u/Brave-Ad-7697

Edit: Someone said I shouldn’t post essay stuff when apps are open so I have to delete it ☹️☹️☹️

It’s like the funniest thing ever tho

I made exact same post in GetIntoStanford lmao

Rising Senior
Major: Bio (maybe bioengineering but prolly not)

Demographic:
Mid-High Middle Class SoCal Asian Male
Kinda Competitive High School

Schools: Stanford (REA), Brown, Harvard, Columbia, Yale, UPenn, Duke, Northwestern (sister legacy), Pomona College, WashU, Rice, Emory, UCLA, Berkeley, UCSD, SLO, other UCs, UW

Academics:
4.00/4.42 W/UW GPA (maybe will be 4.44 after 1st quarter? Valedictorian is 4.6 for reference)
SAT: 1570 Super score (800 Math/770 Reading)
1 CC College Heredity Course (got an A) | idk if it counts as DE tho bc i didn't do it w/ my school

11 APs (4 Senior Year) | 3, 4, 4 across 10th 11th, and 12th grades | 3 5's so far and the next 4 will be 5's i'm pretty sure | Bio, Calc AB, World | Calc BC, Physics C: Mech, Physics C: E/M, Chem | APEL, Gov, Stats, Art History

pSAT: 1480 (760 Math/720 Reading)

Spike/Wow-Factor: 2 of my research experiences are strongly related (Cryo-EM). one is like the wet lab beforehand and the other is the dry lab analysis, so I'm big on Cryo-EM basically. hopefully that narrative carries me somewhere. My other science-y ECs are also vaguely related?? environmental stuff? Boy Scouts, iGEM, Aquarium Volunteer, etc. the Wet Lab research is also plant proteins in a strong environmental context. (i lwk rejected SSP Genomics for SRA Cryo-EM for the narrative fit btw)

ECs:

1+ year wet lab intern at top 10 global NPO research institute. Started June 2025; went ~15 hours weekly over summer and ~5 hours weekly during school year. Grow bacteria, transform bacteria, express protein, purify protein, make SDS gels, make buffers, other molecular bio stuff. No publication bc both projects won't be done till i graduate college lol. All the work culminates into cryo-em analysis, but I don't do any of that work

UCSB SRA Track 7: molecular vision. Cryo EM research. hopefully we can get the work published in a HS student journal or sum.

Aquarium Volunteer giving talks and leading touch tank experience. will have ~125 hours by the time REA is due

iGEM Outreach VP, organizing service events and regularly teaching lessons at elementary schools. Planning a project surveying community impacted by pollution from drilling.

Boy Scouts of 7 years; SPL, ASPL, Troop Guide, diff types of Instructors. Did SPL while all the adults got suspended for something and had to lead everything. Troop of 100 scouts ish. Getting eagle scout in a month

Eagle Scout w/ project for aquarium's education department. ~200 hrs total work for it? fundraiser w/ it

Science Olympiad Student Coach and Treasurer. I only have 2 regional medals lmao but 3/4 teams I coached for water quality medalled for regionals. Manage like 10K in money anually

Peer Counseling President doing service and wellness events across school. Also manages tutoring program w/ NHS execs

NHS Vice President managing all club service events and tutoring program w/ peer counseling president

Top 5 Public School neuroscience research internship. 2 month long thing in summer 2025 where I wrote a lit review and did data analysis w/ R for alzheimer's research

Awards:
AP Scholar w/ Distinction
Eagle Scout

National Merit Semifinalist maybe hopefully i'm on the cutoff for it

Hopefully UCSB SRA post-program publication
idk what else lmao

i genuienly might write a supplemental or two about feet ahahahahah

Rising Senior
Major: Bio (maybe bioengineering but prolly not)

Demographic:
Mid-High Middle Class SoCal Asian Male
Kinda Competitive High School

Academics:
4.00/4.42 W/UW GPA (maybe will be 4.44 after 1st quarter? Valedictorian is 4.6 for reference)
SAT: 1570 Super score (800 Math/770 Reading)
1 CC College Heredity Course (got an A) | idk if it counts as DE tho bc i didn't do it w/ my school

7 APs rn, will be 11 | 3, 4, 4 across 10th 11th, and 12th grades | 3 5's so far and the next 4 will be 5's i'm pretty sure | Bio, Calc AB, World | Calc BC, Physics C: Mech, Physics C: E/M, Chem | APEL, Gov, Stats, Art History

Spike/Wow-Factor: 2 of my research experiences are strongly related (Cryo-EM). one is like the wet lab beforehand and the other is the dry lab analysis, so I'm big on Cryo-EM basically. hopefully that narrative carries me somewhere. My other science-y ECs are also vaguely related?? environmental stuff? Boy Scouts, iGEM, Aquarium Volunteer, etc. the Wet Lab research is also plant proteins in a strong environmental context

ECs:

1+ year wet lab intern at top 10 global NPO research institute. Started June 2025; went ~15 hours weekly over summer and ~5 hours weekly during school year. Grow bacteria, transform bacteria, express protein, purify protein, make SDS gels, make buffers, other molecular bio stuff. No publication bc both projects won't be done till i graduate college lol. All the work culminates into cryo-em analysis, but I don't do any of that work

UCSB SRA Track 7: molecular vision. Cryo EM research. hopefully we can get the work published in a HS student journal or sum.

Aquarium volunteer giving talks and leading touch tank experience. will have ~125 hours by the time REA is due

iGEM Outreach VP, organizing service events and regularly teaching lessons at elementary schools. Planning a project surveying community impacted by pollution from drilling.

Boy Scouts of 7 years; SPL, ASPL, Troop Guide, diff types of Instructors. Did SPL while all the adults got suspended for something and had to lead everything. Troop of 100 scouts ish. Getting eagle scout in a month

Eagle Scout w/ project for aquarium's education department. ~200 hrs total work for it? fundraiser w/ it

Science Olympiad Student Coach and Treasurer. I only have 2 regional medals lmao but 3/4 teams I coached for water quality medalled for regionals. Manage like 10K in money anually

Peer Counseling President doing service and wellness events across school. Also manages tutoring program w/ NHS execs

NHS Vice President managing all club service events and tutoring program w/ peer counseling president

Top 5 Public School neuroscience research internship. 2 month long thing in summer 2025 where I wrote a lit review and did data analysis w/ R for alzheimer's research

Awards:
AP Scholar w/ Distinction
Eagle Scout

Hopefully UCSB SRA post-program publication
idk what else lmao

I'm praying my essays can push me over the edge, but am I even on the edge for Stanford Admits? Ik my stats are good enough but my spike is week and i have no awards. sooo could those essays make a good enough difference??

I'm also applying to Harvard, Brown, Rice, Emory, UCs, maybe Columbia, UPenn, and Yale

For the ppl who've done UCSB SRA in previous years, I have a bunch of random questions:

-How much Wet Lab exposure is there? I know that it varies by track (I'm in Track 7 for Molecular Vision), but I just read the Student Guide, and the wording makes it seem like there isn't too much Wet Lab work for any research track.

-How's the food? Both in the dining hall and around Isla Vista in general.

-How's the beach? I'm from San Diego, and some friends who have visited UCSB say the beach isn't as good in comparison

-During the webinar, Dr. Kim said we'll be spending our weekends and other hours outside the 9 to 6 doing research. Is that entirely true? Because that sounds like 60+ hours of work a week, counting both instructional and independent research.

-Do we share Santa Cruz Dorms with other programs? People from like RMP, Summer Springboard, etc

-Which Bunk is best? For the 99% of people who get triples, which spot (top bunk, bottom bunk, or the single bed with the desk below) was best?

Pretty pls dm me as well I'd love to talk in detail about everything. thank y'all so much 😄

If you’re going to SRA DM me I’ll add you to the gc 😃😃