Bio Major
Applying to: CHANCING FOR ANY WOULD HELP VERY MUCH I LOVE YOU
• UC Berkeley
• UCLA
• UC Santa Barbara
• Duke
• Johns Hopkins
• Northwestern
• Brown
• Yale
• Princeton
• Harvard
• Dartmouth
• Cornell
• Columbia
• Stanford
• Boston University
• USC
• UPenn
• Washington University in St. Louis
Objective:
• SAT I (breakdown): 2340 (superscore) (800 R, 760 M, 780 W)
• ACT (breakdown): N/A
• SAT II (place score in parentheses):
o Bio-E (800)
o Math II (750)
o Lit (730)
• Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.79, 4.47 (W)
• Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 30% (deciles- VERY competitive group of kids smh)
•
AP (place score in parentheses):
o Bio (5)
o Lang & Comp (5)
o Env (5)
o US Hist (5)
o Euro (4)
o Calc AB (5)
• IB (place score in parentheses): N/A
• Senior Year Course Load:
o IB Biology HL
o AP Statistics
o IB Design Technology
o AP Psychology
o AP Literature
o AP Government (Sem 1)
o AP Economics (Sem 2)
o Physics 1
• Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):
o National Merit Semifinalist (likely finalist)
o National Hispanic Scholar
o AP Scholar with Distinction
o Principal’s Honor roll, Student of the month, so nothing else tbh I won a Nat Quals debate for the Catholic League but it’s kinda lame af
Subjective:
•
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses):
o Gay-Straight Alliance (President) 4 years, important in essay about sexuality
o Animal Advocates (President) 3 years, many successful drives.
o Books for Africa (President, Founder) 2 years, 650 books first year
o Debate (Varsity Debater) 1 year so far, won NCFL National Qualifiers 1st Place
• Job/Work Experience: N/A
• Volunteer/Community Service:
o Research Assistant at Reproductive Ecology Lab, 8 hours/week, like 200 hours total.
• Summer Activities:
o Research Assistant (above)
o Trip to Bosnia with native Bosnian, stayed in her hometown 2nd most damaged in genocide- tied into essay but very lightly and not the focus
•
Essays:
o Commonapp: 7.5/10- not very detailed and a little scatter-brained but not awful. Tied sexuality into it mainly, tried not to sound like an arrogant prick and wrote in a pretty conversational tone.
o Supplementals: 6/10 not very creative for any of them. I answered the questions ie “Why ______” I’d talk about research assistant gig, talk about their undergraduate research opportunities, talk about any unique major/minor I’m attracted to, then I’d talk about their social atmosphere in regards to sexuality and their LGBT center
• Teacher Recommendations:
o Environmental Science Teacher (9.5/10) she really liked me and I did well in her class. She’s very sweet.
o English (7.5/10): did well in her class and had a good, friendly relationship. I volunteered a lot in class
• Counselor Rec:
o (7/10) she cares about me and I like her but it’s a big school and she’s always pretty busy
• Additional Rec: N/A
•
l.
Other
• State (if domestic applicant): CA
• Country (if international applicant):
• School Type: Large public, really hard tbh we’re like #2 for STEM
• Ethnicity: Hispanic, White
• Gender: Female
• Income Bracket: ~$190,000
• Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Mexican/Hispanic (URM), female into STEM, LGBT (pres of GSA and essay ties into it, maybe not a hook but shows I’ll get involved with LGBT stuff on campus)
• I’ve gotten into
o USC with merit scholarship offer waiting on the rest until april