GPA: 4.0
Major Pre-reqs Completed: 4.0
Major: International Relations
IGETC?: Yes
Extracurriculars: None.
Job/Work Experience: College tutor and assistant for De Anza's Honors Program. Trained junior employees and worked 15+ hours a week for my two year stay.
Volunteer/Community service: Volunteered at an organic farm for one quarter, and, before working there, did one volunteer event with the Honors Program. Didn't really write too much about this though.
Essays: Wrote them literally the day of. Everyone asking for me to send them my essays, sorry, but I wrote them directly into the boxes. I focused most of my writing on showcasing my individuality.
Applied for Financial Aid?: Nope.
State: CA
School Type: CCC
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: Upper middle
Hooks: Past High School dropout who had the chance to travel to a variety of countries and immerse myself in a variety of cultures.
Teacher Recommendations: Both incredible. Multiple pages and checking the top marks for every category.
Strengths: Perfect GPA, enough Honors classes to be labeled an "Honors Scholar" (8), a large amount of work experience. Took classes relating to my major.
Weaknesses: Terrible, terrible high school transcript (a lot of NC's before dropping out). No clubs or extracurriculars.
Test scores
ACT Composite 32
English: 34
Mathematics: 26 (I didn't bring a calculator)
Reading: 31
Science: 32
English/Writing Combined: 32
No SAT or SAT subject tests.
I wholly believe that the writing segments were the most important, as I focused completely on making sure that nothing I had written was going to possibly be written by anyone else. For example, in the movies and books section, I talked about my love for classic horror media, and my appreciation of early religious text as such. In the potential roommate section, I mostly focused on cleanliness and etiquette other than personal interests.
Hope that helps. In my opinion, it is a crapshoot anyways. If you do everything they ask for, they'll deny you for conforming. If you don't, you'll get denied for not being good enough. It seems to all be about finding the area in between.
Hey everyone. I wish I had participated in this thread...I lurk in CC occasionally but rarely post.
I was just accepted to Stanford, Yale, Georgetown SFS, Williams, and others. I just wanted to say that transferring is a *****. I got rejected from most schools last year, and decided to take a year off to refocus. This was right for me, and I hope some might consider that an option.
Stanford is likely my selection, but they set their reply deadline for 3 weeks after the notifications went out. I'd like to visit before deciding to move across the country...but such a time restraint makes airfare like three times as expensive.
Anyway...this is David Seale, past International Vice-President for Phi Theta Kappa. If any Phi Theta Kappans want to chat about their plans going forward, feel free to reach out to me.
Congratulations David--what a great group of schools to choose from! Re: visiting Stanford, have you tried contacting the admissions or financial aid offices to see if they might subsidize your trip out here? It seems like a reasonable request if the cost is prohibitive, and no harm in asking. (I know they offer to help prospective freshmen with the costs of attending Admit Weekend if they need it, so this situation seems analogous.) Hope it all works out, and best wishes.
AS in Mathematics
AA in Int'l Studies with advanced proficiency in Spanish, intermediate French
3.85 GPA
Near perfect SAT
1 letter of rec talking about me as a student
1 letter of rec talking about me as a person
My essays were mostly about my drinking beer, and what pub culture means to me.
International Vice-President of Phi Theta Kappa Int'l Honors Society 2010-2011
Phi Theta Kappa Middle States Regional President 2009-2010
Student Gov't President
Formed Statewide Alliance to bring together student government organizations to discuss challenges facing community colleges, and worked on these issues with legislators
Worked with 4 other student leaders from across US to design and implement the community college completion initiative, which was a highlight of the whitehouse summit on community colleges.
Jack Kent Cooke Transfer Scholar
Guistwhite Scholar
All USA First Academic Team
New Century Scholar
All-State Academic Team
A few other "student leader" type distinctions
Anyway....I hate stat breakdowns. All I can say is, don't try to do everything. Do one thing, and go for depth. Most of my stuff has to do with Community College well-being, development, initiatives, etc.
Words of wisdom: work hard. learn to relax effectively. fight for what you deserve. Spend a lot of time writing your essays...mine were spectacular...after 9 drafts. Take your time with everything...it's worth it.
I took the SAT before enrolling in CC and got a 2400. Because I was in CC for five years (pursuing two degrees and really getting involved in my EC's) the scored expired when it was time for me to apply. I took them again and got 800 verbal, 780 math, 760 writing.
For those of you looking to re-apply or apply...I would suggest looking at raising your scores. I think they helped me. If you've got the summer, approach SAT studying with intent and commitment.
Intensely study each section of Math while practicing the ones you've already covered to maximize understanding. Doing the verbal sections repeatedly while reading their reasoning behind answers will get you thinking like the test-writers. And a straight read-through of a grammar handbook with some practice essay writing will help you nail this test to the wall. Take a practice test every Saturday morning for three months (12 practice tests) before your test date. No way you won't score well, and help your chances of getting in good. This is one of those rare elements of the app that all you have to do is put in the hours.
Hello, sorry to dig up an old thread but I have a quick question I hope someone can answer. For the three short essays on the supplement (with the 2000 character limits), are the responses in short answer format, or essay format with intro, body, and conclusion?
