(for daughter)
Decision: Accepted
Objective:
[] SAT I (breakdown): 2350 (R800, M800, W750) single sitting
[] SAT II: Math 2 750, Physics 730,Chemistry 740, World History 750
[] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
[] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/52
[] AP (place score in parenthesis): US Govt and Politics 5, Calc AB 5, Eng Lit 5, English Lang 5, Music Theory 5 (aural 5/nonaural 4), Biology 5
[] Senior Year Course Load: AP Stats (previously completed math through Calc 3/dual enrollment), AP Comp Sci, World Lit, State History, Econ, Mandarin 201/202 (DE), orchestra
[li] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel, etc.): Not much: NMSF, State Champ 9th grade World Language Declamation Mandarin 3[/li][/list]
Subjective:
[li] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): 16 years of figure skating (employed as instructor/coach 3 yrs, elected club board member 3 yrs, show soloist 3 yrs, regional bronze medalist); cross country running 11/12 (varsity/lettered 11/12,captain 12; 3rd place team at state; couple other awards); cross country skiing (varsity/lettered 11/12, state qualifier, couple of awards); 14 years of piano and violin (State Solo and Ensemble Fest qualifier for both instruments, 3 yrs All State orchestra qualifer; employed as church accompanist current year; church worship band/keyboard); Mountain/trail endurance racer 2 years, multiple completed races of 3-24 miles/9000 ft vertical gain, winter and summer conditions, various hazards, top 10 female in Grand Prix series[/li]
[li] Job/Work Experience: skating coach, accompanist, tutor[/li]
[li] Volunteer/Community service: twice weekly involvement in homework help/mentoring program for at-risk children during the school year (involved since beginning of program/3rd yr now); barista/coffee shop supervisor weekly for church youth group fundraiser for service projects (do things locally and throughout the state, like flood relief), and participation in the projects themselves; attorney for youth court (limited hours; generally a handful of cases in the summer due to time constraints); volunteer for organization that teaches cross country skiing to youth living off the road system in Alaska; two summer-long construction service trips to Tanzania and Peru; various other things: food bank work, race volunteer, Spec Olympics volunteer, etc[/li]
[li] Summer Activities: most recently, mountain racing/skate training/off-season ski training; various volunteer gigs; teaching skating; studying Chinese; practicing violin and piano[/li]
[li] Essays: Not sure how to rate; received positive feedback on them from various mentors before submitting: Common App (X/10) was about mountain running and related it to the transition out of childhood, also wrote about homeschooling in one of the other info sections; Princeton Supplement (X/10); chose the Wasow quote prompt and talked about mental health and a very personal family situation, discussed the complexities of such; Princeton Engineering (X/10) was about lack of engineering experience, but strong interest in math, and dream to use engineering to help impoverished communities[/li]
[li] Teacher Recommendations: one from a retired teacher who taught homeschool chem and physics lab classes for 2 years; it was very kind, and compared favorably to a student he had years ago who ultimately won a Nobel prize. The other was from AP English Lang teacher, who taught online and lives on the other side of the world 
Obviously her personal knowledge was limited. Suspect a positive rec though, based on her assessment of writing.[/li]
[li] Counselor Rec: This was a little tricky. Daughter has always been homeschooled, but is enrolled in a public charter school for homeschoolers with curric oversight, testing, etc. Counselor obviously does not spend much time with her, and also was new this year, so had to write based on grades and a resume we gave to her[/li]
[li] Additional Rec: Not sure if it was considered, but university math professor who taught her summer Calc 2 course, and has also known her through skating for many years mailed in a rec.[/li]
[li] Interview: with local young female attorney for abt 45 min; she says she sent in a glowing review[/li]
[/list]
Other
[] Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
[] Intended Major: Civil/Environmental Engineering; Chinese
[] State (if domestic applicant): Alaska
[] School Type: Public charter for homeschoolers
[] Race: White
[] Gender: F
[] Income Bracket: $100,000
[] Hooks/tips (URM, athlete, legacy, 1st gen, etc.): come from an area with few Princeton applicants, female in engineering, maybe homeschooling, though that can go either way, depending on evaluator; submitted arts supplements for both piano and violin
[/list]
Reflection
[] Strengths: strong test scores and completed university classes to demonstrate the validity of homeschool grades; heavy community service; accomplishments in music and athletics; essays were probably compelling; geographic diversity; studying Mandarin 4 years (plus 3 years prior to high school) is somewhat unusual for a non-heritage speaker
[] Weaknesses: No major awards or strong leadership; no extracurrics related to math/science/engineering; sometimes people will question homeschooling curric/grades; charter school transcript looks super flaky because of the way they organize it.
[] Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: Decent package overall, and unusual location probably pushed it over the top
[] Where else were you accepted/deferred/rejected: accepted regular and rolling decision to a number of non-selective public and private schools (did NOT apply early action to any private schools; regular and rolling only, but have already received decisions from a few)
[li] Where else are you applying for RD: all apps completed; waiting on decisions from Harvey Mudd, Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, Ga Tech[/li][/list]
General Comments: Though had received many acceptances from non-selective schools, was turned down for every competitive scholarship applied for this year; did not even make semi-finalist for Nordstrom or Coca Cola Scholarship