Decision: Rejected
Note: I’m an international student from Australia.
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2320 (CR 800; M 800; W 720) - second sitting
SAT II: Math II 800; Literature 780; Chemistry 750
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): School does not issue GPA
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Approximately 7/167 (Highly academically-selective school)
AP (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: English Advanced, English Extension I, Mathematics (2-unit), Chemistry, Latin Continuers, Modern History (ATAR: 99.05)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Young Australian Writer for the Year (2011)
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Piano (12+ years; awarded Associate Diploma in Music), Creative-writing (won Young Australian Writer of the Year; published in literature anthologies), School Band and Percussion Ensemble (3 years)
Note: my ECs may seem very weak, but keep in mind that in Australia we don’t have the same culture of extra-curricular participation and leadership in high school that the US has, so I didn’t have as many opportunities in terms of high school clubs, organisations, etc.
Job/Work Experience: Unpaid internship at a law firm for 1 week
Volunteer/Community service: Study skills leader at school (18 hours); library assistant at school library (100+ hours)
Personal Statement: First essay was strong; I spent a lot of time on it - I wrote about coming to terms with my identity as a Chinese-Australian. Second essay wasn’t as strong because I didn’t have enough time 
- I wrote about my long-standing and tumultuous relationship with the piano.
Other
Applied for Financial Aid: No
Intended Major : Political Science
Country (if international applicant): Australia
School Type: Academically-selective public school
Ethnicity: Asian (Chinese)
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: $200,000+
Hooks (URM, first generation college, research, etc.): First-generation
Reflection
Strengths: Standardised testing scores
Weaknesses: Grades, lack of leadership in ECs, cookie-cutter Asian (?)
Schools were you accepted/waitlisted to? UCLA (accepted)
Schools you were rejected from? UC Berkeley, Stanford
Schools you are waiting for? Harvard, Yale, Columbia