Decision: Accepted
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2270 (didn’t submit)
ACT (breakdown): 35 C (36 E 35 M 35 S 34 R)
SAT II: 800 Math II 740 Physics
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0):4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): N/A
AP (place score in parenthesis): World History (2- don’t ask. idk how) Calc AB (5) AP Lang (5) AP NSL (4) Physics 1 and Physics 2 (both 3).
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Lit and Comp, AP Calc BC, AP Environmental Science, AP Macro, AP Micro, Engineering Design and Development, Honors Orchestra, Gym (hahhaha chilll)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Commended Student (gahhh), AP Scholar with Distinction, and then some smaller, not important things.
Subjective:
[ *] Extracurriculars: BASIC IDEA
Future Doctors of America club ( President)
Violin for 13 years, youth orchestras such as Potomac Valley Youth orchestra and Montgomery college metropolitan orchestra
Leading performing member of performing groups such as Forte (music club that performs at local community retirement homes)
Martial Arts ( Jukite Jujitsu and Karate)
Archery- Junior Olympic Archery Development team
Foreign languages-learning Hindi, Korean and Japanese outside of school through language schools and independently.
[ *] Job/Work Experience: REALLY VAGUE
+Research intern, NCI working on radiosensitivity of human tumor cell lines (2015-2017)
+Research intern, University of Maryland College Park working on determining role of MPA1 gene. (2016)
+Research intern at NCI, bioinformatics (2017)
[ *] Volunteer/Community service:
+Quince Orchard Public Library volunteer
+Shady Grove Adventist Health Care Center volunteer
+C&O Canal Bike Loaner Program volunteer
+junior archery instructor, Izaak Walton League of America, Rockville chapter
+Volunteer at free eye clinic for underprivileged children in Bangalore, India
~150 hours of community service
Essays (rating 1-10, details):
Prompt: 8- I picked a past prompt about a present you have received and inventing a past for it. I kinda went off a bit, and just came up with some weird tale of a pair of magic earrings. But I ended it nicely I think. It was pretty long though.
Why Uchicago: 8- You could really hear my voice when you read it. It was totally unlike all the other Why___ essays I wrote. In those it was a serious tone, focused on the things I would make use of and opportunities and blah, but with this one, it was more casual in a way, and more personal. I talked about why Uchicago fit me, and I didn’t include info about this class or this research opportunity. It was more fluffy. At first that worried me BUT GUESS NOT HAHAHA.
Favorites: 9- I really enjoyed writing this one. The favorite thing for me was a poem that I had written a few years ago. I talked about how the poem represented ideals I wanted to keep and how Uchicago would be perfect for that. In the essay, you can really hear my voice because it is very conversational and I speak directly to Uchicago in it.
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: 9/10 I was really close to my World History teacher, even before I had her as a teacher, and she really liked me. We still talk all the time.
Teacher Rec #2: 7.5/10 My physics teacher wrote this one. I wasn’t that close to him, but I think he had enough info to write a good rec for me.
Counselor Rec: 8/10 I wasn’t super close to my counselor, but she has a good impression of me, and she had a lot of information to work with.
Additional Rec: 9/10 I’m honestly just guessing on this one, but I’m assuming it was good. It was from someone from the organization I volunteer for (IWLA) as an archery instructor. She and I were close, and she and her husband wrote the rec for me. Her husband is an alumni of Uchicago, and said that he wanted me to go there cuz it’s awesome lol.
Interview: 8/10 It was my first college interview, and I didn’t know what to expect. Some topics came up that I wasn’t familiar with, but for the most part we had a nice conversation. I did have to debate the pros and cons of several policies, and throughout the interview I had to think quick to answer some of the weird questions. There was conversation about current events, policy, etc. But one downside of it was the alumni was someone who went there for grad, not undergrad. She couldn’t answer some of my questions.
Other:
Applied for Financial Aid?: yup
Intended Major: Neuroscience and also East Asian Languages and Civilizations
State (if domestic applicant): MD
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public Magnet School
Ethnicity: Asian (Indian)
Gender: female
Income Bracket: ~200K+
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): nah
Strengths:Test scores and GPA. Also, my essays were totally me, and I think they showed how I would be a good fit for Uchicago.
Weaknesses: ECs, awards. Not much going on there
Why you think you were accepted/rejected/waitlisted?: I was deferred at first from EA, so I sent in a deferral letter expressing my continued interest in Uchicago, along with some updates and corrections. This might have been a factor.
General Comments: Feeling so BLESSED right now. Now I just need to find out what aid I got hahaha. 73K tho. Blows my mind lol.
Other schools you applied to and their decisions:
Accepted: University of Maryland College Park (Honors College), Northeastern University (Honors Program)
Rejected: JHU, Northwestern
Waiting on: Brown, Cornell, Duke, Upenn, and Emory.
