Hey everyone! I’m a junior from a pretty average public high school in South Jersey (avg SAT here is ~1130). I’ve spent the last couple of years really falling in love with international policy and women’s history, and I’m trying to figure out if my profile is actually competitive for top-tier schools or if I should refocus my list. I’m first-gen American (Polish/Egyptian), so this is all kind of new to me.
Stats:
- GPA: 3.98-3.99 UW/5.4ish Weighted - total 15 aps (i had one 91 in ap calc this year - rest all a's)
- SAT/ACT: 1460 ( this was a benchmark score - no studying + just retook yesterday).
- Awards: AP Scholar with Distinction, a random 7th place at an International Robotics comp (SeaPerch), and the NJ Seal of Biliteracy in Italian (taking spanish, polish + arabic soon0
Extracurriculars (The things I’m passionate about):
- UN Engagement: I achieved UN Youth Partnership for an org by myself, so that was super cool! I also actually got a chance to attend the ECOSOC Youth Forum recently and consulted on some youth partnership goals. It’s been eye-opening to see how the "real" UN works vs. Model UN.
- Arabic/Morocco (NSLI-Y): Was recently selected as a recipient for the State Dept’s Arabic immersion program. I’m heading to Morocco this summer to hopefully get my language skills to a professional level.
- State Legislative Internship: I’m interning at a local Assembly office this fall. I was originally looking into a youth council, but it wasn't active, so the office was kind enough to let me help out with actual legislative affairs and drafting briefs instead.
- "Of The Sparrows" Project: This is my "heart" project. I started a digital archive to collect women’s oral histories and maiden names; mostly inspired by my own grandmothers' stories from Poland and Egypt that were almost lost.
- Research: Finished a study regarding South Asian adolescent mental health. I’ve been fortunate to have some brief methodology oversight from a huge professor in the field. Planning to publish this summer
- Model UN Conference Co-Youth Lead Secretariat: I was appointed from a pool of around 1500 delegates to spearhead the conference community service project (estimated to raise 15k+)
- Invited speaker and attendee at invitation-only national retreat: collaborated with 100+ global experts as one of 3 high schoolers to shape evidence-based digital wellness strategies. Contributing to an organization reaching 28M+ globally;
- Youth Advisory Board, NJ Department of Health + Local Hospital - kind of self-explanatory; got first aid cert. through that too
- Director of Global Outreach, NGO – Oversaw 15+ strategic partnerships and 1,800+ volunteers to advance global literacy. Monitored the translation of 1.5M+ words into 190+ languages, systematically reducing socio-economic disparities and expanding educational access for marginalized communities worldwide.
- Other stuff: Varsity Tennis (Co-captain next year), Lead Clarinet, and some local volunteering at a senior support center and my local library’s civics program. Also work 20 hrs/week at a smoothie shop during the summers to help out.
Essays: Writing about "Sparrows"; which is the meaning of my mom's maiden and the etymology of my name—basically how I want to be a voice for the "hidden" histories in policy.
Schools:
- Reach: Princeton (SPIA is the dream), Georgetown SFS, Harvard, Brown.
- Targets: UPenn (Nursing/Policy - ik it seems weird but i have some related ecs), UVA, UChicago.
- Safeties: Rutgers (Honors), Pitt.
Everything I see on LinkedIn and online shows ivy-admits as cancer-curers and such amazing people. Does the lack of "elite" prep school resources hurt me here? Any advice on how to frame my UN/State House stuff without sounding like I'm "stat-padding"? I genuinely just love this work. Thanks!