Accepted: None
Rejected: None
Wait listed: Exeter, Andover, SPS, Middlesex, Groton, Choate
Likely Attending: LPS, or any school I get off the waitlist for (unlikely)
Stats:
• SSAT/ISEE/TOEFL/PSAT: 96T, 99Q, 90V, 91R
• GPA Unweighted/Weighted: School doesn’t do GPA- All A’s, besides an A- in Art
• Rank: School doesn’t do rank, N/A
• Other stats:
Subjective:
• Interviews: For Andover, Exeter, SPS, and Groton, I’d say they went excellent. 9-10. Conversation felt very natural, the interviewers were friendly, we went overtime, and they were gushing over me in the parent interview (according to my mom- they all said something along the lines of: “She’s a great fit for our school, very mature/talented for her age, very thoughtful, very friendly, loved the conversation, we’d love to have her, how old is she again??” etc. Choate and Middlesex were notably worse, but not bad. 6-7/10, nothing too special (might have had something to do with Choate being online)
• Essays: I semi-rushed these in the last couple of weeks, but I still think they were pretty good. 7-8/10.
• Math Rec: 10/10. He had my older brother and I’d known him for multiple years. He volunteered to write my letter before I even asked. I TAed in his math class. I am 100% confident that a recommendation letter cannot get better than this. I know he glazed me to the earth’s end.
• English Rec: 7/10, I’m a great student and she likes me but nothing TOO special. Couldn’t have been the reason I was WL.
• Personal Rec (Drum Teacher): 7/10. We’re really close but he only knows me as my drum teacher, and I’m good at the drumset but not exceptional.
• Principal/Counselor Rec: Great, 9/10- I’ve known her for multiple years, and I’m the president of the club she advises. She really loves me and she went over my ECs/Awards so she could write a really thorough rec letter for me.
• Extracurricular Rec (Computer Science Teacher): 9/10. He says I’m the best student he’s ever had and that I have a bright future ahead. He assured me he wrote a great letter, and he also recommended me for a CS tutoring job with a 20% acceptance rate, which I got! He is a recent Cornell grad for Computer Science, so he’s extremely accomplished himself, basically a genius, and he says that I’m much further ahead than he was in 8th grade.
• Sports (if any): Travel soccer (not good enough to get recruited, but submitted videos and reached out to coaches)
• Instruments (if any): Drumset (not good enough to get recruited, but submitted videos and reached out to teachers). I play townwide jazz band, and was featured in some newsletters
• Other ECs (if any):
-Speedcubing (the sport of solving Rubik’s cubes fast.) I submitted videos for this, brought a Rubik’s cube to my interviews, and included my state/worldwide rankings, which are high (not including my recognition/rankings to avoid easy doxxing, but trust me, it’s pretty impressive). I can solve a 3x3 Rubik’s cube in 10 seconds and a 2x2 in 2. Keep in mind this is also a very male dominated activity. Competed many times.
-Computer Science, my main thing. Competed in tons of competitions and won lots of awards. I am also hired for a paid position as a Teaching Assistant at a prestigious local company. I really wish I could list all of my awards/hackathons but there are a ton of them and I could be easily doxed. National/state level. Couple of international awards.
-Top 3 Regional, top 2% statewide in a yearlong stock-market competition
-MATHCOUNTS, IMC, Math Kangaroo, AMC8 math awards (national and state recognition, over several years). A couple of international awards.
-President of school Asian Affinity Club (2y)- largest club in the school district. Organized many events with hundreds of people in attendance.
• Hook: Woman in STEM, Fatherless(? don’t know if this counts as a hook. My dad passed when I was little)
Location/Person:
• State or Country: Massachusetts (Boston Area)
• Current School Type: Public K-8
• Ethnicity: Asian (rare type of Asian though, most people haven’t heard of it)
• Gender: Female
• Grade Applying For: 9
• Age: 14
• Financial Aid/Full Pay: need close to full FA
Strengths:
Interviews. I completely charmed them, besides Choate and Middlesex. All my stats/grades were up to par. 3/5 recommendations were absolutely amazing, they glazed me to the end of the earth, and the other two were still pretty great.
Weaknesses:
Essays not strong enough, only a couple high level national/international awards, not enough impact in my sport/instrument. Also- Asian who’s main spikes are Math, CS, and competitive rubik’s cube solving.
Why do you think you were accepted/rejected/waitlisted?
I don’t really know. I waited a few days before posting this so I could have more time to reflect… and I think it’s just the fact that there were tons of qualified applicants, and I don’t have an outstanding hook. I’m not legacy, not FP, not a recruited athlete. In the back of my head I was trying to prepare myself for a situation like this but I still thought I had a good chance at getting into at least one school, considering how great the interviews went. Also, the Boston Area is OR for Andover and Exeter, so steep competition.
