u/Commercial_Band2849

I am an incoming freshman (class of 2030) and I just wrote up a very rough 4 year plan for what classes I plan to take as a Biochemistry major. I would really appreciate it if a current one could review it and let me know whether I should load my credits differently, take certain classes in a different order, or let me know anything else I should know about it. Please DM me if you are willing to review. Thank you!

Demographics (🤡🤡🤡)

• Gender: Male
• Race/Ethnicity: Asian 🤡🤡🤡
• Residence: CA 🤡🤡🤡
• Income Bracket: 250-300k 🤡🤡🤡
• Type of School: Competitive but not infamous public 🤡🤡🤡
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): None 🤡🤡🤡

Intended Major(s) Biochemistry at most schools

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 4.0 UW/4.4 UC W (School doesn’t do weighted)
• Rank (or percentile): Tied #1 with several others
• Senior Year Course Load: 5 periods, 3 periods of AP

Standardized Testing

• SAT I: 1580 (790RW, 790M)
• ACT: None
• SAT II: None
• AP/IB: 5 on the following: APUSH, AP Stats, AP Bio, AP Calc BC, AP World; awaiting AP Physics C, AP Gov, AP Macro, AP Psych
• Other (ex. IELTS, TOEFL, etc.): None

Extracurriculars/Activities

1. Independent self-designed research w/ local CC professor (2 conferences, no publication 🤡) (11-12)
2. The conference (fairly well-known undergrad conference) (11-12)
3. Somewhat selective summer program at a state school (Rising senior)
4. Club founder and president, but the club is not a STEM club (11-12)
5. Lab program that accepts everyone and their mom (10-11)
6. Teaching nonprofit, officer and teacher role (11-12)’
7. Community open bio lab attendance, this was basically a bridge into the other lab activities (9-10)
8. FRC robotics with school (9-10)
9. Volunteering at a school (9)
10. Volunteering at a library (10)

Awards/Honors

1. Famous national award, but not in STEM 🤡🤡🤡
2. Random science competitions no one has heard of, “national level” tho
3. Another science competition no one has heard of in the US, but popular in another country
4. Science Olympiad (only invitational medals)
5. AMC (no AIME 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡)
6. (In additional information) Exceptional conduct recognition award from my school for basically carrying my non-AP chem class, I hate the teacher tho so idk why he nominated me

Letters of Recommendation

• AP Bio teacher: 2/10. I think he hates me ngl 🤡🤡🤡 no idea why I asked him
• AP World teacher: 6/10. Probably a decent rec letter but nothing super amazing Both are from 11th grade.

Interviews

• None. Declined Stanford interview 🤡🤡🤡

Essays

• Personal statement: D&D, 6/10
• PIQs: Glorified activity listing 🤡🤡🤡, 5/10
• Supplementals: Glorified activity listing + being a nerd goober, 6/10

Decisions

Acceptances: >!Santa Clara (EA), UoP BS/PharmD (EA), UW (RD), Occidental (RD), SJSU, SDSU, Cal Poly, UCSD (Committed!), UCSB, UCSC, UCR, UCM!<

Waitlists: >!UCLA, UCD 🤡🤡🤡, UCI 🤡🤡🤡, Rice (RD)!<

Rejections: >!USC (EA, Defer → Reject), Stanford (RD), Pomona (RD), UCB 🤡🤡🤡!<

Additional Information

>!I was definitely carried by GPA and SAT. My ECs and course load were utterly unremarkable for top schools and everything else was kinda shit. UCB was my top choice but we take UCSD.!<