Decision: Deferred
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): N/A
ACT (breakdown): 31C, 32E, 35M, 27R (oof), 30S
SAT II: 730 Math I, 710 US History
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.000
Weighted GPA: 4.7917 / 4
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1 out of 371
AP (place score in parenthesis): Macro(5), Human Geo(5), Eng Lang(4), APUSH(4), Env Sci(4), Calc BC(3), Bio(3)
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load:
AP Microeconomics
AP English Lit
PLTW (engineering) Civil Engineering and Architecture
AP Comp Sci
AP Stat
AP Gov & Politics
Honors writing class (probably going to be the one class I get a B in)
AP World History
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):
2018 United States Senate Youth Program North Carolina first alternate delegate
2017 Making a Difference for (name of city) Families Youth of the Year
October, 2018 (name of city) Public Schools Student of the Month
2017 PAC-6 All-Conference award (baseball)
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
North Carolina Teenage Republicans (chairman)
North Carolina Youth Advisory Council (voting board member)
(name of city) City Participatory Budgeting Steering Committee (Secretary)
City of (name of city) Youth Commission (4 year member, 2 term president)
Young Republicans of (name of high school) (founder, president)
Varsity Baseball team (co-captain)
Governor’s Page
Senate Page
Job/Work Experience:
Executive Intern for North Carolina Republican Party (NCGOP)
Volunteer/Community service:
Kids Voting (name of city) Organization (precinct leader)
Co-organized Parents’ Night Out events for 2 years with (name of city) Parks & Rec
Summer Activities:
Executive Intern for NCGOP
Essays (rating 1-10, details):
Common App: 7/10, put a good amount of work into it but could definitely see it coming off as cliche
Harvard short responses: 7.5/10 for both, solid, not the best ever by any means
Harvard Supplemental: 5/10, lackluster, should’ve worked harder on it, it was maybe three short paragraphs
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1 (rating 1-10, details): 9/10, had him for three years, great bond. Son recently graduated from Harvard so I’m assuming he mentioned being a parent of a Harvard student/graduate
Teacher Rec #2 (rating 1-10, details): 8/10, had her for two years, another very solid relationship. We’ve had many long discussions about politics, current events, and the world as a whole
Counselor Rec (rating 1-10, details): 5/10, doesn’t know me too well.
Additional Rec (if any) (rating 1-10, details): 8/10, rec from Mayor of my city. We’ve known each other for a while now and he has seen me through my city’s youth commission. We’ve also talked extensively about politics, current events, and the world as a whole as well.
Interview (if any) (rating 1-10, details): Really not sure. We spoke for a little over an hour and had a great time just talking about, well, politics, current events, and the world as a whole. I don’t think I ever had the opportunity to bring up my extracurriculars. We were too busy exchanging stories and laughing.
Other:
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes, but wouldn’t have gotten any
Intended Major: Government concentration
State (if domestic applicant): North Carolina
Country (if international applicant): N/A
School Type: Public, around 1800 students total
Ethnicity: Asian American (Japanese/Italian)
Gender: Male
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): I wish
Reflections:
Work on those essays. Perfect them. Have a compelling story. Be charismatic and likable in the interview. Make sure to research your interviewer ahead of time. Get those test scores up.
Strengths: Extracarriculars
Weaknesses: My test scores SUCK. Well in the 25% for Harvard
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Lackluster essays, test scores
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: semi-finalist for Morehead-Cain scholarship at UNC Chapel Hill
General Comments (if any):
Make sure you have competitive test scores. Make sure you build relationships with teachers. Make sure you put 100% effort into your essays. At the end of the day, I was already more invested and interested in the Morehead-Cain scholarship at UNC and I think that showed through in my Harvard app.
GOOD LUCK TO THOSE IN THE FUTURE!