Demographics

• Gender:Male
• Race/Ethnicity:White
• Residence:Türkiye
• Income Bracket:something around 40K dollars
• Type of School:Regular?
• ı'm planning to submit econ major
• Academics
• GPA:3.8
• SAT I:1550 (no act)
• IELTS:8.0
• Extracurriculars/Activities

#1 Worked 56h/wk to self-fund my PC & SAT exam. Managed table service, facility maintenance, and sanitation standards in a high-end, busy environment

#2 Led an international club & spearheaded 3 international projects. Coordinated with European peers; awarded School Honor Certificate for intercultural teamwork

#3 Lead actor in a 700+ audience show. Managed the production budget & venue. Awarded School Honor Certificate for leadership & performance

planning to submit amherst,williams,bowdoin and davidson college and some need based unis like vanderbilt or boston uni etc

Demographics

• Gender: Male
• Race/Ethnicity: white
• Residence: CA
• Income bracket: upper-middle income
• School: semicompetitive public
• Hooks: none

Intended Major(s): econ for UCs, business for everything else

Academics

• GPA/Rank (or percentile): 3.9 UW, 4.4 WGPA (though my school's really grade-inflated, so I'm not even in the top 20%)
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc: 7 APs, 1 college class

Standardized Testing

• N/A (did not take SATs/ACTs- thanks UC system)

Extracurriculars/Activities:

-Leadership in school's environmental action club/volunteer work with local climate nonprofit

-Server at local café

-Ice cream scooper at large chain

-Math tutor at tutoring company

-Volunteer work with Key Club

-Model UN participant

-Miscellaneous (other clubs/sports/investing/etc.)

Awards/Honors:

-Principal's Honor Roll with Distinction

-AP Scholar w/ Honor

Essays: (briefly reflect/rate)

UC essays: I spent most of my time discussing my environmental volunteering, which included canvassing/phonebanking, attending and speaking at rallies, etc. I also talked about my jobs and the impact I made on my community. They were OK, but they could've been better

Decisions (indicate ED/EA/RD)

Acceptances:
San Diego State University (RD)
Cal Poly SLO (RD)
UC Santa Cruz (RD)
UC Davis (RD)
UCSB (UC Smoking Blondes) (RD)- Committed
CU Boulder (EA)

Waitlists:
UC Irvine
UC San Diego
UC Berkeley

Rejections:
UCLA

Additional Information:

• I am fairly happy with my results; nothing too crazy happened (I wasn't accepted into UCLA/Berkeley, and I wasn't rejected from my safeties).
• During senior year, I totally crashed out and quit almost all of my ECs, except for my jobs
• I plan to go into accounting; my main choices were UCSB, UCD, and Cal Poly SLO, which are pretty much equal in prestige. I visited the campuses and chose based on that.

Demographics

• Gender: Male
• Race/Ethnicity: Asian
• Residence: Midwest U.S.
• Income Bracket: Upper middle class
• Type of School: Public school
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): None

Intended Major(s): Business Administration, Economics, & Finance

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 4.0 UW & 4.5 W
• Rank (or percentile): 1/511 UW & 15/511 W
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 10
• Senior Year Course Load: AP Lit, AP Stats, IB Phil, IB TOK

Standardized Testing

• ACT: 35
• AP/IB: All 5's

Extracurriculars/Activities

1. Cross Country (T10 in state; team captain; varsity)
2. Track (no honors; varsity)
3. Policy Debate (T20 in nation; TOC qualifier; VP; won ivy league/national tournaments)
4. Student Government (nothing here; normal leadership)
5. Intern (finance internship @ Fortune 500 company)
6. Volunteering (tutored elementary schoolers & volunteered at food bank)

Awards/Honors

1. AP Scholar
2. IB Certificate
3. NMF
4. Local Scholarship
5. State Governor Award/Scholarship
6. State Regents Award/Scholarship

Letters of Recommendation

Cross country/track coach:

6/10. He knew me for 4 years, but probably saw me as irresponsible.

English teacher:

5/10. He taught me in 9th and 10th grade, calling me the 'best writer he had ever seen', but he did pull me aside in class and yell at me.

Interviews

None

Essays

Common App:

My essay focused on cultural identity, the experience of immigration, & how I reclaimed my voice through debate.

UC App:

My PIQ's had no mention of my background or story & literally just described my extracurriculars.

Decisions

Acceptances:

• UC Berkeley
• UC Davis
• UC Irvine
• UC Los Angeles
• UC San Diego
• UC Santa Barbara

Waitlists:

• None

Rejections:

• Columbia
• Harvard
• NYU
• Northwestern
• Princeton
• Rice
• Stanford
• UT Austin
• University of Chicago
• University of Michigan
• University of Pennsylvania
• University of Southern California

Additional Information:

As stated, I had no direction in life and did whatever I wanted in high school, never considering my future or repercussions. I chose business last minute because it sounded cool. Furthermore, I had no clue how admissions worked & applied randomly. I did not know about EA/ED, so I applied RD to every school.

Demographics

• Gender: Male
• Race/Ethnicity: white
• Residence: WI
• Income bracket: ~200k
• School: Large semicompetitive public
• Hooks: none

Intended Major(s): Mechanical Engineering

Academics

• GPA/Rank (or percentile): 3.98 uw (school does not weight)
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 10 AP, 1 DE, 6 Honors
• Senior Year Course Load: DE Multivariable Calculus, AP Physics 2, AP Gov, AP Chem, AP CSA, honors engish elective, art electives

Standardized Testing

List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported.

• ACT: 36
• AP/IB:
  • CSP: 4
  • World History: 5
  • Calc AB: 5
  • US History: 5
  • Environmental Science: 5
  • Calc BC: 5
  • English lang: 5 (self study)
  • Chemistry: 5
  • US Gov: 5
  • CSA: 5
  • Physics C E&M : 5 (self study)
  • Physics C Mech : 5 (self study)
  • English lit : 4 (self study)
• PSAT: 1520

Extracurriculars/Activities:

-Varsity sport #1

-Varsity sport #2

-Summer job(kitchen work)

-offseason training for sports

-job #2(yard work)

-random club

-random club

Awards/Honors:

National Merit Semifinalist/Finalist

AP Scholar w/ Distinction

Essays/LORs/Interviews: (briefly reflect/rate)

Personal statement I thought was solid but not anything special, I probably should've spent more time reflecting in it

Purdue Essays were strong because I could show interest in fye

other essays were lowk kinda generic so yeah

LOR:

Physics teacher for 2 years: 8/10. He helped me change a lot in the class for the better and I also did really well.

Calc BC teacher: 6/10. Didn't really have anything special to say about me but was generally positive and appreciative of me.

Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)

• Acceptances: (list here):
  • UW Madison EA (Committed
  • Purdue EA
  • Minnesota EA
• Waitlists: (list here)
• Rejections: (list here)
  • GT EA

Additional Information:

• Cost was really an important factor in choosing, I would've had to pay a good amount of Purdue myself. I also really limited the number of schools I applied to based on how expensive they were likely to be. If I had gotten merit-based aid from Purdue I probably would've gone there.
• I also didn't really think about college/what I wanted to major in until junior year, and I had some social anxiety/lack of knowledge about them earlier that prevented me from joining some of the larger clubs/teams which was clearly the weakness in my application

Demographics

• Gender: Male
• Race/Ethnicity: South Asian (cooked 💔)
• Residence: International
• Income Bracket: Low to Mid ig (75k USD)
• Type of School: Private
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): N/A

Intended Major (s): CS with heavy interest in research, possibly w a minor in AI or Econ

Academics
• GPA (UW/V): 3.98
• Rank (or percentile): top 10% graduating
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: total of 10 APs, 5s on all except 1
• Senior Year Course Load: Math, Advanced Math, Physics, Chemistry, Coding for nerds (its a real class), Piano, English, French

Standardized Testing
List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported.
• SATI: 1570 (770R, 800M)
• ACT: 36

Extracurriculars/Activities
List all extracurricular involvements, including leadership roles, time commitments, major achievements, etc.

1. CS research under a very well known professor at one of the top institutes in the country
2. State level badminton champion
3. Internship at a well known software company (top 10 in my area)
4. Independent research under review on AI in physics
5. Independent research published on topology in string theory
6. Stanford summer program
7. President of 4 school clubs, and founder of 1 (500+ members from grades 6th to 12th)
8. Regular volunteer for 12 years with a homeless shelter, received awards for community service
9. Tutor for kids aged 10 to 16 (one of my kids got into a really prestigious math camp and credited me for it lol)
10. Econ camp at the best institute in the country

Awards/Honors
List all awards and honors submitted on your application.

1. National level Physics gold medalist
2. National level math gold medalist
3. 2nd in an international hackathon
4. C2 french proficiency (why did i put this)
5. Trinity grade 6 guitar

Letters of Recommendation
Physics Olympiad Coach - 10/10
Prof i did research with - maybe 8/10 (i was super irritating i dint know how he didnt kill me)
Econ camp mentor - 10/10 we were super tight

Essays
Wrote about how being multilingual shaped my identity in different ways and how I associated different subjects/parts of my personality w a particular language. It was mid lowkey maybe a 6/10

Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)

Acceptances:
UNC Chapel Hill (RD)
Emory (RD)
UChicago (RD)
>!Brown University!< (RD)
>!Cornell University!< (RD)
UCSD (RD)
UC Irvine (RD)
UCB (RD)
USC (RD)
georgia Tech (RD)
Purdue (RD)
Northwestern (RD)
>!Imperial College London!<
University College London
Kings College London
University of Bristol
>!NUS (COMMITEDDD!!!)!<
>!NTU!<
University of Toronto
McGill University
UT Austin

Waitlists:
Columbia University
Stanford University
University of Pennsylvania

Rejections:
Harvard University
Princeton University
MIT
NYU (???)
Dartmouth College
UCLA
Oxford University

Additional Information:
Pretty happy w my results, did NOT expect quite a few colleges that were in here. It really does take just one

Demographics
Gender: Male
Race/Ethnicity: Hispanic
Residence: Northern California (Siskiyou County)
Hooks: Rural 

Intended Major(s): Linguistics, Economics

Academics
GPA: 3.6 unweighted / 4.1 weighted
Class Rank: Top 10%
# of APs: 7

Standardized Testing
ACT: 36 
AP: 7 scores of 5

Extracurriculars
My extracurriculars focused on my interest in linguistics, specifically conlangs and the Universal Grammar Theory. I’ll list my main activities below

• Founding the Siskiyou County Linguistics Alliance (very small rural organization for linguistics with ~50 kids)
• Creating my own Conlang (a fictional language and grammar system) and creating a long dictionary 
• 2 Paid Jobs at a local Mount Shasta Tour Center and a Roadhouse restaurant
• Family responsibilities, caring for mom with a stomach disorder (epithelial lining metaplasia)

Awards

• National Merit
• A local, community scholarship for my ACT score
• A county award for my small Linguistics organization
• AP Scholar with Distinction

Essays
My personal statement was very personal about my family situation and resilience I gained from, which I don't feel fully comfortable sharing in depth on Reddit. My supplements focused on unique linguistic programs at Columbia (like the Teacher’s College Program where they focus on using linguistic models in school education, which piques my interest and I did similar work on a smaller scale in my county organization)

Letters of Rec were from my English and Calculus teacher. I think they were moderately strong.

Decisions
Acceptance: Columbia (Early Decision)

Additional Information
I added more context below

I went to a high school in Northern California in Siskiyou County and our high school was considered rural. Not many kids at all go to T20s and its a small class size. I was the only one of two ivy acceptances this year (the other one was Dartmouth). Finances were not a huge issue for me (middle income with loans, some financial aid, and some grants)

I know rural is an established hook. I am also Hispanic and LGBT, though I don't know how/if that plays into admission post-affirmative action

I got a 36 ACT on the second try and opted out of science. My first attempt was a 34 but I didn't submit that. Columbia was test-optional when I applied but I still submitted

My class didn't publish class rank in the traditional sense but they did this weird thing with deciles where they would list if you were in the top two deciles. They listed if you were top 20% or top 10%. I was in the top 10%.

My school offered 8 APs and I took 7, and tied for the most number of APs taken with three other kids.

My intended major and ECs were on linguistics bc I got interested in linguistics after trying to learn Esperanto in the eight grade 😝

Hope that provides more context!

Demographics

• Gender: Male
• Race/Ethnicity: Asian
• Residence: SoCal
• Income Bracket: Like 200k-300k something
• Type of School: Semi-competitive public school
• Hooks: Legacy at some ivies (not that it mattered)

Intended Major(s): Biz School if school had it; Econ if they didn't

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 3.86/4.51
• Rank (or percentile): around 85th percentile
• SAT: 1530 (730RW, 800M)
• 12 APs: AP Psych, APES, AP Stats, AP Calc AB/BC, AP Physics 1, AP CSP/CSA, AP Macro/Micro, APHUG, AP Euro
• Majority of B's come from fresh/soph, sig upward trend

Extracurriculars/Activities (in no particular order)

1. Accounting Firm Bookkeeping Internship
2. Volunteer Income Tax Assistance
3. Real Estate Assistant Work
4. Reviewed Published Econ Research in Journal
5. Secondary caregiver for disabled sibling
6. In charge of some community service org ish
7. Investor/Trader and Finance YouTuber
8. Co-founder of this education company
9. Some music stuff and volunteering
10. Chess player

Awards/Honors

List all awards and honors submitted on your application.

1. National Merit Commended & AP Scholar with Distinction
2. Won some chess tournaments with good dinero
3. The usual piano awards
4. Some VITA award within branch
5. 3x PVSA Gold

Letters of Recommendation

Ehhh I mean my relationship with the two teachers I would say are like 9/10 but I can't speak on their writing abilities, same with GLC haha.
My relationship with the two external letters of rec were 10/10, and I think they wrote some good ones.

Interviews

None -_-

Essays

Some personal/family stuff in connection with stuff in my app, I honestly didn't like the way mine was wrote tbh

Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)

Acceptances:

• Rutgers (EA)
• CWRU (EA)
• Northeastern (EA)
• IUB (EA)
• UIUC (EA)
• UCSD
• UCD

Waitlists:

• UCI
• UCSB
• Boston College (RD)
• Boston University (RD)
• NYU (RD)

Rejections:

• UVA (EA)
• UMich (EA)
• USC (ED)
• UC Berkeley
• Brown (RD)
• CMU (RD)
• Columbia (RD)
• Cornell (RD)
• Harvard (RD) (only applied cause my mom made me b/c legacy haha)
• Northwestern (RD)
• Rice (ED2)
• UPenn (RD)
• UCLA
• Vandy (RD)

Additional Information:

haha results were disappointing albeit expected from the nature of my application. it does make my heart turn a little to see the people i grew alongside with since a kid all go to successful schools and me being left behind (not that the schools i got into aren't good, but are objectively on a lesser level) and the only person i can blame is myself

Demographics

• Gender: Male
• Race/Ethnicity: Asian
• Residence: Intl (US Citizen)
• Income Bracket: No aid needed
• Type of School: Private Competitive HS
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): None

Intended Major(s): EE/ECE

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): UW: n/a, 4.59/4.0 Weighted
• Rank (or percentile): n/a (~2/77 in reality)
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 17 APs
• Senior Year Course Load: AP CSA, Cal BC, Physics C: M, AP Comp Gov, AP Lang

Standardized Testing

List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported.

• SAT I: 1550 (750RW, 800M)
• ACT: 35 (36E, 36M, 34R, 34S)
• AP/IB: Chem 4, Lit 4, Phys2 5, PhysC‑E&M 5, Precalc 5, Psych 4, APUSH 5, Bio 5, CalcBC 5 (AB 5), Phys1 5, PhysC‑Mech 5, World Hist 5

Other (ex. IELTS, TOEFL, etc.): TOEFL 112

Extracurriculars/Activities

List all extracurricular involvements, including leadership roles, time commitments, major achievements, etc.

1. Research at National University on Drone Control, published in high-school journal
2. Robotics Team Captain
3. Internship at drone company
4. Volunteering: teaching elementary school kids LEGO EV3 and coding
5. Selective Math Program at National Uni
6. Math Olympiad Camp (about AIME qualification level)
7. Acapella Vocal Percussionist for four years
8. Choir member
9. Instruments: violin, piano
10. Some filler ECs

Awards/Honors

List all awards and honors submitted on your application.

1. AIME Qualifier
2. Some British Science Olympiad Awards
3. Robotics Award
4. Platinum Award in Intl Cyberfair
5. National Merit Semifinalist (1520 PSAT)

Letters of Recommendation

(Briefly describe relationships with your recommenders and estimated rating.)

Math teacher for four years, top student in class, 8/10

AP Psychology teacher, top student, 8/10

Interviews

All were pretty similar and went well: MIT, Stanford, Princeton

Got cooked on Cambridge's last engineering question

Essays

Wrote about how Music intersected with STEM, thought it was pretty good

Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)

Acceptances:

• USC (EA)
• Purdue (EA)
• UIUC (EA + Committed)
• Imperial College London

Waitlists:

• Carnegie Mellon University (RD) (rejected)
• Georgia Institute of Technology (EA)
• Northwestern University (RD) (rejected)
• Rice University (RD) (rejected)
• University of Michigan (EA) (rejected)
• UCSD

Rejections:

• Caltech (RD)
• Columbia University (RD)
• Cornell University (RD)
• Duke University (RD)
• Harvard University (RD)
• Princeton University (RD)
• Stanford University (REA)
• UT Austin (EA)
• University of Pennsylvania (RD)
• MIT(Aerospace Engineering) (RD)
• Cambridge
• Berkeley
• UCLA

Additional Information:

Getting into no schools in RD pretty much broke me. :(

Demographics

• Gender: Male
• Race/Ethnicity: Indian
• Residence: India
• Income Bracket: $100,000+ per year
• Type of School: Private
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): None

Intended Major(s): Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) if they had it or just Economics

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): A*A*A*A in International A Levels
• Rank (or percentile): NA
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 5
• Senior Year Course Load: 4 A Levels

Standardised Testing

• SAT: 1560 (760 RW, 800 M)
• AP/IB: 55555 in APs
• IELTS: 8.5

Extracurriculars/Activities

1. Student research papers about a government scheme implemented in my state and the relationship between the US Dollar and global trade
2. Small Economics internship under the office of a Member of Legislative Assembly in India
3. Don Lavoie Fellowship offered by George Mason University and a finance internship offered by SRCC (an Indian college)
4. Co-founder of school debate club
5. Regular volunteer at an organisation aimed at providing specially abled individuals with ordinary experiences (e.g., watching a movie in a theatre) in a safe way
6. Organised music events in school
7. Performed vocals at interschool music events
8. Tutored primary and middle schoolers from my school
9. Organised student parliaments at my school

Awards/Honors

No major awards.

Letters of Recommendation

US LOR 1: My Economics teacher. We had a pretty good relationship; I was admittedly one of her favourite students lol. Probably around an 8.5/10.

US LOR 2: My English teacher. Absolutely loved her classes, and I always worked hard to ensure I was constantly improving my skills. I think she liked that about me, probably around a 9/10.

UCAS Referee: My social studies teacher in middle school. Although she didn't teach me anything in high school, we were always in touch about what I was doing. She supported me through everything and was one of the few people who knew me throughout middle and high school. I think she wrote a pretty good reference: around 9/10.

Interviews

None

Essays

My CommonApp essay was about moving schools in my freshman year and about dealing with a major change whilst also coping with the loss of my grandmother. Honestly, I don't think it was great: around a 4/10.

My UCAS personal statement was better because I was able to link a bunch of my extracurriculars to my motivation for pursuing policy in the future. But, still, I don't think it was amazing: around a 7/10.

Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)

Acceptances:

• Case Western Reserve University (EA, scholarship of $20000 per year)
• University of Washington at Seattle
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (EA)
• University of Edinburgh
• University of Warwick
• >!National University of Singapore!<
• >!LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS (COMMITTED!!!!)!<

Waitlists:

• Colby College (RD, waitlisted -> i denied my spot lol)
• University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (EA, deferred -> waitlisted -> rejected)

Rejections:

• University of Oxford (this one hurt the most because it was my dream school AND my first rejection)
• University of Chicago (EA)
• University of Southern California (EA)
• University of Virginia (EA)
• University College London
• University of California at Berkeley
• Cornell University (RD)
• Yale University (RD)
• Stanford University (RD)

Additional Information:

Man, this journey was topsy-turvy as hell. But I got into one of my top choices, and I am truly very grateful for everything :)

**Demographics**

* Gender: Male
* Race/Ethnicity: White and asian (probably only “appeared” as Asian)
* Residence: VA
* Income Bracket: 300k-400k
* Semi competitive public school
* No hooks

**Intended Major(s)**: Mechanical Engineering

**Academics**

* GPA (UW/W): 4.0/4.7
* Rank (or percentile): School didn't rank
* \# of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 11 APs, 4 DEs
* Senior Year Course Load: 4 APs

In my senior year, currently taking Multivariable Calculus/Differential equations as dual enrollment.

**Standardized Testing**

* SAT : 1520 (720 RW, 800 M)

**Extracurriculars/Activities**

I still don't know if my ECs were weak or not.

1. Worked as a paid research assistant at state flagship for \~1 year, built and tested particle detectors for particle accelerators around the country. Was going to get research published in March-ish but that was too late to put on Common app so I didn't include that.

2. Built a 3D printed, Arduino controlled bionic hand from scratch, won a couple of regional awards. Self taught arduino, 3d printing, CAD.

3. Founded my schools first physics club, grew club size from \~5 to \~40 members. Organized competitions and did outreach at local elementary schools.

4. Varsity tennis all 4 years. Awarded most improved and MVP.

5. Active weightlifter for 4 years.

6. Science fair project on graphene that won a regional award.

**Awards/Honors**

Never really competed much, and I think this is what held me back. I regret it a lot.

1. Couple of regional awards from the science fair

**Letters of Recommendation**

If I had to guess, 6-7/10. Was pretty close with my teachers who I got the letters from, was active in class and usually top of the class.

**Interviews**

MIT - 8/10 - went really well, talked a lot, learned a lot.

Princeton - 7/10 - guy was kind of old and it was his first time so we just talked about college life. Got along really well.

Stanford - 5/10 - really standard, nothing standout. Kind of didn't know how to answer a couple of questions.

**Essays**

Wrote about learning about myself and redefining my own expectations while working on my bionic hand, how it changed my mindset/approach to lots of challenges in life. I'd say it was 7/10. I liked it and my friends/family liked it.

**Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)**

*Acceptances:*

* UVA EA (in state)
* VT EA (in state)
* Purdue EA

*Rejections:*

* UIUC EA (deferred --> reject)
* Georgia Tech EA
* MIT RD
* Caltech RD
* Princeton RD
* Stanford RD
* UCLA
* UC Berkeley

Commiting to UVA ultimately. Pretty excited about this but it was a brutal app round.

Demographics:
Gender: male
Race/Ethnicity: Asian
Residence: Cali (Not bay area)
Income Bracket: Upper Middle
-Type of School: Competitive Private
-Hooks: none
Intended Major:
Race, Ethnicity, & Migration, political science, public policy, education

Academics:
-GPA 4.0/4.75
-Rank: top 10%
-APs: 15 APs, all 5s except 2 fours
- Senior Course Load: AP Art History, Multivariate/Linear Algebra, AP Psych, AP Physics E&M, AP Gov (took it a bit lighter cause I took 6 APs junior)
Standardized Testing:
1550 SAT single sitting
ECs/Activities:

1. Founder of National Campaign - huge policy impact, lots of credible ppl joined

2. Policy Director & Region President for organization - policy advocacy

3. One off {{TASS, NDLS, and Boy’s Nation}}

4. School Reformer & Researcher - independently audited school and pressured it to change bunch of stuff in their curriculum

5. Executive Director of Cultural Museum - huge credited impact + first youth E.D. + a lot of advocacy 

6. National History Day President - revitalized mentorship program + pretty good school impact 

7. Researcher @ T30 - did lit review, sole hs researcher + contributed to paper (race relations)

8. Researcher @ T30 - sole hs researcher + pretty good involvement by pitching a project and accepted (race relations)

9. School Curriculum Creator - basically also independently audited courses over 5 years and created lectures that were mandatory for students

10. Male Ballerino - rlly time consuming + lead roles + unique (?)

11. Additional Info: (in no particular order)

12. Intern @ City Commission

13. Policy Researcher @ County Education

14. Independent Researcher (published in concord review)

15. Semi-selective research program (<10% acceptance rate)

16. Selective leadership program (<10% acceptance rate)

17. Volunteering for students

18. Journalist (wrote unironically female empowering articles for over a year… as a guy..)

19. Flute (bunch of natl awards)

20. mock trial attorney & VP (MVP + 2nd in county)

21. Speech and Debate (won first speaker awards at multiple invitationals)

LoRs:
Eng teacher (9.5/10?) - said that I was the first student in 30 years to change her outlook on race
Sci teacher (9.5/10?) - was really close w her and I led and created curriculum for her classes for the last like 4 weeks of school
Counselor - idk was kind of close
Supplemental Letter from my campaign (9.5/10) - said I would be future congressman (don’t know if that’s good… haha)

Awards:
- concord review published
- city leader award (only youth to receive it given by mayor)
- another city award
- bunch of school awards
- bunch of flute national awards

Essays:
I’m a pretty natural writer due to writing so much for different programs. Write about discrimination as a male Ballerino -> advocacy journey

Results:

Acceptances:
-Harvard (committed)
-Stanford (REA)
-Yale
-Princeton
-Brown
-Dartmouth
-UPenn
-Columbia
-Northwestern
-UCB
-UCLA
-UCSD
-UCSB
-Duke
-UChicago
-Safeties

Waitlists:
-CWRU
-Vanderbilt
- Emory
-Cornell

Rejections:
-None!

Pls don’t doxx me if you know me… overall rlly happy w results!

Demographics

Gender: Male

Race/Ethnicity: White

Residence: Midwest (Ohio)

Income Bracket: ~130k

Type of School: large public, pretty competitive

Hooks: none lol

Intended Major: Biology / pre-med track

Academics

GPA: 3.9 UW /4.3 W

Rank: top 8%

9 APs total, 2 DE

Senior courseload: AP Bio, AP Lit, AP Stats, DE Psych, DE Sociology, honors anatomy

Standardized Testing

SAT: 1520 (740RW, 780M) - submitted everywhere

ACT: 34 (35E, 33M, 34R, 34S) - sent to a few that let you choose

APs: 5 on Bio, Chem, Lang, APUSH, Calc AB. 4 on World and Physics 1

Extracurriculars

hospital volunteering (3 years, ~200 hours)

shadowed a pediatrician and a general surgeon (two summers)

HOSA chapter officer (VP senior year)

varsity tennis (4 years, captain senior year)

weekend cashier at a local nursery/garden center (2 years)

NHS (mostly just tutoring bio and chem)

self-studied anatomy over one summer because my school didn't offer it

Awards

AP Scholar w Distinction

some regional HOSA thing for medical terminology

nothing crazy

Essays
Personal statement was about my grandma's dementia diagnosis and how sitting with her in the nursing home made me realize I wanted to go into medicine not for the "hero" stuff but for the quiet, unglamorous moments where you're just there for someone. Tried not to make it a sob story. Supplements were okay, some better than others. My "why medicine" ones were decent. The "why this school" ones got a little repetitive ngl.

Decisions

Accepted:

Ohio State (EA)

Case Western (EA)

University of Cincinnati (rolling)

Miami OH (EA)

Pitt (rolling)

Indiana University (EA)

Waitlisted:

UNC Chapel Hill (EA deferred -WL)

Wisconsin (EA deferred - WL)

Rejected:

Vanderbilt (ED1 - this one hurt)

WashU (RD)

Northwestern (RD)

Additional thoughts

overall pretty okay with how things turned out. vandy was the dream but honestly after touring case western and ohio state again i felt way better. case western gave decent merit aid too which helps.

one thing i'll say the ACT grind junior year was brutal. My parents kept pushing these massive prep books and I just couldnt get through them. eventually found this site boosted brains and it was way more structured which helped my adhd brain actually stay on track. wish i had started with something like that instead of wasting two months flipping through kaplan books and retaining nothing. got my act from a 29 to a 34 in like 6 weeks once I actually had a system

my main advice: don't sleep on your state schools. everyone on a2c acts like t20 is the only thing that exists but there's solid programs at places that won't bankrupt your parents. also start test prep earlier than I did. Cramming ACT while doing AP Bio and working weekends was not a vibe

still waiting on a couple more but pretty sure i'm committing to case. go spartans or whatever they are

Demographics

• Gender: Male
• Race/Ethnicity: White/Asian
• Residence: Northeast US
• Income Bracket: Full pay
• Type of School: Very small and pretty competitive private school
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): MIT + Columbia legacy

Intended Major(s): Some combination of Math/Chemistry/Physics

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 4.0/4.8
• Rank (or percentile): N/A
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: School doesn't have APs, but all of the classes I took were honors/advanced/college level (no dual enrollment).
• Senior Year Course Load: Calculus Based Physics (post AP physics C stuff), Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra, Algorithms, Diff eqs, english/foreign language.

Standardized Testing

List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported.

• SAT I: 1590 (790 RW, 800 M)
• AP/IB: I took AP exams at a different school nearby. Just took Calc BC (5), Chem (5), and both Physics Cs (5s).

Extracurriculars/Activities

List all extracurricular involvements, including leadership roles, time commitments, major achievements, etc.

I am going to be quite vague here.

1. Research at a very prestigious institution with an extreamly well known professor (in a pretty niche field). Worked in person during summers and virtually during the school year. Published papers in Q1s as 2nd author, 3rd author ect. This was a major time commitment and something I enjoyed greatly.
2. Varsity sport captain. Won a good bit.
3. Nationally ranked athlete for the same sport outside of school team. Huge time commitment until start of 11th grade as I would often be traveling. Still practice around 15 hours a week even after I stopped competing nationally.
4. Meaningful volunteering. I was able to write great essays about it, and it was one of my favorite things I was able to do. Very broad but it was not volunteering just to get hours, ect.
5. Volunteer tutor for people from underserved communities for SAT/classes at school.
6. President of a STEM related club
7. President of a club that relates to the volunteering in #4.
8. Class president. School is very small so not a huge deal.
9. Summer program (pretty prestigious, but I did not want one that would not allow me to also work on my research)
10. Honestly don't remember; something pretty filler.

Awards/Honors

List all awards and honors submitted on your application.

Did not do any olympiads/other nonsense like that. My parents are both in academia so they look down on competitions in the natural sciences/math (heavily discouraged from doing olympiads and I was never interested in changing that) As a result, my award section was pretty weak/repetitive.

1. Research
2. Research
3. Research
4. Sport
5. School award

Letters of Recommendation

Math Teacher: Knew him very well and did well in his notoriously difficult class. Could speak to how I would always help my peers, ect. Probably an 8/10.

Physics Teacher: She liked me a lot and 'interviewed' me multiple times to figure out exactly how she would write it. She is known to write amazing letters. Probably a 9/10.

History Teacher: He would always tell me how sad he was that I am looking to pursue STEM and that I was the best history student he had ever taught. Probably a 9/10

Lab PI: This was the ace up my sleeve. He told me he wrote that I functioned in his lab like an undergrad (he would take 1-2 3rd/4th year undergrads a year from his top institution). Very likely a 10/10.

Interviews

Got interviews from MIT, Princeton, Harvard, and Yale. All were in person and went very well. The best was my Princeton interview and we talked for around 3 hours. He told me he would write an additional email to Princeton saying "it would be a mistake to not admit ____". My view is that interviews don't matter that much at all and are used mostly to keep alumni/applicants interested. You will see why shortly...

Essays

Spent a lot of time (like, a lot) and thought they were very good. Personal statement was very personal (I mean it is a personal statement!) and I was very vulnerable. Supplemental essays were varied and I think portrayed me well.

Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)

Acceptances:

• MIT
• Stanford
• Columbia (Committed!!)
• Cornell
• Yale
• Duke (A.B. Scholarship)
• Penn

Waitlists:

• Harvard (Did not pursue as I preferred the options I had!)

Rejections:

• Princeton :(

Additional Information:

I never intended to make one of these posts until I realized just how problematic the thinking about top colleges on Reddit can be. The idea that HYPSM, or whatever acronym people are using, exists in a league of its own was completely unfamiliar to me and my parents (who are in academia and have studied, worked, or conducted research at most of those schools throughout their careers).

I took my college decision very seriously and spoke with people across many fields (math, physics, quantitative finance, law, etc.). Independently, they all gave me essentially the same advice: you should choose between Columbia, Stanford, MIT, and Yale and pick the one you like the most.

I absolutely loved Columbia when I visited, and I'm grateful I wasn't on this website while making my decision because I probably would have made the wrong choice for me. I've had people here call me "crazy," "delusional," and tell me I made a "life-defining mistake" by not choosing a HYPSM school. Ironically, I only started using Reddit to check movement on the Chicago waitlist for a friend.

Princeton was definitely my top choice, and, of course, it was the one school that rejected me (I was very hopeful after my interview). Even so, I'm not complaining at all; I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the options I did.

My message is for people who find themselves in a similar position. Make an informed decision, and don't let a magazine ranking or anonymous people online make it for you. Nearly everyone I've spoken with has said that HYPSM, Columbia, and Chicago are viewed equivalently in the vast majority of situations (with obvious exceptions like Penn for finance or Caltech for certain STEM fields). Furthermore, they mentioned how people who went to other ivies/top schools regularly get chosen for jobs, grad school, ect over people who attended the aforementioned schools.

All that is to say is when talking about any of the ivies/other top schools like Duke, JHU, MIT, Stanford, ect. there are amazing people and opportunities (to a very comparable degree), and you should choose the one that you see yourself liking the most. That's my two cents.

Demographics
- Gender: Male
- Race/Ethnicity: Asian
- Residence: south
- Income Bracket: ~350k
- Type of School: Competitive Public High School
- Hooks: none

Intended Major(s) neuroscience

Academics
- GPA: 4.0 UW, 4.7 W; max course rigor possible; school doesn't rank

Standardized Testing
- SAT: 1580 (790 RW/790 M)

Extracurriculars (Not in order of "importance")
1. independent research project #1: did legit work BY MYSELF on a particular disease (let's call it disease xyz), isef qual + two major international organization presentation acceptance (major international research conferences)

2. independent research project #2: did more legit work BY MYSELF on disease xyz, isef grand, isef qual, some more bs

3. research internship #1: did work on disease xyz: took over upper-level research project (masters-phd level) after someone suddenly left lab; discovered some really novel stuff about xyz and first author pub coming (manuscript stages)

4. research internship #2: tbh wanted some wetlab experience with disease xyz, so did some more work on the disease here (i'm really passionate about treating it). not that impressive imo but i completely reworked the labs workflow to make it better

5. One of these (SSP, Simons SRP, Garcia): prestigious research summer camp; research accepted into top conference in field and was recognized on insane levels (imo this is > isef grand)

6. international nonprofit board member: high-impact; very selective position (national level selection process to identify candidates)

7. president of school club #1: did some community related stuff, p high-impact looking at 200+ member counts

8. president of school club #2: did some more community related stuff, boosted membership and volunteer engagement by like 300% in my first year of presidency

9. instrument -> district recognized musician (#1 in my region), couple of mid regional awards w this, tbh js do it for fun

10. varsity sport -> yes i am athletic as well

Awards/Honors

1. isef 2nd place grand award in relevant category to applied major, 2x isef finalist
2. isef special award (one of the more selective special awards)
3. major international research org recognition (recognizable conference + only hs to receive invitation for participation EVER)
4. three more international research org recognition all stuffed into one cat
5. state award (not saying what basically won major research related competition: 1/550+ students)

Letters of Recommendation
- literature teacher: def one of my fav teachers and I was her fav student

- bio teacher: this guy glazes me too much; recommends that i drop out of hs to do my research stuff and make big things

- extra rec from PI

- counselor: she likes me (i think)

Interviews

I’m really personable so i’ve never had a bad interview - all of them went amazing

Essays

I didn’t think they were that bad lmfao but ig they were

Schools

Rejected hypsm, most ivies

wl @ columbia, duke, jhu, washu (rejected off washu and columbia)

going to state school ✌️ 

My Take

ngl i think my application was penalized for being too narrow and focused on a particular niche. they probably thought that i engineered my application. i'd recommend for other students to focus on 2-3 things and format their application this way.

tbh it just makes me angry bc i genuinely only did things i was passionate and really good at.

promise this is not bait and i have been struggling to come to terms w my current situation. i've moved on tho, i'm a pretty happy individual, but ig after grinding so hard for a dream i've had for a long time that this was p demotivating.

btw details are pretty obscure bc i'm google-able.

Regarding the title, going into application season, I knew I wanted to stay in California for school, and didn’t have much interest in Ivys or most OOS schools. I have heavy ties to berkeley, so that was the dream school going in.

**Demographics**

* Gender: Male
* Race/Ethnicity: Asian, Viet
* Residence: Bay Area
* Income Bracket: ~100k
* Type of School: Public
* Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): None

**Intended Major(s)**: Computer Engineering, Nuclear Engineering

**Academics**

* GPA (UW/W): 4 UW, 4.2 W
* Rank (or percentile): no class rank, decile 1
* \# of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 6 APs taken, only 2 APs and 2 Honors junior year.
* Senior Year Course Load: Calc BC, Engineering, APEL, AP Econ, AP Chem, Gov

**Standardized Testing**

*List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported.*

* SAT: 1500 (720RW, 780M)
* ACT: None
* AP/IB: AP Calculus AB (5), AP Comp Sci A (5), AP Lang (5)
**Extracurriculars/Activities**

*List all extracurricular involvements, including leadership roles, time commitments, major achievements, etc.*

1. NASA SEES Intern, worked on geospatial data science project
2. Nuclear Research Internship @ UC Berkeley, built a program to detect radioactive isotopes in air samples
3. FIRST Robotics Team Captain, all throughout high school, worked on electrical systems, team has never won awards or went to worlds
4. Internship @ Local Manufacturing Company, did digital printing for companies nationwide
5. Elementary School Robotics Tutor, taught kids FLL at a summer camp

**Awards/Honors**

*List all awards and honors submitted on your application.*

1. Science Olympiad, a bunch of medals for Robot Tour
2. ⁠Science Fair Award, 2nd in category at local
3. ⁠School Department Awards (French & US History)

**Letters of Recommendation**

(*Briefly describe relationships with your recommenders and estimated rating.)*

1. Engineering Teacher. Strongest connection by far for a letter of recommendation, I have been working with her on projects all 4 years, and she is our lead robotics mentor who is very familiar with my work ethic and approach to engineering. 9/10

2. Calc AB Teacher. Had her for 3 years in a row in math, and could speak very well on my math skills s well as being a student in a classroom setting. Both recommenders also were graduates from Cal. 8/10

3. Government Teacher. Had him for 1.5 years, and excelled in his class. I wasn’t THE model student, but he highlighted the fact that I stood out from my peers in my critical thinking skills. 7/10

**Interviews**

(*Briefly reflect on interview experiences, if applicable.)*

MIT: 3.5/10. Absolutely did not want to do any college interviews and was nearly bedridden when I conducted this interview. It lasted almost 2 hours, but I don’t believe we talked about anything extraordinary.

Stanford: 6.5/10. Had some odd questions asked, but overall a far more pleasant experience. Was much clearer in my headspace and able to convey the various projects I worked on well, as well as talking about various opportunities my interviewer could connect me to outside of the interview.

**Essays**

(*Briefly reflect on the quality of your writing, time spent, and topic of main personal statement.)*

UCs: By far spent the most time refining the essays, and I think they turned out well. I was able to highlight 4 different aspects of myself through the PIQs, while still being grounded in values that are important to me like my family, community, and academia.

CommonApp: Spent an embarrassing amount of time on revising this, and overall didnt like the end product. I had some interesting ideas but nothing groundbreaking in my essay and in hindsight quite generic.

Supps: All supps for commonapp were a blur. Most were thrown together at the last minute, the only ones I liked writing about were Stanford’s Prompts.

**Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)**

*Acceptances:*

SJSU
UC Merced
UC Riverside
UC Santa Cruz
UC Davis
UC Irvine
Cal Poly
UC Santa Barbara
UC San Diego
UC Berkeley (COMMITTED, NucEng)

*Waitlists:*

UCLA

*Rejections:*

UT Austin
University of Washington
MIT
Cornell
Stanford

**Additional Information:**

Not entirely sure what I expected, maybe to not get completely destroyed by the OOS schools. Oh well, I am incredibly excited to go to Cal in the fall, I have a great network of people I already know and will get to room with 2 of my best friends from my high school’s engineering class! I am incredibly grateful for my college results, and got into the schools I would’ve considered going to anyways.

Demographics

• Gender: Male
• Race/Ethnicity: Black
• Residence: Non-competitive State (Think Louisiana, Mississippi, or Oklahoma)
• Income Bracket: >$300k
• Type of School: Uncompetitive Large Public school
• Hooks: I guess URM and Underrepresented State

Intended Major(s): Finance (Econ to schools without finance)

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 4.0/4.35
• Rank (or percentile): 14/210 (Top 10%)
• AP Courses Completed: AP US History (5), AP Calculus AB (5), AP English Language (4), AP Psychology (3) (Not max rigor. I regret not taking 2-3 more before Senior year.)
• AP Courses In Progress (Senior Year): AP Government, AP Statistics, AP Macro, AP Literature, AP Biology, AP Spanish

Standardized Testing

• ACT: 34 (30 math, 35 reading, 34 science, 35 english)

Extracurriculars/Activities (Intentionally vague)

1. Founder/President of Finance Club; fundraisers, events, etc.
2. President of Chess Club; relevant to essay; promoted inclusivity
3. Job at Fast Food place for 2 years
4. Varsity Soccer
5. Volunteer at Soup Kitchen (~120 hours)
6. Key Club Secretary; lowkey didn't do anything
7. School Ambassador
8. Mu Alpha Theta President; hosted induction and tutoring sessions
9. Personal Stock Portfolio Manager (lowkey filler activity)
10. Pianist (personal hobby, relevant to personal statement)

Awards/Honors (pretty weak ik)

1. Bentley Summer Stock Trading Competition (Top 6% finish)
2. Jefferson Scholarship Nominee at my school
3. Employee of the month 2x
4. AP Scholar with Honors
5. Recognized for volunteering 100+ hours over the summer

Recs

1. Lang Teacher (8.5/10): She loved me, along with my work ethic throughout her class. I do kinda question how much she truly knew me as a person though.
2. Calc teacher (9/10): Was the teacher associated with my highest impact activity, and I was one of the 2 out of ~25 students in her class who scored a 5 on the exam.
3. Counselor (6-7/10): She amost certainly chat gpt'd it, but she played a big role in me being the school nominee for the Jefferson Scholarship, so she must've liked me😂

Interviews

• Had none for any of the schools i applied to lmao except for the Jefferson Scholarship, which I was named an alternate for

Essays: 8.5/10

Pretty good. I tried to weave them into my overall narrative, and I feel I did a decent job. Supplementals were all tailored towards the school, and I had some help from siblings who went through previous cycles.

Decisions

Acceptances:

• >!USC (Marshall) EA (10k/year leadership scholarship)!<
• >!WashU Olin RD!<
• >!Emory Oxford RD!<
• >!Claremont Mckenna (15k/yr Scholarship, interviewed for full tuition scholarship and fell short)!<
• >!Wake Forest RD!<
• >!Howard University (Full ride) EA!<
• >!State School EA!<
• >!Fordham (Loyola Scholarship 25k/yr) RD!<
• >!Indiana EA (Direct admit to Kelley W/ 15k/yr leadership scholarship)!<

Waitlists:

• >!Emory Atlanta (WL --> Accepted)!<
• >!Georgia Tech (Deferred EA-->WL RD, and Declined offer to stay on WL)!<

Rejections:

• >!UPenn Wharton RD!<
• >!Vanderbilt RD!<
• >!NYU Stern RD !<
• >!UVA RD (this shocked me after having a great jefferson interview)!<
• >!Notre Dame Mendoza REA (also kinda shocked me but im not catholic tbf)!<
• >!UNC Chapel Hill EA!<

Commitment+Final Thoughts:

I comitted to >!Howard University. Go Bison! !<I came into this cycle knowing that prestige wasn't the biggest factor for me, and that the greatest amount of flexibility would come from a full ride. That's why I never seriously considered full pay at "more prestigious schools", and its also why I prioritized applying mostly to schools with merit scholarships, rather than strictly Ivys/T10s. Tbh, I am pretty happy with my results, especially given that it took me a while to lock in. Going into my junior year, I wasn't even top 20% in my class, had a 25 on the ACT, had taken just 1 AP class, and had participated in just 3 of the Ecs that made it onto my application. Still, a part of me wishes that I locked in earlier, and maybe I would've succeeded in obtaining merit scholarships from WashU (rejected from Ervins/Danforths, accepted to the school) or Emory (rejected from Woodruff/Emory Scholars, accepted to the school).

Demographics

Gender: male

Race/Ethnicity: White

Residence: PA

Income Bracket: disability checks broke

Type of School: Public HS to CC

Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): Disabled, former political prisoner.

Intended Major(s): public policy

Academics

GPA (UW/W): 3.77 UW

Rank (or percentile): not listed

Standardized Testing: n/a

Extracurriculars/Activities

List all extracurricular involvements, including leadership roles, time commitments, major achievements, etc.

#1 Led an effort to recall a big city Mayor, the only attempt on record to my knowledge.

#2 Got that same Mayor's endorsement revoked from his party. Only time in the history of the city for this to have happened.

#3 Ran for City Council

#4 some work with non profits as a volunteer, secured the allocation of millions $'s from a HUD grant to housing repair.

#5 volunteering with wildlife

Awards/Honors: n/a

Letters of Recommendation

One from a professor that I'm not super tight with for my academic one and a fellow organizer for my professional one.

Interviews: n/a

Essays: focused on my political work in one, my health struggles and upbringing in the other. Spent a decent amount of time on it all.

Decisions

Acceptances:

NYU (can't afford it but at least I get bragging rights)

Pitt (got into honors which is fairly selective)

Syracuse University

Duquesne University

Rejections:

CMU

University of Rochester

Swarthmore

Haverford

University of Chicago

Wesleyan University

JHU

Case Western

UPenn

Boston University (took forever to give a decision just to reject me smh)

Tufts

Lehigh

Cornell

Body: I kinda also got some political charges which I feel like negatively impacted my results. Worked hard on essays, trying to keep my GPA up as high as I could, and had non BS ECs. But I went through all this application stress just to end up staying where I am. Kinda wish I could've just avoided all this hassle and just went straight to my safety. But at least I got into their honors which seems to be worthwhile compared to my initial choice for transferring. But I suppose I'll just have to settle with the bragging rights of the NYU acceptance I could never afford.

Demographics

• Gender: male
• Race/Ethnicity: chinese
• Residence: south
• Income Bracket: 200k+
• Type of School: private (not a feeder maybe 1-2 ivy+ per year)
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): none

Intended Major(s): aerospace engineering

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 4.7
• Rank (or percentile): school doesnt rank
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc: 10

Standardized Testing

List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported.

• SAT I: 1550 (750RW, 800M)
• AP/IB: all 5s except for lang 😡

Extracurriculars/Activities

List all extracurricular involvements, including leadership roles, time commitments, major achievements, etc.

1. nasa internship
2. independent research published in journal
3. personal project
4. non profit leadership
5. school leadership
6. band
7. debate
8. sport captain
9. summer job
10. personal hobby

Awards/Honors

List all awards and honors submitted on your application.

1. world record for personal project
2. niche olympiad gold medal
3. usnco national qualifier
4. stem essay comp
5. national merit semis

Letters of Recommendation

(10/10) language teacher we were hella tight

(8/10) math teacher i was in her class for a few years but didnt really connect with her super crazy but she def still wrote good things

(9/10) research mentor he lowk glazed me in my thing and think it was prob a big help having professional recommendation

Interviews

(Briefly reflect on interview experiences, if applicable.)

mit (8/10): i really vibed with the guy at a coffee shop, we had so many common interests and his life path seemed really interesting to me and might have even shifted what i want to do a little bit

stanford(5/10): this was a online interview and she was lowk grilling me, i might have fumbled the bag a lil with this one and she was getting to the bottom of all my glaze

duke(7/10): my interviewer was not fully fluent in english but i think this kinda helped bc she really messed with the stuff i was saying and talking about how im hella wise

Essays

i spent a few months on my essays, and ended up getting some professional edits, i wrote about my background and how i came to my current hobbies and enjoyments.

Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)

Acceptances:

• instate schools ea
• georgia tech ea
• stanford rd
• duke rd

Waitlists:

• upenn rd
• michigan ea defer-> rd waitlist

Rejections:

• ut austin ea
• mit rd

Additional Information:

lowk all i have is generic advice, for senior year first sem make sure NOT to stack too many difficult classes, make sure you are taking a courseload that you know you can handle reasonably. for the essays definately get started early, i didnt even apply to too many schools and they stacked up quick. also the professional essay help that i got was extremely helpful, i only did it for my rd schools and i did better in rd despite applying to "harder" schools. and although i did get essay help, i truly dont believe that people NEED to hire college counselors, honestly over 90% of the information is out on the internet if you look hard enough. another generic piece of advice is its not over till its over, make sure to always have hope and know that you have a shot. just know that this process is genuinely random asl just look at some of my results. truly all it takes is one. if you have any questions about my profile or are looking for some advice feel free to dm or comment im just not tryna dox myself, this community really has provided so much help to me during the process and im just trying to give some back.

Demographics:
socal girl from semi-large public high school

Intended majors:
cog sci, neuroscience, and cognitive neuroscience

Academics:

GPA (UW/W): 3.96 UW, 4.67 WGPA
* Rank (or percentile): top 9% by UC ELC but not sure about actual rank
# of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: took 11/14 offered APs at school and full DE math seq
Senior Year Course Load: mostly light APs (apes, ap stats, etc.) + calc 2 & linear algebra

Standardized Testing

SAT: 1550 (750 RW; 800 M)
All 5s on APs except one 4

Extracurriculars/Activities

1. independent cog neuro research, worked w/ niche animal model & produced preprints w/ mentorship at a big UC
2. special ed nonprofit founder
3. research internship at a UC for molecular bio
4. regional first chair band
5. school band leadership
6. thinkneuro (💀)
7. state-level band ensembles & summer conservatory stuff
8. writing for fun (wrote fanfic lmao)

Awards/Honors

1. scholastic art & writing national silver medal + regional keys
2. national band recognition award
3. first chair in regional honor band
4. trash lowk fake poetry competition 😭 (poetry nation)

Letters of Recommendation
had my AP Physics and AP Calc teachers write me recs + band director. i liked them a lot + asked for academic and career advice from them so they were familiar w/ my complete lack of knowing what i wanted to do w/ my life lol. other than that, i would assume normal but not outstanding letters.

Essays

personal statement: lowk “I’m 14 and this is deep” slop; wrote about fanfic and fandom culture and connected to growing in how i use writing. okay writing but i cringe looking back at it

UC PIQs: okay-ish, kind of gimmicky w/ hooks and “stories” but i tried to be concrete about my experiences. a little too flowery and self-promotional at times.

supplementals: sooo trash, like, really bad. i was so stressed and running on 4 hrs of sleep and energy drinks and crammed them all over winter break. didn’t have anyone proofread except a crappy AI “essay reviewer” (collegebase) that just made my writing an echo chamber of slop.

Decisions

Acceptances:

- UCSB
- CSUs
- UCD

Waitlists:

- UCLA
- UCB
- WashU
- Cornell

Rejections:

- the rest of the Ivies
- Stanford

and i’m committed to… >!UCLA!! go bruins!!<

good luck kids and lock in on your supps.

Demographics

• Gender: female
• Race/Ethnicity: white
• Residence: USA
• Income Bracket: high
• Type of School: IB
• Hooks: None

Intended Major(s): environmental science

Academics

IB Diploma Predicted 41/42

• Rank (or percentile): 1
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: all honors/AP's possible, then full IB
• Senior Year Course Load: ib diploma

Standardized Testing

Didn't submit (had great explanation)

Extracurriculars/Activities

List all extracurricular involvements, including leadership roles, time commitments, major achievements, etc.

⁠(very high impact) founded and run agent orange awareness non-profit stemming from family loss. raised $2k+ for awareness based fundraising (met the goal), do monthly newsletters, reached over 100k people, helped dozens of veterans personally get disability benefits. Custom built website with resources, partnered with local organizations.

2. ⁠(very high impact ) impactful environmental/microbial research through a professor at johns hopkins in coordination with NASA. Working on analyzing water samples for microbes and properties to hint towards the causes of harmful algae blooms in my hometown. My own research project, working directly under the lab director (professors name on the lab), uni got $30k to continue my research.
3. ⁠(very high impact) won a grant at my school to build a rain garden and oyster reef in the chesapeake bay. Spent months planning and designing, reaching out to schools and communities. Hand dug and installed a 200 square foot rain garden in a high risk area at an underserved community elementary school and incorporated educational components with the students to build environmental advocacy. Installed two oyster reefs in the chesapeake bay too. won a scholarship for outstanding effort on this
4. ⁠Successfully ran an environmental camp as a TA centered around UN global goals, at my school, school accepted proposals. Got school to create no-mow zones as a learning outdoor classroom and to promote local environmental health
5. ⁠attended prestigious, application based, free stem workshop for a week where i won an award.
6. ⁠Tutored local immigrant girls in the summer who didn’t speak english. Tutored once a week for two years in the summer time and watched both girls’ grades improve by a letter.
7. ⁠Fundraiser and Drive Organizer, Independent in association with I Support the Girls (ISTG), which is an organization that empowers homeless women and restores their dignity by giving them bras and hygiene products. Annually organized successful community bra-drives for ISTG; collected hundreds of bras; fundraised $1.5k for the organization, arranged for a speaker from the organization to come and speak to my school
8. ⁠part time (school year) and full time (summer) job. Employee of the month, promoted.
9. ⁠Variety of sports

Awards/Honors

just lots of honor societies

Letters of Recommendation

great relationships with them, very detailed brag sheets sent to both

Essays

Talked about my love for the environment and how nature taught me life lessons as a kid, connected it back to my interests in pursuing environmental science and the current efforts I have

Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)

Acceptances:

• UMD EA
• UChicago RD

Waitlists (RD):

• UMich
• GTech

Rejections (all RD):

• Yale
• Harvard
• Princeton
• Brown
• Dartmouth
• UPenn
• Duke
• UNC
• Vanderbilt
• Northwestern

Additional Information:

EDIT:

Since you all are so insistent I must not have had a good reason to submit and that it cost me my chances, I took it once and had a fucking seizure (we think the lights + stress + underlying genetic factors) which started loads of health problems that caused me to miss a shit ton of school and not necessarily do so well when I tried again.
This was also why I chose not to ED