***Official Harvard University 2015 Decisions Thread***

pseudoreal
Fri, 29 Apr 2011 18:11:47 +0000

Decision: Accepted

Objective:[ul]
[] SAT I (breakdown): 2380 (-20 in math)
[] SAT II: 800s on physics, math II & US history
[] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0, Weighted: 4.4ish
[] AP (place score in parenthesis): 5’s on Physics B, Psych, Eng Lang, Bio, Calc BC, US Hist, World Hist
[] Senior Year Course Load: AP Econ, AP Gov, AP Physics C, AP Eng Lit, AP Stats, AP CompSci, ASB
[] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): some small robotics stuff
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Track (team captain), Robotics (software), Student Government (senior president), other sports, some volunteering
[] Job/Work Experience: Research assistant over summer, tutoring during school year
[] Volunteer/Community service: miscellaneous
[] Summer Activities: Running, relaxing, reading, internship, fun
[] Essays: About a game I started at my school
[] Teacher Recommendation: I assume really good
[] Counselor Rec: Once again, I assume really good
[] Additional Rec: From my lab mentor/PI, I assume really good
[] Interview: Really, really good my interviewer told me he gave me his highest reservation. We had a nice talk about philosophy among other things.
[/ul]Other[ul]
[] State (if domestic applicant): CA
[] School Type: Public
[] Ethnicity: White
[] Gender: Male
[] Income Bracket: Middle class
[/ul]Reflection[ul]
[] Strengths: I think the overall depth of my application was a great strength. I did a lot of different things pretty well. I also have solid test scores.
[] Weaknesses: I didn’t really have one specialty thing that I was interested in. Not too many academic extracurriculars.
[] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Look at general comments.
[] Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Applied and accepted at – MIT, Harvard, Princeton, UC Berkeley (Regents) & UCLA (nominated for Regents but decided not to apply). I have matriculated to MIT.
[/ul]General Comments:
I feel that what set me apart was that I was not an archetypal applicant. I didn’t fall into one of the preset stereotypes – athlete, research drone, leader of everything. I feel that when you fall into the game and try to be something it hurts you because you compete against all of the people from your same stereotype. I did whatever I thought was interesting and I think my application came off unique in that way. The appeal in my application was that it was different than the others; it came from a different perspective. I may be totally wrong but this is just what I have surmised from my experience.

If you guys are looking into colleges and have any questions for me feel free to message me. I will try to get back to you ASAP though I don’t really check this account much anymore.