Official Class of 2012 RD Thread

[ccri]

Waitlisted




I already got into Duke, Northwestern, WashU, Colgate, and two other schools, so I'm just waiting on the Ivies. who cares about Hopkins when they've got the choices that I've got? I'm actually kinda happy about the waitlist because I knew Hopkins financial aid sucks, so if I did get in, I probably would have had to say no.

[Sluo7990]

Stats:

* SAT: 2250 - 800M 710CR 740W
* SAT II: 800 Math II, 760 Chem, 770 Math I (I had nothing else to take
* ACT: 35
* GPA: 4.0 UW
* Rank:School doesn't rank (Top 5%)
* Other Tests: AP Tests: Chem, Bio, Stats, Calc, Physics, Spanish, Gov, Econ (no need to show scores AMC - 103 is that any good?

Subjective

* Essays: um, dont really remember
* Teacher Recs: i know one was guaranteed amazing... the other... i dunno
* Counselor Rec: blah
* Supplementary Material: did i send any? i don't remember
* Hook: i dont think theres any hook... my parents went to college in taiwan?? i dunno...

Personal

* Location: Bloomfield Hills, MI
* High School Type: Public
* Ethnicity: A to the Z to the N ... asian
* Gender: M
* Applied for Financial Aid: (just yes or no): Y

Other

* Extracurriculars: um... lots of stuff
* Awards: too lazy to list... sorry
* Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: um I'm really glad and grateful that I got in. I don't know how cuz statistically, half the waitlisted/rejected kids have me beat. Anyways... to all the hopefuls on the waitlist...if get into UPenn (with a good financial aid package) my spots open in a second. Good luck!!

[piccolojunior]

Accepted








Stats:

• SAT: M 800 CR 770 WR 780
• SAT II: Math 2 - 800 Physics - 800 Chem - 790
• ACT: not reported
• GPA: 4.0 UW
• Rank: 1/126 (top 5%)
• Other Tests: (AMC, AP, IB)
  
  AMC12 100.5 past two years, 104.5 in 2006 (AIME 4 last year)
  USNCO semifinalist in 2007 and 2008 (probably finalist this year, Organic Chemistry FTMFW)
  
  APs:
  
  Biology - 5
  Calc BC - 5
  CS A - 5
  European History - 5
  CS AB - 4
  Env Sci - 4 (really a 5 but the collegeboard screwed me over)
  Physics C: Mech - 5
  Physics C: E&M - 5
  Statistics - 5
  English Language - 4
  US History - 5
  Chemistry - 5
  

Subjective

• Essays: both were good, hopefully the second one got me BME
• Teacher Recs: one oustanding, one good from humanities and science teachers respectively
• Counselor Rec: meh, who knows
• Supplementary Material: I sent an abstract of my research along with a copy of my AP score report.
• Hook: none

Personal

• Location: NY
• High School Type: Public, ****ty, sends less than 10 kids a year to good schools
• Ethnicity: Not reported
• Gender: XY
• Applied for Financial Aid: yes

Other

• Extracurriculars: Math team, Academic team, XC, track, lots of science research (starting my third project this summer, which I'll work on in parallel with the second one, which I've been at for over a year).
• Awards: Most were already listed, I was nominated for the Presidential Scholar's Program (141 ACT, but I didnt tell JHU about this award) and have been to NYSML the past 2 years (hopefully on the A team this year)
• Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: Nah, since I cant go here. 6000 dollars? omg no wai gtfo....then again, my idoc didnt arrive at JHU until last week

[mz innocentz]

[ size=+1]
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[ b]
Accepted
[ /b]
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[ b]Stats:[ /b][ list]
[ *]SAT: Math 730 Reading 660 Writing 690
[ *]SAT II: Math IIC 720 Biology E 720 US History 700
[ *]ACT: N/A
[ *]GPA: 4.0 UW 6.367W
[ *]Rank: 2/550
[ *]Other Tests: (AMC, AP, IB) APUSH 4 Calculus AB 5 Biology 5 English Language 5
[ /list][ b]Subjective[ /b][ list]
[ *]Essays: i thought that they were really sincere and touching, about how my trainable mentally handicapped classmates inspire me
[ *]Teacher Recs: good, i think? didn't read them
[ *]Counselor Rec: awesome
[ *]Supplementary Material: (research abstracts, music recordings, art slides)
[ *]Hook: (recruited athlete, cured cancer- only major ones that actually would have made a difference, please) [ /list][ b]Personal[ /b][ list]
expanded a local reading tutoring program to my home elementary school (started the new chapter from scratch-3rd yr of operation), Best Buddies President, job coach for 2yrs, UF SSTP one summer, yr-long extensive research abstract about work at Bascom palmer, won 1st place in regional science fair, going to ISEF, 1st generation american, national achievement scholar
[ *]Location:Florida
[ *]High School Type:Public Magnet
[ *]Ethnicity:Black
[ *]Gender: Female
[ *]Applied for Financial Aid: (just yes or no)[ /list][ b]Other[ /b][ list] Yes, but $0
[ *]Extracurriculars:see "Hook", swim team one yr, science national honor society co-president
[ *]Awards: National Achievement scholar, 1st place regional science fair (12th), various school awards (best chem, english student)
[ *]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:[ /list]

[Ambitiousteen]

everyone who got waitlisted or rejected or just plain old accepted RD, has similar ECs?

Guess the meaning of "Stereotyped ECs" exists...

no offense to anyone, they are great, but i guess when admissions have seen them for like the 10000th time, it tends to get boorish no?

By the way, piccolojunior, where you heading off to anyways? what university? you got some good stats test wise/academic average.

[bts7390]

Accepted




Stats:

• SAT: 800M 770CR 720W (2290)
• SAT II: 800M2 800M1 800PHYS 770USH
• ACT:
• GPA: 4.0UW 4.3W
• Rank: n/a
• Other Tests: (AMC, AP, IB)

Subjective

• Essays: good
• Teacher Recs: good
• Counselor Rec: great

Personal

• Location: PA
• High School Type: private
• Ethnicity: white
• Gender: male
• Applied for Financial Aid: yes

Other

• Extracurriculars: mathletes, band, academic competition, soccer, lacrosse, nhs, tutoring
• Awards: national merit semi-finalist, ap scholar w/ honor, some mathletes stuff
• Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging? Aweful financial aid. I guess I can cross Hopkins off my list.

[Ambitiousteen]

woah, cant believe people would trash schools for financial aid....

[tiptop1]

Accepted




Stats:

• SAT: 2230 (780M 760W 690CR)
• SAT II: 800 Math Level 2 800 Chemistry
• ACT: 34 (36M 33S 33E 33R0
• GPA: 3.998
• Rank: 10/350
• Other Tests: (AMC, AP, IB): 5 AP Bio 4 AP Chem

Subjective

• Essays: Good
• Teacher Recs: Great
• Counselor Rec: Good
• Supplementary Material: (research abstracts, music recordings, art slides): Research abstract, activity list
• Hook: (recruited athlete, cured cancer- only major ones that actually would have made a difference, please)

Personal

• Location: IA
• High School Type: Public
• Ethnicity: Indian
• Gender: Male
• Applied for Financial Aid: (just yes or no): No

Other

• Extracurriculars: Too many to list
• Awards: Eagle Scout, presented research at State JSHS, and others
• Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: Congratulations to all that got in and good luck to the rest of you!

[mordernportfolio]

Accepted. But JHU's FA sucks a**... MIT offers full FA to me, while JHU only gives me 6000...

Anyone experiencing the same problem?

[piccolojunior]

Sort of, in that I'm also paying $0 for MIT next year. I didn't get in....

By the way, piccolojunior, where you heading off to anyways? what university? you got some good stats test wise/academic average.

Well I'm waiting to hear back from Harvard/Princeton/Columbia.

[Kyuu]

Accepted




Stats:

• SAT: CR730 M800 W740 / 2270
• SAT II: 780M2 720 M1 680USH (sucky I know)
• ACT: ...I can't remember, not included
• GPA: UW3.8/W4.9
• Rank: no rank
• Other Tests: 5 APUSH, 4 AP Stat, 3 AP French

Subjective

• Essays: I think they were good.
• Teacher Recs: didn't read
• Counselor Rec: didn't read
• Supplementary Material: none
• Hook: none. Really.

Personal

• Location: PA
• High School Type: Public
• Ethnicity: Chinese
• Gender: Female
• Applied for Financial Aid: Yes(?)

Other

• Extracurriculars: Orchestra (principal), Photography Club (president 2 years)
• Awards: National Honor Society, Drexel University Book Award, Cum Laude Society (not submitted)
• Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: After being waitlisted from Duke and suffering three days of illness, this acceptance was really nice.

[marissa2245]

Accepted

Intended Major: Anthropology

Stats:
SAT: 2210 (M800/CR720/W690)
SAT II: 780 Math II, 720 Literature, 690 Physics, 660 US History
ACT: 35
GPA: 4.86 W, 3.98 UW
Rank:15/531
Other Tests:
APs
Lang/Comp - 5
Calc BC - 4 (AB subscore - 5)
Euro Hist - 4
US Gov't - 4
Spanish Lang - 3


Subjective
Essays: good, submitted the CommonApp essay rather than the Hopkins-specific prompt
Teacher Recs: good, I think
Counselor Rec: really good
Supplementary Material: none, other than further explanation of ECs
Hook: member of national champion Constitutional Scholars team

Personal
Location: Denver, CO
High School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Gender: F
Applied for Financial Aid: no

Other
Extracurriculars: Editor-in-Chief of school newspaper, Constitutional Scholars team, horseback riding, babysitting (15+ h/wk), school oversight committee, Link Crew, Aspen Ideas Festival volunteer
Awards: AP Scholar with Distinction, Presidential Scholar Nominee, honor roll

[livingtea]

Accepted; Neuroscience major

Stats:

• SAT: 2320, M800 CR800 W720 (took twice)
• SAT II: Math 2-780, World-730, BioM-710 (pretty bad considering i want to do neuro)
• ACT: n/a
• GPA: 3.87UW/4.63W
• Rank: top 10% i guess, school doesn't rank
• Other Tests: (AMC, AP, IB) ap calc bc 5, ap world 4, ap lang 5, ap bio 5

Subjective

• Essays: eh i'm not sure, i used MIT's prompt "describe the world you come from" and i talked about my parents. i was trying to go for some nice eloquent prose and honesty, but don't know if i actually achieved either
• Teacher Recs: my bio/genetics/marine bio teacher wrote a really personal one; not so sure about my english teacher... she liked me but i wasn't exceptionally talented at essay writing
• Counselor Rec: eh completely useless, i've had three counselors in high school. 1 in 9th/10th grade, 1 in 11th grade, 1 in 12th grade...
• Supplementary Material: none, too lazy/untalented to submit anything
• Hook: none

Personal

• Location: MD
• High School Type: public magnet
• Ethnicity: korean
• Gender: female
• Applied for Financial Aid: hell yes

Other

• Extracurriculars: field hockey, NHS, SHS, philosophy club, AWANA teacher at church, help at my parents' store, piano, art, tutoring
• Awards: 2007 DNA Day essay competition, 2005 honorable mentions for MD state's federal duck stamp competition, 2005 3rd place MSMTA spring solo festival, national merit finalist (although i never told JHU >_<)
• Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: i'm really happy! also jhu gave me a nice financial aid so i'm sort of leaning to jhu, even though UMCP has offered a nice scholarship. also, jhu's bio/neuroscience is supposed to be fantastic!!!

perhaps i'll see some of you at jhu this fall!

[phu08]

NOTE: I am not trying to be snobby or pretentious in any way...I am just trying to describe my application/profile and views on what got me in to JHU.




Accepted








Stats:

• SAT: 2090
• SAT II: Math2:720, USHistory:650, Physics:710
• ACT: N/A
• GPA: 3.54 uw
• Rank: N/A
• Other Tests: AP Psychology:4, AP Physics:2 (i was sick...), AP USHistory:4

Subjective

• Essays: Superb (imo...). I don't want to sound pretentious, but I guess I'm a pretty good writer...
• Teacher Recs: Two Teachers who I know personally and are amazing (both have Ph.D's): English, AP USHistory/AP EuropeanHistory
• Counselor Rec: Senior Class Dean
• Supplementary Material: Short Story I wrote and was published in a literary magazine
• Hook: Won a bunch of awards for violin and writing..

Personal

• Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
• High School Type: Private
• Ethnicity: Asian
• Gender: M
• Applied for Financial Aid: Yes

Other

• Extracurriculars: Violin (Youth Symphony Orchestra, National Honor Orchestra, Interlochen Summer Camp, HMTA Finalist, MNTA Finalist (west region), etc), I teach Violin to underpriviledged children (for 4years+) Sports: V-Golf (3years), V-Volleyball (2years, all-state), JV-Basketball (1year), Speech & Debate (state qualifier), Mock Trial, Key Club, JSA creator (of my district), avid writer of fiction/literature
• Awards: VIOLIN: Honolulu Symphony Concerto Competition Laureate, HMTA strings competition Laureate, MNTA mid-region finalist, Interlochen Youth Concerto Competition 2nd place, Selected short stories published in Literary Magazine & Local newspapers, other miscellaneous stuff
• Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: It's not all about GPA...In my case, relatively, I had pretty low SAT scores and a low GPA, but I was "passionate" and excelled at a couple of things (also, it helped that my highschool was/is a very recognized institution for most universities and colleges...It's Barack Obama's alma mater as well as Steve Case (AOL founder), the eBay founder, Michelle Wie, Kelly Preston (actress), etc...LOOK IT UP ON WIKIPEDIA).
  I also believe that most colleges want someone who is dedicated and passionate about a couple of subjects and activities and truly excels at them rather than joining 50+ extracurriculars and being mediocre/dispassionate
  I think what got me in was my essay describing my first community service project as a high school freshmen...I taught violin technique (how to play a violin) to a group of ten underprivileged children for $1 an hour...and I taught each one of them for four straight years. I described a couple of real examples during those four years that exemplified perseverance and tenacity on both my students and i's account.
  It also helps if you win a couple of national titles and competitions...
  Anyway, I think the essays have the "final say" in terms of a decision of acceptance or denied admission...the essay is the only way for these admission officers to truly connect with the applicants on a personal level...so take your time on them, and make sure you write to the best of your abilities.

So far, I have gotten into:

Santa Clara University
American University
University of Chicago
USC
Boston University
Johns Hopkins University

Waiting on:

UPENN
Columbia
Tufts
University of Rochester


***EDIT: Oh, I also forgot to mention my "political activism" as well as my position with the Obama '08 campaign. I'm a student organizer for the Obama campaign (they have flown me out to Iowa, California, and New Mexico) to campaign along side the senator and his sister. It's very interesting and I got to witness firsthand the dog-eat-dog world of politics. I think this scored a lot of points with most of my colleges. I am very aware of my surrounding world (in terms of politics, foreign policy and issues, etc), so I also described my experiences fighting as a lobbyist in my state senate as well as working alongside with the ACLU on certain lawsuits that I feel passionate about

[Handyandy58]

Accepted: Whiting

Stats:
SAT: 760 CR, 800 M, 730 W
SAT II: None, they're worthless
ACT: 32
GPA: 3.7 UW
Rank: top 10%, barely

Subjective:
Essays: I liked them. My supplement was only 150 words.
Teacher Rec: I would think it was good, might have been generic.
Counselor Rec: Awesome.
Supplementary Material: None
Hook: Umm... none?

Personal:
Location: Ohio
High School Type: Catholic, Jesuit
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
FA: Yes

Others:
ECs: 4 Years Track w/ 3 years Varsity and captain my senior year, though I'm not looking to do it in college right now. Lots of good community service, especially some things that I started up.
Awards: Nothing too special, just like Latin test things and general school honors.
Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: Well, I'm not really planning on going to JHU, so I hope that will help one of the waitlisted ones.