<p>Decision: Accepted</p>
<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): 2230 (720 CR, 750 M, 760 W)
[</em>] ACT: 34 (35 on English section offsets 720 CR on SAT?, both SAT and ACT only taken once)
[<em>] SAT II: 800 Japanese, 780 US History, 760 Literature
[</em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.9/4.0
[<em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 2%, maybe 7/560
[</em>] AP (place score in parenthesis):Nada
[<em>] IB (place score in parenthesis): Zip
[</em>] Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc BC, AP Chem, Sociology, Contemporary History, AP Lang, Spanish Conversation, Orchestra, Computers, Econ (this was actually my junior year, which was my last year of regular high school)
[<em>] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Honors All-State Orchestra, Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholar, National Merit Finalist
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Quiz Bowl (varsity captain 10 and 11), School Orchestra, Local Symphony Orchestra, Kyudo (Japanese Archery), Local Youth Orchestra (concertmaster), NHS, many pit orchestras, JV Tennis, international orchestra in china
[<em>] Job/Work Experience: Playing gigs at weddings and such, highly variable but I think I put 4 hours a week
[</em>] Volunteer/Community service: Required hours for NHS, Habitat for Humanity, working with community study circles on racism; total <100 hours
[<em>] Summer Activities: Intensive language camp, backpacking
[</em>] Essays: common app one about Kyudo, very good, Yale one about language and puns, pretty good and pretty funny (in my opinion), some of my short takes were also pretty funny
[<em>] Teacher Recommendation: No idea, but both teachers love me, were probably very positive, my spanish teacher was also my quiz bowl coach so probably covered a lot
[</em>] Counselor Rec: Probably good, he’s a cool guy and we get along well
[<em>] Additional Rec: From my principal at the high school in Japan where I was an exchange student, this is the only rec I saw, was excellent
[</em>] Interview: nil. No contact whatsoever from Yale about one, which made me freak out a little bit, but seems like it didn’t matter
[/ul]Other[ul]
[<em>] Applied for Financial Aid?: No
[</em>] Intended Major: History/East Asian Studies
[<em>] State (if domestic applicant): Illinois (downstate)
[</em>] Country (if international applicant): China (current place of residence)
[<em>] School Type: Big semi-rural public, few people go to very selective colleges
[</em>] Ethnicity: White/Asian
[<em>] Gender: Male
[</em>] Income Bracket: $180,000-$200,000 a year
[<em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): my situation requires a bit of explaining. From spring of junior year until winter of senior year I was an exchange student in Japan; in order to do this I finished all required courses at my (american) high school through testing out and independent study. I graduated from high school this past year, am currently on gap year in china, applied to colleges for first time this year.
[/ul]Reflection[ul]
[</em>] Strengths: Solid academics and extracurriculars, quiz bowl probably helped especially (it’s very rare for a sophomore to become varsity captain), but the deciding factor was probably my unusual exchange year+gap year, shows initiative and maturity, though I’m just speculating
[<em>] Weaknesses: My test scores weren’t up to the standard of a lot of other applicants, though I think the fact that I only took the SAT and ACT once helped with that, not so impressive community service, no big national/international awards
[</em>] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: All the superstitious things I have been doing must have helped, plus luck, a pretty unique application
[/ul]General Comments: I had done a lot of focused thinking to prepare myself for deferral/rejection, so I’m still getting over the shock, but I’m just thrilled. Congrats to all my fellow Elis, and good luck for all those deferred and rejected! And never don’t apply somewhere just because you don’t think you have a shot.</p>
Gong xi gong xi!</p>