Asian (Korean) Male, Texas Resident, $150-199k income
large and competitive high school (970 class size)
Stats:
GPA: 3.81/4 UW 4.86/5.0 W | Turned off ranking on transcript, not top 10%
(extenuating circumstances - mental health, parent struggled with addiction)
1530 SAT no superscore
11 AP Courses 5s and 4s on all exams taken.
Extracurriculars: no sugarcoating, keeping it short so you guys don’t get bored
Volunteer Math & Coding Tutor for Refugees
Tutored 10+ refugee students (3 years, 200+ hours)
Shadowing in Forensic and Architectural Engineering
at an internationally renown consulting services company
Founder, Robotics Practicum
Established a permanent practicum course at my school
Robotics Student Mentor
Mentored 30+ students in programming practices in a Lockheed Martin-sponsored robotics program
Varsity Esports Core Team
Qualified for state and nationals; was ranked #1 nationwide in high school VALORANT. Peaked at #360 in North America.
Codewars
Ranked in the top 4% globally, with 750+ kata and 1,000 honor points across 4 languages.
Nutrition App Co-Developer
selected as 1 out of 100 accepted (8,000+ applicants)
Game Development Project Leader
passion project, team of 4
Vice President + Co-founder, Photography Club
Varsity Swim
2 years but i didn’t include it in my resume or activities list so its irrelevant
Honors:
AP Scholar With Distinction
National Merit Commended Scholar
Taekwondo
3rd degree black belt, 2x sparring state champion and went to a national tournament in seattle
subjective but imo essays are above average, 2 LOR (physics, chem) are great, counselor one im not too sure about
affordability isn’t an issue.
Schools:
Northwestern University - ED
KAIST - EA
GT - EA
UT - EA
UNC Chapel Hill - EA
UTD - RD
UMich - EA
RIT - EA
UWash - EA
Purdue - RD (cybersecurity)
VTech - EA
Yes, it is the income of my parents. I included it because I was under the assumption that applying for financial aid may hurt your chances of admission.
Most of these schools are need blind - so applying for aid is not a factor.
And it’s likely those that are need aware won’t give you need aid - also not a factor.
If you feel you need aid, apply. If your parents aren’t willing to pay $90k and you don’t qualify for aid, don’t apply.
Have them fill out the Northwestern Net Price Calculator. But not applying for aid is not a good strategy for the reason you mentioned We are full pay. I still applied for aid. Didn’t get it but…
What is Kaist?
If you are happy with RIT and UTD, you’ll have a home. And both are fine. The rest - possible but guessing unlikely.
What’s your budget ? Most of these will be full pay.
Good luck.
Also - do you want CS or Cyber Security ? You’ve applied for both. You should study what you want.
Korea Advanced Institute for Science and Technology.
Regarding that, if the OP may be considered by the Republic of Korea to be a citizen, he may be subject to mandatory military service if he goes there.
Your profile reminds me of one of my former students (from a private high school in Texas). He had similar EC as yours regarding CS and Esports, similar SAT and GPA, applied ED to Northwestern and accepted. He really loved NU before applying. His “why us” and “why me” essays were strongly convincing. However, that was 4 years ago. In the recent years Northwestern seems to have gained more popularity in the southern states, especially in Texas, and is perceived as harder to get in. I wish you the best of luck.