Hi! The schools that I am interested in are Northeastern, Brandeis, BU, NYU, and Cornell as my extreme reach
ACT: Highest Composite: 33 Superscore: 34
SAT Subject Test Scores: 770 Math ll
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.6 (I know it’s terrible but I have an extreme upward trend)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Regional debate tournaments that I have placed first at. In addition, I have also qualified for state level tournaments.
Subjective
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): President of Debate in Senior Year and Secretary in Junior Year
Volunteer/Community service:
-Volunteer at hospital with over 100 hours
-Volunteered as a chess instructor at Library with over 100 hours
-Volunteered in a soup kitchen at a local temple approximately 50 hours
-Other arbitrary volunteer activities
Sum of Volunteer hours is approximately 400 hours
Essays: Discussed soccer tactics and how they correlated to intellectual pursuit. Very well written 9.5/10
Teacher Recommendation: Couldn’t read them, probably very good.
Counselor Rec: Good
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian
Hooks: First Generation
Frankly, I think that Cornell is completely out of the question so I am more interested as to how I would fare at the other schools that I have listed. In addition, if any of you have other suggestions as to where I should apply please provide them as they would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Oops!! I felt that the fact that my parents are refugees from Afghanistan was somewhat unique (not sure if this benefits me much but I spoke to a representative from Cornell and NYU and they stated that “it is certainly something we would consider if I mentioned it in my essay.” In addition, I also felt that the fact that I have high test scores relative to my mediocre GPA was somewhat unique.
They’re about as good as other people with your stats. Make sure your essay is as good as it will get.
And yeah, it isn’t really something “unique.” I’m an immigrant, but even that isn’t “unique” much because I was 5 then. Not like a 16 year old moving to the US from a war-torn country by him/herself and applying to Stanford after learning English quickly and maintaining a beautiful GPA and test scores, as well as strong ECs. That would be unique.
Neither is, unfortunately, a high ACT score coupled with a lower-end GPA (it’s good, but not by Ivy admission standards). It just means you know how to take the ACT.
First Gen status is a definite, solid plus on your application, though.
If you had decided to write about how a leaf was a euphemism for growth, that would have been “something [they] would consider.” If you had decided to write about a small object in a vast lake can have a huge effect, that would have been “something [they] would consider.” Just as it would have been something to consider if being the child of immigrants is truly what defines you and is important enough to you that you would base your entire essay on it.
