US Citizen, immigrated from China when I was little
NJ
pretty good Public High School
dad passed away couple years ago, also hospitalized after kidney disease in freshman year which made me miss months of school
Harvard legacy from dad
EBT and free lunch since mom doesnt work
Intended Major(s) Math, Public Policy, Computer engineering
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted cum. HS GPA: 3.75/4
Weighted cum. HS GPA: (4.35/5)
College GPA: (for transfer applicants)
Class Rank: top 10-15%
ACT/SAT Scores:1540
List your HS coursework
(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)
English:Ap lang and Ap lit
Math: ap Calc BC, multivariable honors (1 of 3 to skip a year in math in the grade)
Science: AP bio AP chem Ap physics 1 AP physics C AP Psych
History and social studies: APUSH and AP Euro AP Gov
Language other than English: AP Latin
Visual or performing arts: AP Music Theory
Assume mostly 5s for ap scores and 2 4s.
College Coursework (Transfer Applicants) (Include college courses taken while in high school if not included above.)
Major preparation course work: 1 semester of Linear Algebra and 1 semester of Game Theory at CMU (summer session)
Awards
Won the Private Prep LTT scholarship as 1 of 25 chosen nationally for underprivileged teens.
Completed NASA’s GL4HS biology program.
Summer Semester at CMU.
1 of 3 in school to skip a year in math, top 3 AMC score schoolwide.
Commmunity Service - President of a couple of fundraising clubs, been on local selective student boards, honorary mayor of my town. Volunteers biweekly for a nonprofit, also work there as a senior camp counselor during the summer, made a fundraising team to raise over 140,000 dollars for the nonprofit through corporate philanthropy and community events. Won a state-level award last awarded to the NJ senator, also lifetime honor roll on p2p professional forum.
Cello - Normal, chamber, and pit orchestra of my school, often principal cellist. Won a state-level award from Paper Mill Playhouse for involvement in pit orchestra in school play. Outside of school, has performed at Carnegie Hall and American Dream mall in private ensembles in music festivals. Raised over 5,000 as a primary organizer and soloist during a charity concert for nonprofit above. I will submit music portfolio of maybe hadyn concerto or bach suites or smth.
Debate - Varsity Public Forum debate, did a lot of national/international tournaments in freshman/sophomore year of hs. Placed quarterfinals and #7 at different international invitationals, won a regional/local competition. Never got a bid and go to TOC, but ranked around #50 in the country on DebateLand at peak. Raised over $2000 by creating a debate workshop for kids for nonprofit above.
Work - Works 10+ hours a week in multiple tutoring jobs, both private and at Kumon. Only member of my family with a job, ebt + free lunch.
Robotics - Made it to states and won a local/regional competition for VEX IQ. In HS, led a robotics team using RC cars, nvidia jetson, and the roboracer platform. Basically autonomous racing, went to a couple international competitions, and published a paper on the subject.
Soccer - played 8 years up to HS locally. Had to quit due to kidney disease.
I have pretty strong essays talking about resilience and how dad’s death and kidney disease affected my life/grades. I want community service and leadership to be main theme of my application, I have really good story of how i started small to raising 140,000k. My only concern is my GPA which was really weak in freshman and sophomore years because I missed multiple months of school since I was sick. However, my junior year gpa is really strong (4.8/5) despite taking 6 AP classes this year, like way higher than previously.
Do I have a chance of getting into harvard, yale, princeton, MIT for reach schools, maybe CMU level schools as a target? I think I am safe for rutger level school.
You are a strong student. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, and even CMU are all reach schools. It’s very hard to chance students for these colleges that have such very very very low acceptance rates. So…if you have applied, just wait and see.
I think you will get accepted to Rutgers and would urge you to apply to their honors college. @Mwfan1921 ?
You Aiways have a chance if you apply. Statistically you are not there but we just read of a 3.8 getting into Cornell. And your math is advanced.
You have high need so take your â– â– â– â– if the net price calculators show a # you can live with. But add other meets need schools and run their NPC - schools like BU, CWRU, Lehigh, Rice, Tufys, UVA.
Finally, what’s your local college where you can live at home - and get a deal from NJ due to low income? This is your most likely and important school. Getting into Rutgers if you can’t afford it (the room and board) is not helpful.
Thanks for responding. I’m looking at Rutgers as a safe option very close to home. I also want to try for their honors college. I am also looking at QuestBridge and other scholarships as a junior.
How important is GPA specifically to the application? I am a junior who just recovered, and I feel like my rec letters, essays, story, extracurricular depth and impact, and overarching application theme of service looks good enough to be competitive for a top 20 school. I feel like if colleges see my additional information and read letters about my illness recovery and my family situation to explain a lower slightly lower GPA in 9th and 10th grade, my extracurriculars can close the deal at a good school.
Also, do you have any programs/scholarships for juniors you’d recommend? I’m thinking about YYGS, mites, CMU SAMS, and did the USSYP and Coolidge scholarship due to my community service track record, even though there’s little chance.
Yeah, I’m applying next year (class of 2027) but just trying to get some honest opinions/advice. Rutgers honors college is definitely on my list. Do you have any recommendation for programs for juniors? (refer to the other response)
All schools will tell you GPA matters so you’ll be at a detriment but I can’t speak for the schools. If you do engineering, the where matters little. You want ABET accreditation. Math and public policy - similar.
Your issue is budget, not a top 20.
I don’t know about scholarships. I’d get a summer job to add to your resume.
There’s lots of great schools - top 20 by who ? That’s for selling magazines or getting clicks. There’s no such thing. You will create your success - not a school name. If you decide against engineering , Berea may be worth an app.
Run net price calculators and apply to schools that you can afford, if accepted. Top 20 is irrelevant in your case.
I would discuss this with your school counselor…who should address this in their counselor letter. Missing a couple of months of school, and rebounding is good. I hope your health remains stable.
You need to be sure your essay doesn’t sound like an excuse for your grades, but actually highlights something positive about yourself. Your counselor can address how this affected your school work.
There is a Questbridge program for HS juniors. I don’t know about deadlines for applying. I’m guessing @Mwfan1921 can provide the details.
If you’re looking for suggestions, Stevens Institute of Technology is a solid target, especially for computer engineering. RPI is another target school worth considering.
UMD would be a high target and is very strong across all three of your areas of interest.
Also, I might have missed this - but what’s the “weird” part of your application?
Questbridge is your friend here. It gives the colleges a framework with which to judge your accomplishments which, IMO, have a kind of “jack-of-all-trades“ look to them. Being from NJ is not the greatest applicant pool from which to apply to the top northeastern colleges; just the sheer number of people who will have very similar stories to tell will diminish your chances. The Questbridge application process will give you a chance to “take your shot“ on high reach colleges as well as on interesting overlap schools that have less daunting odds. I’d look into Oberlin where your cello dedication works as a virtue and where you might even find your people. Is CMU a nod towards a possible engineering career? If so, @tsbna44 is correct; there’s no reason to limit your choices to the Ivy League. Prestige is a non-factor in the engineering world. You would not be the first person to have discovered that maybe their safety checks all the necessary boxes.
I just feel like I haven’t seen other applications with multiple setbacks like mine, which makes my application unique or weird ig.
Also, I am also pretty confused on what schools I should aim for or consider for each of the reach, target, safety sections. I go to a very good public school in northern NJ, and though this may sound incredibly naive, I feel like my application matches/exceeds many of my peers in terms of everything except .1 or .2 lower on that weighted/unweighted GPA. A lot of classmates got accepted into NYU, CMU, JHU, etc.
I am definitely looking at questbridge, however my family’s situation/finances are a little complex especially since my mom (who doesn’t really understand english) had to manage my dad’s estate and all that after he passed. I am a little worried about questbridge eligibility.
Is the 65,000 income a strict requirement for questbridge, or will they consider me if i’m on ebt, free lunch, free healthcare, and family makes more than 65,000 a year due to capital gains for house loans and other debts. My mom’s a single mom of two.
Do you have access to SCOIR yet? We found it very accurate for our highly rated Northern NJ public school.
Are you in a precollege program, youth orchestra or have you been in all state for cello? Many Ivy and LACs are very interested in high level musicians so make sure that your videos are at the highest level you can perform and well recorded. I would also reach out to cello professors next year in the early fall to arrange meetings. You may find that LACs are a little more accessible with your grades and advanced music.
Not sure exactly cuz my mom’s doesn’t really talk about it. All ik is my mom doesn’t work, we get all the benefits and stuff, and there are loans to repay.
I went to CMU summer session 10th grade summer. As a junior, I am applying to YYGS, MITES, SAMS, and a couple other safer options.
Music wise, I have enough technical ability to be in NJYS (my younger brother who’s 2 years younger made it freshman year so ik the skill level) but never applied because I got sick that year. I can’t do the all-state since I quit school chamber orchestra to pursue skipping a year in math and the scheduling didn’t work. However, I am confident that my music portfolio is good enough as a supplement to my application. I know lots of teachers, professional cellists, and other kids above or at my skill level.I also want to use cello as a way to fundraise since I feel like my main theme is community service and leadership