Demographics
Gender: male
Race/Ethnicity: Chinese/vietnam
Residence: NJ
Income Bracket: 100k+
Type of School: Public school in NJ
Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): First Gen
Intended Major(s): Econ/Polisci
Academics
GPA (UW/W): 3.9(I think)/4.59. ****I am usually an A/A- student but my senior year I have a B- and B in AP Physics C and AP Calc BC respectively for my semester 1 grades on my midyear report.
Rank (or percentile): n/a
of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: AP Bio, AP chem, APUSH, AP compsci a, AP compsci principles, AP Lang, and honors mandarin.
Senior Year Course Load: AP Physics C, AP Calc BC, AP Macro, AP lit, AP stats, AP mandarin
Standardized Testing
SAT: 1530 (math 780, english 750)
Extracurriculars/Activities
#1 Captain of speech and debate team (9-12) (ranked top 100, various debate awards including placing at national tournaments, organize events for 50+ member team)
#2 Research paper (11) — Went to an AI camp over the summer where me and a couple of other kids developed an AI model that uses stance in Twitter tweets to predict the likelihood of merger and acquisition deals going through and how that affected stock price. Published in preprint but technically not published.
#3 Cofounded school’s chemistry club(10-12) -coached a team to 2nd place in the chem olympics
#4 Family commitments(9-12) Help take care of my younger brother and help translate for my moms business
#5Volunteer (9-12) — Grow produce at local community garden to donate to food pantries
#6 co-VP and senior representative of Chamber Orchestra (12) — Play violin 1 in an audition based ensemble
#7 Sailing (9-11) — Crew for school’s sailing team
#8 Random coding projects on Github (9-12) — Websites and games and stuff
#9 Outreach debate member (12) - Volunteer coaching for disadvantaged debaters. Help increase equity and inclusivity in the debate space
#10 Tutoring (9-12) — Volunteer tutor for like two kids on my block
additional info:
linked my publications from research
added that i carried out independent research and submitted a paper to the concord review (was not published). uploaded the paper to college portal once i had access.
added summer programs (new york times and kenyon review)
Awards/Honors (sry abt how vague this is!!)
#1 AIME qualified (12)
#2 National Merit Semifinalist (11)
#3 Brown University Book award (11)
#4 AP scholar with distinction (11)
#5 Nominated by school to apply for Governor School(11)
Other debate awards like NSDA all American were listed in additional information
Letters of Recommendation
APUSH history teacher — (8.5/10) I was probably her best student in her class, would always raise my hand, and come in for extra help to talk to her about random history subjects. She said she really enjoyed writing my letter of rec!
AP Bio teacher — (7/10) Had my struggles in this class but eventually figured it out. Bio teacher specifically asked me if she could write my letters of rec. I said yes ofc but then she procrastinated and wrote it the day before they were due so… idk. She said it was very easy to write mine tho.
counselor — (6/10) Don’t really see my counselor all that often but me and him are dogs.
Interviews
UPenn Interview: She knew my debate coach and me and her were Vibing. It didn’t really feel like an interview and more like two chill friends having a talk about random stuff. I think I was pretty unique in my answers to her interview questions and in the question I asked of her.
Essays
common app (9/10): Wrote about a skin condition and how that made me want to become a better person so people wouldn’t judge/remember me for my skin condition but how I was as a person. Wrote about how it inspired me to do debate.
I already got deferred UPenn ED but pls chance me for top schools like Cornell, Upenn, Harvard, Williams, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, and Uchicago(ED2). I am applying to their schools of arts and sciences if they have one for economics/polisci. I am really worried about my grade dip in the midyear report affecting my chances here.
