***Official Class of 2015 Decisions Thread***

[mathematicism]

^ Hey prjiki, have you decided which college to attend yet?

[beccaz]

Hi everyone,
You can find my full stats on the brown page, but the quick run-down is 2340 sats, 3.9 gpa, tons of extracurriculars ( I'm really proud of the fact that I'm working towards two associate degrees from the royal conservatory)...and I got rejected from all my American universities.

The funny thing is, I got early acceptances (and a couple merit scholarships) to all my Canadian universities, including queens, Toronto, and McGill. Unfortunately, what I really wanted was the small liberal arts environment that so many topnotch american universities have. That just made it harder, because their class sizes are so small - I found out after my rejection that Williams only took TWO canadiens last year...yeesh.

I really thought I was one of those passionate, curious, quirky people that they look for, but I guess it didn't show through. Also a word of advice for next years applicants: DONT compare yourself with the domestic applicant threads too much. Remember that you are vying for a spot with an incredibly competitive international pool, with a lot of applicants from more exotic and 'diverse' countries. Sorry if i make it sound too daunting, there is deinitelu still a chance.

I'm going to McGill for arts and business next year...it's still a great university, and we should be proud of what we have in Canada. But I think I'm still going to attempt a transfer to my dream school, brown, next year, and hope that things work out better this time around.

[ViggyRam]

^Great post and I agree. That is why I want this thread to be posted on by as many Canadians from the class of '15 as possible. A thread with many results from just Canadians is a much better point of comparison that those decision threads that are filled with domestic applicants.

I have posted your stats below beccaz. I hope you don't mind as you said that others could look them up. I think it would be helpful if they were on here because you do have great stats and great ECs and your rejections surprise me a lot. This goes to show how competitive admissions to top US schools are becoming.

Beccaz's stats:

Objective:

* SAT I (breakdown): 2340 single sitting (800 reading, 790 writing, 750 math)
* SAT II: 750 Literature, 730 Math II
* Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.9
* Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 5%
* IB (place score in parenthesis): no exams taken, but predicted 39/45 points
* Senior Year Course Load: IB English, IB Math, IB History, IB Geography, IB Biology, IB French, Writer's Craft


Subjective:

* Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Playing piano (13 years, currently working on two associate level degrees, one for performance and one for pedagogy), choir (6 years), Arts Council (Head), School Play (Actress and Stage Manager), Cappies (Lead Critic), hot yoga (3 years)
* Job/Work Experience: teaching piano to six students for over three years, Kumon tutor for two years
* Volunteer/Community service: Volunteered at senior home for three years, as data analyst for autism research program...easily 150+ hours
* Summer Activities: Summer@Brown course in psychology
* Essays: Supposedly flawless - one about how allowing myself freedom in learning helped me excel (perfect for Brown and its open curriculum). The supplementary essay was about my struggles with teaching piano to obstinate children, but to try to give them a genuine love for music, like I had. My counselor said that it could get me to any teacher's college in Canada.
* Teacher Recommendation: didn't read, but both teachers loved me
* Counselor Rec: Lengthy, but good. She told me that she really tried to highlight my integrity and honesty as well as my academics.
* Additional Rec: I got one from my prof from Summer@Brown. I didn't know her for very long, but she offered to write it, and I thought it would help to get one from an actual Brown prof...apparently not though.
* Interview: My first interviewer cancelled on me, so I had to pursue the alumni office until they gave me another one. It was a phone interview and only lasted 30 minutes.

Other[list][*] Country (if international applicant): Canada[*] School Type: public[*] Ethnicity: ASIAN[*] Gender: female[*] Income Bracket: 200K +
list]
Reflection

* Strengths: SAT score, good extracurrics and essays
* Weaknesses: being asian and international
* Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I honestly can't figure out where I went wrong. Neither can my counselor, or anyone else for that matter. I suppose it's just because there were so many deserving applicants, especially those who were domestic and URMs. It just sucks to get rejected outright from your dream school.
* Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Rejected: Harvard, Dartmouth, Swarthmore, Williams. Accepted: McMasters, Queens, McGill. So it looks like I'll go to McGill on scholarship.

General Comments: Well it sucks to be an asian international. And I guess I somehow just wasn't good enough.

[ViggyRam]

1029384's stats and results: (I hope you don't mind)

*** University of Pennsylvania Class of 2015 Official RD Decisions Thread ***

[asdf098]

Objective:

• SAT I superscore (breakdown): 2350 (M 770, R 780, W 800/12)
• SAT II: Math II 800, Physics 800, Chemistry 800
• Unweighted GPA (out of 100): ~96 (senior year)
• Weighted GPA: not calculated
• Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): not ranked
• AP (place score in parentheses): English Lang (5), Microeconomics (5), Physics (TBD), Chemistry (TBD), French (TBD), Biology (TBD), Calc BC (TBD)
• IB (place score in parentheses): n/a
• Senior Year Course Load: AP Bio, AP Chem, AP Phys, AP Calc, AP Eng Lit, French, Data Mgmt
• Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Avogadro Chem Exam (National): 99th %-ile
• Minor Awards: Top-of-class, French (2 years), German, Chemistry, Physics, Comp. Sci; Science Olympics: 1st place overall regional (2 years), 1st, 2nd, 3rd at various regional events; Physics contest: 6th place in province

Subjective:

• Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): Student Council (Webmaster): 2 years; Mentorship program (at a research lab at University of Toronto): ~50 hrs; Science Olympics team member: 2 years (+ lots of regional awards); Prefect: 2 years; French tutor: 3 years; Summer engineering program @ Univ. of Toronto; Elementary school volunteer: 3+ years; Teaching Assistant for AP Chem class: 120+ hours, etc.
• Job/Work Experience: Part-time programmer: 2-3 years; Private French tutor: 1 year
• Volunteer/Community service: Total: ~310 hours

Writing/Recs

• Essays: Common App essay was pretty good, apparently. Supplements idk some were good some sucked.
• Teacher Recommendation: One was likely the best I've seen, the other was pretty good too.
• Counselor Rec: Very thorough
• Interview?: Didn't flow as nicely as some of my other ones, but the interviewer showed a genuine interest in the things I had to say. Left me with a good impression.
  

Other

• Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes.
• Intended Major: Bioengineering
• State (if domestic applicant):
• Country (if international applicant): Canada (ON)
• School Type: Public (~1700 students)
• Ethnicity: Caucasian (Russian)
• Gender: Male
• Income Bracket: 100,000-130,000
• Hooks (first generation college, etc.): n/a
  

Reflection

• Strengths: Scores, awards, ECs showed depth in my field of interest
• Weaknesses: Did all of my supplement essays in the last two days. I wasn't too happy with some of them, especially Penn's.

Results

• Accepted: Penn (SEAS), Duke (Pratt), Johns Hopkins (BME), UC Berkeley (Bioengineering)
• Accepted (Canada): U of T Engineering Science (early, U of T scholar), U of T Life Sciences (early, U of T scholar), Western biomed (early), McGill biomed (early)
• Rejected: Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Cornell
• Waitlisted: Brown
  

General Comments: There's a lot unpredictability in this process. I thought I had the highest chance at Cornell, because it has the highest acceptance rate and I liked my supplement essays for it. Penn's acceptance rate is considerably lower and its supplement was the last one I did, by which point I just wanted to get it over with. I thought it sucked. I guess the lesson to be learned is that you should never try to estimate your own chances. You never know what will happen.

[Nosike]

Objective:

• SAT I (breakdown): 2240: CR - 740, M - 740, W - 760, 8 Essay
• ACT: N/A
• SAT II: Math II - 800, Chem - 730
• Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 93%
• Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): N/A
• AP (place score in parenthesis): N/A
• IB (place score in parenthesis): Biology SL-5, Math SL-6
• Senior Year Course Load: French 20IB/30IB, Physics 20IB/30IB, Chemistry 30, Social 30-1, English 30-1
• Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Honor Society, Gauss Math Contest

Subjective:

• Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Varsity basketball and football, Air Cadets, Acting and Modelling Agency, Debate, etc
• Job/Work Experience: Basketball Referee
• Volunteer/Community service: Church youth volunteer, Business office at school, etc
• Summer Activities: N/A
• Essays: Decent, were written about my experiences living in several different countries
• Teacher Recommendation: Excellent
• Counselor Rec: Average (he put very demanding for my schedule as opposed to most demanding)
• Additional Rec: N/A
• Interview: Yale and Princeton, both went very well

Other

• State (if domestic applicant): N/A
• Country (if international applicant): Canada
• School Type: Public
• Ethnicity: Black
• Gender: M
• Income Bracket: $100000
• Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): (Thought I was URM, guess not)

Reflection

• Strengths: Nothing really
• Weaknesses: SAT could've been higher, counsellor recommendation
• ACCEPTED: McGill, Calgary, UBC
• WAIT-LISTED: Yale
• REJECTED: Harvard, Cornell, Stanford, Duke (ED), Princeton

[mathematicism]

TOTALLY forgot to post stats here

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown): CR 730 M 800 W 800 Composite 2330
ACT: N/A
SAT II: MathII 800, Physics 780
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.93, or 93.6/100
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 5%, exact rank unknown
AP (place score in parenthesis):
Macro-economics (4), Micro-economics（4）, Psychology (4), Calculus AB (4), English Language (3) (I know... they're all bad) Taking: Physics C, Statistics, Chemistry, Calculus BC

IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A

Senior Year Course Load: Economics, Independent Studies Math, English (AP Lit got cancelled due to low enrollment), History (no AP History offered at my school), AP Bio, AP Physics B, AP Chem, Peer Tuturing

Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):
AIME x 2
CMO (Canadian Mathematical Olympiad) x1
Medals from table tennis tournament
Fermat Contest National Champion


Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Varsity Table Tennis (Captain 9,10,11,12, won a lot of medals and awards)
Recreational Table Tennis Club(President 9,10,11,12)
School tutoring club (Co-founder and President, 12)
Math Club (President, 9,10,11,12)
JV Basketball (9,10)
Student Council (11,12)
Job/Work Experience:
Basketball Columnist/ Freelance Translator (11,12)
Math/Physics Tutor (9,10,11,12)
Volunteer/Community service:
Youth Camp counselor (10,11,12)
School Teaching Assistant (10,11,12)


Summer Activities:

SIMUW (Summer Institute of Mathematics at University of Washington) - 2009
AwesomeMath - 2010
Essays: Assuming good
Teacher Recommendation: Didn't see. Assuming decent
Counselor Rec: Didn't see it
Additional Rec: Not sending one
Interview: Haven't had it yet

Others:

School Type: Mediocre public
Race: Asian
Gender: Male
Hook: ABSOLUTELY NONE

Results:

Accepted to: Duke (Trinity, attending), Boston College (Honors), University of Waterloo (National scholarship), McGill University

Waitlisted at: Northwestern, Amherst, WashU

Rejected by: Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, Pomona, Vanderbilt, Penn Wharton (ED)

Can't say I'm perfectly content with the overall result, but still thrilled to be a Blue Devil!

[vinsim]

@mathematicism

Off topic, there is TT here in the CARY and Raleigh area, if you would like to continue. We have several 2000+ players.

Cary: Mondays: Bond Park Senior Center
Cary: Wednesdays: Herb Young Community Center
Cary: Friday: Middle Creek Community Center
Raleigh: Friday: Brier Creek Community Center

Welcome to the Triangle area.

Vinsim.