Sooo… I’ve been stressing way too much about admissions lately. Yes, I know that it’s completely out of my hands now and that there’s nothing more I can really do, but honestly, my family is getting sick of me talking about college every 5 seconds and I would really like to hear some other feedback. Also, my 1st semester grades just came back and I’m very very very scared.
ACT: 36
SAT II: Math 2 - 780, Biology M - 730 (Didn’t take AP Biology)
AP: Calc AB (5), US History (5), English Language (4), Calc BC, US Government, Comparative Government, Environmental Science, Chemistry, Not submitting Computer Science (3)
GPA: 4.37 (12 of 399), 3.9 UW
ECs:
- Independent research: mandatory 2-year course at my school, won 1st place in category at school symposium, part of an international research collaboration with Singaporean students, won the highest level at the Singaporean research competition. Didn’t have enough data to get a spot at RSEF last year
- Volunteer at Smithsonian Natural History Museum. I’ve been working there since freshman year and have more than 300 volunteer hours
- Student government executive (highest ranking officer) past 2 years, other officer positions freshman and sophomore year. I have implemented many of my own initiatives at my school, many of which are independent personal projects.
- Science Olympiad: co-founder of the team freshman year, team coordinator, placed 1st/2nd at all my regional events last year, highest ranked team in our county (up more than 10 slots at States)
- Varsity field hockey past 2 years, I played club the 2 years before because field hockey wasn’t offered as a varsity sport. Competed at States last season, 3 place team in our division.
- Original school nonprofit: work with underprivileged elementary school students in STEM areas. we make video content, provide classroom demonstrations, and plan family STEM nights. executive of fundraising and web design
- Science national honor society president, Tri-M (music honor society) vice president
- Classical guitar, musical theater
Community Service:
- Taught a beginning music class at an all-girls college in India. The school has no arts programs otherwise
- With the Smithsonian: community outreach at Boy’s and Girl’s clubs
- Choral director for the middle school musical theater productions the past 2 years
- I’ve done a ton of fundraising for various projects. I created successful science summer workshops to raise money for our Science Olympiad team, I raised 1.5k for Hurricane Joaquin relief, I’m head of fundraising for the nonprofit organization I mentioned above, I am currently raising money for a Tri-M fund for elementary school music teachers in our area
3 paid internships: research internship with Janelia Research Campus (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) last summer. (highly selective program), internship with the Smithsonian 2 years ago, research internship with University of MD 3 years ago
Major: Environmental Science
Race: Asian (Chinese/Indian)
My main concern is with my 1st semester senior grades. I have 3 A- grades in the worst possible classes for me to have them in: AP Environmental, AP Calc BC, and Dual Enrollment English. I’m planning to major in environmental science, and APES is supposed to be one of the easiest AP classes, but my APES teacher was out on maternity leave for all but 4 classes this entire semester. DE English is classified as an “honor” class for us, so it doesn’t even get the full boost of an AP class at my school. Other classes are A’s and one A+. I’m not sure yet how this will impact my GPA, but this the worst semester I’ve had in high school since freshman year.
These are the schools I’m applying to:
- Dartmouth
- Yale
- Harvard
- UVA (accepts almost every student from my Virginia STEM magnet school)
- William & Mary
- Northeastern
- Amherst
- Bowdoin
- Duke
- Johns Hopkins
- Washington St. Louis
Thank you so much for helping a stressed girl out ahaha