3.5 uw gpa prep school asian gets accepted off the waitlist as an april fools joke
Demographics: Male, East Asian, New England private boarding school (feeder), high income
Hooks: Legacy/connection + private boarding school (?)
SAT: 1550 Superscore (790 Math 760 EBRW) - 1530 composite twice, 790/740 & 770/760
UW GPA: ~90/100 (3.5 UW) -> 11 APs + 9 "post-AP" courses (linear algebra, discrete math, etc)
Notable Courses (AP/Honors/Post-AP):
9th: AP CSA (5), Precalculus, Honors Bio
10th: Data Structures and Algorithms, Discrete Math, Differential Calculus, Statistics and Problem Solving math elective, Honors Chem
11th: AP Calc BC (5), AP English Lit (5), AP English Lang (5), AP Physics 1 (5), APUSH (5), Data Mining and Analysis CS Elective, and Spanish 4 Elective (didn't want to do AP)
12th: Linear Algebra, AP Physics C Mechanics + E&M, AP Econ (micro + macro), AP Statistics, Senior English Electives, Independent Study English course, Advanced art
- Most rigorous course work in my grade; extra courses every single semester since first semester grade 9 (7 courses each year compared to normal 5); double math + double english senior year (ran out of CS courses at school)
ECs (commonapp):
- Paid summer internship (2k stipend) at Harvard (biostats/stats/cs), rec letter from prof (department chair, notable influence). Middle author on published paper in top scientific journal.
- Paid summer intern under Harvard prof (data science/cs), presented project + self published on github
- Sports - 4 sports (10 seasons for 4 years + AAU basketball)
- CS club head, did some hackathons, low impact but decent sized club
- Asian affinity group head (100+ students for a school of about ~400), organizing all school events, cultural celebrations, affinity students special trips, and hosting conference/speaking at workshops for 40+ school event
- Violin - 10 years: took private lessons + first chair in school orchestra freshman year (schedule conflict so I couldn't take afterwards)
- School Clubs - physics/math minor roles, was on the team, competed + won some award
- Junior board for organization for Asian Americans in STEM (mid-tier non-profit, volunteer for separate organization (super famous organization) - helped organize 2000+ attendee event, 40+ hrs
- Senior proctor (dorm RA basically)
- Other school leadership roles: school peer tutor, tour guide, school ambassador, + some more
Awards:
- University Invitational Math Comp (Top 5 ~$1000 scholarship)
- Physics Comps (team placement)
- Hackathons
- School honors
- AP w/ distinction
LoRs: AP Lit/Lang teacher (9/10?), AP Physics 1 teacher (7/10?), Counselor (7/10?), Harvard prof (8/10?) - I waived my right to read my LoRs.
Results:
Rejected: Harvard (family connection - EA -> Defer -> Reject), Rice, Pomona, Brown, UCLA, Berkeley, UPenn, Stanford (legacy), Yale, Columbia, USC, UPenn, Harvey Mudd (legacy)
Accepted: UCSC (+ deans award ~60k), UCSB, UCSD, Wesleyan, state school (Honors college + deans award)
Waitlist: Claremont McKenna (legacy), UCI
Attending: >!UChicago (Waitlist -> Accepted on April 1)!<
Final Notes: I am very grateful to have been accepted to UChicago, and I really think my school pulled some strings to get me in -which people have been quick to point out- but I would say that this school has severely limited me in terms of college matriculation, student life, and extracurricular opportunities. For those who are thinking of attending boarding school in the hopes of better college matriculation, I suggest that you and your family spend that money elsewhere, as if you are not confident that you can be in the top 10% of your class (probably as competitive as getting valedictorian at a public school or less competitive private school), then you are better off at some other school. From what I've seen, these schools can only get legacy/URM/athletes into top colleges (and for my school, they can't even get a kid like me in), whereas everyone else is left to compete basically for 2-3 spots. These past four years have been such a terrible experience (ie. school shooting threat, terrible mental health in general for students, people getting suspended for stupid reasons, etc), and I would never recommend anyone to come to my school (dm if you'd like). I'm super excited to be leaving this place behind and I have no intentions of ever revisiting here, despite being probably what this school imagines as a successful graduate. Best of luck to all in the class of 2027.