Middle Eastern and undocumented, English was my second language, lived here for almost a decade. neither parents have high school diplomas. Low Income family. Will be first in family to go to college.
Graduated in June 2017 from High school at the age of 16.
Was forced into a gap year because of personal issues not comfortable disclosing.
Applying to colleges and Princeton is my first choice. I was rejected last year, but was during some difficult times and wrote a terrible essay and crap SAT scores and obviously got rejected at regular decision.
Attended a Florida school first two years of high school, has fluctuated in top ten national high schools for bit more than a decade. Then transferred to a normal high school in Jersey.
GPA (Unweighted): 3.7
Rank: 7/350
Classes: 1 AP Freshmen Year, 1 Sophomore Year, 5 Junior Year, 5 APs & 1 Dual Enrollment Class Senior Year.
(Ap Scholar)
Some honor & pre-IB classes early in high school, 3 years of Mandarin.
There more available ap classes, in sophomore year, but none interested me.
AP were socials, some sciences, Stats and both Calcs. (there was Calc 3 available at my school, and AP Physics,
which I really wanted to take, but complicated scheduling didn’t allow me, I already had to test out of pre-calc just to
fit both AB & BC into senior year).
Sat: (new) 1420 (planning to take October 7th, have about 120 hours of studying done for it, never prepared before, realistically aiming for 1550.)
ECs;
- approx. 340 volunteer hours.
-Varsity Cross Country - Ran indoor winter track and Spring Track.
- President of Physics club (we built a drone and programmed a drone from scratch this year)
- Was in Marching, Jazz and concert band. Drumline (for a year!)
- Yearbook staff two years as underclassmen.
- active member and participant of Mu Alpha Theta
- Part of Chinese Club, helping school events, cultural nights, volunteer in official festivals hosted by the city, building 1 thousand paper cranes to donate to the proton therapy center near my school. Have built dragons from thousands of hand crafted pieces by myself for the club.
*****my favorite: volunteer at Liberty Science Center, a large nonprofit interactive museum (about to become the largest planetarium in western hemisphere). This place kept my passion for science so strong. I did 8-9 hours shifts during weekends starting august of senior year. (it was near the second-high school I attended). Was nominated Volunteer/ intern of the Year. (about a dozen from 600 get nominated annually). I wish I spent more time year, but I can’t drive yet because of my age, and the place itself was a two-hour trip on the trains.
Letter of Rec: My Ap Lit Teacher whom I grew close to. My cross-country coach, whom started coaching me in track when I was fat and could barely run an 8-min mile, all the way till I was varsity in cross country. And possible one more from my Calc Ab&Bc teacher, she knew me the longest, and in her class, I struggled a lot, but I also improved lots.
I truly want to attend Princeton for astrophysics. I love challenges and so far as an immigrant that took ESL well into middle school, these challenging courses made me a better version of myself that I didn’t imagine. To be Honest I didn’t prepare myself to be high rank or go to an Ivy league, my parents suggested community college, and I honestly thought most of HS, I would end up in a state college, but senior year came around and when I look back, I just did what I loved, and I want to attend Princeton to further my passion and contribute to the field of science.
So, if I can up my Sat Scores to 1520-1570 and write a good essay do I stand a chance?
Should I apply Early Action to Princeton?
I might apply to Columbia because they also have a good science program and are at a very convenient location to my parents. And am wondering if I should do early decision there instead?