Feel free to send me a private message if you have any questions. Several parents here helped me, and I’d be happy to pay it forward, for whatever my insight is worth.
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Congrats! My kid will also be attending FSU. Picked it over several other strong OOS options for business. Cool to see where other students are from and what other options they had.
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Intended Major & Career Goals : Political Science, Government, Urban Studies - Hoping to get into management consulting → political consulting
International, Canadian @ Public School. USD~70k income, Unhooked
Unweighted GPA : 93.47, no rank.
SAT : 1540, 800RW 740M
Coursework: IB Diploma + French Immersion (took all grade 9 and 10 courses in French)
Extracurriculars/Activities
1 Taking care of disabled family members
2 Model UN President, chair, extended involvement, conference organizer
3 Campaign Intern for 6 election campaigns
4 Director at a long-standing political nonprofit - collabed with city hall, wrote policy that changed programming in my city, created youth councils in downtown wards with city councillors
5 Student council president - reformed student council constitution and changed parent council by-law to support intl student/newcomers. created a “translations committee” for intl. student outreach
6 Summer Program - attendee twice then unofficial ambassador - reached out to create a new role basically bc they didn’t have ppl advertising like me
7 Youth Advisory Chair at large labour education nonprofit - I created new workshop programming that got students to join unions
8 Orchestra player at city youth orchestra (audition) & street busker, had social media page + raised $500+ for Canadian Cancer Society
9 Entertainment Captain for Relay for Life w/ Canadian Cancer Society. Raised $17k
10 Volunteer Coach & Public Outreach/Marketing director at a long-standing figure skating non-profit. raised $10k for financial aid through grant applications
additional info:
elaborated on my ECs a bit (MUN and busking) + talked abt my family responsibilities
Awards/Honors
1 Scholastic Art&Writing - Gold Key, American Visions Nominee (Political Cartoon)+ Honourable Mentions
2 (REGIONAL) Public Library - Creative writing contest, 1st Place in English & French Poetry/Short Story, every year since 2018-2023
3 Model UN: Best Delegate @ National Conf, Hon. Mention @ intl. conference, Led club to 2x Best Delegation
4 Summer Program - Voted Best Dressed, two years in a row
5 Loran scholarship semifinalist
Letters of Recommendation
Geography teacher — (8/10) She loves me and I love her, but she cannot write well. I read it and she rlly did try but it was not very clear what she tried to convey about me
English teacher — (???/10) she is an enigma. she wrote my LOR in 2 hours immediately after I asked and tbh she now hates me when she didn’t before. so i don’t know
Counselor — (7/10) I think she called me an activist.. She knows a lot abt what i do in my school which is goated but also I am not outwardly an academic-focused student - im very involved in the school admin
Interviews
not listing all of them, but here’s a highlight reel, ranking from best to worst
Georgetown - first interview. my interviewer said i’d loveee the school and that i would fit right in (i agreed) we didn’t “click” per se but she seemed to like me. she thought my questions were super insightful and this interview def helped me write my essays
MIT - technically this went HORRIBLY, BUT he remembered me since he talked to my friend about me and called me “an original” (??) since i was applying for polisci and was interested in urban design. i looked him up before and a lot of ppl were complaining abt him online … we debated the healthcare system in Canada fervently. My only in-person interview so i liked the vibes more, but def an unfortunate experience!
Sciences Po & UC Berkeley - bro i kept saying falsehoods/misconceptions abt the dual degree, they grilled me on french world issues and i didn’t have anything to say, i said i love protests and how destructive they are in France???
Essays
Common App (6/10): i think it was too much narrative. idk i don’t rlly like it anymore
Supplementals
The ones that stood out to me were:
Stanford - I COOKED ON THESE!!! i loved the prompts. they rlly suited what i wanted to convey
Georgetown - cooked on these too. my why Georgetown/why major was so fire i wish i got to submit it to other schools
Harvard and Columbia - even tho these are my fav schools, these were ass LMFOAOOO but the Columbia media list essay was fun. i categorized all my medias into categories like “perfect pair” or “I 
Where I’m From”
Sciences Po/UC Berkeley - I wrote the dual degree essay in legit 30 minutes and it was half the wordcount.
Decisions, roughly ranked in order of my preference
Waitlists:
Hamilton College
Rejections:
Columbia University (i was so crestfallen over this. what about our NYC dreams?)
Georgetown University (this one hurted kind of really really really bad)
Harvard University (dream school so it kinda hurt but I knew i was cooked)
University of Pennsylvania (this one had a lil kick to it)
Yale University
University of Chicago EA
Princeton University
Brown University
Cornell University
Stanford University
MIT
Dartmouth University
Johns Hopkins University
Northeastern University
Acceptances:
UC Berkeley (WHAT) (COA for 4 years = 380k USD)
SciencesPo/Berkeley Dual Degree (WHATTTTT!?) (COA for 4 years = 200k USD)
University of Toronto + Munk One Foundation Year!!! (COA for 4 years = 60k USD)
University Western Ontario - not considering
YorkU Glendon - not considering
Ball State University - lol
Still not 100% sure where to commit tbh. I want to do consulting out of undergrad & move to the states… don’t rlly want to do grad school right away or pay for it lol
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This seems a tad high for UCB out of state. Isn’t it currently about $76K for out of state inclusive of campus housing (can save if you go off campus), etc.? Doesn’t include their estimate for personal expenses but those in my opinion are usually higher than reality, though I guess you would be flying to/from Canada. Perhaps factors in the assumption of substantial annual inflation over 4 years?
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yeah i’d def be doing the dual degree which looks to be about USD 200k total, not including inflation
I get priority co-op housing, etc
not going to do masters unless i absolutely need it
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I posted this a few months ago in a different thread about aerospace, but will add here as the info is just as relevant and slightly updated:
The stats - 3.75 GPA UW and honestly don’t know the weighted. 5 AP’s with 5’s on all the tests. 33 ACT. Chicago, Catholic high school, two sport athlete all 4 years, volunteer service, summer jobs and UIUC summer engineering camp (1 remote and 1 in person). Essay had a neat personal story, but honestly was just fine and given the schools he applied to, I doubt they even looked at it 
Applied Aerospace wherever available or Mechanical if not.
Alabama - accepted (w/ $30.5k/yr merit)
Auburn - accepted ( w/ $15k/yr merit)
Georgia Tech - denied
Iowa - accepted (Mech) ($13.5k/yr merit)
Marquette - accepted (Mech) (w/ $30k/yr merit)
Maryland - accepted (no merit)
Michigan - deferred from EA to RD to waitlist -
Ole Miss - accepted (Mech) + Center for Manufacturing Excellence (w/ $27k/yr merit)
Purdue - denied Engineering, accepted in Physics - College of Science
South Carolina - accepted (Mech) ($15k/yr merit)
Stanford - REA - denied
UIUC - accepted (no merit though it’s in-state)
Vanderbilt - RD - denied
Will be attending UIUC
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Applied major: Biological Science, Health Science, accelerated DPT
Small NJ Suburban HS
UW: 3.8 W: 4.2
ACT: 30, but applied TO for most
5 APs, all math and science
NHS, Science NHS, Tri-M Music Honor
Violinist, Swimmer
Volunteer in Children Specialized Hospital and Special Need Program
DPT shadowing
Work as lifeguard over summers
SAFETY
RIT ACCEPTED $27,600 merit and Accelerated Master program
U of Delaware ACCEPTED $12,000 merit
NJIT ACCEPTED zero merit
TARGET
NYIT 3+3 BS/DPT ACCEPTED merit $30,000
Quinnipiac 3+3 BS/DPT ACCEPTED merit $33,00
TCNJ + Thomas Jefferson BS/DPT 4+3 ACCEPTED merit $1000
Rutgers NB SAS, SEBS ACCEPTED zero merit
Purdue ACCEPTED zero merit
Pitt ACCEPTED zero merit
Stony Brook ACCEPTED merit $13,000
REACHES
Rutgers Pharmacy WAITLIST EA > ACCEPTED zero merit
BU 6 year DPT WAITLISTED
Northeastern ACCEPTED EA zero merit
U of Rochester WAITLISTED
Case Western Reserve DEFFERED EA > ACCEPTED RD merit $30,000
After torn between accelerated DPT program and traditional 4 years, S24 finally committed to Case Western with intended major in Systems Biology, minor in Sport Medicine and on Pre-Health track. He is OK with DPT as career but not 100% sure if that’s what he wants for life. We don’t want to push for answer at this moment so decided to go with traditional 4 years first. He will have another 4 years to explore in a school that can offer him respective opportunities and resources.
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Delete
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Intended major: International Relations, environmental studies
Urban Midwest Jesuit HS
UW: 4.0 W: 4.6
ACT: 34
APs: APUSH 5, Human Geo 5, Chem 4 (awaiting scores on five other AP exams)
Dozens of national/state awards in environmental science/ecology (Sci/Oly), history, and a national recognition for community service
State Department paid internship and prestigious fellowship
Part-time job as historical museum docent for three years
Environmental science volunteer work for three years
(No hooks, no legacy)
SAFETY
UW Madison ACCEPTED
TARGET
University of Michigan (EA) ACCEPTED with LSA Honors
Boston College (RD) ACCEPTED with four years of guaranteed housing
Wakeforest (RD) ACCEPTED
Boston University (RD) WAITLISTED (did not accept place on the WL)
REACHES
Middlebury (RD) ACCEPTED
Georgetown SFS (EA) deferred, waitlisted, then rejected
Notre Dame (EA) WAITLISTED but did not accept place on the WL
Claremont McKenna (RD) WAITLISTED but did not accept spot on the WL
Duke (RD) REJECTED
University of Chicago (RD) WAITLISTED, then ACCEPTED a couple days after submitting LOCI. ATTENDING
S24 was sincerely enthusiastic about every school on his list. After all decisions were in, he narrowed his choices down to Middlebury and UMich Honors. Right after choosing UMich, UChicago contacted him to offer him admission from the waitlist. He visited many schools over the past two years. What he wanted from a college shifted dramatically from the end of sophomore year to senior year. He was wise to not do ED because it allowed him to carefully weigh his options and make the choice that fit his personality and his goals at the end of senior year. UChicago was the very last application he submitted and the essays he wrote for UC best reflected who he is and what he wants to bring to his college experience.
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S24 white – NYC suburbs public high school
UW 98/W101
Rank: top 5% of class
SAT: 1510 (790 math/720 verbal)
9 APs - all 5s (Calc BC/AB, Physics 1, US History, World History) and a 4 (Computer Sci) so far
Varsity/travel sports (+ 2 sport captain), student government and clubs
The common app and ED essays were good; other essays were just ok
Assume very strong letters of rec
Applied to all as engineering major (besides Brown – applied math)
Results:
ED
Brown: Rejected
EA
U of Maryland College Park: accepted w/$10,000/yr merit ATTENDING!
SUNY Binghamton: accepted w/$3,000/yr merit
RPI: accepted $33,500/yr merit
WPI: accepted $28,000/yr merit
UVM: accepted w/$25,000/yr merit
RD
Georgia Tech: waitlisted (stayed on WL & sent LOCI)
Boston U: waitlisted (didn’t stay on WL)
Purdue: waitlisted (didn’t stay on WL)
My son applied to 7 schools before Dec. 1, and rejected the idea of adding any additional EA apps (hated writing essays). Plus, he wanted to be within 4 hours from home (UVM was an outlier - it was a free app). After the Brown rejection, he really rethought what he wanted in a school and decided against his initial plan of applying to additional ivies. Right before the RD deadline, he decided he might be OK going further away if a school checked all of his other boxes, and applied to GT and Purdue in late Dec.
His thinking also changed during the process on what he wanted in a school. After the visit to UMD, he was sold on going to a big school with big time sports (+ the electrical engineering presentation at UMD was so impressive!)
Advice for future applicants:
- Many kids change a lot over the course of senior year, so encourage your children to apply to a range of different schools in case they have a change of heart.
- Make sure your kid understands that if they don’t apply EA to certain schools – in our case to Purdue and GT – they’re at a serious disadvantage. Applying to Purdue RD is also torturous, as they drop results every Friday evening for about a month – with most of the WLs/rejections at the end. Would not recommend!
Would my son’s results have been different if he applied EA to Purdue/GT? Maybe. But ultimately I think he would have ended up at the same school based on other considerations. Go Terps!
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Anyone interested in transfer application results on here?
I posted last year my D23’s results- brief summary:
ACT - 36 (one test)
Top 10 boarding school A average
Pre-professionally trained ballet dancer
Dance as main EC (20+ hrs a week)
Good essays nothing amazing
Great recommendations
Accepted-
- University of Alabama (Presidential Elite scholarship)
- University of Pittsburgh (tuition exchange scholarship)
- St. something or other ( tuition exchange scholarship- seriously can’t recall the name)
- Colgate
- Hamilton (attended fall 2023)
Wait Listed- - Syracuse (did not visit or show interest)
- Amherst
- Vassar
Rejected- - Wesleyan
- Williams
- Princeton
Attended Hamilton fall 2023. Was not a good fit so didn’t return in January. THIS WAS A MISTAKE. By not finishing a full year, she did not have enough credits to apply to several schools she wanted to. Example Pitt- who offered a full tuition scholarship less than a year ago, would not let her apply!
She has been working, spending time with us- a nice thing after being gone at boarding school for 2 years, and figuring out what she wants to do with her life. So- nothing truly amazing to add to an application.
She applied to 4 schools, two repeats that we were pretty sure would be no’s again.
And they were Vassar and Williams.
And two new ones. St. Olaf and Macalester. The rejection from Macalester was a bit of a surprise, even with a 17% transfer acceptance rate. Her essays were better, they track interest and she showed it. However, we both kind of fell in love with St. Olaf and it was mutual. They gave her the highest transfer student scholarship and also some need based aid. So, she’ll be an Ole this fall. Hers’s to hoping she finds her people there!
Williams -
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This is an amazing outcome. Would it be too inquisitive to ask about why Hamilton wasn’t a good fit? We’ve been Hamilton-curious around here but it’s been hard to get a real read on the culture. (It would be massive reach regardless…)
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It is hard to say exactly what happened with fit at Hamilton. She got Covid the first week, her roommate never showed up. The dance program was not what she had expected, the one volunteer related club she tried to join outside of dance was full. She didn’t find a group to hang out with that was into things besides going to parties, which she had zero interest in. She just didn’t want to go back.
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It’s been a while, but I was right! I got off the UCSB waitlist on the very UC deadline to commit and I am UCSB-bound
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hey there my friend! ofc i can do an actual result thread :DD
accepted: slippery rock university, pennwest university - california, indiana university of pennsylvania (IUP), seton hill university, duquesne university, virginia tech
waitlisted (then ACCEPTED!): university of pittsburgh - main campus
rejected: university of pennsylvania, carnegie mellon university
school type: public
location: pennsylvania (specifically westmoreland county)
race/gender: white, nonbinary/genderqueer
prospective major: microbiology
unweighted GPA: 3.8
weighted GPA: 3.9
class rank (weighted GPA): 67 of 375
SAT: 1390 (october 2023)
AP scores:
AP lang: 2
AP biology: tbd
AP german: tbd
extracurricular info:
*four years of marching band (performed at pearl harbor, fiesta parade in san antonio, and disneyworld, two years on flute and two years on piccolo)
*concert band since 3rd grade (consistently an end seat, began doing piccolo in concert band senior year and was first seat as well)
*four years of choir (alto section leader junior and senior year. performed at carnegie hall with choir junior year)
*NHS, NAHS, TRI-M, NEHS, SNHS, GNHS, MHS, global scholars (seven honors societies and one distinguished foreign langauge extracurricular)
theatre freshman year to junior year (two spring one acts 9th+10th, one fall play 10th, one musical 10th but had to drop second musical 11th due to health issues)
WIRC team member in 9th + 10th
*GSA club member 10th-12th (GSA president 11th-12th)
german club member 9th-12th
*faywest honors band 12th (first seat on flute)
*county choir 11th (alto)
*raised over $1,000 for the muscular dystrophy association through my work to help earn money to feed me and my mom during a period of homelessness
*150-200 hours of community service through my honors societies
other info:
LGBTQ+
became physically disabled during sophomore year of high school (narcolepsy, POTS)
neurodiverse (autistic + ADHD)
mental illness (anxiety, depression, ocd, ptsd, etc)
child of divorce x3
low income (free lunches, max pell grant etc)
child of single mom (parents divorced when i was five)
essays:
i focused on my personal life experiences and wrote my personal essay about how my mom inspired me to become resilient and keep going no matter what. she was an ab*se survivor and became disabled when she was 20 due to a freak accident that broke her back. she is also a cancer survivor and escaped a DV situation when i was 16, leaving us homeless for a period of time. i am a strong writer and believe that my essays helped me a lot
idk how my lors are content wise, but i was close to my organic chem teacher and guidance counselor so i don’t doubt that they put in a good word for me
work experience: two years as a cashier at a local family-owned grocery store
awards/scholarships:
academic award (local academic award for student with highest cumulative GPA in middle school
recipient of local hospital auxiliary scholarship ($2,500)
ATTENDING UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH - MAIN CAMPUS FOR MICROBIOLOGY 
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EDIT: I RECEIVED SCORES FOR AP EXAMS 2024 
ap bio: 5
ap german: 2
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D24; big suburban Illinois public school
GPA: 3.9 UW. She took all honors and AP, but nothing insane
School doesn’t rank, but it was probably top 10-15%
SAT: 1550
8 APs (school limits freshman and soph APs). Seven 5s and a 3. Four of the 5s came this year.
ECs:
junior-varsity softball for three years and travel softball. two years of cheer
Volunteering, activism and a part-time job coaching pitching and running softball/baseball camps
Various performance activities, one of which was impressive and unique. We think that might have been what helped her do so well even at her reaches.
Her counselor said hers was his favorite recommendation to write, and my impression is that her other recommender, a very demanding and highly regarded teacher, also wrote a banger of a letter. But of course the UCs don’t take recommendation letters.
Applied to most as Communications; UCI as Biology; Berkeley as nutritional science; UCLA undeclared.
No big awards or honors; National Merit commended, AP scholar with whichever level it is after you’ve taken four. Illinois State Scholar, Spanish Honor Society, etc.
Results
Loyola Marymount: Accepted ($16K merit)
San Diego State: Accepted; received a $1000 or $1500 scholarship in April or May
University of San Diego: Accepted ($23K merit)
UIUC: Accepted with Chancellor’s Scholarship and invitation to Campus Honors Program, which only invites 125 students per year (!)
UC Irvine: Accepted
UC San Diego: Accepted
UC Santa Barbara: Accepted
Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Cal Poly Pomona: Accepted
USC: EA: Deferred. RD: Rejected. Appeal: Accepted!!!
UCLA (dream school): Waitlisted —> Accepted and Committed!
UC Berkeley: Waitlisted, and her school email account deleted itself just as she was about to read the email last week, so let’s just think she’s permanently on the waitlist so she can preserve the 100% acceptance rate
She got the USC news a day after getting off the UCLA waitlist, and it made her a bit sad, because she would have loved to go there, too. She had committed to UCSB and everybody had fallen in love with it. We are blown away that she did so well. She had 4 Bs, though two were freshman year, and one was senior year, after the window the UCs are looking at initially. A great academic record, but there are lots of kids out there with straight As. I think she just maximized the heck out of those apps and really focused on activity descriptions. Thanks to CC and Reddit for lots of advice and some essay reading!
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What does this mean/how does this work? I have never heard being able to appeal an admissions decision.
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Yes, more info please!!
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So I think USC gets more appeals than other schools. There’s an appeal form available on the front page of the portal. I wouldn’t normally bother pursuing this (and in fact, it was a last-minute submission) except that it occurred to me that since USC doesn’t have a waitlist, if they significantly overestimate their yield, maybe they go to their appeals. And I saw a few posts on Reddit from previous years that suggested their appeal bar wasn’t as high as most schools. They still say it hovers around 2%, but she already had a LOCI written for UCLA, so she modified that and it took very little time. USC was really her best app because they take letters of recommendation and scores. I honestly was a little surprised she didn’t get in initially.
Bottom line is that it’s still hard to get into USC by appeal, but they don’t make the process difficult, so if you think you might have been on the bubble and it won’t drag your heart through the mud to wait for what will likely be another rejection, you have a better chance than at other schools.
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