**Decision: Deferred (withdrew app) **
Objective:
SAT I and/or ACT (breakdown): 2310 and 35
SAT II (place score in parentheses): 800 Math II, 800 Chinese, 790 Chemistry
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.974
Rank/Percentile: 1/400 weighted
AP (place score in parentheses): 5’s in English Language, English Literature, Chinese. 4’s in Calculus BC, Chemistry, Statistics. My school offers no AP classes, though.
IB (place score in parentheses): None
Senior Year Course Load: IB English HL, IB Computer Science SL, IB Biology HL, IB Astronomy SL, Linear Algebra and Differential Equations at a local university, Publications, US History
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Scholastic Art and Writing Silver Medal for writing, published in The Best Teen Writing (an anthology of about 70 works chosen from the 500 National-Medal-winning pieces), 1st place in the Sierra Nevada Review High School Writing Contest (another national writing contest), two-time AIME qualifier, qualified for Math Prize for Girls at MIT (competition for top 300 girls nationally) and got a score that placed me in the top half there
Common Awards (AP Scholar, honor roll, NM things, etc.): 3 Gold Keys, 2 Silver Keys and 4 Honorable Mentions from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards regionally, AP Scholar with Distinction, National Merit Semifinalist, a bunch of other smaller city/school-level awards in math and writing, school champion for Chemistry Olympiad, small city/state-level awards for badminton
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): Started a creative writing mentorship program to help kids, youth poet ambassador for my city, poetry reviewer for submissions to a national literary magazine, on teen advisory board for community library, did math and organized a team at my school to go to tournaments, played badminton, on student council for one year, did a computer science research internship
Job/Work Experience: Writing tutor for 15+ kids
Volunteer/Community Service: Nothing that hasn’t already been listed above
Summer Activities: Worked on my mentorship program, attended Iowa Young Writers’ Studio in 2014, took online math classes from The Art of Problem Solving, went to driver’s ed, did the computer science research internship at a local university, camp counselor (also watched a lot of Netflix)
Essays: **I THINK THIS IS WHAT HURT MY APPLICATION.**My Common App essay is good: it’s about a near-death experience I had right before sophomore year that led me to realize life is too short. It spurred me to enter writing competitions and eventually start my creative writing mentorship program.However, I wrote all my supplements within two hours on the day the application was due. I also applied to MIT EA and wanted to spend most of my time and effort on those essays instead since I wanted to go there more. My UChicago Uncommon Essay contained a large amount of profanity and was focused on a somewhat controversial topic. In hindsight, it was a mistake. I treated it like it was a creative writing piece since the prompt was “write a fiction story”. Also, my “why UChicago” essay wasn’t particularly strong; it wasn’t stunning, but it wasn’t terrible. The list of books/magazines/etc. that I enjoy should’ve been fine.**I also wish I had highlighted more aspects of myself.**The most unique thing about me as an applicant is that I’ve been nationally recognized for both writing and math, but I didn’t write about math in any of my essays, so in the end I didn’t stand out that much.
Teacher Recommendation #1: My math teacher, who is also adviser of the math club and supervises all the math competitions at our school. He likes me and knows me outside of the classroom due to all the contests, but I wasn’t an incredible student in his class, so I don’t think it was amazing. Probably solid, though.
Teacher Recommendation #2: My English teacher, who also helped me prepare a few slam poetry pieces outside of class. She likes me and saw my improvement in her class, but I didn’t participate that much in her class. Probably solid.
Counselor Rec: She likes me, and thinks I’m smart and talented. I’ve been talking to her since freshman year about non-academic stuff. It was probably solid as well.
Additional Info/Rec: None!
Interview: My interviewer didn’t ask me that many questions, and it lasted for about half an hour. He mostly kept mentioning that Chicago is cold in the winter. Overall, wasn’t really great.
Other
Applied for Financial Aid? Yes
Projected Concentration: English
State/Country: Oregon
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: 200k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None!
Reflection
Strengths: GPA and test scores, extracurriculars and awards
Weaknesses: Essays for sure.
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: I should’ve put more effort into my essays and not waited until the last day. Also, I wasn’t amazingly enthusiastic about UChicago and I think that showed.
Where else you are applying or have already applied: ACCEPTED TO MIT, so I withdrew my UChicago application today after getting deferred. Also accepted to University of Oregon’s honor college. Waiting to hear from University of Washington, UCLA, UC Berkeley, USC. Applying to Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, and UPenn RD.
General Comments/Advice/Hindsight: PUT LOTS OF EFFORT AND ENERGY INTO EVERY SINGLE APPLICATION. Write essays drafts well in advance and have others look at them. Make sure to portray yourself in the best light and remember, even if the prompt is quirky, your essay still needs to be a college application essay and not a creative writing piece.**Also, for schools with multiple supplements, try to write about a diverse mix of topics to highlight all the different aspects of your awesomeness 
**
Overall, I’m not too upset since I like MIT much more, but I still should’ve tried harder on this application. Hopefully this helps future applicants!
And if I do end up getting in, I’ll be sure to tell you more stories about him. Highlights include: “You need to take the Algebra End of Course Exam…What do you mean you maxed out the score on it?” and “I’m going to break the law by limiting classes based off of your gender!” and “You don’t really need science to study science! Get back in the kitchen!”