Deferred from: Brown, UChicago, UMich, Villanova
Accepted: UVM, USC (California)

Rejected: UNC

Yet to hear back from in the RD round: BC, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Penn, Duke, WashU, Northwestern, Emory, NYU, Tufts, Hopkins, Georgetown, McGill, UCLA, Berkeley, Davis, Santa Barbara

Ethnicity: Arabic and German but born in US and lived here for 17 years. Speaks both Arabic and German.

34 ACT, 4.0 GPA, Neuroscience Passion Project, Hopkins CTY, Triple varsity sport athlete - Varsity Alpine Ski Racer, Varsity Soccer, Varsity Tennis

New Hampshire Private High School

Any guesses from the remaining schools?

I have a 3.4 unweighted GPA 4.0 weighted. I have 200+ service hours. I had a decent essay and submitted test optional. I worked at a nursing home and worked at a physical therapy center. I was originally deferred. I applied as a business major.

yall think I got a chance at Columbia and the other selective schools🤣💯

Demographics

• Gender: Male
• Race/Ethnicity: Nigerian-American
• Residence: South Florida
• Income Bracket: <85k
• Type of School: Magnet, Uncompetitive, URM, Public
• Hooks: URM, Low-Income, half-brother went to Howard

Intended Major(s): I applied everywhere as a psychology (pre-med) major except Columbia where I applied as a neuroscience and behavior major

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 3.98/4.96
• Rank (or percentile): 53/498 at the time of applying now 43/492
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 11 honors, 3 APs, 2 AICE, 13 DE (40 credits by the end of this year)
• Senior Year Course Load: Fall: DE Public Speaking (A), DE National Government (A), DE Macroeconomics (A), DE Personal Finance (A), DE Compositon II (A) Spring: DE Precalculus Algebra, DE Total Wellness, DE Beginning Spanish, DE Developmental Child Psych, DE Intro to Logic

Standardized Testing

List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported.

• SAT I: 1230 (school average is 936) (610RW, 620M) (applied test-optional everywhere except to FAU, FSU, GSU, UCF, UF, and USF) never studied...
• AP/IB: Psychology(4), United States History (3), AICE Travel & Tourisn (B)

Extracurriculars/Activities

List all extracurricular involvements, including leadership roles, time commitments, major achievements, etc.

1. Drama club crew member (props, hair/makeup, costumes, follow spot operator) 16h weekly/32weeks per year (10-12)
2. Theatre summer camp counselor (guided kids into creating a summer production for their loved ones) 36h weekly/6 weeks per year (12)
3. Class secretary (11), class historian (12); organized senior events, promoted school spirit, assisted w fundraisers, design & distribute online & physical flyers as promo, documented meetings as secretary 16h weekly/36 weeks per year
4. Summer camp hair/makeup crew member (applied hair and makeup to the campers within a timely manner and assisted director with other things) 36h weekly/6 weeks per year (11)
5. Cast member in play that led to regional drama award nomination, made theatre accessible to the deaf with ASL 18h weekly/17 weeks per year (11th)
6. Culinary club: ServSafe certified, state qualifiers in waiter's relay; prepped and cooked food for various school events (11) 3h weekly/18w per year
7. Founding food coordinator of asian appreciation club: Brainstormed new food ideas for the club to cook & create to ensure representation, bought food & materials; took part in fundraisers for the club (12) 2h w/14w per year
8. DECA member (10,11) and class secretary (11): Competed at the district level; In charge of attendance, phone calls, paperwork, & attended meetings to relay important info to class, ESB certified 3h w/15w per year
9. National Honors Society member (11,12): Interacted with local community & engaged in volunteer work; took part in school beautification projects 2h weekly/18w per year

Awards/Honors

List all awards and honors submitted on your application.

1. 2x Superior & Excellent Rating in Drama District Competition, Selected to Perform at the State level
2. Recognition for Straight A's / Student of the Month in Academics/ President's List, Fall 2024 @ local community college
3. College Board National African American Recognition Award
4. Regional Drama Award Nomination for Best Comic Actor in a Play / Win for Best Play
5. Inducted into the International Thespian Honors Society / Inducted into National Honors Society

*for ea school's I didn't have the president's list award and 2x superior rating / state selected performance at the time.

* for ea schools I had recognition for class secretary which I switched out for president's list later

Letters of Recommendation

Haven't read any of them but...

1. Math teacher of two years: I did very well in both her classes, always participated in class when no one else would and got my work done. Wouldn't say that our relationship was really personal but she does give me praise when talking with other students/faculty.
2. Drama teacher/director: knew her for two years and she's gotten to know me personally. She emphasized my leadership capabilities within the club and my time management
3. Costumes Chief: knew her for many years and we've gotten to know each other. Talked about my involvement with the kids during summer camp and creating costumes for shows

Essays

I think that my personal statement is very solid. Talked about how I protected myself with a sweater and I grew as a person and no longer needed it. Related that story back to how I wanted to work with children and wanted them to not feel the need to shield themselves with a "sweater" as well.

I also did write an additional information section but I think that it's a very weak. It expanded upon my involvement in the drama program. I tweaked it very late so only schools like Penn and NYU saw the updated version.

I think that my supplements for schools are very well written.

Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)

Acceptances:

• DePaul University with 25.5k/yr (rolling)
• Florida Atlantic University with 14k (ea)
• Howard University with 18k/yr (ea)
• University of Central Florida (rolling)
• University of Minnesota - Twin Cities with 60k (rolling)
• University of Pittsburgh with guaranteed pre-admission into their M.S. in ADP program (rolling)
• University of South Florida (rolling)
• University of Wisconsin - Madison (ea)

Deferrals:

• Florida State University (ea)
• University of Miami (ea)
• University of Michigan (ea)
• University of Southern California (ea)

Rejections:

• University of Florida (ea)

Awaiting Decisions from:

• Boston University (rd)
• Columbia University (rd)
• Fordham University (rd)
• Georgia State University (rolling)
• New York University (rd)
• University of Pennsylvania (rd)
• University of Washington (rd)

Demographics

Gender: female

Race/Ethnicity: asian but american permanent resident

Type of School: top intl school in my city

Hooks: none

Intended Major(s): journalism and political science

Academics

GPA (UW/W): 3.65 unweighted

Rank (or percentile): none

Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: honors english honors art (2 classes) ap stats (in progress), ap eng lit (in progress), ap comp gov (in progress), ap calc ab (4), ap physics 1 (5), ap psych (4)

Senior Year Course Load: pretty heavy, lots of politics courses

Standardized Testing

SAT: 1540 (740RW, 800M)

Extracurriculars/Activities (gonna be vague so I don't doxx myself)

1. admin leader for one of the largest mun conferences in the world

2. writer and editor for school magazine

3. founder of project that donated books to kids living in rural areas through selling handcrafted jewelry

4. usap national finalist

5. independent research on the african swine virus in g9

6. nhs secretariat

7. founder of club that hosted charity marathon to raise money for those with down syndrome

8. wrote and illustrated a children's book

9. ap stats tutor

10. varsity table tennis member

Awards/Honors

1. harvard international review bronze medal

2. ap scholar with honors

Letters of Recommendation

pretty good recs from ap psych teacher and ap lit teacher, I'm close with both and talk about politics regularly

Essays

CA essay: wrote about writing a fictional story that mixed in some overlooked cultural practices that others might see as inhumane, connected it with how I want to be a journalist to use my privilege to help others speak and educate people on lesser known conflicts

Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)

Acceptances:

UC merced (rd) northeastern (ea)

Waitlists:

boston university (ed1)

Rejections:

pending

note: definitely feeling a bit of that imposter syndrome kick in... I feel like there were more qualified applicants

EDIT: PROOF OF ACCEPTANCE: https://imgur.com/a/iAOyMjq

Demographics

• Gender: Male
• Race/Ethnicity: Hispanic
• Residence: NJ
• Hooks: First-gen, low-income

Intended Major(s): International and Public Affairs + Economics

Academics

• GPA/Rank (or percentile): 3.889/4.0 UW and 4.175/4.5 W (No class rank)
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 10 APs, 1 dual enrollment, 10 Honors
• Senior Year Course Load:
• AP Art History
• AP Calc AB
• AP Chemistry
• Phys Ed IV + Health IV
• AP Eng Lit
• AP Spanish Lang
• AP Human Geo
• Marine Science

Standardized Testing

• SAT/ACT: 1400
• AP/IB: AP Precalc: 4 (ik it's a mid class); APES: 4; APUSH: 4; AP Eng Lang: 4

Extracurriculars/Activities: (list here)

• Building Bridges Club (Member)
• Spanish Honors Society (Member)
• Asian-American Student Union (Not-Asian + member)
• Educational Content Creator aka YouTuber (had to fluff it up: 2k subs)
• Founded an online language learning community (It was a Discord bro: 140 members)

Awards/Honors: (list here)

• National Hispanic Recognition Program
• Questbridge National College Match Finalist (Yes I matched through QB Ima explain more below)
• National First-Generation Recognition Program
• AP Scholar with Honors
• Spanish Honor Society Inductee
• Seal of Biliteracy 
• High Honor Roll
• Honor Roll

Essays/LORs/Interviews: (briefly reflect/rate)

Essay: Wrote about growing up in a homogenous town but frequently visiting the cultural hub 20 minutes away. I'm a child of Spanish speakers but never learned Spanish, therefore I felt disconnected from my identity. I then found my passion through languages and have learned Spanish + several others 9-9.5/10

LORs: Spanish teacher for 2 years: Had to be incredible since he knew how much I loved languages 10/10; APES teacher: Should've been pretty good since I showed a lot of initiative in that class 7/10

Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)

• Acceptances: (list here):

Brown University full ride (400k scholarship)

Additional Information:

So I was matched through QuestBridge with 90 others who got into Brown (about 2.5k were matched in total and more are waiting for RD. Around 26k applied this year I think). QB is an INSANELY SELECTIVE PROGRAM!!! I understand the bias towards QB kids because they "get into college easier." But quite literally there is a lower chance to match than to get accepted through Common App. It's just better suited for FGLI kids. As you can see, my profile isn't that great, especially in the ECs section, so I never thought I would get finalist let alone match TO MY DREAM SCHOOL! Anyways make sure to shoot your shot. If you're a FGLI remember that context matters and maybe apply to QB next year! For them I'll always be grateful.

would I get into colleges if I don't take pre-Calc in high school

Demographics

• Gender: Male.
• Race/Ethnicity: Indian.
• Residence: India (International, full pay)
• Hooks: None

Intended Major(s): Computer Engineering

Academics :

9th grade - 83%

10th grade - 87%

11th grade (PCMC) - 90%

12th grade (PCMC) (Predicted) - 89% (Counselor just did the average of 10th and 11th)

Standardized Testing

List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported.

• SAT : 1470 (710E + 760M ) Superscore : 1490 (710E + 780M)
• IELTS: 8.0

Extracurriculars/Activities: (list here)

• Made a Sign Language Interpretation Glove
• Founder of a Boardgame studio - more of a passion project its not something that generated revenue or something but I made like a website and python codes for the game to run
• Research review article on Tesla under review in YS Journal
• Internship - Won't give much details to not dox myself but its a pretty decent internship
• Internship - This was more of a learning internship but its not shadowing, learnt about IoT tech
• Captain of Basketball Team JV
• Karate - Black Belt in Shito-Ryu, won some tournaments and went to several competitions
• Community service event for the visually impaired
• Song Translations online on lyricstranslate.com
• Chess - played in some tourneys and rated 1800+ on chess.com

In the additional section I listed the courses I took on coursera and edX on AI, around like 6-7

Awards/Honors: (list here)

• Open Day Science Fair - 4th Place
• Design Thinking - 5th Place

Essays/LORs

Won't give much details about my essays but It was decent I would say. Common app essay was about a difficulty I had with my 10th grade Math teacher and how I overcame it and learnt important learnings from that experience. I focused on what I did to overcome it rather than talking about how it affected me too much.

LORs : Got 4. One from Counselor (pretty good), one from math teacher (decent), one from computers teacher (pretty good) and one from my internship employer (the first one). The internship LOR was really good since he liked me a lot.

Decisions (EA)

• Acceptances: (list here):

-Baylor University(125k scholarship + Honors)

-RIT(100k scholarship + Honors)

-OSU

-ASU (50k scholarship)

-MSU(50k scholarship)

• Deferrals: (list here):

-UW Madison

-Purdue (Offered in Indianapolis campus though)

-UMich

• Rejections (list here):

-WashU (ED1)

-Case Western Reserve

-Northeastern University

• Waiting (list here):

-Georgia Tech

-UIUC

-University of Maryland, College Park

-UNC (RD)

-UVA

-UWash Seattle

-Virginia Tech

-UCLA

-UC Berkeley

-UCSD

-UCSB

-UC Irvine

Honestly, I feel like I won't get a decent college at this rate. I really thought that I could get into purdue or uw madison as my target schools, but I guess I was wrong. If I couldn't even get into those colleges I feel like I have little to no chance of getting into whatever colleges I am waiting for now. I know I don't have the best application but I thought it was decent, now I'm starting to think I shud have done better at school and tried to get more awards and ECs. Anyways, good luck to whoever else is waiting for their decisions.

Results at bottom; no doxxing

if ur junior or sophomore, happy to share some essays btw

Demographics

• Gender | Male
• Race/Ethnicity | Taiwanese & Uyghur (Turkic Muslim) 
• Residence | Southern California
• Income | Full pay 
• Type of School | Fairly competitive religious private (feeder for USC/UCs/UMich)  
• Hooks | First Gen and URM

Intended Major(s) | A wide variety: For reaches, I went for archaeology, anthropology, and sociology; for targets/safeties, I did business, computer science, or engineering

Academics

• GPA (UW/W) | UW 3.71, W 4.18 (with senior year it drops to 3.67 but B's in STEM classes)

Extenuating circumstances: During my sophomore year, my dad got arrested and detained for 14 months by CCP, and all assets were frozen, so I had to do cooking, cleaning, and chores for my family along with a part-time cashier job (20 hrs per week in total); throughout high school (esp this year), I also had to go through lymph node surgeries and take medications for my slight eating disorder, which affected academics

• Rank (or percentile) | No School Rank
• Rigor | 5 Honors, 17 APs (including the 5 outside of school), and no DEs
• Senior Year | AP Calc BC, AP Span Lang, AP Physics C, AP Euro, Eng, AP Stats

Standardized Testing

List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported

• SAT | 1520 (760RW, 760M) | 1 sitting 
• AP/IB | 5 on US Gov, Comp Gov, Calc AB, Chinese, Macro, Micro, Lang; 4 on APUSH, APES

Extracurriculars/Activities (in no particular order) 

List all extracurricular involvements, including leadership roles, time commitments, major achievements, etc

First Set of ECs for Reaches 

1. Terracotta Warriors
   • Interpreter for 2k+ non-Mandarin visitors; Taught clay-building to 500+ kids
   • Analyzed warrior horses with Oxford postdoc 
   • Contributor in Heritage Science Journal publication (Impact factor of 1.7) 
2. Human Rights Watch Apprenticeship
   • Interviewed Uyghurs about CCP camps; Collected geotagged data on forced labor
   • Drafted HRW article and raised $35k
   • Lobbied House to pass the Uyghur Policy Act 
3. Intern for Congresswoman’s local office 
   • Developed voting positions on infrastructure projects 
   • A/B tested constituent outreach emails
   • Evaluated housing policies’ effects on transit equity
4. UN organization on supporting the disabled 
   • Crowdsourced accessibility ratings for ramp & elevator in public buildings
   • Promoted assistive tech in a newsletter with 3k subscribers
   • Raised $17k in support of rubella vaccine & vocational training
5. Historical Econometrics at T50 college 
   • Applied regression model to compare socioeconomic data
   • Used R to explain corporate influences and unequal Gini Indexes
6. Political Club Secretary
   • Featured murals on Gen-Z topic (student debt & climate change)
   • Invited activists from Planned Parenthood to speak at DEI panels
   • Co-produced 8 eps of a college podcast (attracting 4k+ listeners)
7. Marketing Intern at biggest Airbnb firm in a popular vacation spot
   • Created sales channel for listings & streamlined procurement of raw materials
   • Grew IG from 16k to 22k+ followers
8. Golden Owl Hunt (2nd longest treasure hunt organized) 
   • Broke ciphers using poly-alphabetic substitution
   • Creator of C++ scripts (9,000 users) to simulate decryption key and linguistic analysis
   • Matched encoded texts to historical phrases in mythology & literature
9. Volleyball 
   • Recognized by the mayor as the most improved CIF player from JV to Varsity
   • Division IV, III, and II Champion (2021~24) | Ranked Top 50 in the US at D2 level
10. Curator at one of the biggest science museum for kids in the US

• Guiding 2k+ kids in hands-on experiments and interactive displays
• Designed astronomy exhibits w/ telescopic night viewings
• Curated marine touch tanks

11. ADDITIONAL 

• Transcriber at Smithsonian Center 
• Convert text into digital format for National Black Justice Coalition (magazine) & Council of Asian Pacific Americans (newspaper)

2nd Set for Econ/Business 

Everything except 1, 6, 8, and 11, replaced with the following 

• Captain of Wharton Global High School Investment Competition Team 
  • Invited 10 Fortune 500 CIOs for speaker series
  • Built a Python quant model (13% ROI and T100 out of 1700 teams) 
• Non-profit business incubator for the underprivileged 
  • Won $5000 grant in a comp (20 out of 200 project team)
  • Taught kids how to pitch/brand/budget/credit 
• Project Lead at a startup incorporating AI in hydroponic vertical microfarms 
  • Raised 50k at $500k valuation 
  • Donated produce to those affected by the recent Palisades Wildfires (update in LOCI)
  • Trained softwares through reinforcement learning to optimize growing conditions

Awards/Honors

List all awards and honors submitted on the application

1. NASA Best in Show Experiment (Plant Mars Challenge)
2. National History Bowl | National Qualifier (9~12th) 2x Varsity Small School and 2x JV; invited to 6th International History Olympiad (predicted)
3. Representative of North America in the global round of Harvard Crimson Tiger Global Case Competition 
4. World Schools; qualified 2x NSDA nationals; reached top 5 High School Public Debate Program (HSPDP) school rankings in the West; 2x bids at Claremont McKenna Invitational 
5. 1x Qualification to AIME with a score of 93 on AMC 10A in 2022

More stuff that went into additional info

• Bronze Award (2023) and Silver Award (2024) in the National Spanish Exam
• 2x Publications to Teen Ink Magazine
• AP Scholar with Distinction 
• Collegeboard First Gen Scholar 
• Honorable Mention in Toxicology's Senior Division at County Science & Engineering Fair

Letters of Recommendation (Generic but should have unique comments here and there)

• Macro Teacher (7.5/10) 
• Calc AB Teacher (8.5/10) 
• Real Estate Employer (9/10) 
• Head of volunteering at science Museum (7/10) 
• School Counselor (7/10)

Interviews (got my point across)

• Claremont Mckenna (7/10)
• UPenn (8.5/10)
• Georgetown (7.5/10)

Essays (best part)

• UCAS (8/10) 
• Common App (9/10) 
• UC PIQs (9/10) 
• Supplemental Essays (9/10) 

Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)

School List (Website, Coalition, or Common App)

EARLY DECISION 

UChicago (ED2) 

REGULAR DECISION REACHES

• UCLA, UCSD, UCB, UCD, UCI
• U-Dub 
• Cal Poly SLO
• NYU 
• Notre Dame
• Rice 
• WashU 
• Vanderbilt
• Michigan
• Georgetown
• Stanford 
• UPenn 
• Cornell
• Brown
• Yale
• Columbia 
• UVA 
• Duke 
• John Hopkins 
• Carnegie Mellon 
• Emory 
• USC 
• Amherst
• Williams
• Carleton 
• Colorado College 
• Colby 
• Claremont McKenna 
• UCL & KCL

CURRENT RESULTS

Acceptances

1. University of Edinburgh | Politics, Philosophy, and Economics
2. University of St Andrews | Politics and Economics
3. Purdue University | Integrated Business and Engineering + Honors College
4. Indiana University - Kelley | Entrepreneurship and Finance + $24k Dean's Scholar
5. U of Minnesota, Twin Cities | Supply Chain and Industrial Engineering
6. UC Merced | Business Administration 
7. Cal Poly Pomona | Technology and Operations Management

Deferrals/Waitlists

1. Babson College | Entrepreneurship
2. UT Austin | History/Economics
3. UW-Madison | Information Systems

Rejections

1. Northwestern University (ED1) | Anthropology
2. London School of Economics and Political Science | PPE 

no property in egypt but really want at least one of my reaches and make a vexbolt comeback

Demographics

• Gender: Male.
• Race/Ethnicity: Indian
• Residence: Texas
• Income: Upper middle class
• Hooks: None

Intended Major(s): Electrical and computer engineering

Academics

• GPA/Rank (or percentile): 3.86 UW 4.6 W.

in the top 7 percent of my class (43/609).

• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual: 30+

• Senior Year Course Load:

• AP Macroeconomics
• AP Government
• Calc 3 and Diff Eq honors
• AP Physics C Mechanics
• AP Physics C E&M
• Engineering Design and Problem Solving
• AP Lit
• AP 2D Design

Standardized Testing

List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported.

• SAT/ACT: 1460
• AP/IB:

5 Calc BC and 5 AB subscore 5 APES 5 APUSH 5 AP Physics 1 3 AP Lang 4 APHUG 3 AP World

Extracurriculars/Activities: (list here)

• FRC: Deisgn team lead 2 years. Mechanical team and CAD. Pit crew and worked alongside both team captains. Achieved top 20 in Texas state championships. Member 2 years.
• Engineering Club: Junior officer 1 year. Ran newsletter for 2 years. Organized multiple activities and field trips. Member 3 years.
• NHS
• Energy externship: networked at energy companies 4 big ones.
• Coding internship. 3d modeling and website development. Not really that good.

-CAD oil and gas internship paid. Just did CAD and excel to help with tool design. -National Art Honor society: 3 years. Scholastic art and VASE. I've also taken art 3 years.

• Volunteering at a dementia nursing facility. Really just helped with exsersize and activities. Total 80 hours.
• Calc BC tutor
• AP Physics 1 TA

Awards/Honors: (list here)

• Energy speaking comeption 3rd place
• FRC Texas state top 20 (very hard to do because texas is insanely competitive)
• CAD associates certificate SolidWorks
• Dean's list at school (honor roll)
• Rose Hulamn engineering competion 3rd place and most inspiring project

Essays/LORs/Interviews: (briefly reflect/rate)

Common App: Wrote about my love for horror and how horror built my natural curiosity and pushed me to break out of my comfort zone in order to explore new things that I feared before. (Alot of people checked it and said it was really good)

Umich essays: Wrote about robotics for why major. Wrote about Indian culture for background community essay. All my essays were pretty good.

LORs: Got two. One from Calclus teacher and one from Energy Extern Mentor. I know my calc teacher very well idk what she wrote but her letter recs are super sought after. Energy extern mentor is a very accomplished communications and business person she wrote about my leadership and communication.

Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)

• Acceptances: (list here):

-University of Tennessee (EA)- Honors engineering program plus scholarship

Rose hulman institute of technology (EA)- 30k off tuition per year accepted for engineering.

-Texas A&M (EA): engineering accepted

• U of Houston(EA): scholarship plus Honors program

• Deferrals: (list here)

-University of Michigan(EA): ECE

• University of Texas at Austin(EA): ECE

Double deferrals (case + northeastern) now it might be cooked

https://www.reddit.com/r/chanceme/comments/1gcn1jv/cornell_hater/

People said case western might've been due to no demonstrated interest but afaik northeastern doesn't do that... any thoughts on what might be wrong with my app? Again Northeastern has no supps so I can't have been a red flag there and I (and others) thought my essay was p good (nothing crazy, but good).

Didn't get into second or third choice campus either, straight up deferred.

I know this isn't chanceme so not really asking for that just what might be the red flag in my app (even though I can't do much now)

Demographics

• Gender: Male.
• Race/Ethnicity: White.
• Residence: Chicago, Illinois.
• Hooks: None that I can think of.

Intended Major(s): Finance.

Academics

• GPA/Rank (or percentile): 4.12 UW 4.23 W.

Recalculated it and it comes out to a 3.97 UW on a normal 4.0 scale. School doesn’t do class rank but I’m somewhere in the top 15 percent of my class (28/190).

• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 1 AP (Macroeconomics) and 5 honors.

• Senior Year Course Load:

• AP Macroeconomics
• Accounting
• Pre-Calculus
• Physics
• Honors World Religions
• Honors Catholicism in Literature
• Honors British Literature
• Digital Photography and Photoshop

Standardized Testing

List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported.

• SAT/ACT: 1170/19
• AP/IB: In Progress.

• Didn’t submit to any schools besides the ones that required them (University of South Florida and Florida State University).

Extracurriculars/Activities: (list here)

• Car Club (Member).
• Mock Trial Club (Member).
• Wild Chicago Club (Member. Go to events, concerts, etc).
• Pep Club (Member).
• Volunteering at a local food distribution center.
• Summer Job as a Law Clerk.
• Christmas light display (hobby).
• Boy Scouts.
• NHS.

Awards/Honors: (list here)

• Excellence in US History (Awarded to 2 students who scored the highest in the grade. School award).
• Excellence in Biology (Awarded to 5 students who scored the highest in the grade. School award).
• Summa Cum Laude through junior year (3.8 or higher GPA. School award).
• Illinois State Scholar (Awarded to those that score within the 95th percentile of a standardized test OR score in the top one half of your class prior to graduation. Awarded to 28/190 students. State award).

Essays/LORs/Interviews: (briefly reflect/rate)

Essay: Wrote about a hobby in making Christmas light displays using this program called Light-O-Rama. Discussed the skills I’ve gained from this hobby and that I’d be able to bring to a college campus, as well as the joy and excitement the hobby brought me.

LORs: Got two. One from Chemistry teacher and one from Algebra 2/Pre-Calculus teacher. Chemistry teacher talked about how I was in the class and the type of person I am. Talked more of my personality. Math teacher talked more of my academics, and how I was at the top of his class during Algebra 2 last year.

Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)

• Acceptances: (list here):

-University of Dayton (EA)- Half off tuition per year.

-Marquette University (EA)- Half off tuition per year.

-University of Alabama (EA)

-Michigan State University (EA)- 15k off per year.

-Penn State University (EA)- Was accepted as undecided to University Park for Fall 2025.

-Indiana University (EA)- 8k off per year. Accepted into pre-business and sent in a direct review request for Kelley since I don’t meet the requirements.

-University of South Florida (EA)- Accepted into the Tampa Campus. SAT submitted and was low. Would have to take virtual summer program prior.

-University of Louisville (EA).

-University of Iowa (EA).

• Deferrals: (list here)

-University of Miami Florida (EA)- Might apply into ED2 haven’t decided yet.

-Miami University Ohio (EA).

• Rejections: (list here)

-UW-Madison (EA, saddest about this one).

-University of Notre Dame (EA).

-Ohio State University (EA).

Waiting

-University of Michigan (RD).

-University of Tampa (EA).

-Florida State University (RD).

-NYU (RD).

Additional Information:

For me, I considered IU and Penn State as target schools. The rest of my acceptances (besides maybe USF) I would consider as safeties including University of Iowa.

While UMiami has a 19% acceptance rate, based on my profile and some other various reasons, I thought it would be more of a target than a reach for me. I definitely thought OSU was a target. I thought UW-Madison was a hard target-reach, but I thought I still had a chance at deferral but obviously I didn’t.

hi i'm currently a senior in state ann arbor i got a 1350 on my SAT went test optional for umich originally but got deffered have a 3.9 and good ECSs pretty good essays too i think , so should i add my SAT score since being deffered please help!

UF is my dreamschool…

• out of state
• white male
• 35 act
• won’t receive financial aid
• 4.322
• job, var sport, service (Student gov), nhs

this is UF’s first year doing EA, so I think they are being cautious with a lot of early acceptants. Im staying hopeful because I reaallllyy want to get in. Right over left!

Do not stress with your homework reach out to me lurtonessays@gmail.com

Demographics

• Gender: Female
• Race/Ethnicity: Black
• Residence: International
• Type of School: Private in Grade 13
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): URM
• Essay: About my dad introducing me to an electric unicycle in my childhood and us learning to ride it and the symbolic meaning of that period of my life to other aspects of my life later on and how I continue to lean into uncertainty etc etc.
• Intended Major(s): (Undecided)Engineering/Mechanical

Academics

Context: Where I'm from we have high school from Grade 7-11 and then students can apply to any HS of their choice to complete the 6th form program (Grade 12 and 13) and I'm doing 6th form at *a school that only calculates my gpa since attending there (so from Grade 12) without recalculating my GPA from my previous school (from Grade 10 - up is how I believe GPAs are calculated). I also believe I did much better academically at my previous school than my school now (I had a lot of As and a few Bs in like English Lit and Add Math) and that could be due to me taking more rigorous courses obvi and also just me adjusting to a totally different academic curriculum in a sort period of time.

• GPA (W): *3.0, ToK really brought down my GPA I couldn't get higher than a D
• Rank (or percentile): IDK
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 6 IB COURSES: Physics HL, Math AA HL, Business HL, Chemistry SL, Lang/Lit SL, Spanish B SL
• Leaving Examination done in Grade 11 I got almost all 1s (equivalent to an A/A* in IGCSEs) for Chemistry, Mathematics, Additional Mathematics, Physics, IT, English (Language), English (Literature), Biology but Spanish (2/B )

Standardized Testing

• SAT: 1350 670 MATH 680 ENGLISH single sitting

Extracurriculars/Activities (Strong imo)

1. Founder and Project Manager, Local Renewable Energy Initiative: Promote renewable energy awareness and donated 4 solar lights to Primary hit by hurricane, featured on local news and article
2. Founder and President , Auto Club: Launched school's first Auto Club for students passionate about automobiles and engineering along with organizing mini car show
3. Co-founder of Back-To-School Care Package Project: Provided 80 elementary students in need of BTS care packages, featured in the local news article
4. Co-founder, Group Cancer Foundation: Promoted online cancer awareness through community outreach and fundraised 6-figures to support individuals in need of cancer treatment
5. Summer Internship as Solar System Installer at local Renewable Energy Company: Assisted in solar installations (mounting panels, wiring and troubleshooting inverters) literally gained hands-on skills
6. Long term Table Tennis Player and Dancer
7. Play Volleyball (Libero and Championship Team Scorer) and Badminton (Vice President)
8. Prefect
9. More stuff on my Resume

Awards/Honors

5 Year Principal Honor Roll at previous HS

8 1s in Exams (acknowledged by previous school after graduating Grade 11)

1st place IB Chemistry SL Student Term 1

2nd Place IB Physics HL Student Term 1

Letters of Recommendation 

1. Business teacher 8/10

2.Physics teacher 7/10

Optional non-teacher: Top Engineering Lecturer at local University 8/10 (Submitted to UPenn and Purdue I think)

Decisions:

*USF - Accepted w In-State Tuition and Honors

Drexel - Accepted with some aid but still hella expensive and Honors

FIU - Accepted

*EA Howard - Deferred

*EA UMiami and UF: Ngl I was really humbled and was expecting at least a deferral

Waiting Decisions:

*RD UPenn

*RD USC

UCSB

*UC Berkeley

*UCSD

*RD Purdue

University College London (Chem Teacher LOR 7/10)

*Imperial College London (Chem Teacher LOR 7/10)

*Really want to attend/would consider seriously attending these schools and Ik some of them are reaches (which is why I applied to a mix of safeties as well) especially with my current GPA but I just really want to have an honest insight as to if I have a serious chance at getting into anyone of these. And Ik some of you are probably thinking why I even applied to some of these schools but all my life I really wasn't a bad student and I definelty went above and beyond in my academics especially coming from previous high school where the academic competition was most definelty high (as where Im from you were placed in traditional public schools based on how you performed on a national exam taken in Grade 6 - I was placed in T3 HS nationally ). A lot really happened for me in covid time and since recently transitioning schools for 6th form (losing loved ones etc.) as well and I have really been trying to get my grades back up especially for upcoming IB exams.

Respectfully/genuinely wanna know my chances at these schools considering all aspects of my overall profile and the reasoning as to your predictive decision? ABSOLUTELY NOT LOOKING FOR VALIDATION!!!

Demographics

• Gender: Female
• Race/Ethnicity: Hispanic
• Residence: North Carolina
• Income Bracket: 75-100k
• Type of School: Homeschool (took most of my classes at community college)
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): First Gen, URM

Intended Major(s): Mathematics/Quantitative Finance

Academics

• GPA/Rank : 3.75 unweighted, 4.36 weighted
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 8 Honors, 3 AP's, 20 college courses by end of senior year(19 at community college and 1 at NCSU) (notable courses are Calc I, II and III, and General Physics I- Calc Based)
• Senior Year Course Load: Differential Equations, Linear Algebra, General Physics II (Calc based), Statistics, Foundations of Advanced Mathematics(NSCU Course), College Composition II, Web Development Fundamentals, Python, American Government

Standardized Testing

List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported.

• SAT: 1450 (took twice and got 1430 2nd time, only reported the 1450)
• Didn't superscore
• AP Testing: AP Spanish Language and Culture 5

Extracurriculars/Activities:

1. Math Club President (at community college) (3 years, was VP junior year and government rep sophomore)
2. Community Service: Co-founder/Leader of Middle School Girls Club, Coordinate & manage monthly mtgs; organize, & assist w/ crafts for assisted living fac.; lead food drive for food pantry; promote team building, mentor
3. Research: Stevens Discovery Lab in Quantitative Finance: Participated in interactive lectures and case studies, earned Bloomberg and Capital IQ certifications, completed research project using R programming
4. Varsity and Club Swimming (4 years)
5. Part time job: Lifeguard and swim instructor for preschool to adult
6. Community Service: Instructor for math help group for girls, Prepare math lessons for a group of girls to motivate girls to continue studying STEM. Meet with girls when they request help; provide encouragement
7. Club Softball (4 years)
8. Beaver Works Fall Institute Cyber Operations Basic Course
9. Community Service: Camp Counselor, In charge of 8 7th-grade girls, managed activities and schedules; supported their mental and physical well-being; maintained a fun environment 2 week long overnight camp
10. Community Service: Cary Teen Council

Awards/Honors: National Merit Semifinalist, National Hispanic Recognition Program and First Gen, National Homeschool Honor Society(Treasurer Sophomore year)

Letters of Recommendation

1.) Physics Professor: really good relationship, went to office hours all to time to build a solid rapport. 7-8/10

2.) Honors English Teacher: Knew her really well bc she taught me English for 2 years before i took the rest of my English classes at community college, 8-9/10

Interviews

NA

Essays

Basically wrote about how seeing such a drastically small amount of girls in my STEM classes pushed me to start my own club; and how it became a leadership club for girls where I can help them build confidence and support each other. And how creating the club has help me be more bold as well.

Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)

• Acceptances: ECU- Rolling, University of Mississippi - Rolling, George Mason EA, James Madison EA, Fordham EA
• Deferred: NCSU
• Rejections: UNC Chapel Hill, UChicago, NYU (I expected the rejections from UChicago and NYU but not from UNC especially since so many of my friends got in with lighter course loads)
• Waiting: Stevens Institute of Technology RD, Duke RD, UVA EA

Additional Information:

waiting to see if im a national merit finalist

Sucks bc i really thought i had a chance of getting in to UNC or NCSU especially with being an in-state student. Everyone I know got into NCSU with less so i feel like I did so much for nothing.

RESULTS: I applied questbridge (got deferred from Stanford, MIT, and Columbia) Stanford got moved to RD, MIT to EA then deferred again to RD, Columbia to ED then deferred again to ED

Accepted: UC merced, CSU Fullerton

I applied to 6/8 ivies + all of HYPSM and all UCs and most T20s for RD so I'm waiting on those

so, deferred five times total LOL

AFTER BEING DEFERRED: honestly i was really really sad to be deferred so many times. luckily though i took it as some insane motivation an ended up getting ~10k social media engagements for my nonprofit, published computer science research to two IEEE conferences, gave a TEDx talk abt my nonprofit, and presented my research at google WHICH i ALL INCLUDED IN MY LETTER OF CONTINUED INTERESTS / MID YEAR UPDATES

Demographics

Background: Indonesian + Chinese, Male (born in America) from central valley California, good school ranked top 30 in California but in really really bad + dangerous , first gen, very low income

Academic Profile

Intended Major: Computer Science + Public Policy

GPA: 3.93 UW, 4.65 W; had some b's cuz of homeless stuff

Rank: 21/95 Course Load: 6/7 AP courses by graduation. will grad with a AA in art and humanities + AS in interdisciplinary math and science studies (probably will grad with 80 colleges creds

SAT: 1510 (720R, 790M) school average: 1080, city average: like 950?

Extenuating Circumstances

homeless stuff in late freshman year early soph, parents divorce, first gen, rly low income, + custody stuff

Extracurriculars

1. founder, ceo, and lead dev of a 501c3 non profit - regional level impact (across my county), estimate ten thousand students impact.
2. asb pres, asb secretary, class secretary, class treasurer ( school only allows one position per year ) - (roughly 350 hrs here)
3. uc santa cruz physics research intern at a summer program**(8-12% acceptance in 2024**)- was the lead developer for a sea water electrolysis project where i used gnu octave to code physcial electrolysis simulations
4. uc santa cruz computer science research intern published cs research to IEEE ITSC and IV 2025
5. school district board student rep ( I represent 36202 students on the school board)
6. Self-taught Programmer & Web Developer: Learned HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, Lua, C++, C#, GNU Octave, React, Material UI; developed promotional websites for school election nominee
7. Superintendent Student Advisory Board: Presents to school district on safety and budget issues at 4 campuses per year; contributed to the development of the State Seal of Civic Engagement
8. UCSC Research Speaker at Google & Outreach Volunteer
   1. Presented Physics and Computer Science Research at a Google-hosted event; guided outreach to 500+ students in Central Valley for a STEM research summer program i did at UCSC
9. Mobile Robotics Summer Program
   1. Engineered an Arduino robot through electrical engineering, C++, and C#; collaborated with a lab group of 4 to complete and submit 5 lab report
10. Spanos Elementary AI-based Curriculum Work
11. Prompted an AI model 54 times to generate vocabulary lessons for 3rd graders; trained a co-worker how to use AI and prompt properly; I was paid $300 

Awards/Honors

1. School District Board Student Representative (2/36,202 students)
2. H2O San Joaquin Hackathon First Place Coding Division, $2,000 awarded
3. QuestBridge National College Match Finalist and College Prep Scholar
4. UC Santa Cruz $1,000 Research Stipend for Outstanding Research 
5. Stockton Mayor Exemplary Leadership Award

Letters of Rec: associated student body advisor: 7/10, math teacher (10/10), undergrad cs major at stanford i did research under (the IEEE stuff): (9.5/10) counselor: 7/10

Essays: wrote about mentally unstable mom led me to becoming a leader by finding my voice (personal statement) and how i was a disadvantaged student that became passionate in computer science so i wanted to make a change so i began to love public policy (supplementals; cs and public policy double major)

Demographics

• Gender: Male
• Race/Ethnicity: Asian
• Residence: NY
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): No Hooks

Intended Major(s): Finance + Entrepreneurship or Economics

Academics

• GPA/Rank (or percentile): 3.9 UW
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 10 APs, rest Honors

Standardized Testing

List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported.

• SAT/ACT: 1510 (730RW/780M)

Extracurriculars/Activities: 

1. Founder + Exec of Agricultural NPO - Developed own education product, sold 850+, donated 4000 of product to local students
2. Financial Officer of Environmental + Community NPO - Co-wrote $105k grant, led new local projects, volunteered on community garden.
3. Co-teacher of elective at high school teaching how to start social venture - Curriculum designer, selected by superintendent of education, over 15 students supported + mentored.
4. Ambassador at startup accelerator at NYU Stern - worked with digital health startup to optimize SMART goals for 250k raised in seed-funding round + Mentored by MBAs.
5. Director, Producer, Researcher, and Narrator, Historical Documentary - Produced film's arc and narrative flow. Researched 70+ sources for annotated bibliography. Formed a partnership with Stanford's respective project.
6. Volunteer at Museum
7. Senior tutor at Schoolhouse.world - Tutored 126 students, reaching 24 countries.
8. Treasurer of International Club
9. 4- Year varsity baseball starter
10. SAT Tiktok - 1.8k followers, 1M impressions, 2 affiliate partnerships.

Awards/Honors: 

1. Morgan Stanley Finance Academy
2. International Film Award
3. International Film Award
4. PVSA Gold x2
5. $2,000 Seed-Funding Grant via local NPO Grant

Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)

• Acceptances: Indiana University (Kelley), SUNY BING (Management School), UNC Chapel Hill, University of Florida
• Deferrals: UT Austin (Mccombs), USC (Marshall), UMICH (Ross),
• Rejections: UPENN Wharton

Let's see what happens RD with my 4.0 finally....

RD: UVA, UC Berkeley Spieker, UCLA, Emory Goizueta, Duke, Northeastern, NYU Stern, Rice, Cornell Dyson, Vanderbilt

edit: I just wanted to add that I wrote my PS about poker, thought that would be funny to include

Demographics

• Gender: Male
• Race/Ethnicity: White
• Residence: TX
• Income Bracket: Did not qualify for any financial aid
• Type of School: Uncompetitive Private
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): Sibling Legacy

Intended Major(s): history/stats

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 4.0/4.6
• Rank (or percentile): 1/110
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 9 APs (not offered until junior year, took honors/highest rigor every year)
• Senior Year Course Load: MultiV, AP Physics C, AP Lit, AP Euro, AP Stats

Standardized Testing

List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported.

• ACT: 36 (35E, 36M, 36R, 35S) (took once)
• AP/IB: All 5s, AP Chem, APUSH, AP Calculus BC, AP Lang, AP CompSci

Extracurriculars/Activities

1. Director of STEM Engagement for engineering team, part of leadership, won #1 in international competition, worked with ~1000 lower-middle school students doing hands-on STEM activities
2. Lead Tutor for large refugee program, led classroom over the summer, helped students publish school wide newspaper
3. Created afterschool camp and worked as teaching assistant for lower school classrooms, worked on board of program
4. Student government VP
5. Paid Math Tutor
6. Medical Physics research at local T20 medical school
7. CS Research at local state uni
8. MMA, trained with a lot of UFC/former-UFC fighters since 8th grade
9. Made video game with ~500k unique downloads
10. Founded/led debate club

Awards/Honors

1. 1st in International Engineering Competition
2. State-wide English competition
3. Rice Book Award
4. AP Scholar with Distinction
5. National Merit

Letters of Recommendation

AP Chem teacher - 8/10, had a close relationship with and he wrote my sister's rec too

French teacher - 10/10, had a very close relationship with and probably wrote very nice things about me

College Counselor - 10/10, he literally received an email from the Duke AO commenting that his letter was perfect

Interviews

Duke Interview - 9/10, had a lot in common with interviewer, he also went to Duke with his siblings and we talked about local school football

Essays

CommonApp - 8/10, wrote about refugee tutoring and being invited to present my social science research at State Department in DC

Duke Supplementals - 9/10, had very unique topics and I think my "Why Duke" especially was quite good because my work aligned with a lot of Duke's unique programs

Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)

Acceptances:

• Duke (ED)
• UT auto-admit

Waitlists:

• None

Rejections:

• None

Additional Information:

None

Sucked because it was my dream school, even though I did not act like it. With the large class size and being out of state I did not show much interest and kind of "whatevered" my application.

Demographics

• Gender: Male
• Race/Ethnicity: Hispanic
• Residence: OOS - Texas

Intended Major(s): Business/Accounting

Academics

• GPA/Rank : 3.45 weighted
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 4 ; limit of 3 APs per year, didn't try to stack my rigor till junior / senior year
• Senior Year Course Load: AP Psych, Leadership class (was chosen from a pool of 80+ kids to be on a 15 person team), study hall, AP Enviornmental Sci, English IV, Gov/econ, Honors Pre Calc

Standardized Testing

List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported.

• ACT: Superscore 31, Regular 30
• Took 2 times
• 1st: 25 math, 28 science, 32 english, 33 reading
• 2nd: 26 math, 26 science, 35 english, 27 reading
• Struggled on math because there were a lot of concepts that I had not learned yet
• AP Testing: APUSH 4

Extracurriculars/Activities:

1. School Spirit - Senior Leadership Team: selective, application-based team. 17 out of 87 applicants selected

2. Community Service - Assist priest with masses; set up and take down candles and other liturgical items; help younger servers gain skills required to support services

3. Accounting Intern - Observed wire transfers, placed over 500 orders, filed sales receipts, fulfilled invoices, and recorded incoming inventory into QuickBooks.

4. Varsity Soccer (4 years)

5. Varsity Cross Country (4 years)

6. School volunteer club

7. Part-time job (lifeguard)

8. Part-time job (rowing dock)

9. Part-time job (Cashier)

10. Community Service - Filmed football practices

Awards/Honors: (list here) Dean's list senior year; really didn't matter because I had alr submitted apps, school recognition reward junior year

Essays/LORs/Interviews: Used a college coach to help guide/format my ideas; Had a low GPA my freshman and sophomore year due to undiagnosed ADHD and found out the summer of my junior year. After that, my GPA soared and I achieved the most in high school my junior and senior year. I paralleled my experience overcoming my ADHD with an experience I had on Mount Fuji in Japan. It was a metaphor that even though I had these obstacles, I found ways to overcome them and kept going.

For perspective, I achieved a 3.77 junior year and a 3.9 senior year

Extra info section: Briefly talked about early childhood struggles with my mom and having a single dad who worked a lot and could not provide attention, which impacted me

Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)

• Acceptances: ASU - Rolling, UArizona - Rolling, UArkansas, Penn State, Auburn, UColorado Boulder
• Deferred: IU Bloomington
• Rejections: Ohio State (didn't show much interest even though it was my dream school), University of Florida
• Waiting: FSU

Demographics

• Gender: female
• Race/Ethnicity: black
• Residence: nc
• Income Bracket: middle class
• Type of School: competitive public
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): URM, first gen, IB diploma

Intended Major(s): public policy/poli sci w/ global studies minor, international politics , but changed it for a lot of safeties

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 3.916/4.416
• Rank (or percentile): in top 25%
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.:

Including senior year : 14 honors, 12 AP/IB (all of my APs except precalc were also counted for IB credit, but on my transcript I have 5 APs, 7 IB classes)

• Senior Year Course Load:

• trying to stay a little vague bc I don’t need anyone ik in my business but feel free to ask anymore questions in PM-

Dance honors Arch/engineering honors IB Eng lit IB Language IB Arts elective IB history IB TOK IB math A&I SL

Standardized Testing

List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported.

• SAT: 1400 (720RW,680M)-took nov sat senior yr- still surprised bc I was barely getting 1300s on the practice tests

Submitted SAT to : UNC, BU, NCSU + safeties

• ACT: 27 (idek the breakdown tbh did not submit anywhereee)-took it during act day and was mentally fried by 3rd section

• AP/IB: Lang:5 AP language(same as the IB one I’m taking this year): 4 APES :4 precalc: 3 (sometimes submitted idrk) IB enviro: 5

Extracurriculars/Activities

List all extracurricular involvements, including leadership roles, time commitments, major achievements, etc.

1. Volunteered in multiple positions at mom’s business (9-12)
2. Track & field (10-12)
3. UNICEF club member (9-10)
4. VP school art related club (11-12)
5. Exec board for my language’s honors society (11,12)
6. Competed in a app competition (11)
7. Social Justice organization for immigrants (12, US co leader, mostly advocacy through social media which is why it’s low)
8. Specialized instrument group ensemble (9, took as a class & did the winter season competition, wanted to go back Junior year but new school made it too expensive )
9. Social Justice education program ambassador (11-12
10. This one has flipped for each application because I’ve started a lot of new stuff my senior year(explained in additional info) but I put it as a volunteer over 12th grade summer for a homeless shelter (only a couple of times) for my early apps, then switched it to my job in my rd app. But this is not accurate to alll the stuff I’m doing/done in senior year tbh

Awards/Honors

List all awards and honors submitted on your application.

1. AP scholar w honor, African American recognition, first gen recognition
2. Specialized instrument group competition stuff

3.IB diploma student 4. My language’s Honors society 5. School art show #2 place

Letters of Recommendation

I think I had/have a good relationship with my teachers so I could see them writing good recommendations ! My history & English teacher.

Interviews N/A

Essays

I spent a while brain storming but everything besides UNC was written in a couple days -UNC was written in like 2 weeks+my personal statement. Lots of tweaking and reusing tbh but I think I wrote them decently. I think my UNC supplementals were strong and I managed to make myself seem more specialized/spiked than my very chaotic transcript & ECs show. A lot of my supps were based on my UNC supps so yeah.

My personal statement was about my longterm involvement in my mom’s business, how it’s affected our relationship and how I’ve turned it into a way for me & my mom to mend our relationship as well as help others.

Decisions

EA

*Acceptances * :

*Georgia State UNI -direct admissions offer

• SUNY Buffalo State- direct admissions- honor+$

*ECU

*NCAT (released on Christmas was so sweet, also my brother goes there!)

*Clark ATL Uni (my first acceptance !)

*UNC 🩵🩵🩵+ $1k for spring forward (most likely gonna commit unless Duke lets me in or NYU & Howard lets me in and matches UNC in state tuition)

*Temple (same day as UNC, mom wanted to go there but didn’t get to so it made me really happy)

Waitlists: As of now none

Rejections: As of now none

Awaiting:

• Duke (test optional)
• BU
• NYU( submitted 3 AP scores)
• NCSU

Might still apply:

• Spelman (still have a love for cosmetic science and they’re one of 2 schools who offers that major plus amazing school & I love ATL)
• Howard- great law/poli sci program but also great networking opportunities bc of how connected the alumni are with the school

Additional Information:

I switched schools halfway through highschool. Going from a noncompetitive school to a super competitive one & it really messed me up but also messed with my ECs so that’s why there’s weird starts+ends+ a lot joined in senior year.

I’m just really happy about this, my mom didn’t get to finish college because life got in the way and I’m not even sure if my dad finished high school so being able to go to college is amazing, never mind going to a top school.

I was freaking out thinking that I wouldn’t get in because I live in a competitive place (my sat is like 50pts above the average at my school) & a decent amount of ppl with good stats still don’t manage to get in. But my work clearly showed !! We’ll see what RD holds for me !!

3.7 uw 4.17 w; test-optional + didn't submit supps to Howard

demographs:

- black girl

- second-gen

- low-income

my essays carried and collapsed idk guys?? also my ecs that stood out were def my non-profit, nsli-y (language exchange program in which i learned Korean) and 100+ volunteer hours being a girl scout, also had lots of competitive national art/writing awards, was president of a club, and focused on giving back to my community and talked about my genuine passion for being a linguistic nerd

Demographics:

• Gender: female
• Race: white
• State: arizona
• Type of School: private school (k-12)
• Income: high income
• Hooks: (URM, first generation, legacy, athlete, etc.): stanford legacy

Intended Major(s): gov/poly sci

ACT/SAT/SAT II: 36 on the act (never took the sat)

UW/W GPA and Rank: 4.0/4.8; valedictorian

Coursework: AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores: 16 ap classes, 9 scores as i was applying (all 5s)

Awards:

1. nsda national champion (won a second consecutive time but it was after finishing college applications)
2. toc national champion
3. coca-cola scholarship semifinalist (eventual scholar)
4. harvard national speech and debate tournament champion
5. 3x speech and debate state champion

Extracurriculars:

1. director of the largest national speech and debate non-profit (specializing in a specific event)
2. speech and debate - president
3. director of a non-profit funding research in rare diseases which particularly affect children ($200k+ raised)
4. provide free tutoring resources and support to children in refugee schools in my state
5. ballet
6. girl scouts

• extracurriculars 7-10 are mostly insignificant here relative to my top 3+… they are mostly just me being the president of a random club or a volunteer somewhere.

Essays/LORs/Other:

- Essays: solid imo, took months to finish all of them whilst undergoing consistent revision.

- LORs: also solid. all of the teachers and coaches i received lors from shared a close relationship with me. i personally knew all of them for many years (especially considering i attended the same school since i was in kindergarten).

- Interviews: all went incredibly well (harvard, yale, princeton, stanford, georgetown)

Decisions: List of colleges, ED/EA/RD, etc.

Accepted:

- asu ea

- georgetown rd

- stanford rd

- princeton rd

- yale rd (yucky)

- harvard rea (committed)

Waitlisted:

- None

Rejected:

- None

I’ll be a little bit vague about my application (to avoid doxxing and the effort required to type out my entire application). I am very cooked by this point. I was overly confident and only applied for reaches in RD.

Program: Applied for LSA CS because I showed an interdisciplinary interest in history throughout my application.

Demographic: Canadian applicant, large public high school. I don’t know if anyone at my school has ever gotten into UMich, though every year there are usually 1–2 Ivy League accepts.

Stats 98.25% unweighted; 1580 SAT; 6 APs, got 5 on all of them (my school only offers 4 AP courses).

Awards (I edited this section after a comment asked me to give more details) I am in USACO Platinum division. I got a 10 on AIME, 130+ on AMC, and top 1 % on two other prestigious Canadian math competitions..

EC Good ECs (somewhat under the level of my awards, but still very competitive). For example, I created a modification for a historical simulation game and got 10,000 subscribers and several community awards on Steam, worked on machine learning/graph theory research with an Ivy League professor that I met at a competitive summer program, and served as the president of my school’s math club and history club. I also have a few other ECs around this level.

Note: I gave a bit more detail under one of the comments. Here is what I wrote:

For EC, in addition to what I already wrote, I’ll add the following details:

Math club is the largest club at my school, and under my leadership, the club helped 300+ students over three years. (It was a mid-sized club before handed to me).

I founded and led a non-profit tutoring organization that has 20+ tutors and helped 80+ students. My school’s principal supported this initiative.

I founded my school’s history club in grade 10. It has around 20 annual members, and one of my recommender is the sponsor of that club.

I make fan edits for movies, and I got 1M views and 40k likes.

Essays My English teacher used to be an AO at a Canadian university. He gave me advice along the way, and he said my personal statement is pretty good. I admit my UMich essays might not be as good because I started working on them the week before the deadline, but they should still be at least moderately strong.

Teacher/Other LOR My LORs should also be pretty good. My physics teacher described me as the best student she had in 30 years when introducing me to other teachers. My history teacher told me he made his recommendation as strong as an LOR possibly can be. I also submitted additional LORs from an internship and research.

Counselor LOR This might have gone wrong, but I’m not very sure. My school doesn’t have a ranking system, but I took the hardest courses, and my GPA is definitely among the top 1%. However, my counselor is new to her job. This is her first year working as a high school counselor, and I honestly have no idea how she proceeded with her school report. That said, I had a very pleasant interview with her prior to the application, and she sponsored one of my clubs.

I just got deferred from nc state and chapel hill and got rejected from usc.. I don't think ive cried this much over anything in a while. I don't know what to do with myself after this. My dad didn't want me to apply to any other safety schools because he was sure i'd get into nc state at the least.. I feel like I worked for nothing and im crashing out so bad. I feel like i've failed all the people who believed in me and im so guilty about it.. I'm exhausted by everything rn and this is just one more bad thing happening in life.. Could anyone spare a few word of advice to help me cope? I just need a bit of hope to make it through the last few months of school.

Demographics

• Gender: Female
• Race/Ethnicity: White (half-Armenian)
• Residence: small new england state
• Income Bracket: 200k
• Type of School: Private boarding
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): none? from a small state though

Intended Major(s): (write here)

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): UW 3.82, W 4.23
• Rank (or percentile): N/A
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 4 honors, 9 APs (by end of senior year)
• Senior Year Course Load: AP Comp Gov, AP Econ (macro and micro), AP English Lit, AP Calc AB, AP Spanish Lang, Senior Thesis

Standardized Testing

List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported:

• ACT: Taken 3 times, max composite 33, superscore 34 (36R, 36E, 29M, 33S).
• AP/IB: 3 by end of junior year -- 5 on APUSH, 5 on AP Euro, 5 on AP English Lang

Extracurriculars/Activities

List all extracurricular involvements, including leadership roles, time commitments, major achievements, etc.

1. Head of Boy Scouts summer camp, 3 years
2. Nationally ranked skier
3. Varsity cycling (school)
4. Tour ambassador for school
5. Senior class rep
6. Leader of outdoor club
7. Captain of MUN/Debate
8. Summer job at sandwich shop
9. Online reseller, Depop (LMAO cannot believe I put this)
10. Signed up my friends for my advocacy automatic texts to state reps

Awards/Honors

List all awards and honors submitted on your application.

1. School-wide AP Euro Award
2. Highest Honor Roll all 3 years
3. AP scholar (lol)
4. Scholarship earned at school for academic and sports excellence

Letters of Recommendation

1.) History teacher: really great relationship, one of the best students he's ever had: assuming a 8-9/10

2.) Honors physics teacher: finished year with a B+ in his class lol STEM is not my strong suit but we talked and he was nice to me, prob a 6-7/10.

Interviews

N/A

Essays

Mich's essay prompts were very straightforward, I didn't feel the need to be like quirky like some of the other schools so I was able to reference a lot of specific examples about why I wanted to go to Mich. Mentioned lots of proper nouns, programs, etc.

Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)

Acceptances:

• OOS UMich LSA EA, PPE/Poli Sci!!

Additional Information:

Waiting on aid as well as a possible ROTC scholarship. It MUST'VE been my essays and LOCs because I had like 5 B's in high school and had a downward, plateau trend. So Idk what mich saw but I feel soooo lucky!

I got accepted to UMiami(EA). My COA is 3k after aid.

My profile:

Demographics: South Asian Male ( Efc of 4k)

Intended Major(s): Electrical Engineering

ACT/SAT/SAT II: 1450( 800 in maths, 650 in English)

UW/W GPA and Rank: 4/4.33(W); I calculated my rank unofficially, and it was top 2% of the graduating batch of 1300 students

Coursework: A-Level grades: 1A* 3A; O-Level grades: 6A* 3A

Awards:

Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award (International)

5 national science competitions awards

Dean's-list in high school

Gold medal from school for exceptional grades

90% merit scholarship at one of the top high school in my home country

Extracurriculars:  (150+ hours of community service)

Co-founder of a high school club

Led high school's science team in various national competitions

Paid internship at a tech startup

Internship at a NGO

TA of English language

Executive of my high school's social welfare club

Youtube content creator; religious channel with 2000 subscribers

Captain of my house cricket team; playing the sports since 9 years

Badminton player

Essays/LORs/Other: Personal statement: 6/10; wrote about how I transformed myself following a setback

General Info

• Major: Computer Science
• Finances: Ineligible for Need-based Aid
• School: Large Public High School (Not a Feeder)
• Hooks: None

Academics

• GPA: 3.82 UW, 4.46 W
• Class Rank: Top 125 out of ~850 (Dean's List for Top 15%)
• 9th to 11th Coursework: 8 APs [Reporting Three 4s and Two 5s], 6 Dual Enrollment
  • Math/CS: AP Calc AB/BC, AP CSA, DE Data Analytics
  • Engineering: AP Physics 1/Mechanics, DE Intro to Engineering
• 12th Coursework: Homeroom Econ, AP English Lit, AP Spanish Lang, DE Linear Algebra, DE Multivariable Calculus, DE Object Oriented Programming
• SAT: 1500 Superscore (740 RW, 760 M)
• PSAT: 1460 (750 RW, 710 M)

Awards

1. (International, National) 1x ISEF Finalist in [Category], 1x AIME Qualifier, National Merit Finalist
2. (National) [Competition] Video Scholarship ($10,000) & [Competition] Essay Scholarship ($1,500)
3. (National) [College Name] Hackathon 2nd Place Award ($3,000) & Special Commendation Award
4. (National) [Company Name] Hackathon Supplementary Award ($2,000) & Honorable Mention
5. (National & Regional) 1x PVSA Gold Award, 2x PVSA Bronze Awards (2x Local News Feature)

Activities

1. Founder, Small Automation Startup - Under Development, Raised $4,200 Seed Fund (2 Sponsors)
2. Cybersecurity Intern, [Fortune 500 Company] - Developed Experimental Firewall
   • Internship Advisor is Providing an Additional Recommendation Letter!
3. Captain, School Hackathon Club - Awards 3, 4 (Hackathon Awards)
4. Competitor, Regional Science Fair - Award 2 (ISEF Finalist) for Applied Math/Physics Research
5. Founder & President, School CS Club - Started 1st School Hackathon & Led 50+ Members
6. Member, School Speech & Debate Club - 3rd in State Tournament for my Event
7. Volunteer, Local Soup Kitchen - Volunteered Biweekly; Built Website w/ 2,000+ views/mo
8. Varsity Football Player - Starting Player & 4x Team MVP, State Semifinalists
9. Member, Career Exploration Club - Landed Cybersecurity Internship via Networking
10. Member, National Honor Society - Participated in 6 Street Cleanups

Colleges

Early (4)

• Harvard --> Deferred
• UT Austin --> Deferred
• Texas A&M--> Accepted + Full Tuition Scholarship (PSAT)
• [My State Flagship] --> Accepted + Full Tuition Scholarship (PSAT)

Regular (11)

• Stanford
• MIT
• Caltech
• UPenn
• Cornell
• Duke
• GTech
• Princeton
• Vanderbilt
• CMU
• Boston

Reflections

Academics are definitely the worst part of my application. I barely made Dean's List (Top 15%), since people 5ish spots below me on class ranking didn't make it, and I never made President's List (Top 5%). There were dozens of people at my school who took over 20 AP/DE classes (the top ~20 people will have an associate's degree done by high school graduation, on top of a couple of APs!). My SAT is below the bottom quartile for all my reach schools, and I slipped into NMF by 1 or 2 NMSC points (clutch). I think my awards definitely carried, and my activities were solid too.

Overall, super happy that I have at least full-tuition at both state schools I applied to! With that said, I'm still hoping I get into a lot of my RD schools so that I have a bunch of options to work with, especially if I win any merit scholarships. I'd appreciate it if you could chance me for my RD colleges!

THIS IS MY FIRST ACCEPTANCE I got rejected from university of Florida right before I checked Michigan so I had no hope But I got in and now I am a Wolverine!!!!! My regular schools are mostly ranked lower than umich except some ivies but I am still so happy with everything!!!! If anyone wants some help with Michigan essay! Contact me if want any advice even though I am not professional!🩵 But one thing I can tell you is that my academics was weak I had lot of Ds and Cs And SAT was 1420 and 1470 after update Although I am British school so gpa is not sent:>>