Chance an aspiring physics major for a handful of T25s [NY resident, 98.36/100 GPA, 1530 SAT]

Demographics:

Gender: Male
Race: Asian/Indian-American
State: NY
Income (USD): $75k < x < $100k
School: Suburban Public; 494 ppl in senior class
Major: Physics (possible minor or dual major in Mathematics)

Academics:
GPA: 98.36/100 (basically 4.0 UW); school doesn’t use weighted

SAT: 1530 (730 R/800 M)

ACT: 34 (35 E 36 M 31 R 32 S 11 W)

Class Rank: School does not offer, but predicting 4 or 5 / 494

AP: WH, USH, BC Calc, Lang, Stats (all 5); currently taking Chem, Phys CM, Gov, Lit

EC’s:
-4 years of varsity tennis (always played singles)

-Captain of varsity tennis team (1 year)

-1 year of JV tennis (also singles)

-4 years of orchestra

-2 years of chorus

-2 years of Tri-M Music Honors Society (nominated sophomore year)

-Boys State NY 2023; elected for some “city” roles. Week-long program at a SUNY; was one of 6 boys in my junior class to be accepted for the program (around 700 kids across NYS).

-Tutoring SAT Math (for Aug 2023 SAT) and high school physics through virtual platform Schoolhouse.world. Class sizes averaged 15 ppl but sometimes went to 25. 45 hrs tutoring

-Piano accompanist for school chorus and orchestra groups in winter/spring concerts for 2 yrs.

-Leader of a musician group performing at local senior centers (mostly orchestra kids from my high school, some of which play piano as well.)

-Volunteering at city hospital (offering care materials and having conversations with patients that had undergone open-heart or spinal cord surgery. 70 hrs)

-Internship for ovarian cancer at that same hospital (170 hours); 3 years. Presented research posters at my high school’s science research symposium for 2 years.

-Coaching/giving tennis lessons to a JV-level tennis player (20 hours)

-Science Olympiad (1 year)

-2 years of my school’s Select Orchestra (regularly scores very high [gold with distinction] at NYSSMA majors and wins out-of-state regional competitions)

-Private piano lessons for 9 years, viola lessons for 1 year, tennis lessons for 6 years

-Participated in local piano competition in its most advanced division (had to prepare 2 Chopin pieces).

-Gave piano performances at local events for my Indian community

-learned from MIT OCW physics lectures

-submitted over 120 physics jokes in my college apps…

Awards:
-Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Medal and Scholarship for $160K (given to one student in the junior class in every participating high school that is outstanding in math and science)

-Boys State completion

-AP scholar with distinction

-NYS Seal of Civic Readiness

-NYS Scholarship for Academic Excellence (~8k NY seniors receive per year)

-NMSQT commended scholar

-NYSPHSAA sectionals final (2022), then sectionals win, regionals win, and states berth on the US Open courts (all 2023). All for tennis.
1 section = 1/12 of the state by population. 1 region = 2 sections.

-Kumon North America Math Program completion, once ranked 78/4498 in the continent among 9th graders in the program

-MVP of tennis team (freshman year)

-Regional Science Olympiad medal

-Received a handful of NYSSMA scores in the mid-upper 90s (piano and viola) for levels 5/6.

LOR/Other:

LORs were from my physics, AP lang, and Precalc/AP Calc BC teachers.

Physics: 9.5/10. Only had her for 1 year but I got a high A in the class + made over 40 physics jokes in the class…

AP lang: 9/10. Also had for 1 year. Got an A- in the first 2 quarters, but high A+ for the last two + 5 on the exam, so that’ll make for a good rags-to-riches story.

BC calc: 9/10. Had for 2 years. Finished precalc honors with 100 as well as BC Calc, and was the only person in her class ever to have gotten a 100 on all her tests. However, she is not as personal as the other two teachers.

Schools applied to:

MIT, UMich, Northeastern (deferred)

Stony Brook, Georgia Tech, RPI (accepted)

Harvard, Princeton, Brown, Cornell, UPenn, URochester (pending)

What do y’all think?

Step away from the computer and focus on having fun for the rest of senior year. You’ll know soon enough…

All three of your acceptances are fantastic for physics… if any of them are likely to be affordable, you are in great shape!

Good luck- go do something relaxing and stop worrying about something which is completely out of your control…

1 Like

I am thinking that you have 3 great acceptances. Congrats! Are all 3 affordable?

Users are invited to reply on the poster’s earlier thread. But there is no need for a repetitive thread. Closing.