Asian premed Chudcel Elden Ring addict needs to git gud fr
Demographics
- Gender: Male
- Race/Ethnicity: Asian, Chinese, applying internationally due to no green card
- Residence: Bay Area
- Income Bracket: around 250k a year
- Type of School: Public, competitive as shit
- Hooks: None lol
Intended Major(s): Public Health major, pre-med track
Academics
- GPA (UW/W): 3.7/4.2
- Rank (or percentile): N/A
- # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 5 Honors, 11 APs, 1 Dual Enrollment of Bio in UC Berkeley
- Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc BC (online), AP Physics C Mech (1st sem. at school, switched to online for S2), AP Gov, AP Macro, AP Psych, Honors Wind Ensemble, Honors Biomed. Interventions, Film as Lit, Asian American Lit.
Standardized Testing
List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported.
- SAT I: 1540 750RW, 790M)
- AP/IB: AP Mandarin - 5; AP Chem - 4; AP Stats - 5; AP World - 4; APUSH - 5; AP Bio - 5; AP Calc AB - 5
Extracurriculars/Activities
List all extracurricular involvements, including leadership roles, time commitments, major achievements, etc.
- Tennis JV - (Soph. to Senior) Team Captain (Junior Year)
- Band - 4 years. 1st trumpet/section leader in Jr. year, Honors Wind Ensemble Sr. year
- Executive VP of self-founded CKD awareness nonprofit org: Jr year - ongoing
- >30 Hours volunteering at UC Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science, volunteered 5 hours at a regional park
- Participated in an outbreak scenario designer for our school's final during junior year
- Social Justice/Environmental Health internship at EBAYs, a Bay Area based org. We used X-ray spectroscopy to analyze soil samples collected in Oakland to determine risks of lead exposure
- 2 unpublished research papers
- Science Olympiad Sophomore year, made 10th in regionals for ecology
- HOSA SLC (9th in state for a competition)
Awards/Honors
List all awards and honors submitted on your application.
- AP Scholar with Honor and AP Scholar with Distinction
- 10th place regionals, SciOly
- HOSA SLC 9th place in State for Environmental Health ATC Test
- FEMA CERT online certificate
- Academic Block D award (some school award)
- Scholar Musician and Scholar Athlete (another school award)
Letters of Recommendation
Biomed - 7.5/10
English - 8/10
AP Bio - 7?/10
None of my LORs should be that bad
Interviews
N/A
Essays
I'd give myself a 7.5-8 out of 10, 8.5 if I'm being generous. I wrote about my immigrant experience, me discovering my passions, how my personal health issues hindered me and my GPA, and stuff. My friends all said they're solid/good enough.
Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)
Acceptances:
- UC Merced
- UC Riverside
- UC Santa Cruz
- UC Santa Barbara
- University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (EA)
- Penn State (EA)
- Northeastern (EA)
- University of Miami
- University of Florida (EA) --> Prob gonna commit here
Waitlists:
- University of Washington
- University of Wisconsin, Madison (Defer EA --> Waitlist)
- UC Davis
- UC Irvine
- UC San Diego
- UCLA
- Boston University (Actually hurts because I'm a legacy and my friend (with an arguably weaker applicant profile got in))
Rejections:
- UMich (ED def. EA def. RD rejected LOL)
- UMD College Park
- Washington University at St. Louis
- Emory (ED2)
- Tufts
- UNC Chapel Hill
- UC Berkeley
- UIUC
Reflection (long rant incoming): To preface, I am nowhere near as cracked as most of the posters here. I guess as an applicant, I really am slightly above mediocre (within the typical pool of applicants of Reddit, and the many cracked kids I personally know, at the very least) if I'm being honest. I have a 3.7 GPA, some solid but not crazy good ECs, and a remarkably high SAT score of 1540. While I did work hard, I wished I tried even harder. However, being stuck in a hyper competitive public school, I was trapped in a miserable cycle of stagnation, anger, and burnout.
My major is public health, and I plan to go to medical school. As a Californian, I applied in state for a bunch of UCs. Surprisingly, I only got rejected from one - UC Berkeley. However, what is arguably worse is that I get edged and teased as I only get into the bottom 4, while Davis, Irvine, SD, and even LA waitlisted me.
As for out of state, every other school other than my safeties waitlisted me, and all the actual prestigious schools I applied to (Emory, Tufts, UMich, WashU) and even shit like (UIUC and UMD CP) straight up rejected me. Being hit wave by wave by wave of waitlists and rejections really fucked my already low self esteem
I am probably going out of state to Florida, where both UFlorida and UMiami accepted me. Despite how most say that the schools are nowhere near as academically prestigious, being overrated and fraudulent as shit - basically very mediocre schools with highly inflated rankings, I keep convincing myself that it's perfectly fine to go to a mediocre school as I am a mediocre person.
I have very conflicting feelings about my results - on one hand, I feel somewhat satisfied and grateful as (with some VERY unlucky friends of whom I genuinely feel sad and angry for) things could have gone MUCH worse for me.
Yet on the other hand, I am also quite regretful at the fact that I didn't try harder in high school or at the very least on the contrary, actually tried having some fun. I feel that in high school, I was stuck in a perpetual cycle of burnout and stagnation. I come from a very competitive and cutthroat environment - a public high school in the Bay Area with a majority Asian demographic.
But even with all things considered, I feel what ticks me off the most is (despite me myself being far from perfect) the fact that there are kids who had more fun and worked less hard than I did get into far better schools than me. Obviously, comparison is the thief of joy, and for my own sake, I don't want to end up becoming a vitriolic, egotistical individual, but at the end of the day, I can't help but feel intense feelings of anger and disappointment.
TLDR: I don't know. I should be satisfied. I KNOW I'm supposed to be satisfied, but at the end of the day, I'm just not.