**Decision: Accepted **
Merit Scholarship, if any: Distinguished Scholars, $25k/year and invitation into the Honors Program.
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): I didn’t submit it but I had a 1470 (710 math, 760 EBRW)
ACT (breakdown): 33 (31 math, 31 science, 33 reading, 35 english)
SAT II: n/a
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.96, 5.09 W
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 21/575
AP (place score in parenthesis): 9th: Human (4) 10th: World (5) 11th: APUSH (5), Lang (5), Enviro (4), Psych (5) 12th: Macro, Lit, Gov, Calc AB
IB (place score in parenthesis): n/a
Senior Year Course Load: AP Lit, Gov Honors first half AP Gov second half (my school’s weird), Anatomy&Physiology Honors, AP Calculus AB, Spanish 4, and 7 dual enrollment classes. Fall I took Management, Personal Finance, and College Algebra. Spring I’m taking General Bio + Lab, Stats, and Micro
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AP Scholar with Distinction, National Merit Semifinalist.
I won a district-wide state competition for Spanish 3, placing 2nd in Impromptu + Declamation. I also won my district’s Literary Fair, 1st place in the fable category.
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Psychology Club (President/Founder), Drafting Club (VP), Science Club (VP), NHS, NEHS
Job/Work Experience: n/a
Volunteer/Community service: 313 recorded total hours. I volunteer at my hospital’s Information Desk every Sunday for four hours. I was in Key Club and an elementary school tutoring club through 9th and 10th grade. I assist my teacher in helping lower-level drafting students during my free period. I also get NHS and NEHS hours through various service activities.
Summer Activities: I typically travel, and my most recent trip was the main subject of my essay. Otherwise, I volunteer and take Dual Enrollment classes
Essays (rating 1-10, details): Common App: 8/10. I wrote about how I was adopted from China at a young age and always had an identity struggle in terms of being shunned by true Asians whilst having my classmates assume that I was the typical Asian, and feeling general embarrassment at having a caucasian older mother and no father. However, I went on a Heritage Trip this past summer, getting to meet other girls my age who had the same familial situations and getting to see where I came from and truly appreciating my culture yet being thankful for having been adopted.
Extracurricular: 9/10. I wrote about founding Psychology Club and having it grow, it came out really well
Why Tulane: 8/10. I wrote 700 words including specific organizations at Tulane, New Orleans in general, how Tulane will line up with my career goals,
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: AP Psych teacher and club founder. 8/10, talked about my leadership capabilities and how I was as a student in his class.
Teacher Rec #2: English 1 and AP Lang teacher. 9/10 as I never read it but she is so well known for writing good and personal rec letters that she had a waiting list in September for rec letters.
Counselor Rec: 7/10, I heard that she used a template. I never read it, but I gave her a comprehensive resume so I can only expect it to be sufficient.
Additional Rec: Drafting 1, 2, and 3 teacher, 7/10. Quite short and succinct but he talked about my work ethic and how well I did in the class and how I was a great student.
Interview: I applied EA and never got invited, otherwise I would’ve done it.
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes but I ended up missing a noncustodial parent doc (because I don’t have a second parent but the option wasn’t clear) so I haven’t received anything yet.
Intended Major: Public Health
State (if domestic applicant): Florida
Country (if international applicant): n/a
School Type: Public school, moderately competitive.
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: $100k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Adopted from China at nine months old and had a strong identity struggle and constantly felt embarrassed of how my family looked, that I managed to overcome when I went to China the past summer and got to meet other girls and see my home country. Pretty uncommon and I found it interesting, it was featured in my school’s yearbook and newspaper 
Reflection
Strengths: I’d say my GPA, test scores, and extracurricular involvement with leaderships, as well as my Common App essay.
Weaknesses: Despite an upward trend, my course rigor could be seen as kind of lacking, which I was upset at myself over. Additionally, I only had one AP science (APES) and put for Public Health, so I was really nervous. Additionally, I didn’t show as much interest as I could have.
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: I’m just really happy overall and I guess that Tulane saw me as a qualified student that’d do well on their campus. I highly desire to give back, and would definitely want to go to Tulane if the financial aid allows me to because it’s honestly an amazing college.
Where else were you accepted/deferred/rejected: Accepted to UCF. Hearing from other colleges in around a month.
General Comments:
I was originally deferred when results came out on the 15th. I was sad but I read on CC that many well-qualified applicants had been deferred since Tulane didn’t want to be people’s backup schools. I realized that I didn’t show as much interest as I could have. So I emailed my admissions counselor. I wrote about how I attended the school visit she led, and really wanted to attend Tulane if the financial aid matched up. So I’d definitely recommend anyone deferred to still show interest! It’s a really fast yet important thing to do.
I was really happy to hear about invitation to the honors college, it was all a really big surprise to me. Hopefully I will attend one of their Destination Tulanes!
I decided to write this up because during my college search, reading all these posts helped me out SO much, so hopefully this helps someone else out 
Congratulations to all who got in and for those who didn’t, do not be deterred! There are just better things yet to come