s Model UN team. Although I’m not in the presidency, I’m hoping to make it on for next year (but it’s unlikely because everyone currently on the presidency is already a Junior ;-;). I currently have around 4 honorable mentions and 3 excellent delegate awards (possibly more? I need to count), and I hope to earn at least one or two more awards during our upcoming conference this month. I’ve been selected to speak at the opening assembly of the aforementioned conference; my speech was one of four speeches selected out of at least 30 or so submitted.
As far as the smaller but still somewhat noteworthy things I’ve done so far go, I am currently running my own small, commission-based business that caters to a very specific niche (custom costume design business that I run off Instagram). So far, I’ve made around $780 off it this last year–it’s not a lot, but again, it is super small/commission-based. I have been swimming this year and intend to swim my senior year as well. So far, my awards in swimming are pretty good considering I’ve only done it for a year: I made it to state in the Women’s 200 medley relay (I swim butterfly) and onto both our school’s varsity and “black shirt” (higher ranking/honor than varsity: only 4 girls and 4 boys selected out of around 50 swimmers) teams. I’m also the vice-president/co-founder of the Korean Culture and Language Club at my school (even though I’m white, so I don’t have any cultural advantage there haha). I am a part of NHS and currently have around 150 hours of service. I have been placed in many church leadership positions, including the president over two different girls’ groups and part of a youth planning committee. I currently work at Dairy Queen, and I’m doing reasonably well–I’m generally well-liked by my fellow employees, I’ve received a cumulative $1.75 raise since the time I started, and I received a small award for excellent attitude and going above and beyond. I’ve also been playing piano for a year, but that’s more of a hobby than anything and I have absolutely no decent awards to show for it.
Currently, I have been offered about 2-3 different politic-related internships. I’m waiting to hear back from my school board and my local government about opportunities as that’s where I’d prefer to intern the most, but I’m happy with all my other offers as well and I’ll end up choosing something soon. I’m also waiting on the state results for the Doodle for Google competition, but I’m not banking on that to help me out.
How am I doing? What can I keep working on? Do you think my “hook” is interesting enough? Obviously Stanford is an incredibly difficult school to get into, so it’ll be a stretch for anyone, but I want to give it the best shot I can! Thank you guys so much for any advice!