I got in ED2!
ACT: Composite: 33 (E:33/M:33/R:33/S:34 Writing:9)
Disclaimer I suck at standardized testing so I am surprised that I got a decent score. I took it 4 times in total(31, 31, then 33, then 32 lol.) Don’t get discouraged!
SAT II: Chemistry 700 (although I took others this is the only one I put on my Common App)
Unweighted GPA : My UW was out of 100: around 94??
Rank: N/A (I think top 20% or 30%?? I have 236 kids in my grade)
Again DISCLAIMER: I absolutely despise AP tests and I may have mentioned it somewhere in one of my essays…
AP: Japanese(5)-only because I’m fluent; APWH(3); APUSH(3); APCSP(3); APChem(3)
Senior Year Course Load: APCS, AP Physics1; AP Calc AB; AP Gov/Politics
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Westchester American Chemical Society Student Awardee, and uh nothing else much…
Extracurriculars: School theatre(Treasurer[Senior year] and Head Sound Board Operator[4yrs]), GSA(President [2yrs]), ChemClub(President [2yrs]), JV(2yrs)/Varsity Volleyball (Co-captain my senior year), Member of Senator Shelley Mayer’s Youth Council
Job/Work Experience: Non-paidInternship at Asia Society NYC for 8 weeks, and tutored my friends siblings for math at times
Volunteer/Community service: Volunteer to tutor/hw help financially disadvantaged kids once a week(15 times) at a local library, local food bank couple of times but I didn’t mention this
Summer Activities: Moved from Tokyo(9th), volunteered at local summer camp (10th), and internship(11th) mentioned above.
Essays: Common App (8): went through at least 3 drafts of completely different narratives, but ultimately I detailed it around my life as a child of a foreign diplomat and struggling with my identity as a Japanese-American on top of moving around to so many different places. It was cheesy, but that’s okay bc it works!; Why Tufts (7): I showed that I did a lot of research on very specific classes/professors at Tufts. But there are many approaches to the why Tufts essay. some kids talk about the culture, students, atmosphere. I ultimately talked about the academics because I wanted to go to Tufts since they arguably offer one of the best higher educations in the world. (hype them up!)
Teacher Rec #1: Chemistry teacher (10): She was my chem teacher my sophomore year and I fell in love with chemistry because of her and was encouraged to take AP Chem and the Chemistry Olympiad exam. I’ve spent hours after school studying with her and helping her with many projects (ChemClub). I’ve literally face-time her every week since quarantine started lol.
Teacher Rec #2: 11th grade English teacher (7): I was one of her favorite students but I didn’t really contribute to class but I always did my assignments and since many of my classmates didn’t take class seriously, I think she appreciated my attitude. My friends and I also gave her a baby gifts/thank you note after she told us that she was pregnant with her first child (bonus points!)
Counselor Rec: (8.5): Out of all the counselors at my school, mine is literally the nicest and most hardworking one so I got really lucky. She helped me transition as a new kid from freshman year, she’s seen me have a panic attack(lol), and I’ve always just dropped by at her office whenever I can to say hi and to steal a lollipop. She also came to my volleyball games and seen my work ethic and leadership outside of school. I do recognize that guidance counselors at other school are not like this, so I am very grateful for the position that I happened to be in.
Interview: My interviewer was a recent graduate and was new so at times there was some awkward silence, but I pretty much kept emphasizing how I loved the students that I met, the programs, and atmosphere at Tufts when I visited twice. Although my interests didn’t match with what she studied, she mentioned how she is currently working on research so I may have turned the interview around back and forth so I could connect what she was currently working on with my future ambitions.
Tip for interviews: there are 2 ways to approach interviews… the aggressive and casual. If you are getting interviewed at your dream school I would go with the aggressive type, meaning you take control over the interview and keep talking while opening up for questions to be asked. When you talk about your interests (let’s say birds), just start off with how you’ve loved birds, you research birds, there is a professor at Tufts you want to conduct research, etc. Now, this may not work if your interviewer low key gets freaked out like “■■■ is wrong with this kid”, but ideally the interviewer is like “damn, this kid is PASSIONATE”. You usually know if your interview went well or poorly with the aggressive method.
On the other hand, if you go with the casual (like I did), it basically will go like a normal conversation and usually you don’t know if the interview went well or not. idk this is what I was told from a person who worked at yale graduate admissions.
btw, interviews DO matter.
Applied for Financial Aid?: yes
Intended Major and College: International School (general/liberal arts?)
State: NY
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: kind of hard to calculate since I don’t pay taxes but upper middle class?
Hooks: First gen Japanese-American (nikkei), both parents went to college in Japan. tbh I don’t really know…
Reflection: i would not wish this ruthless college application process even on my worst enemy. i honestly hated it…I spent hours watching videos and scrolling through college confidential like the holy bible so shout out to the hundreds of people who spent time writing posts like these!
writing my essays, though, allowed me to express a piece of who I was and wanted to be. that’s so cheesy but that’s what the admission officers are expecting tbh
Strengths: act score(?), diplomatic kid, my extracurriculars and HOW I CONTINUED THEM THROUGHOUT HIGH SCHOOL even though I was a new kid freshman year. I think they saw how I put myself out there to try to find my passion and connect with people. I also emphasized my native Japanese culture, although yes, being Asian is a disadvantage, but there are not many Japanese students so…yeah…idk if that worked though lol.
Weaknesses: ap test scores but they honestly don’t matter as much as you think
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: I talked the specific things I wanted to do at Tufts, why that was important to me. but I also mentioned that I am looking forward to learn, better myself, and evolve into a better person at tufts.
Where else were you accepted/deferred/rejected: ED1 to Brown and got rejected (like many other ED2 kids lol). EA deferred from Northeastern and rejected from UVA (EA). Accepted to SUNY Stonybrook, Binghamton, and Fordham. Waitlisted at Colby (because I forgot to withdraw my regular application…SORRY!)
hope this helps! When I got rejected from Brown, I was sad, but I really wasn’t surprised. I knew that Tufts had a ED2 so I jumped at the chance but I didn’t think I was going to get in so when I opened the letter I was shOCKED AHAH
if anybody has questions leave their @s!
I just really love this school