Demographics
- US domestic/dual citizen
- In state Cali
- Competitive public HS in Bay Area with low UC acceptance rates (off the top of my head sub 10% UCLA and Cal, mid 10s-low 20s UCSD/UCI/UCD/UCSB), been to 2 other high schools which were noncompetitive privates with less clubs/teams/APs/etc
- Odd circumstances but no hooks or anything
Cost Constraints / Budget: N/A, family is high income
Intended Major(s): Something in math/physical sciences
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
- Unweighted HS GPA: 3.77 UC
- Weighted HS GPA: 4.08 capped, 4.38 uncapped
- College GPA: Not transfer but 3.83 across 14 credits lol
- Class Rank: N/A, not ELC
- ACT/SAT Scores: High but irrelevant
List your HS coursework
(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)
Some were taken online due to scheduling/availability/HS-transfer-logistics 
- English: Regular x3, AP Lang
- Math: Precalc (honors then dropped to regular, got a kinda bad grade I need to report but it’s not computed into UC GPA), Calc AB, AP Stats, DE Calc 2, UCBX Multivar, UCBX Linalg
- Science: Regular bio, regular chem, AP bio, honors physics, AP Physics C (both), AP Chem
- History and social studies: Regular geo (1 sem at my HS), regular WH, regular USH, one semester APWH (had to make up a credit because my old school only put me in 1 sem WH), DE Macro, regular econ+gov
- Language other than English: Spanish 1-3 and Chinese AP exam only
- Visual or performing arts: Vocal ensemble that I dropped due to some personal issues, then DE Illustration and Music (satisfies A-G, I checked)
- Other academic courses: Biotech CTE (dual HS+college cred course), APCSA
Awards/Extracurriculars - lengthy cuz there’s a lot of space on the UC app, also I hate this order but I’m too lazy to fix it since you need to manually delete and re-input on UC app
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EC, [Mid semi-selective, yr-round research program collab with a UC] Biophysics Research – Measuring energetic costs of neural computation. Built math model; coded neural spike simulations & AI model for analyzing physical data of neurons & run regressions on/predict morphology. Presented at [events]. Authored lit rev; developing manuscript about using/interpreting entropy produced in neural activity as a theoretical biomarker. (11, 12)
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EC, Computational physics research – Ran computational experiments on numerical representations of phase transitions w/ ML. Attended [lesser known UC summer program], presented virtually; created poster, presented at in-person symposium. Further developed model, wrote ArXiV preprint on its applications to detection in superconducting materials & computational benchmarks w/ [T20] PhD student, pub pending (11, 12)
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EC, Pinterest creator – Ran Pinterest account with consistently 400k-700k+ monthly views. Built a social media presence of original content since 7th grade; creating images of digital photo edits, photography, graphics, etc. Created and uploaded visuals to go along with writing, academic, and research projects. (9, 10, 11, 12)
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EC, Social Media and Writing – Posted social media threads of various scientific topics such as nutritional chemistry. Ran newsletter w/ long form works ft. satirical and personal essays, absurdist flash fiction, and science articles. Audience of 3k. Ran TikTok posting entertaining educational content on physics problem solving, art, debate, and music. 2.5k+ likes. (9, 10, 11, 12)
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EC, Tutoring – Group lectures and 1-on-1 tutoring help on Schoolhouse in SAT prep, Stats, Calculus, Bio, Physics. Made AP + SAT prep practice quizzes. Answered 40+ HW questions in calc, physics, bio, stats, English. Privately mentored 2 10th graders in advanced calculus & probability topics. Created online archive of AP science notes/resources, reached 5k+ (11, 12)
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Award, [Chinese cultural art comp] 1st Place Art Award – 3 recipients chosen overall, monetary award of $150 for the first place winner. Created a colored traditional art piece over the span of 3 weeks to achieve this award. (11)
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Award, PVSA Gold/NSHA – Award granted for 100+ hours volunteered in a year. PVSA Gold obtained in 9 and 10, NSHA in 12. This award was granted to me through the community service organization [REDACTED]. I volunteered at the food bank, food packaging center, trash pickup, bottle collecting, and more.
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Newsletter Writer – Wrote for student newsletter [REDACTED]. Published articles spanning topics in applied mathematics, physical chemistry, computational physics and engineering, AI, philosophy of science, statistics and probability, and more. Worked on chapters for [REDACTED] magazine on computational sciences & data ethics to distribute online/in person internationally.
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[Regional Calendar art award] – Top 12 art pieces submitted; I created a colored drawing over the span of 2 weeks. My artwork was used for the [org] Calendar and distributed/sold for the year 2026. (11)
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Volunteer / Community service, [Local NPO] – Student Coleader [org] in 2023; Partnered with [charity] to build an origami display in the [museum] for a childhood cancer outreach and awareness event. Led effort to fold 1,000+ paper cranes. Participated in many different organizations such as [org 2] [org 3] etc. 400hr+ total. (9, 10, 11, 12)
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Award, [Debate invitational] speaker placement – Achieved a speaker ranking of top 24% in the Open Public Forum division, Placed #1 overall within [my school’s] debaters competing in the division. (11)
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Award, AP Scholar with Distinction – [Self explanatory]
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EC, [localish youth program] – Selected for [program], focus areas piezoelectricity and neurotech. Created blog, wrote articles and built simulations related to focus area. Additionally, shared original research using empirics from databases & surveys analyzing predictive metrics of academic success & quality of physics education across diff schools on blog. (12)
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Award, Top 20% Learners Impacted + Sessions Hosted on Schoolhouse – I hosted 22+ sessions on the Schoolhouse platform for AP Science and SAT preparation. I reached 30 learners. Additionally I reached learners in 4 countries across 20 tutoring hours. I amassed 24 hours of volunteering overall from doing this counting prep of slides, practice tests, and lectures. I received 37 positive reviews from students.
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EC, Speech/debate/misc – Competed with [my school] Speech and Debate as a JV public forum debater in Varsity and Open Public Forum divisions. NSDA Honors Society member with Degree of Merit. Schoolhouse Dialogues club - discussed perspectives on topics in politics, ethics, etc with students worldwide. (11, 12)
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EC, Freelance Artwork – Created pencil drawings, digital illustrations, graphics, CSS web design, holiday or birthday cards, social media for pay. Made approximately $50/month from commissions, 4-5 months/year. Hand-drew 10+ holiday cards each year to hand out to elderly and hospitalized community members. (9, 10, 11, 12)
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Award, National Merit Commended Scholar – Achieved a score of 1460/1520 on the PSAT 11, with 750/760 in Math and 710/760 in EBRW, corresponding to a selection index of 217. (12)
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EC, Immerse Education Essay Competition Runner Up, 30% Merit – Answered prompt “Physics often treats time as a simple timeline that moves forward. If the fundamental laws of nature work exactly the same whether time runs forward or backward, why do we experience time in only one direction?” Researched topic & wrote essay over 3wk on the probabilistic nature of entropy increase in a closed system. (12)
Essays/LORs/Other
PIQs 2456 (creativity, educational opportunity/barrier, significant challenge, academic inspiration) - probably decent
Schools
- Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability): UC Merced but I think I just barely meet cutoff for statewide ELC lol, the auto-admit Cal States, community college
- Extremely Likely: UC Riverside EE or ChemE - before you flame me for not “doing the major you want” this is just a layer of assurance that I have AN option for engineering if I decide in May I really care about getting a job quickly pg at a school I think I could get into it for
- Likely: UCSC Physics
- Toss-up: UC Davis Applied Math, alt Mathematical & Scientific Computation
- Lower Probability: UCSB L&S Physics; UCI Math, alt Physics
- Low Probability: UCSB CCS Physics; UCLA Physics; UCSD Mathematical Bio, alt Physics; UCB Physics, alt Applied Math