*Official Regular Decision Class of 2018*

Atomic786
Sat, 15 Mar 2014 04:48:37 +0000

Decision: Accepted RD!!!
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2360 single sitting- 800 CR, 800 M, 760 W (9 essay)
ACT: N/A
SAT II: 800 Math II, 800 Chem, 760 USH, 690 Lit
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.96
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 3 / 476
AP (place score in parenthesis): USH 5, Chem 5, Stat 5, WH 5, Lang/Comp 5, Calc BC 3 (AB sub 4)
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP’s- Biology, Macroeconomics, French, and Lit/Comp. Honors Medical Academy (2 credits), and dual enrollment Latin course at Lehigh University.
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): American Regions Mathematics League 2nd place team nationally in B division, 2013 (Team Captain). National merit finalist, AP Scholar with Distinction, Bausch + Lomb Honorary Science Award

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Student Govt. 10-12 (Senior Class President), Scholastic Scrimmage Quiz Bowl 9-12 (Captain), Math Team 9-12 (Captain), Cross Country Team 9-12, Tennis Team 9-12, Theater Company 11-12, School Board Student Rep 11-12.
Job/Work Experience: 20-25 hrs/wk as a banquet set-up helper at a local hotel, Sept. 13- Jan 14. I quit two months ago because my boss didn’t want to change my hours when I had school commitments, and it was cutting into study time.
Volunteer/Community service: 300ish total, 190 at a hospital (Patient access and pharmacy) and 100 cumulative at annual music festival in town each August.
Summer Activities: 2013- attended Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Sciences (really competitive gov school, with about 13% acceptance rate) and completed original research there that dealt with platinum catalyst substitutes for fuel cells, also specialized in organic chem. 2012- attended University of Pittsburgh Health Careers Scholars Academy, also a gov school, but easier, with more shadowing/ school-like projects.
Essays (rating 1-10, details): 7-8/10 Just the Common App, which was about me joining the high school theatre company and it allowing me to break out of my rigid science/math shell last year, and feel more comfortable with friends and community at school. Pretty solid and emotional, very polished, but no fireworks.
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: AP Chemistry teacher 9/10 Favorite teacher, loves me, I killed her class, and she got me interested outside of school to try for PGSS and pursue organic chemistry. Feel like she really knows me.
Teacher Rec #2: AP Stats, Hon. Precalc teacher 8/10 Feeling it was good, but not in my specialty.
Counselor Rec: 9/10 Showed it to me out of the blue when I applied for a scholarship, and it was really glowing and really personal to me, said I was one of his best, most dedicated students over last 12 years.
Additional Rec: Letter from President of Pennsylvania Governor School for the Sciences. 7-8/10, had a lot of really awesome support from group leaders and teachers, plus talked about my research and leadership in chemistry at program, but felt kind of cut-and-paste, not too personal.
Interview: 9.5/10 I drove 900 miles to tour campus this January, and my interview was awesome. We talked all about me pursuing campus theatre and orgo research while here, I played the gay card a little, we talked about music, favorite fast food, study habits, the whole shebang. I couldn’t believe it had been 35 minutes when I had to leave, the interview just flew (I practiced a bit the night before at the hotel).

Other
State (if domestic applicant): Pennsylvania
Country (if international applicant): N/A
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: $150,000-$200,000 family
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Gay kid? I don’t know, I mentioned it in the interview.

Reflection
Strengths: 2360 SAT, summer experience at PGSS publishing research, loads of Captaining/leaderships, ARML national 2nd place, and amazing, personal interview on campus.
Weaknesses: Turned in application 3 days before deadline, screwed up Calc BC, grades slid slightly senior year.
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Huge demonstrated interest (big trip out, talked with chem professors), solid SATs, gay/theatre angle, east coast kid, Chemistry strength all probably helped me out a lot.
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Haven’t heard from anywhere else, I applied to 8 schools RD and I’m waiting for the rest by the end of March. Waiting on Harvard, Princeton, Yale, UPenn, Hopkins, Lehigh, and University of Rochester.

General Comments: I don’t know what everyone else is saying, but I definitely think that my on campus interview did loads for me; I really showed interest in the school and I loved my interviewer (24 year old grad who worked in admissions, she even sent me a postcard later!). Anyway, they definitely knew I was committed since I came from the east coast for a visit this winter.

Good luck to everyone else hearing back RD!