Do I have any chance?

ryanxing
Sun, 12 Dec 2010 02:17:55 +0000

Princeton is my dream school, without a doubt, for both undergraduate and graduate (I simply cannot imagine any other place, including Caltech, that has a better theoretical astrophysics program). After being rejected from Cornell ED, I didn’t cry or felt overly sad, which just shows Cornell isn’t right for me anyways. For a long time I have thought about Princeton, but the fact that it’s one of the best, if not the best, school in the world intimidated me and thus I decided to not apply to it, until recently.

I probably won’t get in for undergraduate since I irreparably and unfortunately screwed up many opportunities that came across me, but regardless of whether I get in or not, I won’t give up and will apply to Princeton for graduate school.

My greatest weaknesses are my abysmal GPA (thus rank) and my noticeably subpar EC (by Princeton standards).* I heard Princeton does not take into account freshman year. Is this true? If so, does it only look at my 10-12 GPA?*

Anyways, here’s my profile:

Applicant
Asian Male
Originally from China. Then moved to NY. Then moved to CA.
First generation
Intended Major: Astrophysics

Academics
Note: I currently have all A’s in my classes and I expect to maintain those grades. The following are calculated as my projected GPA including the 1st semester of my Senior year.

9-12 Academic UW GPA: 3.57
9-12 Academic W GPA: 3.83
10-12 Academic UW GPA: 3.94
10-12 Academic W GPA: 4.28

Rank: As a result of my freshman year, let’s just say I will be very happy if I end up in the top 25% after this semester.

Freshman Year: Absolutely terrifying. I was professionally diagnosed with depression and certainly depression had dire effects on me up until recently. I was barely motivated to do anything. Ended it with a 2.4 academic GPA. No honor/AP.

Sophomore Year: I decided to try for once, with encouragement from a friend. I ended up with a 3.8 academic GPA, but had no honors/AP still.

Junior year: I went gorillas. It was like as if an epiphany had struck me and woke me up from a nightmare. Towards the end of Sophomore year, I decided to challenge myself a bit and take 1 AP and 2 Honors for Junior year. By then, however, I realized that the courseload that I was having still wasn’t living up to my potential. Therefore, I made a rather weird decision: I decided to prepare for 10 AP tests to 1) show that I do in fact have intellectual abilities and 2) to make up for not putting in effort during my previous years. See below for AP scores.

Senior Courseload (currently all A):
AP Statistics
French 3 (doing some AP work and plan to take the AP test - French teacher can mention in her recommendation)
AP Calculus BC
AP Physics B
AP Microeconomics / Honors Government
AP English Literature
Dual Enrollment Biology / possibly Dual Enrollment Astronomy in Spring

Test Scores
These, along with my exponentially upward trend, are my saving graces.

SAT: 2300 (750 CR, 800 M, 750 W)
SAT II: 800 Math II, 800 Chemistry
AP: 4 Art History (the only AP I took a class for at school)
5 Biology
5 Calculus AB
5 Chemistry
5 Comparative Government
5 English Language
4 Human Geography
3 Macroeconomics
4 Psychology
5 US History

Subjective
Extracurriculars: Because of my initial hesitation and lack of motivation to do basically anything, I didn’t start ECs until last year.


Astronomy Club - VP and co-founder this year. I practically run the club… the President is a freshman who has not yet acquired leadership experiences…
Infinity Club (math) - member last year and Activities Director this year (I practically run the club and am currently trying my hardest to get more people to join… the other officers are rather unmotivated about doing stuff. I plan to take the AMC test this year)
French Club - member last year and Secretary this year
JSA - member for 2 years
Quantum Physics Club - member this year. I will likely be on the Science Olympiad team of the school
Astronomy activities: I frequently attend lectures and I use my telescope often.


Volunteer Work: 150+ hours: tutoring, teacher assistance, library assistance.
Work Experience: Saturday tutor at a private educational institute. Few months so far.

Essays: Not horrible, but I don’t expect them to be spectacular. I wrote about my recent changes in personality, motivation, ambition, and aspirations.
Recommendations: The teachers and counselor like me, so I trust that they are good.

Special Circumstances: I was professionally diagnosed with depression back in sixth grade. Throughout my childhood, I had to deal with it along many other problems. My depression carried over to CA and it was through advice from a friend and my developing motivation from my regrets that I was able to push most of my depression aside and focus on getting myself back on track. I explained this among other personal issues in my essay.