Demographics

• Gender: male
• Race/Ethnicity: asian
• Residence: dallas, texas
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): none

Intended Major(s): computer science, computer engineering

Academics

• GPA/Rank (or percentile): 4.0 UW, 4.8/5 W, 30/700, top 5%, competitive highschool
• of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc: 13 AP, most of my other classes were honors
• Senior Year Course Load: 5 math/science AP's

Standardized Testing

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

• ACT: 36 (36 S,36 R,35 M,35 W)
• AP: at time of applying, seven 5's and one 4

Extracurriculars/Activities: won nationals and multiple prestigious awards in a known but not played much at college sport (generic so I don't get doxxed), coached and worked with a non-profit for the sport, robotics leadership and won a few awards, data science research at a t100 university, a city internship with first-generation students, a couple of club leadership roles

Awards/Honors: multiple highly regarded awards in the sport, NMSQT finalist, robotics award, AP scholar with distinction

Essays/LORs/Interviews: i thought my essays were alright but I'm not the best writer. My LORs was from my psych and english teacher; they were probably decent but nothing amazing. Interview with Harvard went well and connected over many things plus talked for about a hour and a half. MIT and Princeton interviews were just alright.

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

• Acceptances: 
  • A&M (ea) -> accepted with scholarship
  • UTD (ea) -> accepted with scholarship
  • Purdue (ea) -> accepted
• Waitlists: 
  • CMU (ea) -> waitlisted -> rejected
  • Georgia Tech (ea) -> deferred -> waitlisted - > rejected
  • Umich (ea) -> deferred -> waitlisted -> accepted -> commited, go blue!
• Rejections: 
  • UT (ea) (in-state) (dream school) -> rejected (got in for a liberal arts major since top 6% but not my major)
  • UIUC (ea) -> deferred -> rejected
  • MIT -> rejected
  • Stanford -> rejected
  • Princeton -> rejected
  • Harvard -> rejected
  • Cornell -> rejected
  • Brown -> rejected

Additional Information: I was devestated after my early action results. Although I expected to get rejected at the ivies/MIT/stanford, I was confident I would get in UT Austin since it is my state school and I am in top 6% (meaning I am auto-admit) with pretty good stats. My school counselor and many older friends all said I would get into UT, so since junior year I have been imagining myself at UT. Adding salt to the wound, many other people from my highschool who cheated throughout highschool and have worse stats got in. For a couple of months, I was depressed, wondering if all the work I put into highschool was even worth it. In the end, I got lucky and somehow managed to get off the waitlist for umich! Go blue!

*since I'm on an H4 visa, I was counted as an international applicant for all of my out of state applications. While I was counted as in-state for my in state schools, I still had to submit additional documentation. So take this post with this information

**I already posted this after my results came out, but seeing class of 2025 start their application journey, I wanted to repost this so people can see my own journey and how they can fare

Demographics: Indian male, Texas, large competitive school

Major: computer science 😭

Academics:

1. 3.5 UW, 4.3/4.5 W for my possible schedule (freshman year and covid and virtual learning screwed me, told this on my application)

2. 1430 SAT (760 RW, 670 Math), 30 ACT (36 writing, 33/34 reading, 27 science, 24 math)

3. 8 total APs throughout high school (WHAP, APUSH, Lit, Lang, Macro, Gov, CSP, APES), and 6 total advanced classes throughout high school (all freshmen and sophomore years

4. Senior year courseload: pre-calc, Lit, Macro, Gov, APES

5. AP scores: 5s on WHAP, APUSH, Lit, Lang, Gov, CSP, 4 on APES, 3 on Macro

ECs:

1. Played football for my high school team (10-12th grade)

2. Was a member of high school orchestra (9th-12th grade, been playing since 4th grade however)

3. Was a Boy Scout (reached Eagle shortly before 18th birthday before I graduated, so on my application I put all of the leadership roles that I had, merit badges, etc, and stated that I was anticipating Eagle rank sometime in the spring-summer of 2024)

4. Member of high school's DECA chapter (9th-12th grade, made it to state 3 times, as well as the international competition my senior year, but at the time of my application I had made state twice, so wrote that)

5. Member of my school's student council (9th-12th grade)

6. President/founder of my school's computer science club (10th-12th grade, explained how we grew in size, competitions that we took part in, etc)

7. Vice President/Secretary/co-founder of my school's cyber security club (10th-12th grade, explained how we grew in size)

8. NHS (11th-12th grade)

9. Tri-M Society (11th-12th grade, music honor society, elected solely through teacher recommendation and contributions to your musical department in orchestra, band, or choir)

Awards:

1. Leadership Award in Orchestra (sole recipient, 9th grade)

2. Outstanding Student Award for History (sole recipient, 11th grade)

3. AP Scholar with Honor (11th grade, has since been upgraded to Scholar with Distinction but this was this past year, so after application season)

4. Aforementioned Eagle rank (12th grade anticipated)

Schools and Decisions:

In state:

UT Dallas: accepted

Baylor: accepted (with a $10k/yr scholarship)

SMU: accepted

Texas Tech: accepted (with a $4k/yr scholarship)

TAMU: accepted+committed+currently attending!

UT Austin: rejected (CAP'ed, which is an in state rejection)

Rice: rejected (I think I didn't even finish the required stuff after submitting my application 😭)

Out of State:

Ohio State (main campus): accepted

Minnesota Twin Cities: accepted (though to college of liberal arts)

Creighton (cuz app was free): accepted (with $25k/yr scholarship)

Kenyon College (cuz app was free): accepted (with $15k/yr scholarship)

Loyola Chicago (cuz app was free): accepted (with $22k/yr scholarship)

Marquette (cuz app was free): accepted (with $25k/yr scholarship)

Final Thoughts:

It was a smooth application cycle for me. I had done all of my essays in the summer before application season, so all I had to do was just copy and paste those essays into the text boxes, and I was set. I was all done by October, and while so many classmates and friends were stressing over their applications, I was basking in the sun, just waiting for decisions to come out.

For me, I think it was harder cuz I was considered an international applicant. I've been here in the states my whole life, but due to things out of my control, I was considered international for all of the out of state schools, which decreased my chances further. But, I think I didn't do too bad all things considered.

I'm at TAMU right now, and I couldn't be happier. I know I have below average stats and ecs compared to others on this sub, so I thought that, as a more realistic applicant, I should repost this. Feel free to DM with any questions.

I am confidence of building a stronger academic record this semester as it is a determinant of my overall results. What are the best strategies to strengthen my academic record this semester to balance the equation?

Demographics:

• Gender: Female
• Race/Ethnicity: Asian American
• Residence: Hawai’i
• Income Bracket: Middle Class
• Type of School: Extremely small non competitive private school
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): None

Intended Major(s): Biomedical Engineering

Academics:

• GPA (UW/W): 4.0/4.5
• Rank (or percentile): 1/12
• number of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc: 21 classes (around 63 credits)
• Senior Year Course Load: I honestly don’t remember but the biggest ones were American Politics and Physics.

Standardized Testing:

• went test optional everywhere I applied to

Extracurriculars/Activities:

1. Started a robotics program at my school (roughly 6-8 hours a week)
2. Varsity Basketball (around 6-8 hours a week)
3. Coached elementary/JV basketball (3-4 hours a week)
4. Sports photographer for my school (2-3 hours a week)
5. Kindergarten TA (3 hours a week)
6. Math tutor (1-2 hours a week)
7. NHS president for 2 yrs and treasurer my first year

I think that’s all I listed because the rest were kinda plain.

Awards/Honors:

LOL NONE. everything I participated in was around my school to help the community. they didn’t really give out awards like ever.

Letters of Recommendation:

1. One was from my high school math/science teacher. He’s taught me since 8th grade and has seen me grow in stem subjects. Kinda figured out I liked stem because of his passion for it.
2. The second one was from my high school history teacher. I’ve known her for over 7 years, so she’s taught my class and understood us. She’s the best and most engaging history teacher i’ve ever had.

*my LOR descriptions are kinda vague, but my school is very small and it’s almost like a family type of setting. each teacher cares about every student and wants to help them succeed in their subject.

Interviews:

None

Essays:

My common app essay talked about stickers and how each sticker told a different part of my life. I specifically talked about three different stickers and how those experiences helped shape who I am today.

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

Acceptances:

• Colorado Christian University (rd)
• Grand Canyon University (rd)
• Oregon State University (rd)
• University of California, Irvine (rd)
• University of Southern California (ea) (deferred ->rejected->appealed->accepted!)

Waitlists:

None

Rejections:

• University of Washington (rd)
• University of Michigan (rd)
• Brown University (rd)
• Cal Poly SLO (rd)
• University of California, Los Angeles (rd)

Additional Information:

to all the schools that offer ed or ea that I did not apply to early, I couldn’t commit to one school. once I got deferred from usc, i felt the need to apply to more schools. that’s where I added on umich, brown, and oregon state. so those applications definitely weren’t the best. I also feel like it’s important to add that I have a special needs brother. He definitely added spunk into my application haha.

Hey guys, alongside my previous post and another angry user, I want to announce that every single post that I see which isn’t a college result I will be reporting. Please use your brain and read the name of this subreddit.

Thank you.

Demographics

• Gender: f
• Race/Ethnicity: white
• Residence: mass
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): ?? (lesley double legacy i guess 😭😭)

Intended Major (s): communication design (pratt institute), graphic design (lesley university, rhode island school of design, marymount manhattan college), undecided (parsons school of design), design bfa (school of visual arts)

Academics

• GPA/Rank (or percentile): 3.77 (W) when applying (approx 130-150/377)

• of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 13 honors, 3 ap (apush, ap spanish, ap art)

• Senior Year Course Load: ap art, ap spanish, honors playwriting, cp statistics, honors theater, cp marine bio, honors english, ceramics

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

• SAT ACT: did not take
• SAT II: did not take
• АР/IВ: 4 on apush
• Other (ex. IELTS, TOEFL, etc.): n/a

Extracurriculars/Activities: theater (4 years), student leadership (3 years), student government (2 years)

Awards/Honors: excellence in student leadership award, unsung hero theater award, high honors, art was put in a calendar sold throughout my town

Essays/LORs/Interviews: common app essay was about my favorite visual artist and how her transition from a realistic style to an abstract style reflected my personal growth as a human! (also was the pratt specific essay that i just used for all of my applications)

wrote an essay for parsons about the lack of diversity in my hometown and how moving to new york would be a good type of culture shock

wrote another essay for parsons about a summer program i did there and how learning from industry professionals helped me realize what i wanted to do with my life

Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)(adding acceptance rates because some schools might not be well known)

• Acceptances: pratt ea (45%), parsons ea (35%), lesley ea (86%), marymount manhattan (77%), sva honors program (87%)

• Waitlists: none!

• Rejections: risd (19%)(expected tho i put minimum effort into my app)

my portfolio was accepted to montserrat but i didn’t end up applying there

Additional Information: i know there’s not a ton of people applying to art schools in this sub so just thought i would put my experiences here for anyone interested :) i can share my portfolio if wanted :)

THIS IS A REPOST FROM LAST YEAR SO IM JUST SHARING IT BC ARR SCHOOL APPLICATIONS ARE NOT TALKED ABOUT AS MUCH!!! I AM HAPPY TO HELP ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE APPLYING TO ANY OF THESE SCHOOLS (EXCEPT RISD LMAO)

Demographics:

• Gender: Female
• Race/Ethnicity: Asian American
• Residence: MA
• Income Bracket: Low
• Type of School: Public
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): I had a few school-specific rec letters but that's all I can think of

Intended Major(s): Computer Science (primary) and math

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 5.58 (W, start of senior year), 5.61 (W, middle of senior year)
  • I don’t understand GPAs, but the max weighted GPA at my school is 6.0 and it’s a 4.2 scale?
  • My transcript doesn’t include an unweighted GPA but it’s 4.0
• Rank (or percentile): Unranked/89 (Found out in Feb that I was valedictorian and updated RD schools)
• # of Honors/AP: 11 APs (1 soph, 5 jr, 5 sr), everything else was Honors
  • My school doesn’t technically allow underclassmen to take APs so I had to get special permission sophomore year
• Senior Year Course Load: Honors Python, Honors French V, AP Calculus AB, AP English Literature and Composition, AP Physics 2: Algebra-Based, AP Physics C: Mechanics, AP Comparative Government

Standardized Testing

• SAT (paper): 1570 (770RW, 800M)
• SAT (paper): 1490 (720RW, 770M) —> only sent to schools that require all scores
• APs: Computer Science A (5), English Language and Composition (5), Chemistry (5), Physics 1: Algebra-Based (4), French Language and Culture (4), Statistics (5)
  • Senior year AP scores (these of course weren’t sent when I applied): Calculus AB (5), English Literature and Composition (5), Physics 2: Algebra-Based (4), Physics C: Mechanics (4), Comparative Government (5)

Extracurriculars/Activities (I'm too lazy to write descriptions but these were all activities that I was really invested in and passionate about)

1. Internship at Tufts University (Grade 11, 35 hr/wk and 4 wk/yr)
2. Math Team Captain (Grade 9-12) (2.5 hr/wk and 36 wk/yr)
3. Science Team President (Grade 10-12) (2.5 hr/wk and 36 wk/yr)
4. Interim Administrative Assistant at the Town Hall (Grade 10) (16 hr/wk and 9 wk/yr)
5. Robotics Team Business Captain (Grade 10-12) (7 hr/wk and 20 wk/yr)
6. Town Hall Volunteer (Grade 10-12) (2 hr/wk and 35 wk/yr)
7. Peer Mentors Coordinator (Grade 10-12) (1.5 hr/wk and 30 wk/yr)
8. Town Meeting/Election Worker (Grade 10-12) (8 hr/wk and 4 wk/yr)
9. Babysitting (Grade 9-12) (4 hr/wk and 52 wk/yr)
10. Community Service at Library (Grade 9-12) (1.5 hr/wk and 10 wk/yr)

Awards/Honors

1. Commended Student in 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program: State/Regional, Grade 12
2. Excellence in Math (Geometry Honors, Algebra 2 Honors, Pre-Calculus Honors): School, Grade 9/10/11
3. Yale Book Award: State/Regional, Grade 11
4. Excellence in French: School, Grade 9/10
5. National Honor Society: School, Grade 11/12

Letters of Recommendation (I have very strong relationships with my recommenders, so I think 10/10 for all of them)

Main: French teacher, chemistry/physics teacher, and computer science teacher (he also wrote a specific letter for Cornell and Tufts as he’s an alum)

Additional/Optional: Town Clerk, couple that I babysit for (only sent to Tufts as they’re alum), sister (peer rec for Dartmouth), and another teacher (never took their classes but developed good relationship through school activities)

Interviews

Princeton, MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Duke, Dartmouth, Georgetown. None were REALLY awful, but my weakest by far was MIT. I'm too lazy to write a description for all of these, so just comment if you want more specifics. I think weakest to strongest would be MIT, Princeton, Duke, Harvard, Georgetown, Yale/Stanford, Dartmouth.

Essays

Honestly, I’m not good at writing about myself. I tend to procrastinate so I didn’t spend as much time editing/rewriting as I should’ve. I don’t write multiple drafts, although I wish I had the motivation to. I’m a rough draft, panic edit, and submit type of person. I think my personal statement was pretty good, probably a 7-8/10. My supplementals were alright, maybe like a 6-7/10.

Demonstrated Interest

I didn’t visit/tour any of my schools (until after I got accepted), but I signed up for all of their emailing lists at the start of senior year. Attended info sessions for Princeton, Duke, Northwestern, Rice, Dartmouth, Tufts, Northeastern after I applied.

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

Acceptances:

• Georgetown (EA) (Deferred —> Accepted)
• Georgia Tech (EA) (Deferred —> Accepted)
• Northeastern (EA) (John Martinson Honors Program, Boston campus)
• UCSB (RD)
• Boston College (RD)
• Tufts (RD)
• Duke (RD)
• Northwestern (RD)
• Dartmouth (RD) (Scholarship, COMMITTED!)

Waitlists:

• UNC Chapel Hill (EA) (Waitlisted —> Declined spot)
• Princeton (RD) (Waitlisted —> Rejected)
• Harvard (RD) (Waitlisted —> Rejected)
• Cornell (RD) (Waitlisted —> Rejected)
• Columbia (RD) (Waitlisted —> Rejected)
• UCLA (RD) (Waitlisted —> Declined spot)
• Rice (RD) (Waitlisted —> Declined spot)
• Carnegie Mellon (RD) (Waitlisted —> Rejected)
• Boston University (RD) (Waitlisted —> Declined spot)
• Virginia Tech (RD) (Waitlisted —> Declined spot)

Rejections:

• MIT (EA) (Deferred—> Rejected)
• University of Southern California (EA) (Deferred —> Rejected)
• Stanford (RD)
• Yale (RD)
• UC Berkeley (RD)
• UCSD (RD)

Additional Information:

I didn’t apply to many safety schools because I had guaranteed acceptances to 7 schools through the Common App Direct Admissions Program. I didn’t end up applying to any of the 7, but I essentially treated them as my safeties. Looking back, I definitely could've spent more time researching schools and working on essays.

Feel free to ask any questions you may have (I definitely could've included more detail for rec letters, essays, etc. lol), I love giving advice and helping others with this kind of stuff :)

Stop being illiterate.

NOTE: I somehow accidentally posted this twice from different accounts! They're both me :)

NOTE 2: Take all the advice I give with a grain of salt! I'm not a college counselor lol and I'm not claiming to be one. I can share what I did and am more than happy to try and help but at the end of the day, it's impossible to predict/guarantee college decisions!

Demographics:

• Gender: Female
• Race/Ethnicity: Asian American
• Residence: MA
• Income Bracket: Low
• Type of School: Public
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): I had a few school-specific rec letters but that's all I can think of

Intended Major(s): Computer Science (primary) and math

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 5.58 (W, start of senior year), 5.61 (W, middle of senior year)
  • I don’t understand GPAs, but the max weighted GPA at my school is 6.0 and it’s a 4.2 scale?
  • My transcript doesn’t include an unweighted GPA but it’s 4.0
• Rank (or percentile): Unranked/89 (Found out in Feb that I was valedictorian and updated RD schools)
• # of Honors/AP: 11 APs (1 soph, 5 jr, 5 sr), everything else was Honors
  • My school doesn’t technically allow underclassmen to take APs so I had to get special permission sophomore year
• Senior Year Course Load: Honors Python, Honors French V, AP Calculus AB, AP English Literature and Composition, AP Physics 2: Algebra-Based, AP Physics C: Mechanics, AP Comparative Government

Standardized Testing

• SAT (paper): 1570 (770RW, 800M)
• SAT (paper): 1490 (720RW, 770M) —> only sent to schools that require all scores
• APs: Computer Science A (5), English Language and Composition (5), Chemistry (5), Physics 1: Algebra-Based (4), French Language and Culture (4), Statistics (5)
  • Senior year AP scores (these of course weren’t sent when I applied): Calculus AB (5), English Literature and Composition (5), Physics 2: Algebra-Based (4), Physics C: Mechanics (4), Comparative Government (5)

Extracurriculars/Activities (I'm too lazy to write descriptions but these were all activities that I was really invested in and passionate about)

1. Internship at Tufts University (Grade 11, 35 hr/wk and 4 wk/yr)
2. Math Team Captain (Grade 9-12) (2.5 hr/wk and 36 wk/yr)
3. Science Team President (Grade 10-12) (2.5 hr/wk and 36 wk/yr)
4. Interim Administrative Assistant at the Town Hall (Grade 10) (16 hr/wk and 9 wk/yr)
5. Robotics Team Business Captain (Grade 10-12) (7 hr/wk and 20 wk/yr)
6. Town Hall Volunteer (Grade 10-12) (2 hr/wk and 35 wk/yr)
7. Peer Mentors Coordinator (Grade 10-12) (1.5 hr/wk and 30 wk/yr)
8. Town Meeting/Election Worker (Grade 10-12) (8 hr/wk and 4 wk/yr)
9. Babysitting (Grade 9-12) (4 hr/wk and 52 wk/yr)
10. Community Service at Library (Grade 9-12) (1.5 hr/wk and 10 wk/yr)

Awards/Honors

1. Commended Student in 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program: State/Regional, Grade 12
2. Excellence in Math (Geometry Honors, Algebra 2 Honors, Pre-Calculus Honors): School, Grade 9/10/11
3. Yale Book Award: State/Regional, Grade 11
4. Excellence in French: School, Grade 9/10
5. National Honor Society: School, Grade 11/12

Letters of Recommendation (I have very strong relationships with my recommenders, so I think 10/10 for all of them)

Main: French teacher, chemistry/physics teacher, and computer science teacher (he also wrote a specific letter for Cornell and Tufts as he’s an alum)

Additional/Optional: Town Clerk, couple that I babysit for (only sent to Tufts as they’re alum), sister (peer rec for Dartmouth), and another teacher (never took their classes but developed good relationship through school activities)

Interviews

Princeton, MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Duke, Dartmouth, Georgetown. None were REALLY awful, but my weakest by far was MIT. I'm too lazy to write a description for all of these, so just comment if you want more specifics. I think weakest to strongest would be MIT, Princeton, Duke, Harvard, Georgetown, Yale/Stanford, Dartmouth.

Essays

Honestly, I’m not good at writing about myself. I tend to procrastinate so I didn’t spend as much time editing/rewriting as I should’ve. I don’t write multiple drafts, although I wish I had the motivation to. I’m a rough draft, panic edit, and submit type of person. I think my personal statement was pretty good, probably a 7-8/10. My supplementals were alright, maybe like a 6-7/10.

Demonstrated Interest

I didn’t visit/tour any of my schools (until after I got accepted), but I signed up for all of their emailing lists at the start of senior year. Attended info sessions for Princeton, Duke, Northwestern, Rice, Dartmouth, Tufts, Northeastern after I applied.

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

Acceptances:

• Georgetown (EA) (Deferred —> Accepted)
• Georgia Tech (EA) (Deferred —> Accepted)
• Northeastern (EA) (John Martinson Honors Program, Boston campus)
• UCSB (RD)
• Boston College (RD)
• Tufts (RD)
• Duke (RD)
• Northwestern (RD)
• Dartmouth (RD) (Scholarship, COMMITTED!)

Waitlists:

• UNC Chapel Hill (EA) (Waitlisted —> Declined spot)
• Princeton (RD) (Waitlisted —> Rejected)
• Harvard (RD) (Waitlisted —> Rejected)
• Cornell (RD) (Waitlisted —> Rejected)
• Columbia (RD) (Waitlisted —> Rejected)
• UCLA (RD) (Waitlisted —> Declined spot)
• Rice (RD) (Waitlisted —> Declined spot)
• Carnegie Mellon (RD) (Waitlisted —> Rejected)
• Boston University (RD) (Waitlisted —> Declined spot)
• Virginia Tech (RD) (Waitlisted —> Declined spot)

Rejections:

• MIT (EA) (Deferred—> Rejected)
• University of Southern California (EA) (Deferred —> Rejected) 
• Stanford (RD)
• Yale (RD)
• UC Berkeley (RD)
• UCSD (RD)

Additional Information:

I didn’t apply to many safety schools because I had guaranteed acceptances to 7 schools through the Common App Direct Admissions Program. I didn’t end up applying to any of the 7, but I essentially treated them as my safeties. Looking back, I definitely could've spent more time researching schools and working on essays.

Feel free to ask any questions you may have (I probably could've included more detail for rec letters, essays, etc. lol), I love giving advice and helping others with this kind of stuff :)

gpa :: 3.92 unweighted 13 AP 5 honors B in spanish, speech and debate for stupid reasons

SAT : 1580

First-gen Korean immigrant Dream School : Stanford

1. Published the patent of a VR system that can contribute to the improvement of posture in any kinds of sports(taekwondo, golf,…) by providing the 3rd view and incorporating wearable biological devices.
2. Co-runner of YouTube channel bRd 3d with 500k subscribers where we explain various scientific  principles including how digestion works, how CPU works(3M views) , how jet engine works.. etc.https://youtube.com/@brd3d?si=g-fnPy1jMjwEzsYX
3. Patent 2 (going to be published in 6 month)
4. Captain of martial art competition participatory team with 100+ members (Taekwondo, Hapkido, Judo, kendo)- Hosted the 1 week non-profit summer program targeted at 50+ Afghanistan refugees where they learned how to navigate through self defense martial art.  - from the  competition team 
5. Have run computer overclocking business (CPU and RAM) and generated $10k per year.
6. Researched Car-Treg cells’ function and how to engineer the Treg cells to minimize inflammatory symptoms within patients with auto-inflammatory disease such as RA disease in UC Berkeley.
7. President of Martial art club with 30+ members (in school), (including Taekwondo, Judo, Hapkido) 
8. President of Biomedical club where we published biology textbook for middle schoolers regarding main concepts(cell structure, ecosystem, etc)
9. Published research paper about how Oxytocin receptor genes moderate BDNF epidemic methylation by Childhood trauma 
10.  Volunteered as AMC/AIME instructor since 9th grade for 2 hours every week, Starbucks part time job for 2 years. 

Award

1. 1st place in international taekwondo competition in Kyorugi category (11th grade) -international
2. Globally ranked 5th place in CPU overclocking league (HW Monitor) 
3. Qualified for USAMO
4. USACO JAVA Gold contestant 
5. 2nd place in NSDA PF debate league 2

so I am a founder of a theatre society but it is not a club or NGO and it is so hard to do anything without a specifc goal or competition

Is there anyway I can impress universities with this theatre society?

demographics:

asian, female, bay area, upper-middle class, semi-competitive private religious hs

hooks: none !

intended major: business/econ

academics:

gpa: 3.8 uw, 4.6 w

rank: school doesn't do (found out i was top 5% at grad)

test score: sat 1530

aps/dual enrollment:

micro @ cc, bio (4), spanish (4), calc ab (4), csp (3) (i had the fucking flu don't ask)

snr yr: stats, lit, macro, csa

extracurriculars:

dance (kinda avg/mid-tier divisions), part time job @ restaurant, peer + neighborhood tutor, varsity cheer, cooking club officer (managed budgeting), finance club officer (did nothing),

awards:

school science/math award, spanish scholar award, ap scholar with honors, dance award

essays: i hate them now (more on that in reflection)

• personal statement 3/10 → losing my passion for & growing from dance
• piqs:

1. 5/10 - formatting personal statement
2. 9/10 - reflected on jack of all trades/master of none bc i have 50 mil art hobbies
3. 5/10 - why i wanted to do econ (perchance asked to run budgeting for event)
4. 5/10 - talked about behind the scenes of one rly messy event i planned & how that changed the way i work w others

lors:

• calc teacher (7/10) liked me a lot but too many people asked him for a rec
• spanish teacher (8/10) nominated me for spanish award in hs i rly liked her

interviews:

• middlebury (shit/10, went so badly that i did no more)

decisions:

(if biz school name is mentioned i applied there under business of some sort, if not, i applied econ at l&s)

rejected:

ut austin mccombs ea, dartmouth ed (deferred → rejected), washu olin, umich, yale, cornell, nyu stern, usc marshall ea, ucb haas

waitlisted:

uw foster, uci, ucla, middlebury

accepted:

scu leavey ea (+ 30k/yr), ucsc (+ 2k/yr), ucsb, ucsd, f&m (+ 20k/yr), uiuc gies ea

committed: uiuc → ucla!

reflection: tbh i didn't know what i wanted to do for most of high school which is kinda why my ecs were lacking esp for going into business. & ik it sounds strange, but i had no idea the extent to which people did internships or startups during high school until senior year. anyways, besides that, i'm pretty critical of my college application stuff because i don't think i was able to show the best of me or talk about things that really mattered to me. don't wanna get too deep into it but i was drowning irl & college apps did NOT help. my biggest advice for ppl is to take care of their mental health around this time :) it helps, i swear!

i will say i did like my ucla loci more than any of earlier writings & i think that may have factored into getting off the waitlist early. just some hope: ucla was my DREAM school & i was absolutely crushed when i didn't get in. i associated the waitlist with being rejected literally up until the day i got the email from them (low expectations i guess??). it made moving on easier & i think it was good to not let a very slight possibility of getting in hold me back.

some regrets i have:

• not looking into more lacs (some lacs/priv schools have v good roi for certain econ/biz related fields, but RESEARCH, don't take my word for it)
• not researching colleges enough
• rushing essays
• spending too much time worrying abt other people

i could ramble for hours but i'm leaving it here. if u think u know me no u don't! also i hope this was done correctly im a bit nervous if there's any response haha go bruins!!

hey everyone, as a chronically online person I decided to spiral even more and go on this subreddit for some more hope. Little did I know, there are people now asking to be chanced. If you are that one middle schooler asking if you’re set for the ivy leagues, GET OFF politely! If you are asking for advice, GO TO A2C. If you want to be chanced SHOCKINGLY GO TO CHANCE ME!

I need you all to understand that this subreddit is called college results for a reason. Once enough people view this, I will delete this post because it is NOT about college results. Thank you. Don’t mind the flair btw…

P.S. if you are the middle schooler get off of Reddit and touch some grass

specifically 3.974 1560 pure math/chemistry for some, pure math/english for others

this post is fairly unique, not because of ANYTHING i did, but because i was born into enough wealth to go to a specific t10’s official feeder. from which i was rejected. LOL

errr yeah the school offers no APs other than the calculi, stats, and world languages. took ap calc bc, ap physics 1, and ap french. 5/5/4 respectively.

—————————

mediocreass activities:

1. swam in club for four years (no actual achievements of any kind i just showed up)
2. swam in school for four years (became captain in senior year)
3. played piano??? for a longass time but i only practice a little (just did examinations, no competitions)
4. community service tutoring (summer; did it quite a bit)
5. community service tutoring AGAIN (over the school year. yes i listed this shit separately like i did for swimming u might be able to tell that im actually cooked and do nothing outside of showing up to class. total ~330 hours)
6. peer leader (think student council but nerfed 😨)
7. founder of math explorations club (it semi-existed and this was only in senior year)
8. randomass internship i did in sophomore summer??? (i just wrote video descriptions or someshit 💀)
9. MORE volunteer tutoring, this time of nk refugees via zoom (did for junior year)
10. debate (i only did this during freshman year 💀💀💀)

—————————

courses: hard to explain but basically maximal rigor physically possible; three chemistry, one physics, one biology up to linalg/multivar as well as honors calc at t10 uni, 4 years english, 4 years social sciences/history, 4 years french, probably some other reqs im forgetting for arts

—————————

awards and achievements: lmfao

1. national french exam (3 years; gold, silver, silver)
2. edit: scholastic writing (regional silver i literally wrote about needing to poop godspeed bro)
3. [city] metro history day (got to state)
4. national merit semifinalist
5. iowa caucus debate tournament winner (u can tell im cooked bc im putting an award from an activity i only did in 9th grade 💀)

—————————

recommendations: basically just got banger rec from the community service site owner who happened to be a grad from amherst ugrad and harvard law school 💀💀💀💀 my other two recommenders were very well-spoken and written people so i expect that they were very good as well

—————————

essays: tbh idt i wrote “well.” rather i was completely honest. i’m a cis het asian male going into stem who swims plays piano tutors plays league and watches anime. and i do all of the above mediocrely. except for watching anime i do that like a PROFESSIONAL bro- i’m one of millions on this planet lol the only distinguishing factors i have are the school i went to and the way i wrote my essays. i’d literally just drop self-deprecating bombs in my personal statement, sprinkle in bits of cringe weeb trash in my supplements, and use purposefully overly-verbose phrases for comedic effect as garnish. i wrote how i speak. i think it worked because you could read the essays, speak with 200 other asian men in stem, and still be able to discern that i’m the one who wrote them. i think this is fairly critical, but what do i know

—————————

riveting application gameplay: ed brown, ea uva uiuc (instate, liberal arts) uc hicago umich deferred by brown uc hicago umich accepted illinois uva

rd: rejections LMFAOOOO???: harvard yale princeton stanford columbia penn dartmouth duke caltech uchicago williams

withdrawals: umich fentanyl 🥺🥺🥺

waitlists: amherst vanderbilt GIRTH👅👅western mifan daxue (rice)

acceptances: brown cornell and ofc uva and uiuc from ea round

—————————

remarks: was that worth it? lol idk idgaf i had fun writing some of those essays i’d just go on a schizo rant and then some severely underpaid 28 year old would have to read a 17 year old’s uncaged internal thoughts as you can see though i am utterly nonunique and unimpressive in my accomplishments and time allocation (throughout my life as a whole). the remarkable bits are only my school, being a turbofeeder, the people i met there, and my unfiltered, kind-of-concerning writing style. that’s it. ofc if someone who knows me finds this im going to be getting some dms on insta about it but whatever hope this helps at all 💀

Demographics

• Gender: Female
• Race/Ethnicity: Asian
• Residence: California
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): First-Gen

Intended Major(s): Civil Engineering

Academics

• GPA/Rank (or percentile): 3.98 (UW) or 4.23 (W)
• of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 4 Honors, 4 AP (8 including senior year)
• Senior Year Course Load: AP Lit, AP US Gov, AP CSP, AP Physics 1

Standardized Testing

• SAT/ACT: 1510 (770M, 740R)
• AP/IB: 5s (Calc BC, AP World, AP Lang), 4 (APUSH)

Extracurriculars/Activities: 

(Keeping it vague because I'm not trying to get doxxed)

1. Editor-in-Chief for a school publication (think yearbook or newspaper)
2. Team Captain for a varsity sport
3. Vice President for a STEM competition club
4. Worked part-time in fast food for 2 years
5. Volunteered for a tutoring center for kids K-8
6. Family responsibilities

Awards/Honors: 

1. AP Scholar with Honor
2. PSAT Commended Student

(I know this was the weakest part of my app 💀)

Essays: 

I was really satisfied with my Common App Personal Statement. I wrote about a hobby I quit when I was younger and connected it with one of my extracurricular activities. I think it really showed my growth.

As for my supplements, I think Stanford and Cornell were some of my weaker applications because I hated the prompts and I just wanted to be done with writing them 😭 I loved my MIT and UC essays though!

LORS:

1. Calc Teacher (7/10): I only had her for one year, but I didn't have any better options. I wanted a LOR from a teacher who taught a subject related to my major. Overall, I don't think it was a terrible LOR, though. I connected and spoke with her a lot outside of class. I really struggled during the first half of Calc and she saw me persevere through that. I was also one of 5 juniors taking Calc BC while the rest were seniors, and she knew I was balancing school, a sport, and a part-time job.
2. Club Advisor (9/10): I think this was my strongest LOR since I had his class for two years. He was the advisor for the publication club I was EIC for. Not much to say, but I think he touched on my leadership skills and my contributions to the club.
3. Counselor (6/10): I go to a big school so my counselor probably has around 300 students. However, she did know my name, and we had met several times over the years. I like to think we had some sort of connection. She just had me fill out a really long and detailed Google Form for her LOR. I think she might've touched on my participation in clubs and some other stuff.

Interview(s):

I only had one interview which was with MIT. Overall, I'd rate it an 8/10. I think we had a really good conversation about my extracurriculars which was important because MIT limits you to only 4 (?) ECs on your application. We also talked a lot about his experience at MIT, and I learned a lot about the school even though I obsessively browsed the MIT student blog LMAO.

However, there were some things that I would've liked to touch on but forgot to. He also told me that he'd write nice things about me in his report because he thought it would be "really cool if [he] helped somebody get into MIT" 💀

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

Rejections:

• Stanford University
• UC Berkeley
• UCLA
• Columbia University

Acceptances:

• UC Riverside
• Cal Poly Pomona
• UC Davis
• Cal Poly SLO
• UC San Diego
• USC (deferred EA, accepted RD)

Waitlists: 

• !UC Irvine (did not accept place on the waitlist)!<

• !University of Michigan!<

• !Cornell University!<

• !MIT!<

Reflection:

Honestly, considering I spent a solid 3-4 months convinced that I wouldn't get into college, I'm pretty happy with where I ended up. I'm currently committed to USC for civil engineering, and I couldn't be more excited! Getting waitlisted at MIT and Cornell was definitely the biggest shock. I kind of knew I wouldn't be getting off the waitlist though...

Looking back, I definitely should've gotten involved with more things outside of school. MIT had been my dream school since freshman year, so that waitlist def kept me up at night. (Maybe I would've gotten to MIT if I had won an Olympiad or something... 💀) I'm over it now, though.

Fight on!!!

Demographics

• Gender: female
• Race/Ethnicity: east asian
• Residence: los angeles
• Income Bracket: upper-middle (applied for fa, got very little)
• Type of School: large public
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): i wrote a little about being chinese-cambodian

Intended Major(s): english, wrote also about screenwriting+humanities

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 4.0/4.3
• Rank (or percentile): top 10%
• of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 7 ap, 2(?) honors, 10 de
• Senior Year Course Load: ap us government, ap english literature, technical theatre, adv journalism, photo/film, ap statistics

Standardized Testing

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

• SAT: 1560 (790RW, 770M)
• AP: world history modern (5), us history (5), psychology (5), english language (5); 12th: all 5s

Extracurriculars/Activities

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

1. performer in nationally recognized, award-winning slam poetry troupe -- performed spoken word at underprivileged schools, 70+ hours practice training
2. president and founder of school art+mental health club
3. sr. copy editor, video editor and graphic artist -- nationally recognized school newspaper, i mostly edited videos every week
4. head costumer, set designer and dramaturg of technical theatre -- two productions per year, addtl. set and costume design over school breaks
5. event captain in speech and debate, member with honors
6. president of creative writing club
7. multiple online publications; some awards. published in print twice
8. member of school’s slam poetry team -- competes in two poetry slams annually
9. self-taught sewist -- posts tutorials and updates for friends. includes making multiple dresses from scratch for school dances, etc. emphasized zero waste and recyclability
10. art instagram -- LOL i can't believe i added this but it's definitely there??? 100+ followers

***some of these sound really cool but i promise you they're not that special babe. it's the resume voice. anyway with applications that allowed (vassar, sarah lawrence, etc.), i submitted a small portfolio with some poetry, spoken word videos, sewing projects, etc. literally itty bitty like two pages

Awards/Honors

List all awards and honors submitted on your application.

1. california merit in piano with honors (advanced level)
2. finalist for speech and debate state quals + regional awards
3. CSF
4. inducted thespian member
5. placed in academic decathlon states + event awards (this is at the bottom bc it was my freshman year and i didn't actually contribute much)

Letters of Recommendation

english/journalism teacher: (9/10) she definitely used a template for every student that asked but i knew her all four years and she's legitimately the best. advisor for my club. this was the rec that got me into dream school. she offered to let me read it after but i declined and idrk why

jr. math teacher: (6-7/10) i used to help tutor in her class so i know she had a positive experience with me but i was panicking at this point and i probably should have gotten a better one. but she's great.

ap psychology teacher: (5-6/10) know for a fact she would write a killer recommendation bc she does very few per year. HOWEVER i was absolutely panicking at this point because i didn't know you need DIFFERENT ACADEMIC SUBJECTS for some schools so i needed a science teacher and i literally loved this teacher but i don't think she knew me that well HAHAHA. sent her a brag sheet and prayed tbh

counselor: (7/10) probably used a template, i didn't really know her that well but i did send a brag sheet.

tech theater director: (10/10) i was maybe one of his favorite students in so many years and he said as much. he did let me read this one and it was less academic certainly but there was a lot of pride. i loved being in this program and i think it showed. this was my additional recommender

Interviews

vassar: (4/10) i nerfed this one it's my own fault really and i should be ashamed!! did not know the interview was an Interview and completely thought it was just a regular info session until they started asking questions and i freaked and forgot everything i had researched in the week before. the interviewer was so nice and we talked about mutual interests and it went actually longer than i expected but it absolutely looked like i had no idea what the school was. rip

sarah lawrence: (10/10) this one had a set time limit of about an hour but the interviewer was so great and we clicked immediately. great shared interests, even politically, and i liked that i was able to talk intelligently about what i was excited and interested in. slc does interviews with current students instead of alumni, which is sooo refreshing bc we were both dealing with really similar issues. i literally did this interview in school during a study hall and it was completely fine

extra: after i got deferred i cold emailed a professor to demonstrate interest (for a loci) and ended up with an hour-long conversation on the phone about literature in california and new york. it was one of the most interesting and rejuvenating experiences during this whole process (bc i was tired OUT by then) and he even invited me to sit in on a class. not necessarily an interview, or what secured my spot, or even very relevant, but just letting you know: there's more to the process than the score on your computer screen. remember this isn't the end.

Essays

personal statement: (9/10) i was so proud of this baby. i have a long history with poetry and literature and i knew if i didn't have the ecs i would at least have a killer essay; this one used the metaphor of a screenplay to talk about minority voices, but more importantly human connection through art and why failing and going again is the epitome of an absurdist existence. i love talking about peoplehood. sent it to a couple english teachers who gave me great notes and severe notes and i rewrote it multiple times over. now i can read it back and i only cringe a little bit

common app essays: (7-10/10) if you have any questions about specific essay types (why us, why major, etc.) comment or pm. i had fun writing them and i actually like them a lot, even if they aren't all perfect. common themes of feminism, absurdism, art. i took a lot of time to make sure each application was telling a coherent story and would not use the same theme twice in an application.

piqs: (8-9/10) i personally think i could've done better on some but i don't really know where mine sit in context tbh. i approached these like beefed up common app essays, so they still had the wittiness and imagery/poetry of my other essays, just ~spicier. i remember having a lot of trouble finding more concrete stories to tell, rather than like a vague shape of a personality trait. i reused some piqs for the other essays.

***could not afford a college advisor so i asked a gpt to rate my essays on a 1-10 and then made edits afterwards, became obsessed w doing this. do not recommend taking these as serious advice, but a lot of times i just needed the validation. severe anxiety. also loads of fun. so. (i DID NOT ever ask gpt to rewrite or edit an essay TO BE CLEAR ai scares me and i would've wept)

***for my safeties i would literally write the essays in like an hour and shotgun. mostly worked out

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

Acceptances:

• safeties!
• pitzer
• usc (deferred ea)
• uc berkeley
• uc irvine
• sarah lawrence (deferred ea)

Rejections:

• brown
• pomona
• vassar

Additional Information:

please feel free to ask any questions but don't be mean or you'll hurt my feelings! i am aware i come from a relative place of privilege especially as an overrepresented minority and someone who found school mostly easy, so please consider this in whatever comparisons you choose to make (i know the system is built against kids who don't test well). however, during the process i was definitely incredibly nervous and i was *definitely* not expecting the outcome. i took a relatively light course load for all four years. my extracurriculars are absolutely the weakest points. you, too, do not have to be a nobel prize winner or an app developer or start a non-profit! i love you. be kind to yourself.

my last note i touched on previously, which is that throughout this you're gonna discover a lot about yourself because filling out college apps happens at an already transitional period of your life. deal with that however you will, but be honest and willing to change and accept. it's a devastating time but it's also incredibly creative and can be empathetic. be kinder to the people around you. and always cold email.

i'm still upset about vassar

• Gender: Female
• Race/Ethnicity: Filipino and American
• Residence: cali
• Income Bracket: low enough for fasfa to give me aid
• Type of School: Not competitive private
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): Dad died soph year and my dad and 2 half siblings as usc legacy

Intended Major(s): Media, Comms. Marketing (I plan switching majors to business/ econ when im at the school

• GPA (UW/W): 3.34uw/ 3.66w
• Rank (or percentile): NA
• of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc. APUSH (2), APCSP (3), APSEM (3), APLANG (3), 30 units of college classes I have A's in, and random honors classes
• Senior Year Course Load:
  • ap art
  • engineering
  • theology (required)
  • dual enrollment
  • english 12
  • statistics
  • more college classes

(Projected to get an AS in business spring 2025)

• Side note: I have 2 C's from frosh year and 4 from last semester junior year. My dad was dying freshman year, and Junior year we were struggling financially so I had to work caregiving jobs to help with bills

Standardized Testing

• SAT I: Test Optional

11 12

__________ TV Show Co - Director, Editor, Writer

Wrote, directed, and edited 25-minute episodes, broadcasted to xxx,xxx viewers in the X area. Showcased different artists from all backgrounds and diff aspects of art

10 11 12

________ POC Magazine

Led 10 developers to enhance site features, aligned tech strategies with the magazine’s vision, and boosted traffic by over 10,000 visitors. Fundraised $2k for POC orgs

 9 10 11 12

Social media manager

(7 redacted clients)

Managed various accounts, brainstormed content, helped with production, and amassed over XX million views across all platforms.

10 11 12 Private Investigator (family case)

Recovered over $300k of illegally liquidated items. Attended court hearings, found crucial evidence, and assisted with administrative tasks for the lawyer.

10 11 12

Coding Instructor

8 hrs a week

Tutored over 100+ kids in C++, python, Lua. Led camps, and made curriculum. Specialized in working with autistic children

11 12

Immigrant Tutor

Taught immigrants for the naturalization test. Helped them learn english, US history, and goverment.

9 10 11 

(Redacted psychiatric clinic)

Shadowed Drs, helped with (redacted projects), personal assitant to CEO

9 10 11 12
______________ Theatre
25 hrs week/ 22 weeks

Was the lead, women's representative (advocated for hygene products in bathroom), did 8 shows also helped design sets.

9 10 11 12

Art Studio (redacted)

Specialized in human anatomy and classical art, mastered 5 mediums, and produced over 40 pieces. Volunteered to mentor 25 kids to improve their art skills. 

9 10 11 12

Caregiver

Cared for my dying dad and later my mom's patients, covering shifts and managing my own clients. Cooked, cleaned, provided wound care, errands, and administered shots.

10 11

T20 Internship

Edited articles for T20 newspaper , uploaded them, and scoured for guest speakers, did their social media

9 10 11

Student council 

nothing noteable. engaged student body and planned school activities, fundraised

Schools:
USC

IU KELLEY/ IU Bloomington

Umich

UC's

NYU

Purdue

Santa Clara

Penn state

Cornell Hotel school for memes

and any other schools yall recommend. I dont plan shotgunning, I plan machine gunning. I do have a bunch of safeties I don't need chancing for. If I don't get into a school I like, I don't mind doing CC.

Am writing this because in a few weeks, we shall have a fall semester that will mark the end of the year and my grades aren't as great at all, is there something am probably not doing that need an urgent address? am still at 3.4 which isn't a good grade

Now that I'm starting college soon, I figured it was time to (finally) make a post here after scrolling endlessly during my app process, LOL :D being pretty vague in fear of being doxxed, but I'm happy to answer any questions or anything that you might have!

Demographics

• Gender: Female
• Race/Ethnicity: Asian
• Residence: East Coast, small town
• Income Bracket: <$150k
• Type of School: large-ish HS in the middle of nowhere
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): rural? If that counts

Intended Major(s): something STEM, not sure of the specifics yet...but I will figure it out soon!

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 4.0 UW, 4.59 W??? Something like that; haven't gotten final transcript yet
• Rank (or percentile): 1/452
• 14 APs
• Senior Year Course Load: 5 APs

Standardized Testing

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

• SAT I: 1530 (740RW, 790M)
• ACT: 34 (34E, 34M, 33R, 35S), took it 4 times--do not recommend lmao
• AP/IB: 5 on APUSH, Psych, Calculus AB & BC, Stats. 4 on Physics 1, Chem, Lang, European History. 3 on AP Comp Sci Principles (oops). Didn't take the exams for Bio, Lit, Gov, or Enviro because they weren't going to transfer anyways (and senioritis).

Extracurriculars/Activities

Mind you, a lot of this happened in my small town, where homework is scarce...very scarce.

1. School marching band - leadership role 3/4 years, a lot of time sunk but it's ok bc it was a lot of fun (which is the entire point of high school imo, to have fun before inevitable adulthood) :D
2. School symphonic band - also includes pit orchestra, lots of volunteer work, first chair for 4 years, doing well @ state/regional/local auditions. I also submitted a music supplement + letter of rec from band director who had me for four years as part of said supplement
3. Research at local university - 2 years, undergrad symposia and national conference presentations, ISEF 24 (though this wasn't on my app at the time of applying), decent science fair placements, letter of rec from prof
4. Summer camp for *instrument* - listed 4 summer camps I attended between grades 9-12, so hopefully the AOs googled or something
5. Youth orchestra - kind of a small ensemble, (principal for 4 years) but a lot of fun
6. Private lessons for *instrument* - daily practice, sold my soul, etc.
7. Varsity tennis - quit after soph year, but decided to put it on anyways
8. Middle school tutor for, you guessed it, band - weekly program that I began junior year, racked up lots of volunteer hours, taught (wrangled) middle schoolers
9. School chapter of United Sound - amazing organization that teaches music to kids with special needs; wasn't a leader or anything but really meaningful
10. I founded the pickleball club, cuz why not?

Awards/Honors

Some of these are so vague I'm sorry :')

1. National music thing
2. First at states on *instrument* for three years
3. First at regionals on *instrument* for four years
4. Regional science fair 1st place (junior year, by the time I made ISEF it was too late)
5. President of Mu Alpha Theta, NHS, and Tri-M by being the only candidate on the ballot! >:)

Letters of Recommendation

I haven't read any of them besides my chem & music letters, but here they are!

English teacher - got a good grade in her AP Lang class junior year, and I think she liked me. I mainly picked her bc she probably wouldn't have a reason to write me a terrible one.

Chem teacher - LOVE HER! I had her for two years for honors and AP chem, and returned to her class the following year as a teacher's assistant. I also tutored her son in band, so that was cool. She wrote a pretty good one :)

Research advisor (when asked for) - as the only high schooler in his lab, I think he was obliged to write something good LOL. But we both presented at the national conference, and I think that he enjoyed having me in the lab.

Band director (for supplementals) - dealt with me for four years, poor dude. Said I was the best musician he'd had (which is stretching the truth a bit, lol) and highlighted personal qualities + achievements. GOAT, will miss him

Interviews

Yale - 7/10 first interview, so I was NERVOUS. It was via zoom, and my interviewer was super fun. It flowed a lot like a conversation, and there was very few back and forth questioning involved. I probably could've talked a little more about myself, rather than asking questions about the school. But I think it didn't go too badly, since the interviewer was a former band kid, and we bonded over liking similar things and wanting to pursue similar hobbies while at Yale.

Harvard - 9/10 pretty good interview, lasted two hours! I wore my propeller hat for some of it (he asked, so I delivered), which was fun and probably gave some good points, lmao. This one was more traditional, with him asking a question and me responding. He was quite the yapper, though, so perhaps that's why it went long.

Princeton - 9/10 pretty good also. This one was my only in person interview, but the interviewer and I talked a lot about The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (great read) whilst eating cookies at the local coffee shop. Very chill, 'twas fun.

MIT - upon being offered an interview at MIT, I realized that oh shoot I forgot to withdraw my application because I no longer want to go to MIT (see below), and backed out. In hindsight, I should've just done it.

I submitted a video portfolio to Brown and felt that it was decent! Embarrassed myself by not knowing how to play French horn (I do not play the French horn), so hopefully they got a good laugh out of that one.

Didn't get one for Stanford? Still puzzles me to this day, because if they really wanted one, they would've contacted me via Zoom or something. Ah well.

Essays

I wrote about my propeller hat as a metaphor for community and identity for my personal statement. Not the most intellectually stimulating thing ever, but that sums me up in a nutshell. My supps were mostly about my extracurricular activities (read: mostly band), and I tried to put at least something about each of my ECs in them. I think that my essays did a good job of conveying my authentic voice (you can also probably get a gist of it in this post lmao), and not taking myself too seriously.

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

Acceptances:

• SCEA Yale University
• Harvard University (RD)
• Princeton University (RD)
• Stanford University (RD)
• Brown University (RD)

Rejections: no rejections!

I did apply to a lot of other schools, including Cornell, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, etc. However, once I got into Yale SCEA, I withdrew these applications. I knew that there was no chance of me choosing those over Yale (which has been my dream school for FOREVER).

But how the turns have tabled, because I'm going to Stanford in the fall!

I honestly never expected that, but here we are. To anyone who's reading this and also applying to college this fall, 1) You are so strong. And 2) you never know where you're going to end up, so keep your mind open. Apply to all sorts of schools, even schools that you think you're never going to get into (case in point, lmao). My town has had only a handful of ivy+ acceptances in the past decade, so I never thought this was going to be me. In fact, I almost ED'd to my state school, which would've been a big oof.

Anyways, I digress. I can't wait to go to college in the fall and get that sweet sweet extra month of summer break. I chose Stanford because of its amazing opportunities in STEM and immense potential for growth, and I can't wait to see that all come to fruition. Go trees!!

Does anyone know what my chances are for most top universities in the USA if I was born there but currently live in Canada? How does this differ from someone born in Canada that still lives in Canada and do I have better chances than them (considering im a US citizen)?

I worked my ass off in high school but I didn't get into the schools I wanted. I understand that I'm not the perfect candidate but I did the best I could and put in as much work as I needed too, as I believed that my hard work would pay off in the end 😭 I'm now committed to a school that is pretty good but looked down upon by a lot of friends/family as it is not as prestigious as the schools they are going to, and I was wondering if anyone had advice on how to get over the feeling of being inadequate. I'm pretty excited to go to this school but I'm also on the waitlist for my dream school and until they reject me part of me is still hoping to get off the waitlist even though its almost august and it would honestly just be an inconvenience now to get off the waitlist. People who did less than me in high school/cheated a lot also got into my dream school/other top choices and are now committed which makes it even worse. I want to be really excited and locked in for my committed school but even now I feel like i'm not good enough. I've also been told that college is what u make of it and it doesn't matter where you as long as you work hard, but my fear is that if my hard work didn't necessarily pay off in high school it won't in college. If anyone has any advice I'd love to hear it. (I also don't know if this is the subreddit to post it on but I didn't know where else to post it either so)

Hey everyone, I’ve been using the sub for most of senior year to prep for college apps and it’s been immensely helpful. I thought that I’d share my experiences as it’s quite a unique story

Demographics

Gender: Male

Race/Ethnicity: Asian

Residence: Canada, then the US for high school

Income Bracket: $100k - $150k

Type of School: Competitive public (school sent ~10 kids to t20s)

Hooks: None

Intended Major(s): Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering

Academics

GPA (UW/W): 4.0

Rank (or percentile): top 5 / 300ish  (school doesnt rank, but accidentally leaked their records)

Number of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 12 APs + DE Multivariable Calculus at CC

Senior Year Course Load: Multivariable Calc, AP Lit, AP Gov, AP CSA, AP Stats

Standardized Testing

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

ACT: 35

APs: Nine 5’s and three 4’s

Extracurriculars/Activities

1. Science Fair - president in senior year, created two main projects, one of them involving hardware acceleration and the other involving workplace safety
2. Reconfigurable Computing Research (paid bc I have an EAD) - spent 2 years at a local state school with a good engineering program, worked with a EE professor to develop a FPGA-based flight controller w/ PID stabilization & obj avoidance algorithms
3. Open Source Projects - built and contributed to projects on GitHub (DM me, I’d be happy to share my repos)
4. HS Science Olympiad Club - captain in junior/senior year, went to nationals a couple times, cumulatively collected 12 invite medals and 10 state medals, raised ~$7500 over 3 years to fund travel costs (begged for money in front of grocery stores & hosted community events), coached engineering events, ran tryouts
5. HS Math Team - captain in junior/senior year, led the team to win the state math league, wrote a lot of competition math notes and documents that were shared with team + school math department, qualified for AIME (I wrote this in my ec description but not awards), I was also technically the captain for the state ARML team as well
6. HS CS Club - delivered presentations on projects involving microcontrollers, computer arch, & digital electronics, mainly competed in ACSL & USACO but didn’t get too far, got 1st in the state for ACSL but didn’t clutch up the Finals
7. Boy Scouts - I did scouting ever since I was 11, I served as my troop’s ASPL and Troop Guide, got Eagle Scout in senior year, planned and prepared campouts & hikes, cleaned up nearby parks and trails
8. Assistant Chef at Local Church - this was one of my favorite ECs and my essay on it reflected that too, I made free meals for people in a nearby town, we served ~250 people every weekend, I learned to make famous dishes that I could also make at home to share with my family
9. Chores - my parents work far away from home, and the time they spend driving makes maintaining the house quite a challenge. I spend quite a lot of time babysitting my 8yo brother and cooking food / cleaning when my parents are busy.
10. STEM Tutor - I work alongside special needs students in my school district, most of my time consists of planning lessons and supporting them in learning math/science concepts

Awards/Honors

List all awards and honors submitted on your application.

1. ISEF 2nd in Category
2. Author of a Paper Entered into Regeneron STS
3. State Science Fair Best in Fairs, and some Special Awards
4. State Math League 2nd Place Individual, 3rd Place Team in New England
5. National Merit Semifinalist → National Merit Scholar (after college apps)

Additional: I also got a scholarship from a big company later in senior year, think Amazon Future Engineers / Generation Google / Coca-Cola / Live Mas

Letters of Recommendation

Research Mentor / Science Fair Advisor - I’ve had her as a teacher for some classes and we traveled to ISEF together, she’s been really supportive throughout my high school career and we would do check-ins many times a week to update each other, she’s really really sweet and she has an amazing record of helping other students get into good schools, she also wrote a letter for me for my scholarship above

Chem Teacher / SciOly Advisor - similar to research mentor, she’s also one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, we chatted for hours during study breaks and test corrections, she’s seen me grow from countless SciOly fumbles at invitationals, states, and even nationals, she’s given me so much advice on stress management and keeping me motivated, she has a pretty good record of helping other students in terms of LoRs

Econ Teacher - I only knew her from junior to senior year, but she is probably one of the most hardworking and passionate teachers in the entire district. She really liked my writing and even nominated me for a book award in junior year. I didn’t use her letter for all my schools, but I definitely felt confident that she advocated for me effectively.

Counselor - This was actually so clutch. I knew that my counselor was handling hundreds of students, so I made sure to keep her updated on what I was up to throughout my four years of high school. I think I scheduled like ~15 meetings throughout HS just to chat and give her an opportunity to learn more about me. I tried my hardest to keep these interactions genuine and not transactional. When she asked me for advice/information to help other international students, I readily gave my time to help them

Interviews

None

Essays

I really can’t give any specific rating since I’m not an actual admission officer. What I will say as advice for rising seniors is to give yourself plenty of time to write your first essay. The first essay I wrote was a collage of my experiences being an immigrant and dealing with its unique drawbacks. That essay took about 6 months. Most of my time was spent digging through the “dirt” (ideas that seemed like good essay topics, but didn’t actually reflect who I was) in order to finally strike gold. The next 10-20 or so supplementals each took around half a week to write. After I was able to correctly identify effective essay topics, it cut down time significantly.

My best piece of advice for writing essays is to think about how you can shine the brightest light on the biggest areas that make up your life. Of course try to paint as positive of a picture as you can, but please don’t pick essay topics only for the sake of being different / especially unique. The best essay topics are the ones that shine the most complete light on all the aspects that make up who you are (your values, your culture, your upbringing, your hopes/dreams)

My supplemental essays were about meeting people 3x my age and from around the world in my church kitchen, one time I built a shelter on an ants nest in boy scouts and slept in it overnight, and some of the creative ways I structured my lessons to keep kids entertained when I was a stem tutor

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

Columbia (ED) – Accepted

Additional

My family has been living in the US for almost 11 years, and applying for our green card has been a huge struggle. The stress involved with applying as an international student while all my friends were domestic was really crushing in senior year. But, I knew my priority date for my permanent residency meant that I would be able to get my green card before college started in September.

I also understood that, as an international, applying for aid would be a massive disadvantage. So I just applied without financial aid, making my college think I’m gonna pay all 93k of their fees. Luckily, I recently got my green card over the summer and now I’m able to fill out the FAFSA and CSS to apply for grants and financial aid. My cost of tuition will now be around 30k.

Thanks to all the information I’ve gathered lurking in this sub, I was able to make the best decisions possible. I got the hand I was dealt, and I spent four years playing it as well as I could.

Friend 1

Demographics

• Gender: Male
• Residence: California
• Income Bracket: No Financial Aid
• Type of School: Public
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): None

Intended Major(s): Computer Science

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 4.0 UW, 4.6 W
• Rank (or percentile): School Doesn’t Rank
• Number of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 12
• Senior Year Course Load: All Dual Enrollment (Multi. Calculus, English, Spanish, Economics, CS)

Standardized Testing

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

• SAT I: 1540 (740RW, 800M)

Extracurriculars/Activities

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

1. Software Engineer: Long-term role at a software startup, huge involvement in the company (35 hr/wk, not an exaggeration)
2. Hackathons: Did a bunch of national hackathon competitions, won several awards
3. Nonprofit: Co-founded a nonprofit organization that hosted hackathons with a few hundred participants
4. Calculus Club: Leadership in school’s calculus club, organized meetings etc
5. Community Program: Attended and lead community events, learned and made things etc
6. 5 other smaller activities/hobbies listed

Essays

UC PIQs: 6/10, were decent but not amazing (spent a lot of time on them)

Personal Statement: 5/10

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

Cal Poly: Rejected

UC Riverside: Accepted

UC Santa Cruz: Accepted

UC Davis: Rejected

UC Santa Barbara: Rejected

UC Irvine: Rejected

UCLA: Rejected

UC Berkeley: Rejected

UIUC: Accepted

Friend 2

Demographics

• Gender: Male
• Residence: California
• Income Bracket: No Financial Aid
• Type of School: Same School As Above
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): None

Intended Major(s): Computer Science

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 4.0 UW, 4.7 W
• Rank (or percentile): School Doesn’t Rank
• Number of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 12
• Senior Year Course Load: AP Statistics, AP Physics C, AP Government, AP Environmental Science, Art, English

Standardized Testing

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

• SAT I: 1580 (780RW, 800M)

Extracurriculars/Activities

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

1. Hackathons: Same as #2 above
2. Nonprofit: Same as #3 above
3. Calculus Club: Same as #4 above
4. Game Development Club: Leadership in school’s game dev club, organized meetings etc
5. Science Olympiad: Member of school’s science olympiad team (didn’t win any notable awards)
6. 5 other smaller activities/hobbies listed

Essays

UC PIQs: 6/10, pretty similar to above

Personal Statement: 6/10

Supplementals: 4/10, less than ideal

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

Cal Poly: Accepted

UC Riverside: Accepted

UC Santa Cruz: Accepted

UC Davis: Accepted

UC Santa Barbara: Accepted

UC Irvine: Accepted

UCLA: Rejected

UC Berkeley: Accepted

UIUC: Rejected

NYU: Accepted

CMU: Accepted

I’ve been lurking this sub for a while so I thought it was finally time for me to share my own process and results with everyone. Happy to talk/answer questions in the comments, enjoy!

Demographics

Gender: Male

Race/Ethnicity: Asian

Residence: Competitive East Coast area

Income Bracket: $500k+

Type of School: Competitive public

Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): First-Gen

Intended Major(s): Computer Science, Biology

Academics

GPA (UW/W): 4.0

Rank (or percentile): 2/~550

# of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 19 APs

Senior Year Course Load: Multivariable Calc, Differential equations, Linear algebra, Real Analysis, AP PhysicsE&M, AP Lang, AP Gov, Choir, Ap Psych, AP Spanish

Standardized Testing

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

SAT I: 1580 (800 Math)

ACT: 36

AP/IB: thirteen 5’s and one 4 at time of application (submitted all tests to colleges)

Extracurriculars/Activities

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

Going to be a little vague here bc I don’t wanna get doxxed

1. Computational Bio Research with prof - three years, found through cold emailing, published in a reputed journal as second author, presented at 2 international conferences, high impact + glowing letter of rec

2. Nonprofit helping underprivileged kids in STEM across three countries-super high impact, multiple national awards, newspaper article, state senator recognition. Didn’t do this for the app, started in 7th grade and it’s probably the most meaningful EC to me

3. Research summer program - super competitive, no cost, didn’t publish but led to my next EC. Probably got in based on my math teacher’s rec

4. Self conducted math research - two years, discovered an interesting pattern in number theory, published in legitimate math journal, presented at T50 university with professors

5. CS internship - 2 years (return offer), paid, building AI models for social causes with a huge nonprofit, showed real impact over two years in the sector of the community I was targeting, essay topic

6. Medical device research - self designed and created prototype for medical device for administering medicines to elderly people (can’t go into too much detail or I’ll get doxxed), filed for a patent (still in the process), donated 500 devices to a local nursing home. Inspired by my grandparents difficulties with medication

7. Congressional intern - I noticed a really crappy policy negatively impacting underprivileged children’s STEM education in my area during my nonprofit work, interned with a congresswoman and lobbied for state legislation to change that policy and allocate more funding to those schools

8. Cultural singer - singing cultural music from my country for years, teach younger kids, perform at festivals, submitted portfolio (I’ve gotten really good at it)

9. Math club - president of school district’s math club, organized school competitions + Olympiads, taught members Olympiad level topics

10. Homeless shelter volunteer - lot of hours, I was just a regular volunteer but this EC was very impactful to me

Awards/Honors

List all awards and honors submitted on your application.

1. 2 well known national awards for my nonprofit
2. USAMO (2x), USAJMO (1x) qualifier
3. 1st place state science fair + ISEF
4. 3 state level (approximately?) + 1 national hackathon winner
5. Best student researcher (high school + UG) awarded by the bio department of the university I interned at (EC #1)

Letters of Recommendation

Research mentor - glowing, showed me her letter, said I was her best student in 25 years and highlighted my passion for research

Math teacher - similar to research mentor, highlighted the time I dedicated to helping other students + running math club. Worked with her super closely over 3 years and helped her write tests for AP Calc as a TA

English teacher - 9/10 probably, very very positive letter and called me the best in my year but not quite at the level of the other 2 letters

Interviews

Harvard - 10/10, interviewer was working in the field I want to go in. Asked weird questions to test my on the spot thinking and thoroughly tested my knowledge of my research. I answered all of his questions with detail and then we had an amazing conversation about research, professional life, my fit at Harvard, volunteering, etc. Lasted 3 hours

MIT - 10/10. Loved this interviewer too, started by asking me some random math questions when I mentioned Olympiads and then eventually chilled out and had a casual conversation with me. I loved her questions and we were laughing the whole time, said I would be a wonderful fit at MIT

Yale - 7/10. Standard interview, answered all her questions, she seemed happy but nothing extraordinary.

Princeton - 9/10. Really good, similar to Harvard and MIT interviews but it was cut short because she had a family emergency

UPenn - 1/10. I can’t express how much I disliked this interviewer. Barely made eye contact with me, asked me a list of pre written questions in a neutral tone, refused to answer my questions about Penn, questioned my research, etc. He may have just been in a bad mood that day but I emailed Penn abt the interview and they said they would disregard it.

Didn’t get an interview for Stanford

Essays

10/10, personal statement and supplementals. Wrote about family and cultural history, why my research + nonprofit work was so important to me, experiences volunteering at homeless shelter, and my personal and career goals. Personal statement made a few people cry, went through extensive editing for weeks and weeks.

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

UIUC CS (EA) - >! Accepted !<

UMICH CS OOS (EA) - >! Accepted !<

GT CS OOS (EA) - >! Accepted !<

Purdue CS OOS (EA) - >! Accepted !<

Penn (RD) - >! Waitlisted, didn’t accept spot !<

Stanford (RD) - >! Waitlisted, didn’t accept spot !<

Caltech (RD) - >! Rejected !<

MIT (EA) - >! Deferred -> Accepted !<

Harvard (RD) - >! Accepted !<

Princeton (RD) - >! Accepted !<

Yale (RD) - >! Accepted !<

Berkeley EECS OOS (RD) - >! Accepted !<

CMU SCS (RD) - >! Accepted !<

After extensive deliberation, I committed to… >!Harvard!!!! !<

! I was super shocked by all my acceptances and extremely grateful for everything, I’m still not quite sure how I got this lucky. I was deciding between Harvard and MIT for a while, but after visiting weekend, I was pretty set on going to Harvard. I absolutely loved my experience at Visitas, students raved about the school, and I immediately felt like I belonged. I realized that I liked the environment at a more multi dimensional school and the STEM students around me were also uber talented. MIT was great as well, but the social scene was a little suffocating for me at CPW and it was hard to have conversations with people. It might have just been my experience but the people I talked to were pretty antisocial and even a little standoffish at times, which really worried me. Ultimately, I committed to the place I would feel most comfortable calling home for the next few years because the education and degree at top schools are pretty much the same despite what people might try to tell you. For current high schoolers, I would strongly advise starting early on essays, writing in your own voice about what you are genuinely passionate about, and not doing ECs just for applications. All of my most successful ECs and essays were the ones that I was personally invested in and really cared about. Also, don’t fixate on a dream school or idealize any schools, bc you’ll tend to have distorted views of many colleges before you actually experience them. I know it’s hard, but try to keep your mind neutral, and fall in love with schools after you get in. Lastly, please don’t fixate your entire lives on college and go be teenagers 🙏 I set aside a lot of time to have fun with friends and family in high school and I’ll never regret it. You might regret slaving away for college but you’ll never regret spending time with your loved ones and making memories. Good luck!! !<

Edit: >! Since a few people have been asking why I chose Harvard for CS, I’ll put my response in the post itself. Harvard actually has a very good undergrad CS program and people generally only criticize it because they’re uninformed or bc Harvard’s CS program is ranked #11 as opposed to top 3 like all most of its other fields. While I agree that it may not be the best choice for a CS PhD, the importance of being ranked top 5 is far less for undergrad and you’ll get a similar education at any T20 schools. To me, the other benefits of Harvard and the culture difference between Harvard and MIT were much more important to me than a tiny difference in undergrad CS courses, and I feel that I will be happiest and most successful at Harvard. !<

Demographics:

• Gender: female
• Race/Ethnicity: indian
• Residence: suburbs of major city
• Income Bracket: in the 100-150k range
• Type of School: competitive public (learned that the hard way lmao)
• Major: biology, molecular/cellular biology, biochemistry intending to double minor in data science and philosophy
• Hooks: not sure if this counts but i developed hip arthritis my freshman year and got my hip replaced last december :)

Academics:

• UW/W: 3.91/4.0 (graduated top 5%) - applied with a 3.83 (?)
• APs: 11 (took 9 exams, 5 exams w/ a 5; 3 exams w/ a 4; perf score on ap research), took MVC as well
• SAT: 1460 (only able to take twice - felt that i could do better ngl)

ECs:

• Student Research Assistant @ Children's Hospital Research Institute (Paid intern under an MD PhD, programmed text summarization model for patient clinical notes, trained machine learning models with Falcon & Pytorch)
• Perry Outreach Program (1 of 40 selected to participate in one-day career exploration; performed 6 mock orthopedic surgeries)
• Nationwide Oncology Research Summer Program @ UPenn (Designed experiment with live fruit flies to study effects of different nutrients on cancer; $500 stipend)
• Founder and President of Orthopedics/BME Club (Won grant for $2000 curriculum the club revolves around; organized and led a STOP THE BLEED training for club members; outreach to middle schoolers and intro to engineering class at my school)
• Operations and Business Intern for Educational Start-Up (Managed financials and assisted with long-term projects; managed 1000+ user-created notes and textbook analyses, one of the beta-testers)
• Future Health Professionals Program (~10% acceptance rate; engaged in simulations to learn about different medical professions; selected to introduce the various panelists; received leadership distinction)
• Center Assistant at Kumon (been working there for like 3 years)
• SummerScience Program (1 of 30 selected; Recipient of full-ride, merit scholarship; Presented virtual-lab-based research project to university faculty)
• Certified Stream Monitor (Gathering macroinvertebrates from streams and sending data to local govt in NoVA)
• Junior Volunteer Nursing Program (Shadowing nurses, physicians, and techs on med-surg unit, lots of direct patient encounters)

Something I should've included but didn't (actually my biggest regret lol):

• Student Researcher @ Children's Hospital Research Institute (Conducted AP Research project where I used unsupervised ML to evaluate the utility of extracted radiomic features from MRIs to infer the presence of tumor gene mutations)

Honors:

• Won $2,000 grant for an orthopedic/BME curriculum for club
• National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians Certification
• AP Scholar with Distinction
• SciOly Regional Award
• 3rd place African American Culture Month Essay Contest

LoRs:

Math Teacher - 8/10. Was in his class for three years and he's written LoRs for summer programs that I had applied to and then got accepted into, known for writing LoRs that send people to ivies, would take a bullet for him ngl

AP Physics Teacher + Club Advisor - 8/10. Sucked at physics, but she is probably one of the sweetest people I know. I asked her to be my club advisor and we had worked together for two years to organize meetings and such, she wrote about my leadership capabilities

Manager at Kumon - 10/10. She was super enthusiastic to write my letter. I got to read it afterwards and it described how I was able to form and foster community wherever I go. Honestly cried after reading it.

Essays:

This is where things get bad.

I had saturated the summer before my senior year with internships and programs, so I didn't set aside any dedicated time to write my essays. I had (WRONGLY) believed that it was very possible to get everything done during first sem of my senior year, but boy was I so wrong. I took my EMT certification class starting last september and these were night classes that were thrice a week. don't know why i didn't just take the class over this summer.

my common app essay was written by october and so were all the essays for my ea and ed schools. those were probably my most polished essays, but the regular decision ones were all written the week after my hip replacement surgery. i was legit scrambling bc i had fully anticipated getting into my ed schools and not having to apply rd 💀, don't be like me. all my rd essays are kinda mid looking back at them.

oh and btw my common app essay was about my journey having arthritis and the resilience i've demonstrated throughout, i tried not to make it a pity story and i got generally good feedback. if you'd like to read it, shoot me a dm

Results:

ED I:

University of Pennsylvania -> Deferred -> Rejected

ED II:

Swarthmore College -> Rejected

EA:

Rutgers -> Accepted + Honors Program (not college)

Penn State -> Accepted + Honors College

UMich -> Deferred

University of Maryland CP -> Accepted + Honors College

University of Virginia -> Waitlisted -> Accepted

Northeastern University -> Deferred

RD:

Northeastern University -> Rejected

UMich -> Accepted

Johns Hopkins University -> Rejected

Carnegie Mellon University -> Waitlisted (didn't accept spot)

Williams College -> Rejected

UNC Chapel Hill -> Rejected

George Washington University -> Waitlisted (didn't accept spot)

Georgetown University -> Waitlisted -> Rejected

Barnard College -> Waitlisted -> Rejected

Cornell University -> Waitlisted -> Rejected

Dartmouth College -> Rejected

Brown University -> Rejected

New York University -> Rejected

Duke University -> Rejected

I'M GOING TO COLLEGE PARK BABY!!!!!! ROLL TERPS 🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢

here's why i chose umd and for anyone looking to curate a college list, you're actually sleeping on this university:

i slept on umd myself, i was just looking for another school to apply to ea which you should not do btw, make sure you research all the colleges you'd want to apply to lol. i've been to orientation as of now and have also selected all my classes.

• the location is so prime
  • you're a 20 min metro ride away from dc and a 45 min metro ride away from baltimore which happen to be major hot beds for research, internships, etc.
  • i was talking to several faculty members about this, but guess where many of the bio majors conduct research at during the school year or during the summers. THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF HEALTH. they have ALL of their campuses within a 30 min radius of you
    • do you realize how prestigious the NIH is? legit they have the best labs in the world, not even Harvard can top them in fact students from Harvard flock to Maryland so that they can do research with the NIH
  • not only the NIH, but you also have very easy access to the FDA, the DOE, and several US army campuses. let's be absolutely so fr right now, what would look the most impressive on a resume - working at a lab at a prestigious university or working for THE GOVERNMENT????
  • i believe that the opportunities you'll find at umd are unmatched to any other location in the country
  • at the end of the day i believe what you do in college>>>the prestige of your undergrad
• faculty is so stacked
  • i've started to look for labs that i might want to contribute to all four years of undergrad and i've secured two as of now
  • the umd professors are insane and they've also published in insanely high impact journals
  • umd is a widely regarded research institution so faculty members are going to be well regarded as well, the labs that i have joined have professors who received their phds from harvard and yale
• umd is a cs hotbed
  • irrespective of the location which i have already talked about, cs is so big here and you're sure to find incredible opportunities on campus + job fairs target umd cs students
  • it's t20 in the nation for cs
  • i'm interested in bioinformatics so it's been neat to have both bio and cs opportunities available
• not cutthroat + grad placement
  • if you're a tryhard in high school already, you're sure to stand out at umd whereas at an ivy or t20 it might be more difficult (where i don't think i could thrive in personally)
  • the vibe here is a lot more collaborative (at least in my initial pov as an incoming freshman) and you won't find sweaty people everywhere (but trust me they exist esp in the special programs like the honors colleges)
  • umd has some of the best grad school placement in the country and their health advisor office is pretty good with md + md/phd placements
  • umd students are also known to win many of the prestigious awards like goldwater, knight-hennessy so they have to be doing something right

My main takeaways and advice:

A lot of things didn't necessarily go my way. I'm obviously not your typical ivy applicant with my stats and sat score, but i felt that my ecs were somewhat solid. ik you guys hear this all the time, but prestige isn't everything. my ultimate decision came down to what i can do during these four years rather than the name brand associated with the school. that's not to say that umd doesn't have a name brand, but just to a lesser extent compared to umich for example.

i think regardless of what you want to go into, getting work/research experience in high school will be so incredibly valuable. since i was able to have some lab experience going into college, i've been able to secure great lab positions and i'm in a good position to apply for prestigious REUs this upcoming summer. i personally would rather be a big fish in a small pond rather than a little fish in a big pond.

one of the biggest mistakes i have made in high school that i hope you all don't repeat is prioritizing ecs over your grades. your grades are so much more important than you realize. obviously, don't obsess over them, but if you're considering doing an ec that will take a lot of time and will result in you getting worse grades, DON'T DO IT.

i have a pretty bangin cold email template that has worked really well for me to secure all my research positions and has helped at least 10+ people as well. dm or comment if you'd like it!

Demographics

• Indian Male, Boston area
• Hooks: none
• Major: Physics and Computer Science

Courses Rigor - 13 APs total

• Freshman Year: 7 Honors
• Sophomore Year: 3 Honors, AP Calc AB, AP CSA, AP Phys 1
• Junior Year: 1 Honors, AP Lang, APUSH, AP Calc BC, AP Macro, AP Phys 2, AP Phys C (E&M + Mech)
• Senior Year: 1 Honors, AP Psych, AP Stats, AP Spanish, APES

GPA

• School does a weird weighted 4.66 scale. 4.03/4.66
• UC GPA: 3.90 UW, 4.50 W, 4.17 W Capped
• Rank 21 / 265 (top 10%)

SAT

• 1540 - 790 Math 750 Reading

Extracurriculars

• President. of Science National Honors Society
• NHS
• Started a robotics summer camp
• Did astrophysics research at Harvard
• FRC Robotics - Software Lead (Biggest time commitment)
• Mentored a local FLL Robotics team
• Volunteered at local FRC Competitions
• Contributed to multiple open-source projects
• AAPI club, Debate club, Math League, JV Track/XC, just some filler

Awards:

• AP Scholar with Distinction
• High Honor Rolls, Student of the Terms, and some other pretty prestigious school awards

LORs

• Physics Teacher 10/10 - We were very close, he landed me my research opportunity
• Spanish Teacher - 8/10 - He liked me, but wouldn't be able to speak on my ECs really
• Professor I worked with - 7/10 - Didn't know me too well but the work I did was good

Essays

• Personal statement was pretty good I'd say, lots of revisions, my English teacher really liked it.

• Supplementals were all written within 48 hours of their due dates, only gave them quick proofreads and sent them off; this might have the weakest part of my apps.

EA:

UMass Amherst -> Waitlisted -> Rejected (wtf)
USC -> Deferred -> Rejected
Suffolk -> Accepted + Honors + Scholarship
WPI -> Accepted + Scholarship
Northeastern -> Accepted + Honors + Scholarship (Attending)

RD:

BU -> Waitlisted -> Rejected
Carnegie Mellon -> Waitlisted -> Rejected
UIUC -> Waitlisted -> Rejected
Cornell -> Waitlisted -> Withdrew (Forgot to write the waitlist essay)
Harvard -> Rejected
UPenn -> Rejected
Yale -> Rejected
UCLA -> Waitlisted -> Rejected
UC Berkeley -> Waitlisted -> Rejected
UCSB -> Accepted (my second choice if I didn't have NEU)

Demographics:

• Gender: Female
• Race/Ethnicity: East Asian
• Residence: Suburban, unimportant region of the state
• Income Bracket: <30K
• Type of School: Public
• Major: Biochemistry/Molecular & Cellular Biology (some schools didn't have biochem)

Academics:

• UW/W: 4.0/5.69 (out of 6.0; valedictorian)
• APs: 10 (passed 5 exams with a 4; 3 exams with a 5; 1 exam with a 3; skipped one b/c I knew I'd fail LMAO) & 4 Honors
• ACT: 35 (Math: 36; Reading: 34; Science: 35; English: 36)
• SAT: 1570 (Reading: 800; Math: 770)

ECs & Honors:

• A national-level orchestra - very competitive and has a reputation for prestige
• All-State Symphony Orchestra (all 4 years; my state has a very competitive all-state program)
• Region Symphonic Orchestra (all 4 years)
• Neuroscience Student Researcher under accredited program
• School Orchestra (all 4 years)
• President of 3 community service clubs at the school; Treasurer & Vice President the year before presidency for 2 of them
• Worked as a private violin tutor for 1-2 years
• Horatio Alger State Scholar (applied on a whim and got it; do not be shy when it comes to scholarships)
• This one national, selective scholarship that I will not be naming b/c identity!!
• Volunteered 100+ hours

LoRs:

Note: I asked literally every teacher with an actually substantive course for an LoR. These were the top three:

Honors Physics (Sophomore Year) - 10/10. I hated him as a teacher, but my god did he write a fabulous LoR. He didn't quote my resume once. He wrote about my academic personality but then also included my leadership and apparently fun-loving positivity (which btw idk where he got that from considering this class was at 8:30 AM everyday and I zoned out a lot, but I'm really grateful). This is THE best LoR I've ever read.

AP Chemistry & Enviro Sci (Sophomore & Junior Year) - 6/10. Loved this teacher, but the template he wrote from was pretty impersonal. I honestly only used this LoR as a supplement if a 3rd LoR was permitted because it showed that I was a good student, but I wanted more flavor from my LoRs.

AP Literature (Junior Year) - 9/10. I felt pretty neutral towards this teacher. She was retired by the time I asked her to write an LoR for me (I'd had her class the last year she was teaching. I reached out to her really late on FaceBook and she somehow wrote the entire thing in like... 2 hours). She did have a huge paragraph that was just quoting my resume, which is why I took off a point, but she provided a different perspective from my Physics teacher that I very much appreciated. She didn't mention my personality at all; instead, she wrote about how I think about my responses and connect points of literature. It was really that one paragraph (and a few other lines) that I was super impressed with.

Essays:

They weren't bad. They definitely lacked passion for some schools, but my Common App was pretty generalized and really just described an experience in which I realized genetics was my passion. My Harvard & Brown essays definitely had the most personality (I wrote abt fanfiction for Harvard and being a fish murderer in the Brown essay lol)

Results:

Rejections: Yale, Princeton, Duke

Waitlisted: Johns Hopkins, WashU, Swarthmore, Vanderbilt, Columbia, UMich, UPenn

Accepted: Brown, RPI, Rice, Georgetown, Harvard, Emory, Northwestern, UT-Austin, TAMU (College Station)

Where I'm going: Harvard! With my income bracket, they'll be paying for almost everything, plus I have a great scholarship that'll cover the rest.

What I took away from this experience: I know that some of you are going to come at me for this, but I'm not a stellar applicant, especially when comparing myself to the rest of the Ivy applicant pool. I didn't start any nonprofits; I didn't start any new clubs. I didn't do published research, and my national orchestra thing was a one-off event. I was so sarcastic in my Brown & Harvard essays b/c I wasn't super passionate abt Brown (at that point I just wanted to see if I could get a T20), and Harvard was just kind of a joke app for me, but I think they really are looking for personality in a number of the supplemental essays.

I procrastinated so much during the application season (except for my Common App, which I finalized in September). I started my supplementals two weeks before T20 applications were due and just ground out one school per day. The only reason I was able to submit as many applications as I did was because I kept the basic framework for essays I'd already written and used them for similar prompts. It was genuinely terrifying at first. DO NOT PROCRASTINATE YOUR ESSAYS. I wish I hadn't.

Just go for it. It doesn't matter if you think they'd laugh at your application. I remember staring at the CommonApp screen and being on the verge of taking Harvard off my list of colleges b/c I was genuinely just throwing my application in there for the sake of it. GO FOR IT. If this is a lottery, buy as many tickets as you can afford. Impostor syndrome gets all of us. Just Ponzi scheme your way into this crap. They're taking our money anyway.

I was really lucky in quite literally everything that got me here. I hope you guys are lucky, too.

EDIT (I'll be posting this in comments too): LOTS of questions about my income and LoRs! A lot of teachers immediately sent their letters to me by PDF so I could make sure nothing was inaccurate. I didn't add a LoR to my CommonApp until I'd read through all of them and picked the ones that didn't repeat my resume. As for income, I completely forgot to specify, but my national scholarship has both a high school and college version. It's for low-income but relatively high-achieving students and covered all of my violin lessons as well as my SAT and ACT fees. I also received the college version and they emailed back-and-forth about something with the school, so now, instead of a completely Harvard-covered year, Harvard is covering a huge portion while my scholarship covers the small amount that's left + transportation. I'm paying nothing to go! Besides, like, laundry! And pencils! And a bunch of other little things that I don't want to think about, so please refrain!!

EDIT 2: I'M SORRY; I FORGOT TO ADDRESS THE OTHER THINGS. I went to a public, non-charter, non-magnet school (didn't realize those existed until I read some of the comments, actually, which was a somewhat unfortunate Google search), but it covered the costs for AP exams. Additionally, our music program isn't trash, per se, but it's not excellent, either. I was never one to practice a lot but ended up being the first person at the school to make All-State Orchestra all four years. I was also very privileged to have lessons (AGAIN, COVERED BY MY SCHOLARSHIP), so Region Orchestra was much easier for me than the orchestra students who don't take lessons (which are the majority) at my school.

Demographics

• Gender: M
• Race/Ethnicity: Wasian (Jewish/Chinese)
• Residence: NYC
• Income Bracket: $80k
• Type of School: As competitive as public schools get in NY
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): idt any apply

Intended Major(s): Management Information Systems

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 3.4 sounds right / school doesn't weight
• Rank (or percentile): probably bottom 10% lol, school doesnt rank

• of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 4 AP, 5s on 2, 4s on the other 2

• Senior Year Course Load: hefty but I didn't finish like any of them, luckily had creds from previous years to graduate though

Standardized Testing

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

• SAT: 1590 (800RW, 790M)
• SAT: 1570 (770RW, 800M)
• SAT: 1560 (760RW, 800M)

Extracurriculars/Activities

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

1. Science Olympiad Physics Captain, like two hours a day every day for the school year up to march

Awards/Honors

List all awards and honors submitted on your application.

1. NMSC Semi-finalist

Letters of Recommendation

None. 0. Nada. Couldn't even really ask for any by the time I was applying

Interviews

N/A

Essays

Idk I just threw something together about anti-intellectualism in like 4 hours at a time I really should've been sleeping, and I am horrible at rating my own essays

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

Acceptances: (All rolling admission because I was way past any of the normal deadlines, most of my friends had committed to their T20-30 schools over a month ago when I started my apps)

• SUNY Buffalo (committed)
• SUNY Polytechnic Institute with $10k scholarship
• SUNY Albany
• SUNY Oneonta

Additional Information:

I was having major mental health struggles (in addition to undiagnosed autism and adhd :| ) through my whole high school career, but especially through my senior year to the point that I was failing classes off of not being in school enough, so I missed basically the whole college application process and had to start pretty much after the school year ended. My only options at that point were the SUNYs that still had open applications, which excluded Bing and Stony, making UB my best option. I really didn't put much effort at all into the apps, but apparently that was the exact right amount of effort to put in. Don't do it like me, I made a lot of mistakes. Still should be fine because idt where you get your undergrad matters, that's probably just cope though

Okay, let's get the fluff out of the way. Skip to the end for TLDR.

• African-American male, Mid-Atlantic, 100k+ family income. Big public school, not super competitive.
• Applied for Computer Science or CS related things.
• 4.4/4 GPA, no rank, 1520 SAT (770 EBRW, 750 Math)
• 13 IBs, 1 AP, I can elaborate more for you IBDP students in the comments.
• Ran CS club for 2 years, hosted huge hackathon with 250+ participants and $70k in sponsorships, won international hackathon myself.
• Chem research at small tech university, summer program with the US Federal Reserve, state Latin academic bowl champ (x2), FBLA state champ for UX Design, won state art contest, built a lot of websites and apps, taught kids chess/math/science, did MMA.

That's not comprehensive, but honestly, if I didn't include it, it wasn't important enough.

• Letters of rec: Counselor's was meh 6/10, Humanities teacher's was meh 6/10, STEM teacher's was glowing 9/10.
• Harvard interview was meh 5/10, MIT interview was meh 6/10.
• Wrote an essay about what it's like to rummage through my basement and all the memories it holds. Pretty strong supplementals at points, though some of my really-really short answers got a little wacky. 8/10

Acceptances: Brown, Carleton, Georgia Tech, Rice, RPI, UVA, UMass Amherst, RIT, Virginia Tech, WPI, MSU

Waitlists: MIT, CMU, Duke, NYU, Northwestern, Swarthmore, UPenn

Rejections: Caltech, Cornell, Harvard, Stanford

TLDR:

Okay, how'd I do it? My ECs played a big role, but my essays synergized with them to show fit.

Admissions officers at top tier schools always say the most important thing in an application is how well you'd fit in and contribute to the campus community.

I approached my essays a very specific way, so even though I was running very very far behind, I was able to save time and really hone a few stories that I could split up to answer 40 different prompts.

Most students go and write 40 bad essays and wonder why nothing sticks.

In fact, I discovered that all of my rejections came from those almost first-draft essays I submitted to earlier schools like Cornell and Harvard.

Instead of writing 40 bad essays, I invested my time into nailing eight good essays and tailored them to each school I applied to.

The biggest thing that helped me in writing these tailored essays in such a short time frame was my Notion college essay organizer, which I spent 10 hours building (while procrastinating my essays) so that'd it'd be PERFECT.

I estimate this organizer saved me TWENTY hours in writing my college essays. It gave me a bird's-eye-view of my whole application so I could tweak and tailor which sides of me each of my school saw.

Overall, I think having a structured attack plan for my essays really helped me reduce stress and confusion around my college process.

I don't know if that sounds like it'd be helpful to anyone, but if it does I can share the link as well.

Hopefully this sheds some light for you all, I'm just one case study but a lot of people have hellish college processes and I don't want you to be one of them.

Thank you for reading!

Demographics

Gender: Male

Race/Ethnicity: Asian💀

Residence: Southeast US

Income Bracket: 100k+

Type of School: very competitive public school

Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): Absolutely none.

Intended Major(s): Applied electrical engineering everywhere but am currently in the process of switching to what I really want to do (stats). This obviously hurt my apps cuz EE is more competitive and in hindsight should have applied as a stats/math major.

Academics

GPA (UW/W): 4.967 / 4 (my school has CRAZY inflation)

Rank (or percentile): N/A

Number of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: AP Phys C: Mech (5 self-study), AP Phys 1 (3), AP Calc AB (5), APCSP (4), APHG (5), AP Chem (took at time of apps got 4 tho), AP Phys C: EM (took at time of apps got 5 tho)

Senior Year Course Load: this is a long one so get ready - AP Chem, AP Phys C: Mech (I had to take it again to get into EM), MVC, Cryptography, Object-Oriented Programming, Film Studies, Percussion, Jazz Band, Large Ensemble, Greek Drama, Server-Side Dev, Operations Research, Lin Alg, Phys C: EM

Standardized Testing

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

SAT: 1440 *unreported* for all (700RW, 740M)

ACT: 35 reported for all - I know I absolutely sold on math despite applying in such a math heavy field, but couldn't care less tbh (35E, 32M, 36R, 35S)

Other (ex. IELTS, TOEFL, etc.): none

Extracurriculars/Activities

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

1. Science Olympiad - Member for 9 years; have accumulated 20+ medals from regional to national level, mostly in physics-based events.

2. Ensemble Musician and Multi-instrumentalist - I have played violin, electric bass, double bass, ukulele, and percussion for orchestra, jazz band, choir, and percussion ensemble over 6 years.

3. Founder of Two Math and Physics-Based Forums - Founded forums (which are like group-study classes) with 10+ members each exploring concepts of advanced proof-based calculus and Hamiltonian, Lagrangian, and quantum mechanics. The real analysis forum is actually becoming a real class next year due to the interest it garnered (which I wrote on all my deferral supplement forms)! (The physics forum was meant to be super advanced but our appointed teacher said if you really want to *understand* anything this semester, just learn something you haven't but at your level, so we ended up doing special relativity).

4. Physics Club President - Organized competitions such as the F=ma and PhysicsBowl, lab tours at state universities, and study sessions for 15+ classmates.

5. Physics Teaching Assistant - Was appointed physics teaching assistant by my school. Tutored my peers during free blocks by explaining concepts, doing example problems, and labs.

6. Flex Member of VEX Robotics Team - Was able to do appointed tasks for the robotics team such as assisting with builds, sorting tools, and debugging code for our robot.

7. Math Club Member and Competitor - Participated in competitions such as the Duke Math Meet, AMC, and Integral Bee. I was able to learn a lot of tricks and improve my math skills. (I did not win any of these)

8. YouTube - Uploading variety content like gaming, music, and math since 2016. Improved editing, recording, and scripting skills.

9. Table Tennis - Hosted in-school tournaments with friends. Improved my game over time. In process of building a website that tracks rankings within the school. (Did not end up happening, unfortunately because of my class load and someone else trying to fork off the idea but no one wanted to use the website to track rankings to begin with).

10. Food Pantry Organizer - Packed and sorted 1000s of lunch bags with other peers to be sent to different organizations that would donate them to underprivileged neighborhoods.

Awards/Honors

List all awards and honors submitted on your application.

1. The southeast has a thing called "Math and Science Schools" which are very selective residential schools and have an application to accept people with a good background in STEM. I got accepted into this and put it as an honor. This is very competitive to get into and there is even more competition at the school, especially for college apps if they compare you with other members from your school.

2. Science Olympiad States - 1st Place in an event.

3. VEX Robotics States - Runner-ups in bracket

4. Science Olympiad States - 6th Place in 2 other events.

5. AP Scholar with Distinction

Letters of Recommendation

Physics teacher - 10/10, knew me very well, also sponsored the club I was in. We got along really nicely, and we are so chill, like our emails are like 2 sentences and involve thumbs-up emojis instead of words.

Music teacher - 8/10, he knew I was hard-working and passionate about things I set my mind to. I started out as a violin player but switched to electric bass (and a bit of double bass), with no prior experience. I was the worst one in the band but worked twice as hard to bridge that gap, so this was probably what he wrote about on the rec, but I am not sure. I just like exploring new topics and instruments, I recently picked up percussion stuff, too.

English teacher - ?/10, he knew me but not to the level of the other two. I don't know his opinions of me at all, and what he thinks about me. I did good in his class, and got good grades on writing assignments, maybe participated a bit in discussions, but that's about it. If it didn't require an English LoR (looking at you MIT), I didn't send his in. I only sent it in when you could submit more than 2 (as optional ones).

Interviews

MIT Interview - 2/10: my interviewer had the exact same background in what all my ECs were (like events in Science Olympiad or robotics), but she had a masters in the subjects whereas I was a high schooler with random accumulated facts in no sequential order, so she could catch onto BS and superficial understanding more. Also, my first interview ever so unfortunately fumbled.

Duke Interviews - 9/10: this guy was very chill and had the exact same background and interest as I have! He was doing EE and was currently in the fintech sector, and that's kind of my goal, too, so we got along very well, and he acted as a nice mentor for an hour and told me more about his career and story.

Essays

I had no clue what to write my essay on for the longest time, so after reading tons of collegeessayguy and stuff, decided to write a "montage essay" on "instruments" I have amassed in my repertoire over the years. I started off writing about toys, then real instruments, and kind of tied them into how they reflected the state of my life and personality at that moment in time when I was learning them. I then went full-circle and ended with a table and wrote that anything can be an instrument in the right hands, because it's all up to the creativity of the individual, much like how toys were instruments when I was little, rhythmically banging on objects at different angles can act like a drum set.

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

Acceptances:

State Safety (EA), I also applied to a full-ride scholarship here and got it.

Purdue with a Presidential Scholarship of 10k/year (EA), I don't know how I got this at all to be honest. I was expecting the Purdue acceptance (only one I had hope for), but with a scholarship I didn't even apply for is absolutely crazy. I took it as a sign that they knew they were the best I would get and really wanted me to go to their school.

Georgia Institute of Technology (EA -> Deferred -> Accepted), I wasn't expecting this at all to be honest considering how I applied EE and how competitive it is there. After looking at the ECs my friends had at my school, I was just hoping I got into my state safety and Purdue to be honest, and had no hopes of anything else.

DUKE (RD), LETS GOOOOOOOOO I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE HOW THIS HAPPENED BUT I AM SO HAPPY, like I said after reading a lot of the things my friends had and even people on this subreddit or a2c applying to these types of schools, I had 0 hope. I am going to attend this Fall.

Waitlists:

University of California San Diego (RD they don't have EA)

University of Michigan Ann-Arbor (EA -> Postpone -> Waitlist -> Rejected), at least I put a tough fight and literally made them read my application 3-4 times. I took it in a positive funny way, as in, it's always fun wasting admission officer's time just like how they waste ours with this shitty format.

Rejections:

MIT (RD)

UC Berkeley (RD)

Additional Information:

If I knew what I wanted to do a bit sooner, I think I might have had a better chance with UM or UCSD. I did some self-reflection, realized I didn't like building things that much, and have always liked math more than actual hands-on things, which is why industrial engineering or applied math and stats would be better fit for me. These majors are way less competitive (because people think they don't have job prospects, I don't know?), so I might have had a better shot.

Anyway, to those that don't have that cracked of a resume, you can do it guys! I have absolutely no clue how a miracle like me getting into Duke or GTech happened, with such normal ECs. All my ECs are very achievable by the *average* student, and actually a lot of people reading this probably have better or same-caliber ECs than me with like 1000 service hours, shadowing doctors, interning at NASA, and having some crazy research. I didn't have any of this or any cracked talents and went to a school where this stuff was pretty common. I struggled listing 10 EC's I could have put there, and 5 awards, which is why I had to put SciOly states twice, AP Scholar, table tennis, and YouTube. I didn't even have a "spike" in my application, like I had a lot of math and physics and music things, but didn't have an award, like AIME qual, or USAPhO qual, or all-state orchestra, in any of them.

I think my strongest part of the application was the course rigor. As you could see by my senior courses, it was a lot (14?). In junior year, I had almost the same amount. I was also in every music program at my school (except choir and piano), so I basically had 0 time in the evenings, night would be for homework and stuff, and then the rest of the night would be for having fun w/ friends and sleeping at 3AM. I think colleges noticed this, and in my deferral forms and everything I put classes I had added to my list as a desperate last attempt to get in.

At the end of the day, it's just about how you present yourself, I guess. I don't consider myself "worse" or "better" than those that had more or better EC's than me, because I enjoyed my life playing video games and talking to friends. Also, your extracurriculars don't dictate how smart you are. I know plenty of people at my school who are way worse than me at a lot of subjects but have crazy LinkedIn profiles bigger than most adults in the workforce for 30 years. Everyone has things they are good at, don't feel inferior to others, ever. Especially over something so stupid like extracurriculars.

I have realized that where you are from plays a much bigger role in your applications than any other factor. My friends that went to a different (more) competitive school with similar or MORE ECs and stats got rejected from almost everywhere. I feel so sorry for bay area kids and those in similar regions of sweatiness, but it is what it is. Which leads me to my last point.

On a final note, I hate the American system, and if it was up to me, I would have a real college entrance exam (the SAT and ACT don't mean anything) like they do in Asia, especially for colleges known for their engineering, physics, or math programs. Kids shouldn't have to force themselves to do superficial stuff like "shadowing doctors" and "researching" to get into university, especially when 99% of it is all BS to try to get in. I hope to live to the day where collegeboard monopoly falls and colleges start administering their own entrance exams.

Also, MIT and UCB were dream schools when I was little, but I already knew it wasn't happening by the time I reached junior year, so I abandoned the dream. Overall, just don't have dream schools and you won't be disappointed, instead look at where you got and be happy, like me. Where you go for undergrad doesn't mean anything, because everyone's going to end up at some old desk job and we will all be corpo slaves for some company at the end of the day.