Hey there! So, I’m anxiously awaiting my decision from USC, and I figured I would do a thread like this since I haven’t really before. Here are my stats:
Major: Undeclared
Female, from CA
Unweighted GPA: 3.93
Weighted GPA: 4.3
SAT: 1840 (CR: 640, M: 540, Writing: 650)
ACT: 31 (E: 34, M: 25, S: 28, R: 35)
SAT II: Literature (710), US History (640), Biology-E (660)
AP Tests: European History (4); US History (4); Environmental Science (4); English Language and Comp (5)
Extracurriculars:
- Student Government (Secretary) (9-12): Took about 6 hours per week for around 35 weeks per year. I did a lot with planning events like dances with some pretty crazy budgets.
- Water Polo (Varsity Captain) (9-12): This one took up a lot of my time. I would practice for three and a half hours per day, five days a week for like nine months a year. I was varsity for three years. I also won athletic awards like All League and All CIF.
- Swim Team (9-12): This one goes for about two and a half months out of the year. We practice for two and a half hours per day, five days a week. I only get a one month vacation from sports per year, haha.
- PTSA (Student Chair) (9-12): I’m one of the only students on our school’s PTSA, and I do stuff like attend meetings with the superintendent to talk about our school.
Volunteering:
- I interned five hours per week for almost the whole year at a local dog rescue from grade 9 to grade 11. It was a good amount of work, but still fun and I learned a lot from it.
- Summer of 10th grade: Volunteered as a counselor-in-training at a hiking camp run by the city a county over.
- Summer of 11th grade: Volunteered as a Ocean Lifeguard Assistant for the local beach’s Junior Lifeguards program. It was a six hour day for five days a week the whole summer. I helped the kids do ocean swims and beach runs.
- Grades 9-12: I am a volunteer referee for our local AYSO region. I am one of the only female youth soccer referees in our area that does the center of the game (so yes, I get the whistle, haha). I would do two hours per week for about two and a half months out of the year.
Awards and Various Programs:
- National Hispanic Scholar
- AP Scholar with Distinction
- I have own various school-only academic awards
- I was selected to attend the Kenyon Review Young Writers program (only 24% accepted my year!)
- The summer of my senior year, I participated in our local CC’s STEM Bridges program.
- I was selected as the “Student Honoree” at a writer’s weekend hosted by the Pacific Institute for Professional Writing
Hooks
- URM (Hispanic)
- I come from a very blue collar town. I’m one of only three people at our school that I know of who applied to USC, for example. It’s a big deal for me to make a move outside the UC system, and my school is a Title I school and is predominantly Hispanic.
- First in family to go directly to a four-year university.
Essays: I think my essay was okay. Looking back, it could have been better, but nothing I can do about it now. I wrote about how I have struggled with math, in part because our math department system at our school isn’t well-run (problems with being a Title I school). Because of this, students fall behind, and I was one of the few to actively work to really learn math. It was hard, and frustrating, and left my ego a little bruised, but I came out stronger for it and more confident in my own personal resilience. I would rate it at maybe a 7/10. Like I said, probably could have been better.
So what do you guys think?