east asian applicant receives hopecore ivy league results
Around this time last year, I found college apps really stressful because I felt like I hadn't done enough to fit the "mold" of what AOs are looking for. Having gone through this process now, I thought I'd share my results to show that you don't necessarily need to have crazy accomplishments and that you can definitely take "basic" activities and frame them in a meaningful way that can still stand out to really top schools! (To be clear, I don't think my app/stats are bad at all, but they are nothing insane or definitively Ivy material).
Demographics
- Gender: Female
- Race/Ethnicity: Chinese
- Residence: Texas
- Income Bracket: Middle
- Type of School: Public
- Hooks: None
Intended Major(s): Engineering for my state school. For other colleges that asked what I was interested in, I put environmental science/studies, econ, sociology, music (it varied school to school)
Academics
- GPA: 4.7/4.0 W
- Rank: 27/1200
- # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 18 APs, 2 semesters of DE (Multivariable Calc and Differential Equations)
- Senior Year Course Load: AP Lit, Multivar Calc, Differential Equations, AP Physics C (E&M and Mech), AP Macro, AP Chinese, AP Music Theory
Standardized Testing
- SAT: 1580 (790RW, 790M)
- AP (all 5s): Calc BC, Environmental Science, WHAP, EHAP, HGAP, Statistics, Physics 1, Lang, APUSH, Comp Sci A. Also listed the 6 I was taking senior year (no scores)
Extracurriculars/Activities
President of a youth music org, organized 10 free concerts and also collaborated w/ another music NPO to bring free performances to festivals and NPO events in the area
List of school-related orchestral and music experience - in the top orchestra all 4 yrs of high school, was a school-affiliated piano accompanist for 50+ students, also held a leadership role in orchestra. Also listed that I played in the pit of my high school's musical as a fun tidbit :)
Debate. I had a captain role sophomore year and gave some lectures. Privately coached 4 teams for free and conducted a survey about resource inequalities in debate. I quit junior year, so I tried to focus on what I did outside of competition.
President of a student-created news publication posting articles relating to public policy in the US.
Volunteered at a public nature preserve grades 11-12. Duties were: working on irrigation systems, mowing trails for walkability/public access, planting native grasses, identifying/removing invasive plants.
Youth orchestra; I got to play multiple piano solos with them, so I included that. I also tried to highlight the multicultural aspect of it because each year we got to play a concert with a professional pipa artist in the area.
Part of a youth policy-reporting institute and did some projects with them (researched and reported on topics relating to social justice and economics)
Outreach member of a robotics team. Hosted free STEM events and a few free robotics camps for kids. We also gave away STEM bundles to low-income schools in our area.
Started and independently managed a cookie business, donating all profits. Raised $1000 for humanitarian aid in Palestine as well as legal funds for immigrants and even got to booth at some markets.
Intern for a podcast company in 10th grade and helped with a podcast that they were about to launch. Didn't do much, but I helped research some marketing strategies and also did transcribing/summarizing raw interview footage to help with producing the episodes.
Awards/Honors
2x All-State musician
2 TOC bids in debate (this is like alright, but I didn't explain what TOC was in my app, so I'm not sure if this did anything lol)
I did International Public Policy Forum (IPPF) one time and made it to Round of 64
3rd place in a regional engineering comp
Qualified to states for debate
Letters of Recommendation
English teacher 10/10: I had her for 2 years (grades 9-10). We stayed in touch through junior and senior yr. She knew about my personal values and projects (like my cookie business). We are super duper tight so I'm confident she wrote to my best qualities (I love her sm)
11th grade history teacher 7/10: I wasn't super close with him, but I think I exhibited a lot of my academic ability in his class, so he probably could've written to that. He's also just a pretty chill dude and accepted a limited # of students
Orchestra director 9/10: I had him in 9th and 10th grade, but he was also coincidentally the director of my youth orchestra (outside of school), so I saw him weekly in 11th and 12th grade too. We connected really well throughout all of high school. He did procrastinate on my rec so Idk if he wrote allat but I'm sure it was good because he's awesome like that. I only submitted his to a few (including UPenn) because of rec requirements
Interviews
I had interviews with Yale (REA) and Harvard (RD).
My Yale interview was exceptionally well; it lasted over an hour (meant to be 30 min). My interviewer told me that she genuinely thought I was a perfect fit and, after hearing about me considering environmental science-related career paths, even referred me to her friend from Yale who is currently getting a master's in a related field at Harvard. I ultimately got rejected lol, but I do think the interview played a role in getting deferred (which I think is not bad for Yale).
Harvard went really well too; my interviewer was really sweet, and I really connected with her!
Essays
Tbh I'm kind of lazy and also just don't want to go into all my essays, but I think they were authentically myself and the ones I cared about the most were pretty good. I do think they made a big difference (but who knows). (Mostly) happy to share more details for some specific colleges if you want to ask in the replies/DMs
Decisions
Acceptances:
- UT Austin (EA)
- William & Mary (RD)
- NYU (RD)
- Boston University (RD)
- UPenn (RD) (committed!)
Waitlists:
- Tufts (RD)
- Washington Uni in St. Louis (RD)
- Swarthmore (RD)
- Northwestern (RD)
- Columbia (RD)
Rejections:
- Yale (REA) deferred --> rejected
- Harvard (RD)
Additional Information:
Submitted music supp (piano) to W&M, Swarthmore, Yale, Harvard, and Columbia