Hey, everyone. If you could help me out, I’d appreciate it (although everyone’s got to be tired of these by now, haha.) Also, long time lurker (2014) and first time poster!
SAT 1: 2310 (R 760, M 750, W 800). Superscored: 2350 (R 800, M 750, W 800)
SAT 2: Math 2 (800), Chemistry (800), US History (800)
ACT: 36 (one sitting) English/Math/Reading (36), Science (36). Writing subscore: 32
Unweighted GPA: 4.0/4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.78 (10-12 is 4.9)
Rank: N/A, but in top 5% as a conservative guess.
AP: EHAP (5), APUSH (5), Chemistry (5)
Senior Year Course Load: All AP (+Marching Band/Debate/Mock Trial)
Physics 1, Latin, Calculus AB, Literature, Microeconomics, Government
Major Honors/Awards: 1st in state for Latin reading comp (as a junior for a senior/junior test), 2nd place at Stanford Invitational in JVPF, qualified to state in VPF, Level 10 in CM for piano, National Merit Semifinalist (and I’m pretty sure I’ll get to finalist), AP Scholar, Crafton Award for NEHS (national level, 10 essays total chosen), Summa Cum Laude in the NLE twice (Maxima once), and Most Outstanding Junior of Marching Band
EC: National English Honors Society (board member senior year, 2 years), Latin Honors Society (4 years), CJCL member, Music Honors Society (aka Tri-M; 3 years), Science National Honors Society (2 years), Speech and Debate (4 years, 2 years officer), Art Club (Treasurer 3 years), Marching Band (3 years-- Section leader junior year, officer 2 years), JSA (2 years), summer intern for political campaign for assembly, Mock Trial (1 year), environmental service club (4 years + middle school, secretary junior year, co-president senior year), NaNoWriMo (3 years and I’m planning to do it this year-- writing challenge to write 50k words in a month), and I’m just putting this here because I’m proud of it, but I sew clothes.
Job experience: Not entirely sure how to articulate it, but I’ve been working at my parent’s beauty supply (non-franchise) for most of my life. It’s not paid or tracked, but conservative estimates of time during high school would be 250+ hours. In addition is my tutoring job for two elementary school kids for two hours a week that ran for 12 weeks during the summer, for which I was paid $80/week.
Volunteer: 90+ hours with the environmental service club, ~50 hours with a music tutoring program, ~20 hours with a different music tutoring program, ~90 hours coaching kids for debate at my former middle school, 30 hours for chaperoning during my church’s VBS
Applied for Financial Aid: Yes (you think I can afford 70k a semester, @ columbia?? no.)
Intended Major: Literature/Classics with a possible minor in Economics (specifically, behavioral economics) or Political Science
State: CA
School: Again, not sure in comparison, but there’s 2.5k students in total, and it’s suburban.
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Asian
Income: data is outdated, so I need to ask my parents. I’ll edit/update this once I know.
Hooks: Older brother also attending college, both parents constantly working so I take care of my own transportation/meals most days,
Essays: Counselor letter probably isn’t that strong, she handles all the Asians at my school so I’m just part of a mob to her. My teacher recs come from teachers who have had me for two years: my AP lit teacher and my Latin teacher. I’m on really good terms with the Lit teacher: I participate often, get really great grades in her class compared to others, and gossip with her about other teachers outside of class (also I buy pie for her on a monthly basis). My Latin teacher knows me less personally, but I’m the only one who brought home an award from CJCL last year in addition to the NLE. In addition, I also tend to ask questions and work ahead consistently in class, so she knows I have a work ethic.
I’ve had my essays proofread by teachers/friends, and I’ve been told that it’s 1) very much “me” in terms of voice and style and 2) fun to read as well as well-written. I’ve tried to avoid some of the more mundane topics and wrote about things like Nanowrimo, Latin, sewing, etc to avoid the “Asian kid that plays flute/does sciency things” essay.
My focus is primarily the humanities (which is very different from what everyone else seems to be targeting) and as such, I think that I maybe have a better chance than all these engineering/bio majors? Lord knows my parents are salty that they somehow managed to raise two humanities majors (bro is majoring in history).
Currently applying to: Yale (SCEA), Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, UPenn, Swarthmore, Amherst, Williams, USC, Pomona, Rice, UCLA, UC Berkeley, UCSD, and BU. Based on what I’ve written above, are there any schools in this list that would be ridiculous to apply to in terms of reach? And can anyone recommend safety schools? My parents’ ideas of safety schools are BU and UCSD and I’m so in love with my reach/match schools I can’t really imagine much else (which is dangerous and idealistic, I know, but I can dream). Much thanks and good vibes during this stressful time to you all!