What factors REALLY are helpful?

Colleges & Universities Princeton University
1

<p>Hey everyone, I’ve been reading and reading and reading on the Princeton forum for months now, and I’ve been itching to post and get an idea of where I stand. Everyone seems so talented and capable. </p>

<p>Basically my questions include: in terms of admission to Princeton,
How are my chances in particular?
What are my strongest advantages and disadvantages?
How UNIQUE am I? (I don’t want to be a cookie-cutter, boring applicant)</p>

<p>GPA:
Weighted - 4.764
Unweighted - 4.00
Class Rank - 1 of 369</p>

<p>ACT:
Composite - 35
(English - 35, Math - 34, Reading - 36, Science - 34, Writing - 10 out of 12)</p>

<p>SAT Subject Tests:
Biology (M) - 760
Math I - 780</p>

<p>AP:
Human Geography - 3
Biology - 5
Calculus AB & BC - currently taking
English - currently taking
(My school does not offer many nor place much emphasis on APs. They prefer dual enrollment courses to allow students to get credit with state colleges. I have a lot of those classes).</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
-Senior Class President
-Junior Class President (organized Ring Ceremony and prom; spoke at various events)
-Freshman Mentoring Club (very involved; very important to me; wrote about it for my most impacting extracurricular)
-BETA (300ish service hours, all of which I described in detail and attached to my application, including bake sales, clothing drives, study sessions and tutoring sessions that I initiated and led, and lots of work for school-related events).
-School Spirit Club (I emcee all the pep rallies; organize and execute various components of the pep rallies including video and skit production) **School spirit is really big for me. I hope I made that clear in my application.
-Varsity Tennis (lettered)
-Positive Behavior Intervention and Support Focus Group (produced, starred in, and edited videos to promote positive behavior for students; help develop better strategies to improve behavior schoolwide)
-Talented and Gifted Student (attend a weekly enrichment course for academically gifted students; have done so since 2nd grade)
-Church lector (read scripture at my church’s masses)
-Mu Alpha Theta (joined newly formed club and helped increase membership; led part of the initiation ceremony)
-French Club (attend weekly meetings and raise money for the club)</p>

<p>Jobs:
-Worked as a summer secretary in the front office of my high school this past summer. I answered the phone, mailed transcripts, and completed other clerical duties.
-Paid tutoring jobs since 10th grade</p>

<p>Awards:
-National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist
-1st Place Spanish III Student Statewide (basically top ranked Spanish student in the state) - junior year
-1st Place Spanish III - district level - junior year
-2nd Place Spanish II - state level - sophomore year
-1st Place Spanish II - district level - sophomore year
-COX Channel 4 Scholar
-Boys State Delegate (chosen at my school to attend a week-long mock-government camp where officials were elected, laws were made, and so forth. It was the creation of a “mythical state”).
-Baton Rouge State Fair Community Service Scholarship Recepient
-Super Gator - freshman, sophomore, and junior year (student-chosen representatives of each grade level; criteria is to be well-rounded and socially apt)
-GPA Recognition - freshman, sophomore, and junior year (steadily ranked as #1 in my class)

  • Best Junior Foreign Language Student
  • Best Junior English Student
  • Best Sophomore Foreign Language Student</p>

<p>My letter from my counselor was great. She’s a sweet, well-spoken lady, and she had great things to say. I really hope it’ll be a standout. My other two letters talk about how I stand out, am a leader, am motivational, and so forth. Maybe they’re a little generic, but they’re honest, and they all ranked me in the top 1% they’ve encountered, I believe. One teacher called me the most intelligent student she’s taught in 18 years. </p>

<p>The interview went fantastic. It lasted for about an hour and a half. The man said he very much enjoyed it, and told me he was pulling for me. </p>

<p>Other information:
-I applied SCEA with Molecular Biology as my intended major.
-I’m a white male from southeast Louisiana.
-I’m a triplet (we’re 3 boys). I talked about this in one of my essays and included a little anecdote.
-I go to a large public school that, to my knowledge, has never sent a student to an Ivy League school. Everyone around here applies to LSU, gets accepted, and calls it quits.</p>

<p>I know it’s all speculation, but what do you guys think is working in my favor, and what’s not? Am I interesting enough? Do I have a really good shot at getting accepted next week? Or is a deferral coming my way … Or worse, a denial? :/</p>

<p>Thank you so much! I sincerely appreciate it.</p>

2

<ol>
<li>In terms of academics, you’re clearly fine. You have a perfect GPA and your ACT is pretty much perfect. However, if your school offered more AP courses, you probably should have taken those, as colleges really love to see you challenge yourself. </li>
<li>As for letters of recommendation and the interview, I will assume that both are amazing. </li>
<li>As for your extra-curriculars, you are clearly very involved in your community. I think you have shown a passion in several areas, but I don’t see a WOW factor. Then again, it is very possible to get in without this WOW factor.</li>
<li>Many of your awards are only district level, so I do not think Princeton will place much weight on them. However, it is nice to see that you have several awards that back up your well-roundedness.</li>
<li>ULTIMATELY, it will come down to how well your essays are written and if you demonstrate a passion for learning in your essays. All I can say is you’ve done everything you can. You deserve to be accepted, but life is not always fair. Best of luck!</li>
</ol>

3

<p>Thank you so much!
Do you think that being a triplet and being from Louisiana will be helpful at all? I know they like diversity in any way possible. I really tried to play up my uniqueness in the essay, especially in terms of my energetic personality and how being a triplet has affected that.</p>

4

<p>You’re welcome! Being from Louisiana will help a bit because you aren’t from a super competitive state. Being from the Northeast makes it extremely hard because you are competing with very competitive people. However, you should have a slight advantage. As for being a triplet, if you incorporated it into your essays correctly, it could help you. I don’t think it would hurt you, but it may have no effect. Obviously, I don’t know how the admissions officers think, but your essay description has already got me intrigued, as I can tell it’s not a stereotypical essay!</p>

5

<p>Thanks again for your input! Yeah, I know my counselor mentioned that I was a triplet in her recommendation (saying that it’s given me a “team approach to life in general”), and one of my essays really emphasized it. I really hope that this will allow me to be memorable if nothing else.
But only 4 students from Louisiana are freshmen at Princeton right now. I mean, we send virtually no one there.</p>

6

<p>Anyone else have input for me? Anything is greatly appreciated.</p>

7

<p>you sound pretty unique; are your brothers applying there too?</p>

8

<p>No, they sure aren’t. In fact, no one from my school is applying, and no one else in the parish that I know of either. Maybe some Baton Rouge or New Orleans kids, but I would suspect that very few of them (if any at all) applied SCEA anyway. Louisiana has barely sent anyone to Princeton in past years.</p>

9

<p>hmm…I’m not sure how being a triplet will play out; it’s interesting for sure though…I wonder what those “unpopular” hooks are…</p>

10

<p>I was wondering the same thing! I’m hoping that when discussing me, they were able to just say “the triplet,” thereby making me more memorable if other parts of my application weren’t mindblowingly unique (because they very well may not be).</p>

11

<p>I’m hoping for the same! loll ( I’m not a triplet, although I was VERY close to being one, because I’m in vitro)</p>

12

<p>I am amazed by all your extracurriculars I think you’ve done a great job in making yourself well rounded. I don’t know princetons expectations though but I wish I had the ECs that you have.</p>

13

<p>@zaza oh wow that’s super interesting! I’ve never spoken to someone who’s in vitro.</p>

<p>@patwita thank you for your input! I really appreciate it.</p>

14

<p>xeno…hope princeton thinks that too loll</p>

15

<p>Haha I guess we’ll see then!</p>

<p>And for anyone else who has some input for me, do keep in mind that even though I only have a handful of APs, I took all that I was able to. We’re forced to CHOOSE between certain ones (for example, I had to choose between AP bio, AP chem, and AP env sci, and I chose bio) so even though it’s only a few, it really is the maximum that was made available to me.
Thanks again!</p>

16

<p>Congrats on your acceptance!</p>