u/DueDistribution7749

for ANYONE who has done VSCS before (the summer academy) how were your interviews??? What are the based on what do you guys do during the program???

I have never written essays like this so lowk could use all the help i can get... For some context I plan to apply as a business major or CS to some schools -

1. The Law of Equivalent Exchange - was gonna start this one off mid scene when the character says this in a movie; connect it to various points in my life and then related it to entrepreneruship.

2. My 5th grade teacher during covid bringing rewards from like the classroom point system stuff to our houses during peak covid when it was online; transitioning to how that lowk changed my life (corny asl but i promise u it did)

3. The blanket I've had since I was 0 years old and how its seen me when nobody else has (yeah idk abt this one icl)

Basically the title but i'm torn over what to ED to. For the purpose of this post lets say I have max rigor, 3.97 UW 4.7 W, 1560 SAT, 3 standout ECS, and the rest ur usual stuff; basically what I'm trying to say is assuming I have a pretty good shot what should I do... Most of the rlly good business schools like Wharton are more finance based whereas my dream is having my own startup/company and more on the entrepreneurship side. What schools should I apply for for this.

I'm a rising junior and when I applied for summer programs this year I got rejected from almost all of them. I think it might be because of my essays but who knows. For those who got into really good summer programs (YYSG, BWSI, NASA SEES, etc.) how did you do it and do you think the price tag for them is valid, how did they help you in college admisisons?

So I am planning to apply business and CS in college. However, my ENTIRE application is filled with what i think are decent-great business ECS. My only CS ECS are these two free competitive entry on-site nasa programs and my app development. The app development at its core I feel is business tho because I use socials to promote it and generate a pretty good amount of revenue; we'll say 10,000+ so far. What can I do to boost my profile I take a lot of CS classes in schools - AP CSP, AP CSA, machine learning, AI, etc.

Genuinely I don't know how people do it...

The other day I was looking at the Common Data Set for many of the top business schools (Upenn, Stanford, etc.) and for some of them like UPenn and Stanford over 60 percent of incoming students had a 4.0 gpa in high school. I got an A- in a hard course where only 2-3 people got above an A- in the entire grade and now my unweighted on the regular 4.0 scale is a 3.97... Does this automatically put me in the bin of needing to makeup for it somewhere else or a red flag? I know some people say you can makeup your GPA in other areas of your application but does anything under a 4.0 get you put in that pile? If so, would a SAT score above a 1550 be sufficient to make up for it?

The other day I was looking at the Common Data Set for many of the top business schools (Upenn, Stanford, etc.) and for some of them like UPenn and Stanford over 60 percent of incoming students had a 4.0 gpa in high school. I got an A- in a hard course where only 2-3 people got above an A- in the entire grade and now my unweighted on the regular 4.0 scale is a 3.97... Does this automatically put me in the bin of needing to makeup for it somewhere else or a red flag? I know some people say you can makeup your GPA in other areas of your application but does anything under a 4.0 get you put in that pile? If so, would a SAT score above a 1550 be sufficient to make up for it?

The other day I was looking at the Common Data Set for many of the top business schools (Upenn, Stanford, etc.) and for some of them like UPenn and Stanford over 60 percent of incoming students had a 4.0 gpa in high school. I got an A- in a hard course where only 2-3 people got above an A- in the entire grade and now my unweighted on the regular 4.0 scale is a 3.97... Does this automatically put me in the bin of needing to makeup for it somewhere else or a red flag? I know some people say you can makeup your GPA in other areas of your application but does anything under a 4.0 get you put in that pile?

Intended Major(s): CS and Business

ECS (in no particular order):

1. UNICEF Secretary - multiple fundraising events + strong increase in membership and online engagement
2. Marketing Intern - led end-to-end marketing strategy for a technology based nonprofit organization; generated 50,000+ impressions; 10th AND 11th grade; 6-9 posts a week total across platforms
3. DECA - small leadership (dont wanna dox mysef with exact names); directly contributed to measurable increase in competition placement; several awards
4. Girl Scouts - 10+ Years; Gold award; President of Troop; measurable increase in sales
5. Niche Cultural Dance Form - 10+ Years; highest degree achieved + an actual degree in this; performed in front of 1.1M ppl at renowned festival; Future - making an app on this
6. Economic Development Intern: havent started this yet start date is in a week
7. 2 NASA Programs - competitive entry + free paid for trip to the actual facility for a bit for the top performers (achieved/invited twice); wrote misison papers; worked on a mission at the actual facility.
8. Mental Health nonprofit ambassafor - competitive selection; participate/lead what is basically a group therapy session for teens; lots of real work/volunteering w this with impact; in process of creating app which will have measurable users since its used by this org
9. Future/currently working: Education nonprofit - starting this summer/ dont have that much on it yet but im starting now

I feel like im missing something but I can't tell what; I think it's those 1-2 standout WOW activities. How do I get one of those genuinely I feel like thats where I'm stuck but I don't know how to get it. Rate my activities as well; is what i'm doing geniunly enough pls be 100% honest.

Demographics: 

• Female
• South Asian
• 2 schools at the same time - one base public school where I take half my classes and one public magnet school (had to take test to get in) school
• No Hooks..

Intended Major(s): CS and Business

SAT: 1560

UW/W GPA and Rank: 3.98 UW/ 4.48 W**.** School does NOT rank but for sure top 10%.

Coursework: 

Freshman Year (no APS allowed) - ADV CS, ADV Physics, algebra 2 & precalc, intro to ap world history, business, english 9 honors, french III

Sophomore Year (4 APS) - AP World, English 10 H, AP Seminar, French IV, AP Pre-calc, AP CSA, chem honors

Junior Year (5 APS- coming up) - AP Macro/Micro, APUSH, AP Lang, french V H, AP Calc BC, ML & AI, AP Physics C

Awards(easily my weakest point):

• Deca - 2x regional winner; 1x state finalist/ICDC qualifier
• FBLA - 3x regional winner
• Pitch comp winner
• Gold Award - Girl Scouts
• Random honors societies

Extracurriculars (not in order):

• UNICEF Secretary - multiple fundraising events + strong increase in membership and online engagement
• Marketing Intern - led end-to-end marketing strategy for a technology based nonprofit organization; generated 50,000+ impressions; 10th AND 11th grade; 6-9 posts a week total across platforms
• DECA - small leadership (dont wanna dox mysef with exact names); directly contributed to measurable increase in competition placement; several awards
• Girl Scouts - 10+ Years; Gold award; President of Troop; measurable increase in sales
• Niche Cultural Dance Form - 10+ Years; highest degree achieved + an actual degree in this; performed in front of 1.1M ppl at renowned festival; Future - making an app on this
• Economic Development Intern**:** havent started this yet start date is in a week
• 2 NASA Programs - competitive entry + free paid for trip to the actual facility for a bit for the top performers (achieved/invited twice); wrote misison papers; worked on a mission at the actual facility.
• Mental Health nonprofit ambassafor - competitive selection; participate/lead what is basically a group therapy session for teens; lots of real work/volunteering w this with impact; in process of creating app which will have measurable users since its used by this org
• Education nonprofit - starting this summer/ dont have that much on it yet but im starting now

Essays/LORs/Other: 2 stem teachers | the orgs im interning for/ambassadoring for will most likely be my other LOR

Schools: 

1. ED UPENN Wharton & ED UPENN M&T (unrealistic IK)
2. Cornell
3. UNC
4. USC
5. UC Berkeley
6. NYU
7. CMU
8. Georgia Tech
9. Stanford
10. UVA
11. UT Austin
12. UCLA
13. Northwestern
14. Brown
15. Harvard
16. UMICHIGAN

I honestly just copy pasted the r/chanceme template to give some context but I honestly don't know if i'm going in the right direction or if i have a clear "spike". Are these ECs good should I add subtract or try to expand on anything?? I also don't know what the IVY league actually wants, I'm the oldest sibling and neither of my parents went to college in the USA so idk honestly.

Demographics: Female, South Asian, DMV, competitive public magnet school (public but test required), lowk comp area, no hooks.

Intended Major(s): Business & CS at the schools that offer dual degree programs, CS at more CS based schools, business at more business based schools

ACT/SAT/SAT II: 1560 SAT

UW/W GPA and Rank: 3.98 UW/ 4.4 W (current)

Coursework: 9th grade (couldnt take APS): 6 Honors 1 Regular (French III) | 10th grade: 4 APs, AP CSA, AP Pre Calc, Ap World, AP Seminar | 11th (next year): AP Macro/Micro, ML & AI (honors), APUSH, AP Calc BC, AP Physics C, AP Lang

Awards:

- 2x District winner, 1x state winner

- FBLA 3x Regional Winner

- Pitch comps (w money)

- This is honestly easily the worst part of my profile rn, im participating in a LOT of business comps next year (conrad challenge, blue ocean, etc.)

- Applying for Hershey heartwarming scholarship for my nonprofit

- Planning to do congressional app challenge

Extracurriculars: 

- Marketing Intern for a nonprofit (7hr/week 1.5 years): 100,000+ impressions, 9 posts a week across several platforms

- Economic development Intern

- personal business (not rlly rlly high revenu but in the thousands)

- Ambassador for mental health nonprofit: facilitate the actual "group therapy" sessions, help kids out, talk to them, etc. Building an app specifically for this. Doing it because I honestly have a bit of a passion for mental health.

- Niche Dance Type: 10+ years; performed in front of 1.1 Million ppl, have a degree in it

- Girls Scouts: 10+ years; gold award;

- Stem education nonprofit - high impact dont wanna dox myself

- UNICEF - secretary

- DECA: kind of leadership + competitor, thinking of building some sort of practice app since there arent that many rn

- Selective NASA in person summer academy (super comp in my area)

- FBLA - competitor not rly much here rn

Current School List: (non-safeties)

ED Upenn M&T and ED Wharton

UVA (in state)

EA Cornell

UC Berkelely

UMichigan

NYU

CMU

UNC Chapel Hill

IU

Northwestern

Uchicago

Stanford

Vanderbilt

UCLA

UT Autsin

USC

Georgia Tech

Demographics: Female, South Asian, DMV, competitive public magnet school (public but test required), lowk comp area, no hooks.

Intended Major(s): Business & CS at the schools that offer dual degree programs, CS at more CS based schools, business at more business based schools

ACT/SAT/SAT II: 1560 SAT

UW/W GPA and Rank: 3.98 UW/ 4.4 W (current)

Coursework: 9th grade (couldnt take APS): 6 Honors 1 Regular (French III) | 10th grade: 4 APs, AP CSA, AP Pre Calc, Ap World, AP Seminar | 11th (next year): AP Macro/Micro, ML & AI (honors), APUSH, AP Calc BC, AP Physics C, AP Lang

Awards:

- 2x District winner, 1x state winner

- FBLA 3x Regional Winner

- Pitch comps (w money)

- This is honestly easily the worst part of my profile rn, im participating in a LOT of business comps next year (conrad challenge, blue ocean, etc.)

- Applying for Hershey heartwarming scholarship for my nonprofit

- Planning to do congressional app challenge

Extracurriculars: 

- Marketing Intern for a nonprofit (7hr/week 1.5 years): 100,000+ impressions, 9 posts a week across several platforms

- Economic development Intern

- personal business (not rlly rlly high revenu but in the thousands)

- Niche Dance Type: 10+ years; performed in front of 1.1 Million ppl, have a degree in it

- Girls Scouts: 10+ years; gold award;

- Stem education nonprofit - high impact dont wanna dox myself

- UNICEF - secretary

- DECA - Leadership + impact

- Selective NASA in person summer academy (super comp in my area)

- FBLA - competitor not rly much here rn

Current Schools: (non-safeties)

ED Upenn M&T and ED Wharton

UVA (in state)

EA Cornell

UC Berkelely

UMichigan

NYU

CMU

UNC Chapel Hill

IU

Northwestern

Uchicago

Stanford

Vanderbilt

UCLA

UT Autsin

USC

Georgia Tech

UPENN has honestly been a DREAM of mine for so so long. Im looking specifically at how to get into Wharton and the M&T program (ik its super hard to get in, let a girl dream). I'm currently a sophomore at a semi-comp mid-large public school in the DMV, I also go to a competitive entry STEM magnet school which I had to apply to get in. So basically its like a one day here one day there situation.

My GPA is pretty good, never had below an A, definitely top 10% of my class but my school doesnt officially rank. Taking the June SAT so hopefully that goes well but I'm projecting a 1500+ based on my 2 PSAT scores.

Some of the high end Colleges I rlly wanna apply too include (either the dual degree program between tech & business, pure business, or pure CS):

• UPENN
• NYU
• UNC
• UC Berkeley
• UCLA
• USC
• Stanford
• UMich
• GTECH
• UT Austin
• UVA
• CMU

I've taken 4 APs sophomore yr, taking 5 more jr year, and probably 6-7 senior year. Some notable (important imo) ones im taking/taken include CSP, CSA, Pre-Calc, Seminar, Calc BC, Stats, Multivariable Calc (DE), Physics C, Physics E&M, Business w/ personal finance, Macro/Macro & French. I'm also taking the humanities ones but I'm pretty sure those arent as important (correct me if im wrong tho)

Some EC's I have:

nonprofit dedicated towards supporting equal education; creating STEM & public speaking camps with money going towards supporting education in areas of need. Projected - $5000+ raised in summer; 100 kids; social media??

Girl scouts; 10+ years; president; gold award in progress

DECA; regional 1st place 2x; state finalist 1x

FBLA; regional 1st place 3x

Niche Dance Type; 10+ years; diploma recieved; dance comps; big festivals; thinking of making an app for this to reach more ppl but idek pls give me feedback

nonprofit dedicated towards amplifying entrepreneurs voices with unusual paths; podcast style

Marketing internship; actually did a lot for this

Ambassador (competitive selection) for a youth mental health nonprofit; creating impact app (ideas on how to make this impactful would be beenficial)

NASA summer residential academy got into the online program (~60 ish percent acceptance) and then from there top performers got inv to a residential summer academy.

Personal Business

Ok so my point of writing this post is how can I maximize my chances of getting in. Also what seems to be my narrative, I feel like my ECS line up pretty well with wharton/m&t but they for SURE arent good enough yet. How do I expand and maybe add something extra meaningful, ideas would be helpful. ANY and ALL feedback is much appreciated even if it's negative and telling me that im a chud lmao.

UPENN has honestly been a DREAM of mine for so so long. Im looking specifically at how to get into Wharton and the M&T program (ik its super hard to get in, let a girl dream). I'm currently a sophomore at a semi-comp mid-large public school in the DMV, I also go to a competitive entry STEM magnet school which I had to apply to get in. So basically its like a one day here one day there situation.

My GPA is pretty good, never had below an A, definitely top 10% of my class but my school doesnt officially rank. Taking the June SAT so hopefully that goes well but I'm projecting a 1500+ based on my 2 PSAT scores.

I've taken 4 APs sophomore yr, taking 5 more jr year, and probably 6-7 senior year. Some notable (important imo) ones im taking/taken include CSP, CSA, Pre-Calc, Seminar, Calc BC, Stats, Multivariable Calc (DE), Physics C, Physics E&M, Business w/ personal finance, Macro/Macro & French. I'm also taking the humanities ones but I'm pretty sure those arent as important (correct me if im wrong tho)

Some EC's I have:

nonprofit dedicated towards supporting equal education; creating STEM & public speaking camps with money going towards supporting education in areas of need. Projected - $5000+ raised in summer; 100 kids; social media??

Girl scouts; 10+ years; president; gold award in progress

DECA; regional 1st place 2x; state finalist 1x

FBLA; regional 1st place 3x

Niche Dance Type; 10+ years; diploma recieved; dance comps; big festivals; thinking of making an app for this to reach more ppl but idek pls give me feedback

nonprofit dedicated towards amplifying entrepreneurs voices with unusual paths; podcast style

Marketing internship; actually did a lot for this

Ambassador (competitive selection) for a youth mental health nonprofit; creating impact app (ideas on how to make this impactful would be beenficial)

NASA summer residential academy got into the online program (~60 ish percent acceptance) and then from there top performers got inv to a residential summer academy.

Personal Business

Ok so my point of writing this post is how can I maximize my chances of getting in. Also what seems to be my narrative, I feel like my ECS line up pretty well with wharton/m&t but they for SURE arent good enough yet. How do I expand and maybe add something extra meaningful, ideas would be helpful. ANY and ALL feedback is much appreciated even if it's negative and telling me that im a chud lmao.

UPENN has honestly been a DREAM of mine for so so long. Im looking specifically at how to get into Wharton and the M&T program (ik its super hard to get in, let a girl dream). I'm currently a sophomore at a semi-comp mid-large public school in the DMV, I also go to a competitive entry STEM magnet school which I had to apply to get in. So basically its like a one day here one day there situation.

My GPA is pretty good, never had below an A, definitely top 10% of my class but my school doesnt officially rank. Taking the June SAT so hopefully that goes well but I'm projecting a 1500+ based on my 2 PSAT scores.

Some of the high end Colleges I rlly wanna apply too include (either the dual degree program between tech & business, pure business, or pure CS):

• UPENN
• NYU
• UNC
• UC Berkeley
• UCLA
• USC
• Stanford
• UMich
• GTECH
• UT Austin
• UVA
• CMU

I've taken 4 APs sophomore yr, taking 5 more jr year, and probably 6-7 senior year. Some notable (important imo) ones im taking/taken include CSP, CSA, Pre-Calc, Seminar, Calc BC, Stats, Multivariable Calc (DE), Physics C, Physics E&M, Business w/ personal finance, Macro/Macro & French. I'm also taking the humanities ones but I'm pretty sure those arent as important (correct me if im wrong tho)

Some EC's I have:

nonprofit dedicated towards supporting equal education; creating STEM & public speaking camps with money going towards supporting education in areas of need. Projected - $5000+ raised in summer; 100 kids; social media??

Girl scouts; 10+ years; president; gold award in progress

DECA; regional 1st place 2x; state finalist 1x

FBLA; regional 1st place 3x

Niche Dance Type; 10+ years; diploma recieved; dance comps; big festivals; thinking of making an app for this to reach more ppl but idek pls give me feedback

nonprofit dedicated towards amplifying entrepreneurs voices with unusual paths; podcast style

Marketing internship; actually did a lot for this

Ambassador (competitive selection) for a youth mental health nonprofit; creating impact app (ideas on how to make this impactful would be beenficial)

NASA summer residential academy got into the online program (~60 ish percent acceptance) and then from there top performers got inv to a residential summer academy.

Personal Business

Ok so my point of writing this post is how can I maximize my chances of getting in. Also what seems to be my narrative, I feel like my ECS line up pretty well with wharton/m&t but they for SURE arent good enough yet. How do I expand and maybe add something extra meaningful, ideas would be helpful. ANY and ALL feedback is much appreciated even if it's negative and telling me that im a chud lmao.

UPENN has honestly been a DREAM of mine for so so long. Im looking specifically at how to get into Wharton and the M&T program (ik its super hard to get in, let a girl dream). I also really want to get into Berkeley, UNC, NYU, USC, UMICH, Stanford, etc, you get the point lol. I'm currently a sophomore at a semi-comp mid-large public school in the DMV, I also go to a competitive entry STEM magnet school which I had to apply to get in. So basically its like a one day here one day there situation.

My GPA is pretty good, never had below an A, definitely top 10% of my class but my school doesnt officially rank. Taking the June SAT so hopefully that goes well but I'm projecting a 1500+ based on my 2 PSAT scores.

I've taken 4 APs sophomore yr, taking 5 more jr year, and probably 6-7 senior year. Some notable (important imo) ones im taking/taken include CSP, CSA, Pre-Calc, Seminar, Calc BC, Stats, Multivariable Calc (DE), Physics C, Physics E&M, Business w/ personal finance, Macro/Macro & French. I'm also taking the humanities ones but I'm pretty sure those arent as important (correct me if im wrong tho)

Some EC's I have:

nonprofit dedicated towards supporting equal education; creating STEM & public speaking camps with money going towards supporting education in areas of need. Projected - $5000+ raised in summer; 100 kids; social media??

Girl scouts; 10+ years; president; gold award in progress

DECA; regional 1st place 2x; state finalist 1x

FBLA; regional 1st place 3x

Niche Dance Type; 10+ years; diploma recieved; dance comps; big festivals; thinking of making an app for this to reach more ppl but idek pls give me feedback

nonprofit dedicated towards amplifying entrepreneurs voices with unusual paths; podcast style

Marketing internship; actually did a lot for this

Ambassador (competitive selection) for a youth mental health nonprofit; creating impact app (ideas on how to make this impactful would be beenficial)

NASA summer residential academy got into the online program (~60 ish percent acceptance) and then from there top performers got inv to a residential summer academy.

Personal Business

Ok so my point of writing this post is how can I maximize my chances of getting in. Also what seems to be my narrative, I feel like my ECS line up pretty well with wharton/m&t but they for SURE arent good enough yet. How do I expand and maybe add something extra meaningful, ideas would be helpful. ANY and ALL feedback is much appreciated even if it's negative and telling me that im a chud lmao.

YALL, i'm taking my first attempt of the SAT in 6 days... (June SAT). I keep scoring high 1400s but low 1500s on practice tests. Specifically idk how to get the timing right on RW and also just how to improve my RW score in general. Same thing with math like idk. For those who have gotten 1500+ what did yall do and what can i do within the 6 days i have left...

Hey guys, this year was my 2nd yr in DECA, last yr i got 1st at districts in VA for MCS and nothing at states. This year I got 1st districts and qualified for icdc for MCS (again from VA which i mention cs apparently its harder from more populated states). HOW do people place geniunly I had a 90 test and roleplays in the 90s but didnt even make top 20. I'm thinking of sticking with a marketing roleplay but transitioning to BMS (business marketing series), any tips on how to get better at roleplays and just place in general???

I've honestly been on tiktok enough to see all the college admissions pages talking about how useless nonprofits and passion projects are. They say its a waste of time because they create no impact but all of the kids I've seen get into rlly good schools had one or the other. I'm a current sophomore and I was gonna create a nonprofit, any tips on how to make it rlly impactful & reach a lot of ppl??.