Decision: Accepted
I’m gonna fill this out beforehand and post even when I get my rejection (OMG I GOT ACCEPTED) because I’ve been a silent stalker of these threads for years and only feel like it’s fair to give back.
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): didn’t report
ACT (breakdown): 34 (31M, 35S, 36E, 33R, 8 writing) - sent October when they came out: 34 (31M, 36S, 35E, 35R, 9 writing); 35 superscore
SAT II: 740 Bio and 700 Chem… yIKES
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.39 (we only weigh AP classes; I took a total of 13 “weighted” courses, including dual enrollment psychology)
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 15/799 (top 2% but only b/c the top 10 are grade grubbers who take every AP online while I grind and grind for my grades… grrr)
AP (place score in parenthesis): Human Geo (5), Biology (4), World History (4), English Lang (4), Chemistry (4), APUSH (5), AP Calc AB (5), French (didn’t take)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Gov, AP Lit, AP Physics 1, AP Calc BC, Scientific Research, Honors Mentorship (internship at clinic)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Nothing major. National Scholastic Gold Key Winner, winner of multiple regional writing competitions, placed 6th at internationals in HOSA event, but nothing crazy
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
-HOSA state officer, served on school team for 2 years, my biggest EC, pour up to 15 hrs/week into it. I’m so thankful for it
-Science National Honor Society (President)
-Research in three different neuroscience labs, published co-author on 2 papers
-Student Council member
-Key Club (secretary)
-Beta Club (project leader)
-Generic honor societies
Job/Work Experience:
-Tutor for my first neuroscience internship for 2 years
-Elementary school science camp counselor
-Intern at pulmonary clinic
Volunteer/Community service:
-This was built into most of my extracurriculars. Ranged from helping w blood drives to elementary school science nights to packaging food, etc.
Summer Activities: research research research 
also hosa. also swim team. took a couple summer classes. sounds like not a ton but between hosa and research my summers were p-a-c-k-e-d
Essays (rating 1-10, details): I’m not gonna rate b/c I don’t think that’s helpful at all but I’ll discuss.
-I was really proud of my CommonApp b/c I think it hit on every part of who I am; I talked about merging my interest in creative writing and neuroscience and how I write in an attempt to understand people better. I also used a personal experience to tie into my interest in neuroscience. I felt like it hit on who I am as a friend, a little bit of my background, how I think, and my interest in neuroscience/psych.
-Extracurricular essay: Pretty good. Talked about HOSA
-Short answers: I liked my short answer responses a lot. Probably the best part of my writing.
-Intellectual vitality: talked about a project I did on mass murderers and behavioral health.
-Roommate essay: basically a bunch of random facts about me but I’d like to think it was pretty insightful
-Meaningful to me essay: YIKES this one was hella cheesy. couldn’t think of anything and struggled with this for forever so talked about a community service experience and used a metaphor of having vision lol
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: Biotechnology/healthcare teacher. Probably very high - 9/10?? She can speak really well to who I am as a person (had her for two years) and how I’m really passionate about what I pursue. She’s one of my HOSA advisors and I went to the Dominican Republic with her and our group. Even tho a Stanford admissions officer straight up told me not to submit a biotech rec I made sure my counselor covered that it was an academic and challenging class in her rec. (And hey, it got me in so what can I say??)
Teacher Rec #2: APUSH teacher. she intimidates me but I respect her like crazyy. I have no idea how this rec was (apparently good!!!). She’s my StudCo advisor. She’s an incredibly strong writer which went into my decision to choose her. She knows my work ethic really well and knows I busted my butt in that class but doesn’t know me super well personally so probably a 7??
Counselor Rec: I don’t really know my counselor, she was new last year but she’s very sweet and at least knows who I am, which is more than some students at my school can say. I’m sure it said what it had to but probably pretty impersonal. I’ll go with a 6. Class of 800 leggo
Additional Rec: From my research mentor who I had two publications with and tutored for. Wonderful lady. We got on suuuuper well and she loved me but she’s from France so her writing skills are probably a little iffy. 9?
Interview: Wasn’t offered one
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: Nope
Intended Major: Psychology
State (if domestic applicant):
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Suburban public high school
Ethnicity: Indian Asian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: too high to qualify for FA
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): anti-hook I’m brown lol
Reflection
Strengths: Extracurriculars, research, leadership, GPA, really focused “spike” in neuroscience (even though I just pursued what I enjoyed)… tbh idk what else. maybe the fact that I really talked about how I wanted to do both STEM and humanities. And essays. I honestly think they’re what tied together my app and presented myself as the person I am
Weaknesses: math ACT (the timing got me every flipping time), SAT II, no hooks, not even val or close, upper-middle class brown girl who wants to be premed
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: See above, but honestly I don’t know. I poured my heart and soul into my app and have wanted this since 7th grade.
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Accepted at
University of Georgia, University of Alabama Birmingham (first round acceptance in BS/MD program), Union College (first round acceptance in BS/MD program), Augusta University (first round acceptance in BS/MD program). But I’m done with apps - Stanford here I come!!!
General Comments: I still can’t believe this is real. My biggest piece of advice is don’t be afraid to be authentically you. I had people tell me I shouldn’t apply early because I didn’t have a shot. Some told me my scores weren’t high enough. Stanford admissions told me not to submit the teacher rec I submitted. Someone who looked over my essays told me that they were too “story-like” and didn’t deliver strongly enough. I didn’t listen. I realized if Stanford didn’t want me for who I was, then it wasn’t the right fit for me. So I applied the way I wanted to apply, regardless of what other people told me, and it worked.
If you’ve worked your butt off, the results will show it, no matter where you end up:) Congrats to everyone who was accepted, can’t wait to see you in the fall!!! To those who weren’t, this decision doesn’t define you and you’ll find another school where you’re meant to go. Good luck with the rest of applications!!!