Decision: Accepted
Completing this for my D - hoping that it can be a useful data point for those coming later.
Objective:
** SAT I (breakdown) ** : 800 (CR), 800 (M), 790 (W) - one and done (took once, Oct. of junior year)
** ACT: ** Did not take
** SAT II: ** Math II - 800, Lit - 760
** Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0):** 99 (school does not calculate unweighted)
** Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable):** school does not rank
** AP (place score in parenthesis):** Bio (4), Eng Lang (5), Eng Lit (5), Euro (5), French (5)
** IB (place score in parenthesis):** NA
** Senior Year Course Load:** AP English, AP Chem, AP US History, AP Calc AB, Honors French VI
** Major Awards (USAMO, Intel, etc.):** National Merit Semifinalist, AP Scholar with Distinction, national writing award, school academic awards
Subjective:
** Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Student newspaper all 4 years (editor in chief senior year), several community service and diversity boards, 2 years of a varsity sport (9 and 10), a few other school and church activities
** Job/Work Experience: writer for local newspaper, paid neuroscience lab internship, babysitting
** Volunteer/Community service:** Yes: summers with one established organization and created a vibrant after-school outreach program in local underserved elementary school during the school year
** Summer Activities**: volunteering, lab research, Yale Young Global Scholars program
** Essays:** very pleased with them - good mix of her serious side as well as her wicked sense of humor
** Teacher Recommendations:** Waived access but D said one of them sort of held it up in front of her and she thought she saw a sentence that included the phrase “best student I’ve taught in 42 years …”
** Counselor Rec:** Didn’t see - assume it was good
** Additional Rec:** Lab mentor
** Interview:** Pretty good - sounded like a fairly wide-ranging conversation.
Other
** Applied for Financial Aid?: ** No
** Intended Major: ** History or English (& she is thinking about taking pre-med prereqs)
** State (if domestic applicant): ** Flyover country (lol)
** Country (if international applicant): ** NA
** School Type: ** Competitive private that historically sends lots of kids to Ivies
** Ethnicity (Hispanic Y/N/not reported): Not Hispanic
** Race(s) (AI/AN, Asian, AA, NH/PI, White, not reported): ** White
** Gender: ** F
** Income Bracket: ** Did not apply for financial aid
** Hooks/tips (URM, athlete, legacy, 1st gen, etc.): Legacy (mom). Also, selected by Princeton Admission Office for Creative Arts & Humanities Symposium in fall of 2015 - it created the opportunity for D to re-introduce herself to regional rep when she attended, so hopefully the regional rep might have had a mental image of her when her file was being read and discussed
Reflection
** Strengths: ** Very strong academics and love of learning for the sake of learning. Her essays showed that she thinks deeply and that the life of the mind is more important to her than almost anything else in her life.
** Weaknesses: ** No idea if there were many other candidates just like her only better
** Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: ** My guess is that she has what Princeton happened to be looking for this year. She’s concerned about the injustices she sees in society and backs up her concern with significant action. She loves to learn and took the most rigorous courses available to her, and spent her summers further exploring both her intellectual passions and her work on behalf of underserved communities. I’m certain that luck played a role too - there are so many wonderful candidates.
** Where else were you accepted/deferred/rejected: ** Nowhere
** Where else are you applying for RD: ** Nowhere
General Comments:
Throughout the college search process my H and I went out of our way to show our D a wide variety of wonderful colleges. We know she would have loved many, many schools and that there is no one “perfect” college. She must have gotten the message not to fall in love with any particular school because it took her two full weeks after getting her SCEA acceptance to decide to withdraw the applications she had submitted to other schools and accept Princeton’s offer. She’s looking forward to her college years and knows how lucky she is that her college decision came to her in December. As a mom, I am pleased with how things turned out for her but I also am 100% certain she would have landed on her feet at another school if Princeton hadn’t worked out. Best of luck to all who are still waiting - keep your chin up and know that you will land in a place that will offer you wonderful challenges and opportunities.