<p>Decision: Accepted by College of Arts and Sciences</p>
<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): 2130 (CR: 700, M: 680, W: 750)
[</em>] ACT: 33
[<em>] SAT II: Literature - 750; Math - 730
[</em>] Unweighted GPA: 4.0
[<em>] Rank: 1 out of 54
[</em>] AP: N/A
[<em>] IB: N/A
[</em>] Senior Year Course Load: I basically took all the hardest classes available at my dinky little school: Advanced Painting/Drawing, Honors (Dual Credit) Biology, Honors (Dual Credit) Government, Honors (Dual Credit) Literature, Calculus, Statistics, Advanced Journalism
[<em>] Major Awards: Four articles nationally recognized by MyHSJ.org by American Society of Newspaper Editors; one article commended by Voice of Democracy of Foreign War Veterans; Presidential Service Award. The other awards are the usual school-related awards for grades and scholastic aptitude and such.
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Extracurriculars: Founder and President of Health Occupational Students of America chapter, Copy Editor, Photographer, Reporter, and Cartoonist of School Newspaper, Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Delegate, Future Business Leaders of America Reporter and Photographer, Quiz Bowl Co-Captain, Knowledge Masters, Artery Club, National Honor Society, Three-Act Play (earned letter award twice), One-Act Play, Knowledge Masters, Peer Tutor, Destination ImagiNation, History Club, NASA Space Settlement Design Competition, Book Club, Volleyball, Cheerleading, Golf, Teens Against Tobacco Use, Basketball Manager.
[<em>] Job/Work Experience: Babysitting, self-employed photography business.
[</em>] Volunteer/Community service: Roughly 400 hours of volunteer work - Hospital Work, Red Cross, School/Extracurricular related work, tutoring, camp counselor, Humane Society, etc. Earned Bronze Award after earning first 100 hours, then later the Presidential Service award, followed by NHS Award for having accumulated the most hours.
[<em>] Summer Activities: Volunteer work and photography work; traveled to Spain for a school trip; took classes at local community college; Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Seminar
[</em>] Essays: Pretty solid, wrote about how being a muslim in all white-christian South Dakota was tough. My supplement was kind of cheesy, but apparently it worked.
[<em>] Teacher Recommendations: One was outstanding, the other was pretty solid.
[</em>] Counselor Rec: Again, pretty solid.
[<em>] Additional Rec: N/A
[</em>] Interview: SO BAD! It was a total trainwreck - my interviewer had just graduated, was a total jerk and thought he was god’s gift to women. Also, he unzipped his fleece’s collar to expose this disgusting carpet of chest hair that I kept staring at throughout the interview. Oh, and he pretty much reamed me with questions, like a rapid fire round in Jeopardy or something. Anyways, it was BAD.</p>
<p>[/ul]Other[ul]
[<em>] State (if domestic applicant): South Dakota
[</em>] School Type: Very small public school
[<em>] Ethnicity: Pakistani/Irani/Kashmiri
[</em>] Gender: Female
[<em>]Income Bracket: Both my parents are doctors so…
[</em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): I guess South Dakota is an URM? My ethnicity is not, however.[/ul]</p>
<p>Reflection:[ul]</p>
<p>[<em>] Strengths: My essays, my well-roundedness, recommendations, class rank, and GPA.
[</em>] Weaknesses: My test scores could have been higher, and my interview was definitely a fail, and my school did not offer very tough classes.
[<em>] Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: My well-roundedness and being a South Dakota applicant
[</em>] Where else were you accepted/deferred/rejected: Accepted - University of Chicago, Boston College Honors Program, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities Honors Program & Presidential Scholarship, Boston University University Scholar and half-tutition off scholarship, Tufts, Brandeis, NYU, William & Mary, Creighton; Wait-listed: Dartmouth, Northwestern U, WashU, UPenn; Rejected - Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Duke, Brown, Columbia. [/ul]</p>
<p>General Comments: I’ll admit I was extremely disheartened by the turn out, as my interviews with all of the Ivies (except Cornell) all went so astounding - each interviewer said they would do their best to get me into their school. Moreover, I thought Cornell would be the last place I would ever go! However, in the end, it came down to me deciding between UChicago and Cornell, and for some reason, Cornell grew on me and now I’m so excited to go! I agreed to be put on the wait-lists for Dartmouth and UPenn, but I’m not getting my hopes up. My Dartmouth interviwer (who loved me!) has already contacted the admissions office, and I never interviwed with UPenn, but we’ll see what happens. For now, I’ve already cashed a deposit for being a part of Cornell’s class of 2015 and I’m pretty excited. GO BIG RED!</p>