I attend North Carolina School of Science and Math which is freakishly competitive to get into anywhere from, so yeah.
Intended major: Environmental Science or Environmental Policy with a double major/minor in Computer Science
SAT: 1540 (790 reading, 750 math)
GPA: 5.26 (I had all A’s except for 3 B’s in math classes my first trimester of senior year. I tried to explain it by saying that my parents divorced first tri and I was the only student who hadn’t had calculus yet in 2 of those classes)
Extracurriculars:
helped to start up the composting system at school and wrote the successful $2,900 grant to industrialize the composting system. I now manage compost at school.
I taught a seminar for credit on environmental policy.
I lead an initiative to grow and plant thousands of milkweed plants and other native plants around my county to promote the growth of the Monarch butterfly population
I did environmental polymer chemistry research in synthesizing polymers to adsorb heavy metal and organic pollutants
Wrote $2,500 worth of grants to fond the construction of a garden and cistern system at my school to capture and filter polluted runoff
Co-president of the sustainability club on campus
Co-captain of the Envirothon team. We won 1st in wildlife at states last year.
former co-captain of science olympiad team. Won 4th in forensics at state last year
Volunteer at Boys and Girls Club - logged around 100 hours and set up a program to teach the club members computer science
Organized petition (unsuccessful) for a computer science class at my former school. 1/4 of the student body signed it, around 200 people.
organized the instillation of a solar panel array on campus
Recs: pretty good, but not stellar
essays: alright, but could have been way better. My essay to Cornell was excellent
Accepted: Macalester, UNC Chapel Hill (attending), NC State, Appalachian State
Waitlisted: Cornell
Rejected: Swarthmore, Amherst, Harvard, Stanford, Duke
Overall, my essays could have been better (should have written more about environmental stuff. I did my common app on Computer Science but wrote at least one supplemental at each school about environmental stuff) and I should have organized my extracurricular A LOT differently (I fit all my environmental stuff under 3 extracurriculars when I should have spread it out and elaborated more). I ended up getting rejected or wait listed from all my top schools, but I’ll be happy at UNC.