u/New-Hippo4899

disclaimer: i am on the waitlist for CALS but got spring admit for usc...I want to be prepared to make a decision if i do miraculously get off the CALS waitlist. I'm not sure about my career so I'm just trying to explore things if that makes sense

Cornell CALS (biological sciences)

pros:

1. ivy brand i guess
2. has been my dream school for a long time
3. the food is really damn good
4. The projected aid is def going to be better than what USC will give me
5. Better resources and research

cons:

1. Ithaca doesn't have much to do
2. The winter weather...(i've never seen snow in my life btw)
3. I've heard it's really competitive in general + grade deflation + people are mean
4. I'm from NorCal so the flights to and from Ithaca would be fairly expensive and tiring

USC Dornsife (biochemistry)

pros:

1. Still prestigious even if it's not ivy
2. in LA (I am very much a city person)
3. Not as competitive
4. I am from NorCal so if I want to go home it'll be a lot easier
5. Have school friends I know going

cons:

1. Not as academically rigorous?
2. The tuition...
3. I'm a spring admit so I'm kind of worried if I'll still fit in
4. no guaranteed housing freshman year as a spring admit

link to original post with all my decisions!!!: https://www.reddit.com/r/collegeresults/comments/1q110c2/lowincome_kid_at_rich_feeder_applies_to_39/

These might be repetitive but I'll repost anyways

Demographics:

• Gender: Female
• Race/Ethnicity: Asian
• Residence: california
• Type of School: rich kid feeder school (on a scholarship btw)
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): low-income, single family household

Intended Major(s): chem, bio, biochem, cell bio depending on school

Academics:

• Rank (or percentile): school doesn't rank but i was around average apparently
• like a 3.6 uw and 4.2 W
• dropped to a 3.5 UW after my mid year...

Standardized Testing

35 ACT single-sitting, 5s on AB, APUSH, CSA. 4 on Euro.

Extracurriculars/Activities (not in order)

1. family responsibilities - filling out government paperwork, translating, chores, grocery shopping, etc.
2. very competitive local research internship for my major
3. part-time job
4. part-time job but diff role
5. hospital volunteer - wrote some interesting stories abt this one
6. some leadership thing school related
7. school club leadership
8. school club leadership

Awards/Honors:

List all awards and honors submitted on your application.

1. national merit commended
2. ap scholar
3. pvsa bronze
4. sometime in february I notified all my remaining colleges that I was a Hagan Scholarship Finalist! (15k a year)

Letters of Recommendation:

APUSH teacher - 10/10. had a somewhat relatable story to me so his letter was pretty darn good 😭

Bio teacher - 7/10. he's alright w me he prob just didn't like me as much as my apush teacher did.

Essays

Personal statement - i talked about how my family fell apart after one of my parents passed away from cancer. talked abt how i built my living space and helped bring my family back up from their depression (9/10)

Supps:

these were pretty interesting too imo. I talked about some of the relationships i built with the kids at my job, working to support my family, how it felt volunteering at the same hospital i watched my parent pass away in, or i want to study cell bio/bio chem so much bc of my parent's passing to a cellular disease

most of them were 7-9/10

So where did I end up committing??

Drum roll please....

>!USC!!! FIGHT ON!!!!!!!<

>!I appealed my rejection and got in!!! I was so shocked I was genuinely shaking. I had committed to community college in my mind already so this was such a shock to me genuinely...I had cried so much bc I went to a feeder school and everyone else was going to a great school besides me. Yet it all paid off. Everyone told me I was cooked and that it was over. BUT I PROVED EVERYONE WRONG HELL YEAH!!! GO TROJANS :D!<

I (17F) have one living AP and one older AS (sibling). One of my AP's passed from a disease a few years back and apparently only they are allowed to have sad feelings about it. AP holds this against me, in literally any argument where I call out their bullshit their argument is always "oh my spouse died and I'm the only one suffering in pain" It gets so fucking old after some point of time. I get it, it sucks losing someone, they were MY parent too, not just your spouse. But after some point of time, you need to get over it bro like genuinely it shouldn't be hindering your life to this point half a decade later.

AS does the exact same thing. They do horrible things and have 0 anger regulation, breaking shit and laying hands when they're mad then I'm forced to fix everything that they break. They grew up so fucking spoilt the MOMENT they don't get anything they have to be so violent and it all ties back to "Oh I lost my parent when I was younger, and everyone else still has their parents"

When I show ANY sort of emotion that's not happiness, I'm somehow an ungrateful bitch. I'm tired of being everyone's emotional regulator despite being the youngest. AP is a narcissist with weaponized incompetence who's babied the shit out of my sibling. I grew up as a glass child; entire childhood was catered toward my sibling, who caused so many problems in all of our lives. The pain is so much that I genuinely just start to forget all the horrible things he did to me, I think it's some sort of trauma response. Putting his hands on me, getting me in trouble for everything, commenting on my body, saying horrible shit, being verbally abusive, etc. I forget it all until I remember each horrible memory random nights.

I know this is an Asian parents sub but genuinely it's so awful seeing your sibling turn out the same if not worse than your APs. I might even hate my sibling even more than AP. They get in petty trouble all the time and leaves my AP to clean up after them. No matter what awful thing they do, fucking AP will always forgive them.

I wanted to give AS another chance and maybe think that they're misunderstood. Except, they're always working against me. They always want to get me in trouble with APs, snitching on EVERYTHING I do, somehow getting mad at ME for calling their selfish asshole self out, and then acting like I'm at THEIR mercy. They threatened to cut me off for "fake accusations" which made me scoff, because you can't tear my life to pieces then act like you're doing me some sort of fucking favor.

Maybe it's because I'm young but I can't decide if I should go no-contact when I'm financially stable. When they're good to me I change my mind and think it's not that bad, but when we're at our worst I swear to myself I'll never speak to any of these vile shits again. It's not uncommon to hear of terrible APs, but rare to hear of such shitty siblings.

Won a scholarship for low income student(like 15k a year? comes with some extra stuff too) and was wondering if I should update my waitlist college with this info?

For more context, I’m FGLI and I’ve heard waitlists are need aware, so not sure if this would help or hurt me. I’ve also already sent in LOCIs last month.