S25’s results:
White Male, no hooks
Full Pay – did not apply for financial aid
Parents have graduate degrees
Large Public High School in SF Bay Area
GPA: 3.7 UW /4.0 W
SAT: 1550 (780M/770V)
Rank: not calculated, but definitely not in top 9%
APs: World History (5), US History (5), Lang (5), French (5), Physics I (4), Physics C, BC Calc, Bio, Studio Art (Photography), Lit
4 years varsity badminton (men’s doubles)
Piano lessons
late, light dabbling in various clubs (cycling, robotics, physics)
short stint working at a restaurant
no leadership or volunteer work to speak of
Summers: Honors French immersion exchange program through CIEE; WPI Frontiers program (robotics)
Awards: some kind of distinction on national French exam, National Merit Commended Scholar, whatever you get for doing well on APs.
Applied as engineer (either undeclared or mechanical) or physics major (schools without engineering).
Essays about getting over his shyness in France and bonding with kids who were not “his types”, learning more about his Persian heritage, trying to bridge divide in polarized campus debates about Middle East, solving puzzles, being an unlikely engineer (these last, for UC PIQs, were not very compelling IMHO).
LORs:
Physics teacher (has had 2 years now + TAs for him)
French teacher
Accepted
- Oregon State University (MechE)
- University of Pittsburgh (engineering undeclared)
- University of Minnesota (engineering undeclared)
- CU Boulder (engineering undeclared) – $6250 merit
- University of Washington (first-year engineering) – $3K merit
- Colorado School of Mines (MechE) – $6K merit
- RPI (MechE) – $39K merit
- WPI (MechE) – $29K merit
- UC Santa Cruz (Physics)
- UC Merced (engineering, I think?)
- Brandeis – $40K merit
- Case Western Reserve – $31.5K merit (deferred EA and then admitted)
- University of Rochester
- Union College – $36K merit
- Lafayette College
- Macalester College – $20K merit
- Oberlin College – $32K merit
- St. Olaf College – $31K merit
Waitlisted
- Cal Poly Pomona (MechE)
Rejected
- Cal Poly SLO
- Purdue (N.B.: applied after priority deadline which probably doomed him)
- UC Berkeley
- UC Davis
- UC Irvine
- UC San Diego
- UC Santa Barbara
Notes for future aspirants:
- Applied EA wherever possible. It was a huge push at the beginning of the season but it paid off.
- Interest demonstrated: we visited all the private schools on this list, either last winter or this winter before the decision deadline. Interviewed wherever possible. He did not open all their damned emails, however, nor did he show up for all the school representative visits to his school.
- UC/CalPoly results were disappointing but not surprising.
- Did not expect to get into the reachier private schools on his list (Case, Macalester), as we’ve noted a bunch of stronger profiles getting turned away. I have to wonder if being full-pay and helped.
- We were pleasantly surprised by the merit he received from many of the private schools. St. Olaf would have been the cheapest COA (less than either UC); Union and Brandeis and RPI came in just under $50K estimated COA.
We’re not 100% done with decisions around here but I’m guessing he’s going to UW, although Case is still intriguing to him (and preferred by at least one of his parents, truth be told).