Pertinent info: Low-income mixed-race Hispanic Junior at a good public school in an urban school district. I come from a single-parent household and am the first in my family to attend college in any capacity. My school is pretty rigid in their AP classes so most everyone takes the same ones. The requirements that aren’t fulfilled by APs are done so by dual enrollment courses.
SAT I: 1560 (780 English, 780 Math)
SAT II: Not taken, predicting 750+ on both Literature and US History
GPA: UW - 4.0/4.0, W - 5.07/6.0
APs: APUSH, Lang, Seminar, Calc AB, Human Geo, World, Spanish Lang
Intended major: Philosophy
Junior Courseload: APUSH, AP Lang, AP Calc AB, Research (required class), six dual enrollment courses (most of which are just filler classes to meet requirements; notable are Environmental Science and Earth Science)
Senior Courseload: AP Calc BC, AP Lit, AP Macro, AP Gov, Research, ~seven dual enrollment courses (notably Physics and probably four Literature/Philosophy classes)
Awards / Honors:
NMSF qualifier
NHRP
Honor Roll
AP awards
Accepted to expenses-paid overnights at Hopkins and UChicago, hoping for a few more over the next year.
Minor school awards for math
ECs:
15 hrs/week job at a math tutoring center
~300 hrs, 3 hrs/week volunteering with an education non-profit (that I was apart of as a student when I was younger)
Summer jobs and volunteering
~10 - 20 hrs/week on writing; I have some short stories and plays I intend to include in my portfolio and I write video essays in my free time and post them on YouTube (not sure if this will add to my application, though)
Infrequent work with Children’s Trust on student-led service projects
Founder of school History/Geography Bee Club
Model UN
Letters of recommendation should be strong. I have good relationships with all my teachers and they’re all very supportive and have directed me towards opportunities and told me to aim high with my applications.
I feel my awards/ECs are pretty weak for the most part, especially when compared to most applicants at these schools, but I do think I’m a good writer and that my essays should reflect that. I plan to write about overanalysis as a medium for relating to the world for my CA essay and about learning to be happy with myself even if others (read: conservative family) aren’t for my Princeton supplement. I also hope to be able to apply RD to most of my top schools through QB.
A concern that I have is that my job (probably my most important EC, really) is STEM-oriented and I have no real interest in pursuing STEM. Discursively, I’m also curious about the board’s opinion on applying to around ~20 schools, most of which would be reach schools that meet 100% of financial need. My family would find it really hard to pay more than ~$4000/yr for college, and I would really like to go OOS, so my options are somewhat limited.
Thanks!