r/collegeresults

Hi guys! I'm hoping this posts gives people a little hope because I had solid stats but not as insane as some and it turned out well for me! You got this!

______________________________6

Demographics

Gender: Male

Race/Ethnicity: White

Residence: Low population state (underrepresented but too doxxable)

Income Bracket: Upper-Middle Class (applied for aid tho)

Type of School: Medium-sized Public

Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): Geographic

Intended Major(s): Government/Polisci ona. Premed track

Academics

GPA (UW/W): 4.775/4.0

Rank (or percentile): Valedictorian

Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.:

14 APs - (5s on 7, 4 on 1, remainder senior year)

5 honors

2 DE

Senior Year Course Load: AP Lit, AP Macro, AP Gov, AP Stats, DE Spanish, AP Chem, AP Bio

Standardized Testing

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

SAT I: Didn't report

ACT: 36 (36E, 36M, 36R, 36S)

Other (ex. IELTS, TOEFL, etc.): None

Extracurriculars/Activities

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

1 Advocacy Club- Co-founded school club focused on important (yet doxxable) social/health issue and did substantial reach out to schools abd organizations in my city, getting state DOH funding

2 Marching Band- Section leader for 160+ person band. Top 10 in state and success out of state too

3 Wind Symphony- Principal Player. 2x All State. Music librarian for over 2000 pieces of music

4 MUN- VP with Outstanding and Best delegate awards at state conference in my committee

5 Spanish NHS- President, recieved certificate of excellence for language learning by Spanish organization. Frequent bake sales for Doctors Without Borders and heavy school involvement

6 Taekwondo- Black belt, assistant instructor, and member of elite team. 3rd and 4th place awards at national competition.

7 Recreation Leader- Recreation leader at a HEAVILY underserved camp (thing homelessness and drugs) and earned Employee of the Summer Award

8 Shadowing- Shadowed a pediatrician regularly

9 Varsity Tennis- #3 on Varsity Tennis team for sophomore/junior year. Academic all-district award and qualified for team state tournament.

10- Black (I know...the horror)

Awards/Honors

List all awards and honors submitted on your application.

1 National Merit Semifinalist

2 AP Scholar With Distinction

3 MUN Awards (see before)

4 Spanish Award (see beforel

5 NHS induction

Letters of Recommendation

AP Physics- 9/10? Club Sponsor, did great in her class probably wrote great rec

APUSH- 7/10? Good in her class but nothing special

Interviews

Harvard- Good! I was pretty unprepared but she was sweet and we had a nice chat and shared similar interests!

Duke- Solid. More prepared but a little awkward because it was over ZOOM and it was late at night.

Essays

I think the essays were the best part of my app. I wrote my essay about a website that I used to explore my love for learning and to grow myself intellectually. My Supplements were also pretty strong and centered around my state's unique culture as well as my goal of intertwining the fields of medicine and policy to truly fix our systems.

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

Acceptances:

State Schools (+Presidential Full Ride)

Oregon State (+National Scholars Award)

Montana State

Univeristy of Vermont (+Honors and scholarship)

UNC-CH (EA)

Univeristy of Wisconsin (EA)

Univeristy of Washington (+ P&G scholarship)

Northeastern

>!Harvard (RD) -!< Commited!!!

Waitlists:

Columbia

Brown

Duke

Vanderbilt

Rejections:

None!

Additional Information: On top of my regular application, I sent an update to all my T20s about how I continued to expand the outreach with the club I founded and how I helped lobby the legislature of my state to pass an important medical bill!

Overall: I had no crazy non-profits or research and kinda just did the things I liked. I think my personality and goals came through in my application and I'm really happy with my (albeit unexpected) results! Good luck guys!

Demographics

• Gender: male
• Race/Ethnicity: white
• Income Bracket: over $100k
• Type of School: public, feeder to state schools
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): none

Intended Major(s): political science

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 3.93 UW, 4.17 W
• Rank (or percentile): N/A, school doesn't do rank
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 13 AP courses, 8 dual enrollment, 9 honors
• Senior Year Course Load: 6 APs and 1 honors, including 3 math APs and 1 physics course lol

Standardized Testing

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

• SAT: 1510, only one attempt
• AP/IB: submitted 6 5's and 1 4

Extracurriculars/Activities

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

1. Worked in state legislature, full time in summers, part time in school year. Lots of legislative research, constituent services, and community outreach work.
2. Student Council President
3. Founded school's Mock Trial team. Competed in state comp.
4. NHS President
5. Student advisory board founder/president. Helped make school's phone policy. Got on the news a couple times for it
6. 3 year MUN, won 2 international awards
7. Political volunteer in community. Helped with local party's campaigns by knocking thousands of doors and developing a youth grassroots movement to volunteer for elections. Also did social media work
8. Did a big research paper on a presidential candidate from a century ago
9. Invited to do some speeches at local courthouse

Awards/Honors

List all awards and honors submitted on your application.

1. MUN intl 2nd place award
2. Alternate for Boys Nation
3. Mock Trial best lawyer award
4. national student council award
5. natl merit semifinalist

Letters of Recommendation

junior yr history teacher: 8/10 --> very very involved in his class and showed lots of interest in course content. He also guided me with the research paper.

junior yr english teacher: 8/10 --> he made a very good impression of me

superintendent of school: 8/10 --> showed some personal insights

boss: 10/10 --> showed the depth of my work and my genuine interest in helping others

Interviews

harvard: was ok, he just ran through my resume with me

yale: best I've ever had, super chill and we respectfully talked about politics for a while even tho we disagreed on some stuff

georgetown: I think it went well, but I didn't get a very good connection with the person. I asked if there was anyhting I could do to improve my interview performance at the end of the interview, and she said no, that i was very humble etc. but I'm not sure if she meant it lol

PSU honors: ok, nothing to write home about

washington and lee: was a great time. My only in person interview, as well. I had some trouble getting a seat for us at this coffee shop, but it ended up working out and we had some cool chats

Essays

personal statement: talking about how I could (physically, and emotionally) barely talk when I was little, and about how I grew through it, and I now am interested in political advocacy in order to give a voice to those who couldn't speak for themselves (like little me)

supps: lots of stuff on policy that interest me and how I see it intersecting w my community and such. none of them were great, but none of them were too bad either

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

Acceptances:

• american u rd
• northeastern (NYC scholars) rd
• W&M (monroe scholars) rd
• george washington rd
• villanova rd
• washington and lee university (attending!)

Waitlists:

• jhu rd
• upenn rd

Rejections:

• uva rd
• swarthmore rd
• northwestern rd
• harvard rd
• yale rd
• dartmouth rd
• georgetown ea
• duke rd

-------

Overall I'm super lucky to have gotten into W&L and some of those other schools. For context, I was not locked in whatsoever freshman and sophomore years. I was super demotivated, didn't really care about college and such. End of sophomore year, something changed and I locked in super hard. I would say for anyone out there that its never too late to get your stuff together. You're going to do great as long as you try your hardest.

Demographics:

• Gender: Male
• Race/ethnicity: Asian (i know)
• Residence: suburbs, Tennessee
• Income: full pay
• Type of school: non-competitive public
• Hooks: rural??? maybe?? if not then nothing. (also on immigrant visa ~ H4 ~ so i'm considered international for most places)

Intended Major: Bioinformatics/Mathematics + Biochemistry

Academics:

• GPA: 4.00 UW / 4.8 W
• Rank: n/a ~ but probs 1
• # of APs: 17 by end of senior year, mostly 5s, 2 4s (seminar + US history)
• Senior Year: AP Chem, AP Research, AP Stats, AP CS A, AP CoGo, AP Macro Economics, DE Linear Algebra, and Honors Chem II (need it for AP Chem)

Standardized Testing:

• ACT: 36 (35, 36, 36, 36)
• PSAT: 1500 (enough for national merit)
• AP Scores: all fives in anything related to my major then 4s on seminar and APUSH

ECs:

• SSP BioChem - research on fungal inhibitors; applied as an international student because of visa issues (look above); was like 1 of 4 intl kids in my cohort
• research w/ an expert (works at an R&D company) - did computational biology research ie. computationally modeling molecules to serve as inhibitors for enzymes in the dengue virus (spent like 1 year on this; paper is currently review w/ me as 2nd author); worked with the guy on a patented technique for finding the amount of a certain compound (named inventor); one other study w/ me as second author
• Math Club Prez - straight forward; was in the club for 4 years, started a few things & a math contest for fifth graders
• research w/ an expert (actual professor) - more research; this time was more on machine learning, I personally was just the data guy; got 1x paper out of this, currently being published (on lung cancer; 2nd author)
• MUN/YIG - school prez + state officer (won't tell u which conference); grew my school club from 4 people to ~30 (crazy) & taught a bunch on speech and debate (like 7 of the kids I taught won awards)
• bootcamp/hackathon director - started a mini student initiative (almost a non-profit) that has hosted 2x bootcamps on vibe coding ( i know this is goofy) and 1x hackathon; overall we've reached like 800 people from 23+ countries
• research w/ a local professor - working on a project on predicting the way wildfires will spread using time data (pretty cool); no paper or anything yet but the project is really fun; got the chance to pitch idea to ~19 faculty/ students
• BJJ - Brazilian jiu-jitsu ~ blue belt (5 years of practice) & won a few state medals + assistant coach for a bit; recently quit cause the coach was a jerk
• YouTube - grew a youtube shorts soccer channel to 400 subs and 100k views; obsessed with this during 8th and 9th grade

Awards:

• 1x USAMO Qual (this year too, but only a few schools were updated)
• 2x AMC 12 DHR (this year and last year; got perfect score 150/150 this year)
• 1x USAJMO Qual (sophomore year)
• 1x AMC 10 DHR
• Stem fest champion (1/2 in my state and like 1/106 in country) ~ pretty fun cause 1 week in DC
• World Science Scholar (1/15 in USA and 1/52 in world from >10k apps)
• National Merit Finalist (only 1 in school and 1 of 6 in district)
• Additional Info: congressional app challenge winner, top 8 in state for QuizBowl, ISEF finalist alternate (so close, yet so far), 3x AIME (including this year)

Essays/LORs/Other:

AP Calc Teacher (10/10) - read the letter and it was absolutely great, basically said that I was one of the best math students, leaders, and researchers

English (seminar/research) Teacher (5/10) - not good/not bad; read it and it basically said I was a good researcher and peer

Counselor (8/10) - lk loves me; say that i'm one the best students she's ever had; literally told me she had a hard time making my rec letter one page

Research Prof from EC #1 - allowed me to write it and approved it after; I GLAZED myself

Research Prof from SSP - i think he liked me; talked a lot and we bonded over that

Essays (7.5/10) - common app (7/10): about becoming more human, less analytical; supplementals (mostly good ~ 8/10)

Interviews so far:

MIT (7/10) - was 3.5 hours long and practically an interrogation (did make some jokes)

Duke (9/10) - some guy working at Vandy, was absolutely great...I loved it

Harvard (7/10) - had some scheduling issues, was lk pretty good (talked about politics at one point)

Princeton (6/10) - you'll see what happened w/ this one

Schools/Results:

EA:

Princeton REA - Rejected

Georgia Tech - Deferred (applied CS)

UIUC (CS + BME) - Rejected

University of Tennessee Knoxville - Accepted + Full Ride w/ Haslam Scholars

University of Alabama - Accepted + Full Ride w/ National Merit

RD:

Purdue - Accepted

University of Wisconsin (Madison) - Accepted

UCSD - Accepted

UCLA - Accepted

Johns Hopkins BME - Accepted

University of Maryland - Accepted

Georgia Tech (CS) - Accepted

Carnegie Melon (SCS) - Waitlisted

Duke - Waitlisted

Columbia - Waitlisted

Harvard - Waitlisted

University of Michigan - Waitlisted

Vanderbilt University - Waitlisted

Caltech - Rejected

MIT - Rejected

Yale - Rejected

Cornell - Rejected

UPenn - Rejected

Stanford - Rejected

Berkely - Rejected

Comments:

One piece of advice: stuff is stupid...please don't listen to people on reddit about what programs are good or bad. SSP apparently has a bad rep this year, but my cohort had 6 people get into Stanford, 3 into Princeton, 4 into Yale, 2 into Caltech, and a bunch more. Frankly speaking I likely had results in the bottom 3 or 4 kids in my cohort .

I'm not rly proud of where I got in and comparison is killing me...being international is hard and i'm lk done w/ it.

Lastly, always hedge your bets. If you really like a school, apply ED; don't wait for RD.

Between 2 scchools and confsued where to go. Umass is def more far for me compared to umd, but umass does have the major I want. Im fine with info sceince at umd unless computer engineering is possible to transfer to (unlikely tho ik). But the main factors I care about are internships, research, quality of academics, jobs, the basic stuff. What would you guys reccomend based on ur expiernece.

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)

1. Biochemistry research with an associate professor at an Asian college and researchers at a relevant company to create an invention
2. 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
3. Leadership position at school; residential assistant for 2 years in freshman and sophomore/senior dorms
4. 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
5. Leadership position at school; leading the school program that helps new students adjust by connecting them with experienced students
6. Admissions tour guide at school, also did a student panel for one of the admissions virtual info sessions
7. Every school club/organization that I was part of: leader of 3, member of 1
8. Captain of two athletic teams at school (both not varsity)
9. Instrument: played both classical and jazz, but didn’t submit a performing video
10. Cooking classes over summer breaks

Awards/Honors

1. 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
2. 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
3. Top 150 in one of USAPhO, USNCO, USABO
4. RPI (Renselaer) Medal and awards given at school
5. 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.

Demographics

• Gender: M
• Race/Ethnicity: Asian
• Residence: Hawaii
• Income Bracket: middle-ish (Hawaii is a bit different due to insane cost of living)
• Type of School: Small mediocre private
• Hooks: First gen, farming family, immigrant

Intended Major(s): Applied as CS for all besides Caltech, which I did Computational Neural Systems + CS

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 3.93 UW, doesn't do weighted
• Rank (or percentile): Doesn't rank
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 12 APs, 2 college courses (UCLA & HPU)
• Senior Year Course Load: AP Lit, gov, chem, physics 1, calc ab, independent CS project, Japanese 4 + self study for AP stats

Standardized Testing

• SAT: 1550, 750 RW, 800M, non-superscore, 3rd attempt (prev was 1400 (650RW, 750M) and 1450 (730 RW, 720M)
• AP/IB: 5s: Precalc, APUSH, CSP, 4s: Chinese, CSA, Lang, rest are in progress

Extracurriculars/Activities

1. Wikipedia editor -- 2nd highest permission level, 800+ edits over 4 years. Wrote my personal statement about this. I really liked doing this.
2. Made a quantum resistant encryption software in 10th grade, Congressional App Challenge (CAC) 3rd, RISE for the World Finalist, Special recognition in Hawaii state legislature
3. Made an AI powered college counselor designed to educate people on the college application process, 11th grade. This app wasn't designed to push people into ivy league but to provide general counseling that students don't get the chance to experience. Interned for my school's college counselor to make the app. CAC 2nd place, National STEM Champion, Conrad Innovator
4. Did research with an MIT professor on particle detectors and machine learning, published paper, 12th grade. National STEM Finalist (rejected for champion).
5. Blood donor, 3x
6. Math team President and led a revival of my school's math team, 1 year as member, 3 years as president. We went from bottom third to top third of schools.
7. CSHS, founded first private school chapter of CSHS in Hawaii, we taught elementary kids robotics and scratch, did hackathons and stuff, 3 years as president
8. Volunteered at various Native Hawaiian cultural sites, 4 years.
9. Food Bank of Hawaii volunteer, ~4 years. Package and distributed food, but mainly just a filler

Awards/Honors

1. National STEM Champion, National STEM Festival/Challenge
2. Congressional App Challenge 2nd & 3rd
3. Special Recognition from HI state legislature
4. RISE For the World Finalist (Top 500 out of ~15k internationally)
5. Conrad Innovator (Top 50% of applicants, not really that good)

Letters of Recommendation

CS Teacher - 9/10 very close relationship, favorite teacher too

History Teacher - 8/10 should be good, close relationship with her as well

Calc Teacher - 7/10 I needed a core curriculum teacher, she was the best option

MIT Prof - 7/10 should be decent but only submitted for Caltech as part of their research supplement

Interviews

MIT - Bad given the results

Rice- didn't know you could, but didn't matter anyway

Essays

My essays were done in 4 batches. The first batch was my EA essays, 2nd was my UC essays, 3rd were public RDs + NYU, and 4th was private RD.

All my EA essays were ass ngl. They were the first batch I wrote and they were all cliche imo. But I did keep my personal statement for all of these (excluding UCs)

My RD private essays were probably my best. For these I had the most experience and was locked in during winter break.

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

Acceptances:

• Ohio State EA
• Purdue EA
• UW-Madison EA
• UCR RD
• UCSD RD
• UCI RD
• UCSB RD
• Rice University RD
• Cornell University RD, Committed!
• USC EA Defer -> Accept
• UH Manoa RD (Got to skip class to apply)
• UW--Seattle RD (Rejected for Comp sci, admitted as pre-sciences)

Waitlists:

• John Hopkins RD
• Carnegie Mellon RD
• NYU RD
• Northeastern RD
• UC Berkeley RD
• Georgia Tech RD

Rejections:

• Caltech REA Defer -> Reject (this one hurt a lot, but tbf my major combo probably has a 0.1% acceptance rate anyway)
• MIT RD (Lowkey bs-ed their application cuz I loved Caltech)
• Northwestern RD
• UCLA RD
• UMich RD
• UIUC RD

Additional Information:

Caltech was my dream school and getting rejected from it genuinely hurt. Caltech >>> MIT btw.

Also when I was a writing my Cornell essay I saw a Cornell alumni that just graduated whilst on the beach and we talked about Cornell, colleges, and the future. Legit was a really cool experience. I'm sad I couldn't tell her I had gotten in and committed to Cornell.

I didn't get accepted into any single college that I've toured (Georgetown, didn't apply, UCLA, Caltech, NYU). So don't tour schools ig!!!

Demographics

• Gender: Male
• Race/Ethnicity: Canadian- American (moved at 9); Jewish
• Residence: New England
• Income Bracket: ~135k
• Type of School: Competitive Public
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): First Generation

Intended Major(s): Econ, International Business, Finance, Business Administration

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 3.9/4.2
• Rank (or percentile): School doesn't do
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 13 APs
• Senior Year Course Load: 5 APs

Standardized Testing

• SAT: 1550 (780 RW, 770M)

Extracurriculars/Activities

1. Chess Club - Founder & President
2. DECA - Chapter President
3. Model United Nations - Co-President
4. Varsity Track & Field - Captain
5. Journalism - School Newspaper Editor and Town Paper Intern
6. Lifeguard Job
7. SAT Tutoring
8. Volunteer making Lasagnas for those in need
9. Synagogue- Teacher's Aide
10. Immigration Support & Mentorship (Long Story but basically worked with helping new immigrants kids in school system adapt)

Awards/Honors

1. NHS
2. Chess "Expert" (2000 USCF Chess Rating)
3. DECA State Qualifier - Business Management & Entrepreneurship
4. First-Generation College Student Recognition Award

Letters of Recommendation

Math Teacher- 10/10

AP Economics/Deca Advisor- 8/10

Counselor: 6/10

Interviews

Georgetown McDonough- 7/10

Tufts- 10/10

Essays

Solid execution on a somewhat common "echo chamber" topic, but with time I saved it with personal stakes (Jewish). Supplements strong overall with the exception of Penn; . Tufts "Why Us" was probably my best.

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

Acceptances:

• McGill University - College of Arts and Sciences, Economics (EA)
• Brandeis University - College of Arts and Sciences, Quantitative Economics (EA)
• University of Toronto - Rotman Commerce, Finance & Economics (EA)
• State School- School of Business, Business Analytics (Honors College) (RD)
• George Washington University - School of Business, International Business (RD)
• Tufts University - School of Arts & Sciences, BS Quantitative Economics (RD)
• Georgetown University - McDonough School of Business, Business Administration (RD)
• NYU - Stern School of Business, International Business (RD)
• Boston University - Questrom School of Business, Business Administration (RD)

Waitlists:

• University of Pennsylvania — Wharton School, BS Economics (RD)

Rejections:

• None

Additional Information:

Didn't apply ED1 anywhere in hindsight that was huge mistake. I feel as though I would have had chance at Penn. To be honest, despite a clean sweep, the Wharton WL stings more than the acceptances feel satisfying. Finances complicate an already tough decision; as a first-gen student at a $135k household income, aid packages at NYU and Georgetown came in lower than expected (again should have maybe done some more research on that), making schools like McGill , Brandies (good financial and merit), UofT genuinely competitive options despite being lower on the prestige hierarchy. At this point: I am still deciding between Tufts (17k) or NYU (43k)

Demographics

• Gender: M
• Race/Ethnicity: White + Asian
• Residence: CA Resident
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): Geographic, California Community College student. Attending a feeder school to Cal.

Intended Major(s): Mathematics

Academics

• GPA/Rank (or percentile): 3.76/4.00
• All Cal-GETC and degree-specific coursework completed. I also took a class called Transition to Upper-Division Mathematics that taught proof techniques and teased content from upper-division math. Finally, I took Cal's MATH 55 in 12th grade.

Standardized Testing

• Didn't take

Extracurriculars/Activities:

• Teaching assistant for Calculus 2 and Calculus 3 in one semester (helping to grade homework, quizzes, and multiple choice questions on exams)
• Math club secretary
• 30 mins/week playing piano at a senior living home
• 8.25 hours/week volunteering at food bank
• 2 years college prep program for neurodivergent students
• Math Circle from high school (3 years)
• Recruiting strategist for a club my brother and some friends founded at Cal
• Mathematics Undergraduate Student Association meetings at Cal

Awards/Honors: n/a (didn't occur to me to put Dean's List)

Essays/LORs/Interviews: I think my PIQs were really strong. For my required PIQ (discussing major prep), I talked about taking the class on proof techniques, being an attendee of the math circle in high school, and being secretary of the math club (the lattermost improving my attention to detail). In another, I wrote about overcoming a TBI resulting from complications from hydrocephalus sustained just before 7th grade. I pivoted to my creative side, talking about teaching myself Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" Sonata, proofs in math, and writing poems. Finally, I expanded on my experiences at the food bank, incorporating what I thought was just the right amount of pathos.

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

• Acceptances: UC Berkeley (committed!), UC Santa Cruz, UC San Diego, UC Riverside, UC Merced
• Waitlists: none
• Rejections: none

Additional Information: none

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.

1. Tennis JV - (Soph. to Senior) Team Captain (Junior Year)
2. Band - 4 years. 1st trumpet/section leader in Jr. year, Honors Wind Ensemble Sr. year
3. Executive VP of self-founded CKD awareness nonprofit org: Jr year - ongoing
4. &gt;30 Hours volunteering at UC Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science, volunteered 5 hours at a regional park
5. Participated in an outbreak scenario designer for our school's final during junior year
6. 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
7. 2 unpublished research papers
8. Science Olympiad Sophomore year, made 10th in regionals for ecology
9. HOSA SLC (9th in state for a competition)

Awards/Honors

List all awards and honors submitted on your application.

1. AP Scholar with Honor and AP Scholar with Distinction
2. 10th place regionals, SciOly
3. HOSA SLC 9th place in State for Environmental Health ATC Test
4. FEMA CERT online certificate
5. Academic Block D award (some school award)
6. 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.

I previously applied to all the UC’s last year and got rejected from all accept UCSC. I changed my major from CS to DS and for some Cog Sci. Overall my stats weren’t the best but enough to get these results:

Academics : 3.72 ccc gpa, 7/10 PIQs, 10/10 ECs, 4 associate degrees, 4 paid internships.

Results:

Accepted:

SJSU

CSUMB

Cal Ploy SLO (Psych)

UC Davis +scholarships

UCSC +scholarships

UC Merced +chancellors & transfer scholar(Committed)

UC San Diego

Rejected:

UC Berkeley

UCLA

Unknown:

Waiting on Stanford in May

It was really always down to the NorCal schools, I applied to LA and SD for shts and giggles, I never planned on going there. After the Berkeley rejection I only considered UC Davis and UC Merced. Ultimately UCM felt more supportive, it feels new and upcoming. I’m a first gen so they treat us well there and I can’t wait to join research and clubs. I also have my own car so I can go any where in the valley. I’ve never been to Yosemite so I hope I can visit often while studying and on break.

Go Cats!!

Demographics:
Asian male, competitive public high school (CA)

Intended Major:
Biology

Academics:
GPA: 3.0 UW / 3.6 W (strong upward trend junior year)
Coursework: 2 APs (Bio, Chem)

Standardized Testing:
SAT: 1200

Extracurriculars:

• Part-time job (15–20 hrs/week)
• Hospital volunteer
• Science club member
• Tutored underclassmen in math
• Helped with family responsibilities

Awards:

• Honor roll

Decisions:
UCSD — Deferred

so im tryna major in electrical engineering and the national decision day is quickly approaching. here are my options right now and the pros and cons.

university of washington:

pros:
- closer to home (CA)
- proximity to tech companies in seattle
- diverse student body
- better location for city life
- strong internship recruiting

cons:
- in for engineering undeclared, so not guaranteed ECE
- rain & gray weather
- large classes?

uw-madison:

pros:
- in for EE
- big school spirit & college town feel
- balance of academics & fun

cons:
- further from home
- drinking & partying culture
- very cold

cal poly slo:

pros:
- good skill development from learn by doing
- smaller classes
- in for ee
- strong industry pipeline

cons:
- not a big research school if i wanna go to grad school (i probably do)
- less prestigious/well known overall
- less diverse
- will switch from quarter to semester system so it may be unpolished or id be the test subject