<p>Okay, this is too many PMs for a girl that also needs to pack. Here’s the essay I sent to one person and my stats list. Ask questions here as well.</p>
<p>Stats are lame, quite normal:
3.95 GPA unweighted
33 ACT, never took the SAT
All of my SAT2 scores were embarrassing, except for 800 on German with Listening
AP Scholar with Distinction- 8 AP tests, 6 5’s (English 2x, Euro, APUSH, Stats, German), one 4 (Bio), one 3 (Calc- had a bad day )- also took every AP class offered at my school, and supplemented with online AP courses for classes that weren’t available
National Merit Commended (missed it by one point, dammit)
whereIlive Scholar (big deal locally) in Science and Fine Arts; 2nd place grant recipient in Fine Arts</p>
<p>150+ hrs community service, not required for graduation- tutored high school physics and German, volunteer with the Spokane Symphony</p>
<p>Principal cellist, whereIlive Youth Symphony
Principal cellist, HS chamber orchestra, 3 yrs, including State Solo and Ensemble win
Lots of regional/state solo cello awards
Founded own private string quartet, played weddings and private parties
Symphony protegee program in chamber music, 6 yrs
Have 10 years private cello instruction; 2 yrs work as private instructor for beginning/intermediate students
German Club 4 yrs; 1x president, 1x vice president
Math Club 4 yrs
National Honors Society president</p>
<p>I graduated from a decent public high school in a normal-sized city, but really maxed out my curriculum there- when I graduated I had taken every AP class offered (besides AP Spanish, but I don’t speak Spanish, so it doesn’t count) and honors variants of the classes that weren’t offered AP. I’m sure this looked nice on my transcript, but the classes were all decently easy, so I also had good grades. However, most everyone applying to Chicago has good grades an a load of AP/Honors work. I was really active extracurricularly active as well, but I think a big bonus for the scholarship was that I had three solid things- cello/orchestra, NHS, and German Club- where I had a lot of centralized leadership and evidence of helpful participation, as opposed to being a member in forty thousand things with no leadership and little commitment.
Another bonus for the scholarship, I believe, is my cello and German. I speak fluent German but am not a native speaker, and teach German in the summers at an immersion camp. Before applying/getting this job I attended the same camp for 3 years, and also attended a pre-college program in engineering at the University of Notre Dame. (The ND program was competitive to get in to, but scholarship-based, and so not just a resume pad like the Harvard Summer School and other Ivy precollege programs tend to be.)
I am also a decent cellist and won a few local/state competitions as well as performing locally with a string quartet I founded. I’m also from the Northwest, which doesn’t send a lot of people to Chicago, and the geographic diversity was probably helpful.
However, you are not me, and so I can’t offer you advice based on the things that I did that don’t fit you. However, I can offer some advice on what was probably central to my scholarship: essays and interview. I went to campus for an interview (this was expensive, but worth it- however, they do not dock you for the inability to come to campus, so an alumni interview would be just fine) and I think I really allowed myself to shine though in my interview instead of being some super-polished robot version of myself. I also put a lot of time and effort in to my essays and wrote them the way that I felt represented me best. I wrote them, edited them, and had friends edit for content and and English teacher edit for grammar and style. DON’T HALF ASS YOUR ESSAYS. They are important. That’s probably the most important advice I can give you, both for admission and for scholarships.</p>