SAT II: 800 Chem, 800 Math II, 800 Chinese, 760 US History, 750 Bio, 730 French
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/605
AP (place score in parentheses): Bio (5), French (4), Euro (5), Chinese (5), APUSH (5), Chem (5), Physics C: Mechanics (5), Eng Lang (5)
IB (place score in parentheses): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Eng Lit, AP Physics B, AP US Gov, AP Calc BC, H Advanced Anatomy, H Wind Ensemble
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit, National AP Scholar
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): Wind Ensemble (principal flautist), Symphony Orchestra I (principal flautist), local youth orchestra (principal flautist), California Scholarship Federation (president), American Red Cross (secretary), Amnesty International (treasurer)
Job/Work Experience: Private tutor, Flute teacher, Teacher's aide at Chinese school
Volunteer/Community service: Local hospital, Chinese cultural assoc., Senior home, City library, Performing arts center
Summer Activities: COSMOS @ UCSD: Bioengineering/Mech E, volunteer, visit China
Essays: Why I want to be a doctor.
Teacher Recommendation: Chem teacher should be okay, Eng teacher forgot to write until day before lol
Counselor Rec: Generic probably
Additional Rec: N/A
Interview: My interviewer was really nice. Great interview.
Other
State (if domestic applicant): California baby
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: not enough for finaid
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): N/A
Reflection
Strengths: I'm well-rounded
Weaknesses: I'm too typical?
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: See weaknesses
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Accepted: MIT! , UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, USC
Waitlisted: Rice, UChicago, Cornell, U Penn
Rejected: Stanford EA, Brown
While they do, I'd be more worried about whether or not you could do well in the intensive BME program. Your other acceptances and rejections will likely give you a more accurate picture. The majority of your classmates will have 3.8+ GPA and 2200+ SATs in the BME program. Make sure to not carry over any slacker habits to college.
AP (place score in parenthesis): Bio (5), AP English Language (5), AP Psych (5), AP US History (5)
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: AP English Lit, AP French, AP Calc BC, Economics, Physics
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Nothing special. Community service leader, Math Club president, StuCo, Track, etc.
Job/Work Experience: Internship at famous Shanghai university's water pollution control lab (got rec from professor famous in his field), volunteered at local hospital, etc.
Volunteer/Community service: Orphanages, elderly homes, mentally disabled homes
Summer Activities: the lab internship
Essays: common app was really good, very genuine and unique. supplements were run of the mill.
Teacher Recommendation: didn't see
Counselor Rec: didn't see
Additional Rec: rec from professor
Interview:
Other
State (if domestic applicant):
Country (if international applicant): China
School Type: small, unknown, private international school in Shanghai
Ethnicity: Chinese
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: 100K
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): none
Reflection
Strengths: Test scores. Rec from professor. Johns Hopkins also accepts one student each year from our school, so I guess it's one of the only top schools that recognizes my school's name? Didn't apply for aid either.
Weaknesses: lack of amazing EC's (honestly not many opportunities in China), international citizenship, ethnicity, B's in junior year Precalc (ugh)
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: see strengths.
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Rejected-HYP, Duke, Cornell, Dartmouth, UPenn, London School of Economics. Waitlisted-WUSTL, Northwestern, Brown. Accepted-UCLA, UC Berkeley, USC, Boston College (Honors), McGill University, U of Toronto, University College London (conditional)
General Comments: I know, I applied to a lot of schools. It's just that I'm international, and it's super hard for me to get into top US schools, coming from China. Got to hedge my bets. Applied to schools outside US too. My high school is super hard (it deflates grades and offers few APs) and has no reputation at all. I think it hurt my chances at other schools. Again, I applied to top schools that are super hard to get into. College admissions is random, I guess. Bummed out that I didn't get into any Ivy League Schools. But who cares? I got Johns Hopkins! Anyone else in the same boat? Hope this helps other aspiring international students out there!
I actually have an estimated $0 in aid right now... I waited to send in the IDOC forms (signed 2011 income tax form) until AFTER I was accepted to the colleges I applied to. Only Johns Hopkins asked for them though; I hope and pray to God that they give me financial aid!
Hopkins seemed remarkably strong this year, or has this always been the case?
I got into Dartmouth, Brown, UPenn, Yale, Duke, Berkeley, Northwestern, Tufts, and waitlisted at some other top schools but the only rejection I got was from Hopkins.
At first, I dismissed this as a form of protecting their yield (I had never looked into the school and really just applied as a whim), but damn are most of you above strong.
I'm not too sure about Isis. I definitely had never heard anything about it before yesterday even though I applied for financial aid, so I don't have a password. When I tried to sign in as a new member, it said I was too late and have to wait and call the financial aid office or something. I'm hoping the financial aid package is sent in the mail with the admission letter and merit aid package so I don't have to worry about Isis at all.
SAT I (breakdown): 2320 (800 M, 800 W, 720 CR)
ACT: 33
SAT II (if submitted): 760 Chemistry, 750 Math II, 730 Spanish
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 2/492
AP: Euro (4), Chem (4), Econ-Macro (4), US History (4), Calc BC (5), Lang (5)
IB:
Senior Year Course Load: Honors Physics, PE, Honors World Mythology, Honors US Govt, AP Spanish, AP Biology, AP Statistics
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Finalist
Subjective:
Extracurriculars:
-School Newspaper (12th: EIC, 11th: section editor, 9th-10th: staff writer)
-National Honor Society
-Math Honor Society
-Spanish Honor Society (12th: Historian, 11th: VP)
-Model UN
-Badminton (12th: Varsity, 9th-10th: JV)
-Science Olympiad (12th: Captain, 11th: Founder and Captain)
-Math Team
-Community Service (at local hospitals, for ACS, local nursing home for seniors with Alzheimer's)
-Research (summer after 10th) at Illinois State University
-Shadowing a doctor at IUPUI's Center for Translational Musculoskeletal Research (summer after 11th)
Job/Work Experience:
Volunteer/Community service: See ECs
Essays: I really liked my essay about my major, I thought it was very creative and interesting to read, but I guess it wasn't good enough.
Teacher Recommendation: Didn't read, but really good I'm sure
Counselor Rec: Eh (Don't have the best counselor)
Additional Rec:
Interview:
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Don't remember specifically but something in the Biological Sciences/Pre-med
State (if domestic applicant): Illinois
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian (Indian)
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: $100,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, research, etc.):
Reflection
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Where else you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
-Northwestern University (accepted)
-Penn State + Pre-Medical Medical program (accepted)
-Case Western Reserve (accepted) - waiting to hear back on the PPSP Program
-UMKC (accepted) - waiting to hear back on the BA/MD Program
-Loyola University (accepted)
-University of Michigan Ann Arbor (accepted)
-WUSTL (waitlisted)
-Vanderbilt (waitlisted)
-Harvard (rejected)
-Duke (rejected)
-Penn (rejected)
, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, USC
