Pre-dental Asian who goes to boarding school
Demographics
- Gender: Male
- Race/Ethnicity: Asian (Southeast: China, Korea, Japan)
- Residence: City in Asia/Boston (U.S. Permanent Resident)
- Income Bracket: 400k+
- Type of School: Private Boarding
- Hooks: None
Intended Major(s): Biochemistry (Pre-dental)
Academics
- GPA (UW/W): 3.98UW, 4.5W (School GPA: 4.16; school calculates weird so I re-calculated UW/W)
- Rank (or percentile): School does not officially rank, but based on school profile: top 5% out of ~120
- # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 7 Honors, 8 AP’s, the rest are regular level
- Senior Year Course Load: Multivariable Calculus Honors, AP Bio, AP Gov, English IV Honors, Chinese IV, Jazz Band
Standardized Testing
- SAT: 1560 (760RW, 800M)
- AP: Calc AB (5), APUSH (5), Lang (4), Calc BC (5), Chem (5), Lit (3), Gov (Not yet taken), Bio (Not yet taken)
Extracurriculars/Activities (Simplified)
- Biochemistry research with an associate professor at an Asian college and researchers at a relevant company to create an invention
- Volunteering in an Asian third-world country with a dental school organization; during my time there, I came up with the idea for my invention from activity #1
- Leadership position at school; residential assistant for 2 years in freshman and sophomore/senior dorms
- Entrepreneurship summer program with a competitive admission process; developed upon an idea to launch a “company” with a team. I was able to develop my invention further here, as I pitched my invention to my team, and the team endorsed it as our company's main product
- Leadership position at school; leading the school program that helps new students adjust by connecting them with experienced students
- Admissions tour guide at school, also did a student panel for one of the admissions virtual info sessions
- Every school club/organization that I was part of: leader of 3, member of 1
- Captain of two athletic teams at school (both not varsity)
- Instrument: played both classical and jazz, but didn’t submit a performing video
- Cooking classes over summer breaks
Awards/Honors
- Gold medal in the high school division as a team at a well-known global biology competition; nothing insane since there were ~80 gold medals out of 142 teams
- Awards for my research (activity #1) at science fairs and olympiads (not ISEF-level). I also included the patent application that I submitted for my invention
- Top 150 in one of USAPhO, USNCO, USABO
- RPI (Renselaer) Medal and awards given at school
- Local-level recognition awards for volunteering
Letters of Recommendation
AP Chem teacher: 9.5/10. I think this LoR really helped my application overall. Although I wasn’t able to read the letter, my college counselor read me parts of it, as I had to decide between this letter and the one from my BC calc teacher. He mentioned how I led groups in school with specific examples and even said I was one of the best students he has taught over his 20-year teaching career.
AP Lit teacher: 5/10. I was really worried about this one, as I rarely participated in class (I did actively pay attention though) and also never had a genuine conversation with her. I absolutely have no idea what she could’ve written in her letter, so I just put it as 5/10.
AP BC teacher: 9/10. I had her for 3 years for math, and she really likes me (in a student-teacher way). She has always written amazing comments on the school grade report. I put 9/10 only because my counselor said the Chem teacher’s letter was stronger.
Interviews
I only had 2 interviews: Gtown and Harvard (lol). I just want to highlight that as an introvert, I am intrinsically scared of doing any sort of interviews.
I think I did fine with the Gtown one; the interviewer was a local from an area near my school, and we had a typical interview-like conversation—nothing crazy like I often see here, where someone becomes borderline best friends with their interviewer.
I was very very nervous for the Harvard one. This interviewer was also a local from an area near my school. Compared to the Gtown interview, the interviewer asked extremely open-ended questions. It was less like a conversation but more like a j*b interview lol. I don’t think I did as well as I did in the Gtown interview, but even if I had, I don’t think I would have demonstrated the attributes Harvard favors.
Essays
I spent quite a lot of time choosing what to write. After two months of choosing topics, I decided to write about a physical condition that I have, which has been a big insecurity of mine. I wrote about how I overcame my insecurity and helped others overcome theirs, drawing on my experience. I do think my PS helped my application, but it definitely would not have been a major deciding factor in my admission/rejection.
Decisions (Chronologically)
Early Round:
Iowa State University (Rolling): >!Accepted!<
MCPHS (EA): >!Accepted + $24k/year!<
University of Pennsylvania (ED): >!Deferred!<
University of Southern California (USC, EA): >!Accepted + $10k/year!<
Northeastern University (EA): >!Accepted!<
University of Virginia (UVA, EA): >!Accepted!<
Regular Round:
UC Davis (RD): >!Accepted!<
Carnegie Mellon University (RD): >!Accepted!<
UC Irvine (RD): >!Accepted!<
University of Virginia (UVA, Defer -> RD): >!Waitlisted (bru)!<
Boston College (RD): >!Accepted!<
Tufts University (RD): >!Accepted!<
Washington University in St. Louis (RD): >!Waitlisted!<
UC San Diego (UCSD, RD): >!Accepted + $5k/year!<
UC Los Angeles (UCLA, RD): >!Accepted!<
New York University (NYU, RD): >!Accepted (Shanghai)!<
Vanderbilt University (RD): >!Waitlisted!<
Rice University (RD): >!Waitlisted!<
Northwestern University (RD): >!Waitlisted!<
UC Berkeley (RD): >!Rejected!<
Harvard University (RD): >!Rejected!<
Brown University (RD): >!Rejected!<
Columbia University (RD): >!Rejected!<
Cornell University (RD): >!Rejected!<
University of Pennsylvania (Defer -> RD): >!Accepted!!!!<
Georgetown University (RD): >!Accepted!<
Stanford University (RD): >!Rejected!<
Boston University (RD): >!Accepted!<
Piece of Advice:
>!You absolutely do not need to grind every day and night during your four years of high school to get into an Ivy League school. As I watched youtube and instagram reels, and played brawlstars and sometimes clash royale too in my free time, a part of my mind was always concerned, worried if I would be able to go to my dream school (Penn) even if I don’t spend every hour working towards it. Long story short, everything did work out. !<
>!TL;DR: Work hard (enough), play hard.!<
Thanks for reading! Feel free to ask questions and I'll try my best to answer them.