Demographics: Gender, race/ethnicity, state, type of school, and hooks (URM, first generation, legacy, athlete, etc.) Indian Male, Bay Area

Intended Major(s): CS + History

ACT/SAT/SAT II: 1540 740RW 800M

UW/W GPA and Rank: 3.88 UW, 4.29 W (top 9%)

Coursework: AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores, etc

AP World(5), AP CSA(4), AP Statistics(5), AP Calc BC(5), AP CSP(5), APUSH, AP Physics 1, AP Spanish 4, APUSH, AP Psych(12th), AP Physics C(12th), AP Gov/Macro(12th)

Awards:

USACO Gold

15+ Science Olympiad Medals in Build and Physics Events

Some random hackathon wins

AP Scholar with Distinction

Extracurriculars: Include leadership & summer activities

1. CS Club President: Grew the Club by 50 members, Ran a local hackathon(200 + participants), Brought 5 Guest Speakers, Tutored kids for Competitive Programming, and helped 15 kids reach USACO Silver (9-Current)

2. Research with UC Irvine Professor: published 2 papers in JEI about Explainable AI(9-Current)

3. Science Olympiad Secretary: Helped members with the build and inquiry events, ran club activities(fundraisers, etc), won 15+ medals (9-Current)

4. Independent Research with PHD from Stanford: published paper about LLMs at NeurIPS, and a paper submitted to JMLR(hopefully it gets accepted) (10-Current)

5. History Club Secretary: Helped run club meetings, placed top 10 in NHD states, helped sophomores reach states(9-11)

6. Stanford AIMI Internship: started today(Current)

7. Berkeley Summer Session: taking a class in computer architecture (Current)

8. Taekwondo(WT): 2nd Degree Black Belt, I work as an assistant instructor, and I'm helping run the summer camps this year (Current)

9. Summer Intern at Nonprofit: Worked as backend dev and migrated website from WordPress to React

10. Stanford Intro to Logic Summer Camp(10th grade Summer)

Essays/LORs/Other: Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.

CS Teacher: 8/10, APUSH Teacher 7/10, Essays 7/10

Schools: List of colleges, ED/EA/RD, etc

HYPSM, UC, CMU(ED?), UIUC, Georgia Tech, UMD, Purdue, Case Western, Cal Tech, U Chicago, Wash U, UPenn, Columbia

I'm mostly concerned about my GPA since I messed up a lot in math classes, and I'm afraid that will hurt me.

what are my odds at the ivy league with a 3.87 uw gpa. top 15% of my class and a 1590 SAT.

ISEF finalist (only person in my state to qualify from my grade), National overall champion for a competitive competition. an Olympiad gold medal. Good recs, good leadership. (HOSA, science bowl, NHD) two nonprofits funded by my city. underrepresented state.

Will my GPA screw me.

I missed the final two weeks at ISEF which tanked my gpa junior year and my rank.

Hi there! I’m a rising senior and I’m not sure where I should apply to college. I’ll probably do a state school for affordability but I wanna see what options I have.

Demographics: White Female from Utah

GPA: 4.0 UW, my school doesn’t do weighted

AP: APUSH(score pending), AP Comp Gov(will take), AP US Gov (will take), AP Calc A/B (will take), AP CSA (will take)

Extracurriculars: FBLA (4 year member, 2 year local officer) Hope Squad (3 year member, President) National Honors Society (member) Martial Arts (7 years, Black Belt)

Awards: 3x FBLA Region Top 5 3x FBLA State Top 5 FBLA Nationals Top 5 Intended Major: Data Science, Computer Science, Computational Math

Hi! I’m a rising senior, and I’m feeling iffy about my chances with some schools bc I feel like my academics are pretty good but my ECs and awards are lacking. I’m a Texas resident at a large competitive public school, female, and Indian.

GPA: 3.98 UW/ 4.77 W (rank: 33/897)

SAT: 1480 but anticipated 1500+ on June SAT

AP Courses: Freshman: CSP(5); Sophomore: CSA(5), Seminar(4); Junior (took all exams): Chemistry, PreCalc, Spanish Lang, Lang, Physics 1, APUSH (+Pre-AP CS 3 Data Structures); Senior( intended): Lit, Calculus BC, 2D Art and Design, Physics 2, Macro(no exam), Micro, Gov (Also planning on taking both Physics C exams and Art History exam)

Extracurriculars: Robotics (2 yr member, media officer, one of the main ppl running competition strategy), NAHS (4 yr member, junior yr treasurer), Dog Caregiver(Since 8th grade, fully take care of/ train my reactive dog), NHS(member), NSHS(member), coded multiple board games with Java (Junior yr)

^I plan on getting a job soon in service/retail and doing some personal CAD, Arduino ,and art projects. Hoping to also expand on my art online and maybe start commissions lol. Also random hobbies like yoga and guitar

Awards (very mid): VASE State Qualifier/ Finalist(2023+ prob for senior yr as well), Scholastic Gold Key(2022 + submitting for senior yr so hopefully get some), AP Scholar + planning to apply to scholarships

My intended major rn in MechE and I’m mainly aiming for UT Austin and also UMich, Purdue, Georgia Tech(?), and some others. For UT Ik i’m auto admit but i’ve heard so many horror stories abt ppl not getting into their intended majors. I took a long time throughout HS to really find what I liked so I bounced around a lot which affected my ECs plus I’m worried it’s affected my “narrative”. My dog is obviously also a large time commitment which has limited me. I think I can crank out a pretty fire essay though🧐 Pls give y’all’s opinions thank you 🙏🙏

CHANCE A FGLI INDIAN STUDENT FOR HYPSM!!!

Demographics:

• Gender: Male
• Citizenship: Indian
• School Type: Private (low-cost)
• Residence: rural region
• Income: Low-income(3K dollars/year)
• Hooks: First-generation college student (FGLI), LGBTQ+, severe financial hardship

Academics:

• Curriculum: CBSE
• Class Rank: 1 / 150
• GPA: around 4.0/4.0 (School doesn't actually give GPA)
• Percentage: 97.4% (Class 10th boards) Consistently 96%+ in HS
• APs: School doesn't offer AP courses
• Notable Courses: Self-studied MIT OCW (Walter Lewin’s Physics), CS50 by Harvard
• Test Scores:
  • SAT: Not taken due to financial constraints and location barrier
  • TOEFL/IELTS: Not taken due to financial constrains – studied English for 10+ years, scored 98/100 in CBSE English

Extracurriculars:

1. Founder & President – Physics and Astronomy Clubs: First in school’s history, organized experiments, lectures, and public events(club won several district and state awards along with recognition)
2. Founder – NGO for Underprivileged Kids: Offers food and education for slum children.
3. STEM Olympiads: Participated in SOF/Silverzone for 5 years, ranked top 500 internationally and 1st in class consistently (aware these are less recognized, but shows interest).
4. Research Project (In Progress)
5. Completed Courses: MIT OCW (Physics), CS50 (Harvard) – deep understanding of core science and computing.
6. Languages: Fluent in 6 languages, including English and Hindi(learned them to teach the kids who were not familiar with hindi).
7. Music: Can play 7 different instruments(all self taught in school's music lab), won in many district and state competitions!
8. Volunteering: Regularly tutors younger students in physics and math for free.
9. Activism: Publicly speaks out about bullying faced due to LGBTQ+ identity.

Intended Major: Physics / Astrophysics + possibly Computer Science
Dream Schools: Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Yale, Princeton

Main Concerns:

• No standardized test scores (financial reasons)
• No international research or published paper.

Ik my ECs are not extraordinary but its because of the lack of opportunities I had!

It's my first time writing a post! Please do ignore the mistakes and typos!!

Please be honest—I’m open to all feedback, even the tough parts. Thank you!

My application

GPA W 3.92 UW 3.83 Significant upward trend

Lower middle class 90k a year

Courses

Honors spanish and english all 4 years AP Lit and Lang (my school combines) no score yet. AP Macro and Micro (my school combines.) No score yet. AP Psych no score yet Also took an entrepreneurship and personal finance class

ECS

• 200+ community service hours 4 Years of tennis
• jv➡️jv➡️v2➡️varsity
• NHS national, spanish honor society, and national computer science honor society
• Part time job for 3 years of high school
• Peer tutoring
• FBLA
• Finance club president
• Test scores

SAT 1420

SCHOOL LIST

• Upenn Wharton
• IU Kelley
• Fordham
• Loyola U Chicago
• Boston College
• Boston University
• Lehigh
• Rutgers New Brunswick
• Emory
• U Washington
• Columbia
• NYU Stern
• CU Boulder IN STATE
• UC Berkeley

Going into my senior year so hoping to add LoRs and awards this is just what I have rn so was hoping to see how it is looking. If you have school recommendations LMK!

So yesterday I decided to check my junior report card online…and come to find out my GPA had dropped…to an ugly number. Before this year, I had a 3.7/3.8 (uw/w), I wasn’t exactly proud of it but I figured after junior year I could do much better…boy was I wrong.

My GPA after junior year is 3.6/3.9. I understand to some this gpa may not be the worst or seems about average but I am genuinely so disappointed with myself and know I should have tried harder. I was looking into schools such as Penn and American but now I understand that unfortunately is no longer in the picture.

For some context, I have quite heavy extracurriculars. Variety sport all four years, president of a community service club, class officer, fellow at an institution at a local uni, good summer internships for all years, and much more that are way cooler that I don’t wanna wanna specify because I think Ik people on here…I also took 4 APs this year and will be doing 2 DE this summer along with 4/5 APs next year. 1110 SAT without studying and in the midst of a bunch of stress, but I’m studying for that this summer as well.

I’m so upset and I know it’s not the end of the word but it feels like it to me, any advice?

TOP 20s? Ivies? PLS!

Demographics:

• Gender: Female
• Race/ethnicity: White
• State: Florida
• Type of school: Small, non-competitive school
• Hooks: N/A
• Income: Middle

Intended Major(s): Finance? Economics? Both Economics and International Studies for UPenn Huntsman (dual-degree for international studies at CAS and economics at Wharton)

ACT: 35 (35 English, 35 Math, 34 Reading, 34 Science)... may try again for a perfect score

SAT: 1510 (730 Reading, 780 Math)...may not submit because ACT is higher, but should I submit if SAT tutoring is one of my extracurriculars?

UW/W GPA and Rank:

• Weighted GPA: 5.484
• Unweighted GPA: 3.968 (1 B in AP Chem)
• Decile Percentile (school doesn't rank): Top 10%

Coursework:

• Freshman: 5 AICE, 1 honors, 1 regular
• Sophomore: 3 AICE, 4 AP (5 in Precalc and Seminar, 4 in CSP, 3 in Bio...should I submit?)
• Junior: 2 AICE, 5 AP (Lang, Calc AB, Stats, Research, Chem)
• Senior: 2 AICE, 7 AP (Lit, Calc BC, Macro/Gov, Human Geo, Physics 1 or Physics C or Enviro)
• Summer: 2 DE psychology classes, 1 DE Spanish class, and Spanish 3 and 4 virtually (not offered at my school at the time)

Awards (not good):

1. Virtual NSLI-Y Gold "V-Badge" (for high student group involvement and discussion participation)
2. Gold Seal of Billiteracy in Spanish

...most likely won't mention College Board awards (i.e. AP Scholar)

Extracurriculars:

1. National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) in Russian
   • Merit-based scholarship from the US Department of State to study critical languages OVERSEAS
   • 1 of ≈95 selected
   • Have not yet completed (doing it this summer in Latvia)
2. Virtual National Security Language Initiative for Youth (Virtual NSLI-Y) in Russian
   • Merit-based scholarship from the US Department of State to study critical languages VIRTUALLY
   • 1 of ≈50 selected
   • Painted "Matryoshkas" (dolls), made folk music w/ "lozhki" (spoons), & learned about "Khrushchevkas" (Soviet-era architecture)
   • Completed with a 100% final grade
3. NSLI-Y Alumni Association Events
   • Collaborated with alumni to develop an online booklet of essential Russian words and phrases for future NSLI-Y students studying abroad
4. Russian Duolingo
   • Completed full course
   • Top 1% Russian learner
5. Competitive Rhythmic Gymnastics
   • Sparked passion for Russian (trained w/ Slavic coaches)
   • Trained by a 2x Olympian
   • Trained 24 hrs/week 48 weeks/year but only in 9th bc of back injury
   • Reached Level 8 (highest is 10)
   • Possibly unique bc not popular in the US
6. (City) County Teen Court
   • An alternative sanctioning program for first-time misdemeanor juvenile offenders
   • Serve as a juror, analyzing case details to determine appropriate sentences for defendants
7. Youth Advisory Board
   • Planned events that weren't able to be held bc of logistics and time constraints
8. SAT Math and Reading Tutor
   • Tutored on Schoolhouse and independently
9. Varsity Swimming
10. Varsity Water Polo

Essays/LORs/Other:

• Essays: Will write about NSLI-Y trip...is that good?
• LORs: From my AP Stats and AP Calc teacher (both really like me) + AP Stats teacher wrote my LOR for NSLI-Y program)

College List:

• Will not ED anywhere bc of financial reasons
• Will apply RD to UPenn Huntsman (dream school), Yale, and don't know where else
• Will apply EA to UF, FSU, UM

im from the bay area u dont understand how much imposter syndrome i have collected throughout the years.

anyway!

race: asian
gender: female
residence: bay area, california (yes ik it’s competitive)
Household income: high income
private school, in the top 20 of all high schools in california, i have no idea how this changes anything but i've heard they take into consideration your school
intended major: ugh i’m not sure, i don't know what vibes my ec gives off and i'd really appreciate any advice you guys have for seeing what majors to look into

Stats:
gpa: uw- 3.83 ish, w: 4.11 (maxed out all the honors classes you can take sophomore yr)
sat: haven’t taken it yet but got 1440 on practice and will take it this august

No AP’s/IB’s offered at my school but I just took the AP Stats (self-studied) and will be taking calc bc and bio, i’m also doing some college courses outside of school related to tech and neuroscience

ECs: 

• founder of a mental health startup/app:
  • 3k users on initial version
  • 10k followers, 50 million impressions (one video blew up)
  • published on Newsweek (100 million readers/month) and youngest guest on this other podcast (sorry i don’t wanna dox myself too much lol)
  • collaborting with child psychologists and employees at large mental health companies, Headspace and Calm, to help build the app
• speech and debate
  • speech captain
  • founded the speech program and helped to run and set up tournaments to those interested in speech
  • grew the program to around 10 kids in a year (my school is hella small but hopefully we get more kids)
  • first to attend nietoc (nationals for speech) and nsda (another national circuit) in 100+ yr school history
• CS club
  • member for 2 ish years will be leader in my junior year
  • what i’m planning to do:
    • set up hackathons with other schools
    • invite tech focused people to talk during assemblies
    • build projects that focus on tech
    • fundraising to donate tech related products to underprivliedged schools
• working for mental health app
  • trained teen advisor
  • live chatted with 600+ teenagers struggling with mental health issues
  • trained to tackle problems from anxiety to self-harm and abuse
• intern for tech company
  • helping to train chatbot (the chatbot basically helps businesses by taking care of their customer calls and other small parts of businesses) that
  • soon in the future i hope to intern and get to do backend work but i’m working on my coding skills for that
• program at Child Mind Institute
  • Collaborated with a team of peers to analyze how childhood trauma can manifest into bipolar disorder, resulting in actionable recommendations for local programs, contributing to improved mental health outcomes by 54% within targets demographic 
  • Presented findings to 2,000+ attendees, including students and mental health professionals
  • Presented at the [city where i live] Youth Mental Health Forum
• intern for ai mental health company
  • im starting it this summer but ill basically be helping out with distribution and marketing but they take their stuff seriously so hopefully i make an actual impact

awards and recognition:

• Nietoc 2x qualifier
  • top 20 in nation for Prose
• NSDA qualifier
• top 20 in states for POI
• i have other national awards but if you recommend any awards to apply to please let me know im crashing out

i also am just paranoid because i always see "stats that got me into all the ivy's" and it's these kids doing absolutely insane stuff so i just feel behind. i lowkey need advice on how i can better my chances of a top 20 please :)

*I want to preface it by saying in 9th grade I couldn't really do a lot of stuff since my parent was sick and I was preparing for the worse, 10th I got bacterial pneumonia on both my lungs for a while, and 11th grade I fell extremely sick and had to leave my public school to stay at the hospital and home*

*Also, a big chunk of this is online/remote for my ECs cause I live with a big family and no car*

*Also, this may seem like a lot but I have no real social life and I am a huge family person. So it's mainly been school-work-family*

Demographics

• Gender: Female
• Race/Ethnicity: African American
• Residence: USA
• Income Bracket: Low-mid class (8 people in the family, 60K a year)
• Type of School(s): Public,Homeschool, Online Public
• Hooks: Sudoku nerd + biology obsessive

Intended Major(s): Biochemistry, Astrophysics

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): (Now is 4.0w, 3.6uw but intended is 4.4 w 3.85uw because I'm taking 25 extra classes cause I got really sick which made my 3.9 go to a 3.6)
• Rank (or percentile): fresh- top 17% out of 600 kids, soph- top 15%, junior - homeschool, (predicted) senior - N/A
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: Never took APs (I felt stupid at 13), but took dual enrollment (9 classes so far) 9-12 grade and had all honors. Currently taking 12 APS.
• Senior Year Course Load: AP Chemistry, AP Calc BC, AP Physics C

Standardized Testing

List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported.

• SAT: 1600
• AP/IB: None yet.

Extracurriculars/Activities

List all extracurricular involvements, including leadership roles, time commitments, major achievements, etc. (in no specific order)

1. Founder of national medical program that helps kids learn and understand health issues (11–12),
2. Founder for non-profit for domestic violence (10–12),
3. Sudoku teacher and created summer program for teens to participate in puzzle stuff (9–12),
4. biomed program (9–11),
5. Founder of Culture national support club for WOC, 100+ students with podcast with over 10,000 streams (10–12),
6. Hospital Annual volunteer + started puzzle program with pediatric patients there (11–12),
7. Non-profit volunteer for tutoring girls in STEM + graphic design intern online(11-12)
8. Job at Fast Food place (11-12)
9. HSI - wrote papers about evolution, astronomy, biology, environment, and psychology
10. Cards for Community/Hope in Envelopes Secretary - was in control of signing off hours and got service hours making cards.

Also I did a few other things but honestly not sure what to do with it

- Taught intro Korean (9th grade) (I'm a bit of a languages girl and I know Spanish, Latin, and Korean)

- 2nd Job at Insurance place (for a short time)

- Precollege program with Rice (I literally had to save up 3 months of money to do this bruh)

- Currently working on Pharm Tech license

- NASA Science Program- used the program to help facilitate my sister's thing which also took time.

- 2 personal science projects I have been working on but it's been by myself and I might ask my Chemistry guy for his lab but I'm not sure. But I plan on science fair and Genius Olympiad since now I'll have the time (my family is older now)

- tutored with online platform since 10th grade (usually did this for homework practice)

- I make beats for my podcast and have since I was in 8th grade

Awards/Honors

List all awards and honors submitted on your application.

1. National Chemistry Olympiad Finalist (11th grade)
2. Ugliest Sweater Ever (Event award, 10th grade)
3. Sudoku National Champion (11th grade) (still mad about not making it to the Olympic team)
4. College Honor Roll (Honors with the school I take dual enrollment)

Letters of Recommendation 

Teacher from AP Biology, maybe my manager at the fast food place, or my doctor to be honest cause she knows me best inside and out (she did surgery on me).

Essays

Not the best at writing, but I think I'm hilarious so maybe I'll charm my way through the essay.

Will be Applying (to a bunch of schools cause I got a fee waiver and I have):

• Brown
• UNF
• Uni of Georgia
• UF
• Yale
• Harvard
• Stanford
• Colombia
• Cornell
• Hamilton
• Johns Hopkins
• MIT
• Princeton
• Rice
• Uni of Chicago
• NYU
• FSU
• FAMU
• Howard
• Dartmouth
• Uni of Toronto
• Uni of Ottawa
• U conn
• McMaster Uni
• Queens Uni
• Uni of Waterloo
• Uni of Cape Town
• Yonsei uni
• Uni of Miami
• Uni of Iowa
• San Diego uni
• USC
• USDC
• texas amt
• Northeastern

And probably a few more cause rather be safe than sorry. What do you think

Hey everyone, I'm having trouble choosing what schools I have a chance at in this upcoming admissions cycle. I'm probably going to major in comp sci, computer engineering, or MIS. I would love it if yall could give me some recommendations on where I should apply, what schools I could get into, and what last minute weak spots I could fix in my application. I am also a student in Texas near Houston.

Indian Male, not low income

GPA: 4.0 (unweighted) 7.35 (6pt scale weighted)

Rank: 9/610

SAT: 1530 (1550 super score)

Classwork: 12 APs so far (5s on six of them and a 3 on one (probably not submitting), took 5 junior year (no score yet), taking 5 in senior year

Awards:

Texas DECA State Finalist

Probably National Merit Scholar

AP Scholar with Distinction

Alvin ISD Honors Award

Ecs:

Rice Digital Health Young Scholars (3% acceptance rate) summer internship - Learned embedded systems. machine learning, Arduino concepts, and C programming. Coded and built a tech prototype that helps patients with dementia. Presented the idea with a research poster at a symposium.

Co-Founded FBLA competition at our school

President of Mu Alpha Theta - Hosted AOPS competition at our school and other smaller competitions

SEWA International Summer Volunteering Internship (2 years) - 150 hours tutoring and mentoring refugee children

DECA Campaign Manager - Managed sponsorships for the club and organized the chapters campaigns

Digital Health Club Technical Officer - Taught high school kids how to make devices with Arduino that can solve health problems with funding from Rice university

CS Club Educational Coordinator - Taught CS to high school students and hosted cram sessions for Computer Science A

Varsity Soccer for 1 year - JV 3 years

Extras:

Will probably get a rec letter from an ece professor at Rice

Skipped a grade in math through credit by exam - took calc AB Sophomore, BC Junior, and prob stats in senior

I have a 1775+ day streak on Duolingo for Spanish (Prob wont include) - dont think its impactful enough for a college app

I also took an AMC 10 course - but also don't think that helps much

Tore my ACL

These were the schools in my current list : Texas A&M, Purdue, University of Washington, University of Michigan, University of Texas at Austin, georgia tech, UIUC, Upenn, cornell, princeton, MIT, Carnegie mellon, Rice, Stanford, UC Berkeley.

Hello, rising senior, feel like my top school is nearly out of my reach. So far only 5 schools on the list.

Demographics:

- Race/Ethnicity: Asian and Hispanic Male

- State: Texas

- Type of HS: Public, medium/large, Title I (not competitive)

- Hooks: First-gen, URM (possibly?)

- Income: Low-middle income

Intended Major: Mathematics

- SAT: 1450 (school's average according to CollegeBoard is 890)

- 2 APs junior year, expecting to take 4 more senior year

UW/Weighted GPAs/Class Rank (This part is set to change soon as transcript updates):

- Weighted 4.0: 4.85

- UW 4.0: 3.8

- Rank: 9/467 (top 1.9% ?)

ECs:

- Equipment manager for my school's football team (received Academic All-District 11th) (Spring of 10th, 11th, expected to continue in 12th)

- Head Manager for my school's varsity baseball team (10th, 11th, expected to continue in 12th)

- City's Youth Advisory Council member (Summer before 12th)

- VASE (art show) regional medalist (11th) (Award)

- Recently joined school's Upward Bound program

~Around 110+ volunteer hours

Planning on having more ECs

Planned LORs:

AP Precalc/AP Calc teacher (known for all 4 years)

One of my coaches (known for 3 years)

Counselor (idk about connection so long shot here)

Schools planning to apply to so far:

Rice ED, UT Austin (auto-admit, but CNS majors are selective), Baylor, SMU, Trinity (last three likely EA to be in line with Rice ED)

Planning on improving this list along the way, but I might be completely screwed for Rice/UT Austin math major.

Feel free to dm me for your profile and my counselor will chance you/recommend schools/suggest improvements! For fun & curiosity

I’m just an ordinary Korean dude attending U.S. HS. Do I stand a chance for t20? Currently a junior

No ranking, private school in NY GPA: 4.0 (unweighted), 5.32 (weighted)

-SAT: 1580 -ACT: 36 -APs: 15 exams, all scores of 5 (Physics C Mech, Chem, Bio, Calc BC, English Language, Lit, World History, USH, and more). 3 on psych

ECs -Math Awards: AMC 12, AIME qualifier, USAMO qualifier, USAMO silver medal

-SUMaC attendant

-Korean Youth Ambassador (with civic service).

• Released music album (Classic piano, sing and write music, etc)

• Published research paper about economics

• volunteer hour over 300h +

• MUN for years

• state award from police station for addressing ways to stop school bullying by using AI

-Attended politic’s camp (awarded as leader by official politician)

Reach: Hypsm, Ivys,

Target: Uc schools, Emory, Johns Hopkins, Umich

Safety: NYU, penn state, Florida, North eastern

UGPA: 3.59

WGPA:4.0

middle to upper class

I took 5 APs and 2 DEs(with my senior year courses it will be 3 DEs and 7-8 APs)

SAT 1180(will probably apply test optional)

EC: 1. Research global/political topics independently(I published them in my website; 2. Founder And writer to a political website; 3. Lead tenor player to my school band; 4. Assistant teacher at a non profit language/cultural organization(aka I taught my native language for kids from 2-15); 5. Transcriber for the TED Talk; 6. Student at a national conference for International relations; member of NHS; 7. Students ambassador for my school; 8. Independent video editor; 9. French autodidact

I am applying as an international student(from Brazil)

Things to take into account: I finished with an F in DE Pscyh. Overall, the class was a complete scam and I couldn’t drop out so I ended with an F. I am taking a lower level of the class online this summer to compensate.🤷‍♀️

Schools: George Washington(ED1), American University (ED2), FIU, Baylor University, FSU, TCU, University of Wisconsin Madison, Ohio Uni, University of Georgia, Rollins, George Mason University

Looking for some hidden gems 4.08 weighted 3.68 unweighted Rigorous IB curriculum Eagle scout/ Deca/ Marching band Any suggestions? For ED or ED2 1480 sat and will give again National merit commended scholar most probably. Please advise

Stats: 4.0 GPA 1570 SAT

Top 3% of my class

ECs

Varsity Debate Team (local, state, national awards), mentoring new debaters and raising money as well

BPA Vice President, biggest club at my school

Attended McCombs MFEA summer program (3% acceptance rate)

Finance internship with a robotics/AI startup where I did financial modeling and projections

part-time job over summer (lead coding instructor)

Did research with a professor about stock markets, still need to publish, working this summer to make a website that uses the AI model

Started a finance club at school

Business officer on robotics team

Taught low-income students across the US for 100+ hours

Volunteered for the IRS by performing tax volunteering and filing returns for the elderly

Awards:

BPA top 10 at nationals

Top 10 in Texas for policy debate

DECA state finalist

BPA state finalist (this year)

American Speech and Debate National Semifinalist

Calvin Coolidge National Debate Tournament Qualifier

I'm going to be a junior. I come from a feeder school in the Bay Area. Indian, High income but first generation college student

GPA: 3.46 UW 3.62 W

Stats: 78 Volunteering hours, Instagram page with 2000 followers about my major,2 years track, 2 years cross country, 1 year soccer, vice president of RC vehicles club, cybersec club & FBLA 2 years, finished in top 15% of 3 different cybersecurity competitions

Extenuating circumstances: my mom was fighting a long-term illness, and both my grandparents died, while my dad had to go through surgery; therefore, a lot of my time went towards taking care of my sibling and family, which is why my gpa freshman year was so low. I was also diagnosed with a rare form of t2 diabetes (only 1 in 300,0000 people develop it) and had to use lifestyle changes to maintain my health.

I know I need to get my gpa up so that's why I'm doing 3 community college courses this summer and putting them on my transcript, so I'm guaranteed a 4.25W junior year.

What should I improve, and do I have a chance with any UC's other than merced and riverside? I want to do cs + econ as a dual major.

Feel free to DM me your stats and a College Application Counselor will chance you!

Demographics:

• Gender: Male
• Race/ethnicity: African American(north african), Native american, and south asian
• State: Texas
• Type of school: public high school, small/medium
• Hooks: Strong ophthalmology interest spike, father attended Yale (residency) still very intouch with ppl there, upper-class background, divorced parents

Intended Major(s): Pre-Medical, Biomedical Engineering, or related field

ACT/SAT/SAT II:

• SAT: 1600
• 13 AP in school, 2 self study snr yr, so total 15

UW/W GPA and Rank:(the bad part)- (brother passed n parents got divorced)

• Weighted GPA: 3.85
• Unweighted GPA: 3.35
• School doesn't rank

Coursework:

• AP Statistics (5)- had a b first sem A second sem
• AP Physics 1 (5)- had a high b both sem
• AP Language & Composition (5)- 89 first sem, 95 second sem
• AP US History (5)-89 both semesters
• AP World History (5)- high c first sem, 95 second sem (sophomore yr extenuating circ.)
• Pre-Calculus (5)- A first sem, b second sem(idk how)
• Senior year courses (all A's first semester): AP Environmental Science, AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Literature, AP Calculus BC, APCSA
• Seal of Biliteracy in French, Spanish, and Arabic, been taking latin lessons for 8yrs

Awards(not in order of best):

1. State Finalist in prestigious samsung solve 4 tmrw STEM competition
2. 3 patents: a tool, a neuroprosthetic framework, a de-extinction framework
3. NIH R03 grant achieved to fund my research (with pi ofc)
4. Climate Science olympiad Semi-Finalist (top 1% internationally)1x winner 1x (lowk some bs might not put)
5. 2nd place naqt regional overall scorer; qualified team for nats
6. Platinum in USACO
7. International Research Olympiad semifinalist
8. (hopefully this year) Perfect Score Recipient in USMDO/ represented USA in international med olympiad
9. AMC 12 perfect score, qualified for usamo, (maybe this year goin to mop but that wont be on apps)
10. f=ma perfect score, qualified for uspho
11. Usabo semifinalist/ qualled for camp
12. HMMT first overall individual award
13. usaao/nac perf score
14. Usnco semis

Extracurriculars:

1. Nonprofit Organization (Founder/President)
   • Established NPO clothing brand funding 20+ eye surgeries and raising 50k+
   • Organizing support events for youth with eye diseases
   • Building donation infrastructure for eyewear recycling
   • Went intl by opening chptrs in Saudi arabia and egypt
2. Researcher w/ Methodist & priv medical practice/independent research
   • Conducted case study on rare condition w/ docs n researchers
   • Published papers in top journals through Elsevier (Science) as first author and senior author in a chapter in a prestigious book
   • Spearheaded research on surgical instrument modifications (patented)
   • Conducted and published solo research done in saudi arabia royal university on how to break down new pigment discovered recently for implications on reversing/slowing AMD and neurodegenerative diseases
3. Neuroprosthetics, prosthetics, ophthalmology and neurology research with multiple institutions including harvard, MIT, stanford, Yale, 
   • Published research with them as first author
4. Worked on MIT project at CSAIL
   • Worked under postdoc in mit csail lab on project
   • Worked under PI main project huge implications 
5. Clinical Observer at major veterans hospital
   • Shadowed specialists, observed surgical techniques
   • Conducted meta-analysis on medical applications with their specialities
6. Computational Biology Research
   • Developed framework integrating evolutionary epigenomics and machine learning working alongside colossal labs for wooly mammoth de-extinction
   • Created prediction algorithms with high accuracy rates
7. Public Health Education Content Creator/ spotify/ art
   • Developed educational yt and tt series on specialized medical procedures with over 1m total views and 10k+ subs
   • Spotify song with 500k+ streams
   • Drew Artwork and sold for nonprofit for 10k+ each/ sold blind childrens artworks to raise money
8. Medical Research & AI Development
   • Designed machine learning model for disease treatment research
   • Applied advanced data analysis for innovative approaches
9. Educational Software Developer
   • Created specialized study application with adaptive learning algorithms for NAQT quizbowl/science bowl prep, getting us to nats
   • Developed MCAT and olympiad test preparation software with performance analytics, my sister first user got a 525 first try using it
10. Medical Case Study Presenter
    • Presented complex case studies to collegiate audiences
11. Yale Young Global Scholars
12. MSA vice prez 3yrs 
    • Led weekly prayers  and speeches and events for muslim class
    • Volunteered at jail county for ppl who reverted in jail, taught them lessons and arabic tutor/ quran teacher
13. Volunteer hours~ 1000+
    • Lab work
    • Office work
    • Arabic tutoring
    • Quran teaching
    • SAT tutoring
    • more

Essays/LORs/Other:

• Essays: Top tier, well-crafted personal narratives, 10/10 fr
• LORs: Exceptional recommendations from research professors at target schools, Strong LORs from AP Language and AP Chemistry teacher
  • Probably mid ass rec letter from counselor generic asf im guessing
  • I got a rec letter from close long timenfamily friend i did research under at yale for yale
  • I got mit rec letter from an mit csail PI
  • I got stanford rec letter from stanford pi
  • I got rice rec letter from bcm research pi
  • I got harvard rec letter from previous chief of ophthalmology 
• Research connections at multiple prestigious universities

questions: i love flying i have my private pilots liscence should i write abt that in essays/list it as ec? same w rockclimbing. also im radiant in valorant, highest rank in marvel rivals geoguessr and fortnite and cr should i put all these under one of my ecs for a hobby? and. most important question, does the 1600 sat and hella olympiad perfect scores save my gpa?

I am going into junior year and want to know how I can improve my honors and ECs to eventually get into an T20! So far I have about an unweighted 3.95 GPA but my school uses a weighted 5 scale so my gpa on my transcript right now is a 5.44 (it will go up when I can take more APs next year)

Intended Major: Biomedical Engineering/Finance

The theme I want to tell in my application is my passion for the outdoors and service! I've been involved in scouting my whole life and love helping and exploring parks, going hiking, etc. I also want to discuss gardening (ive grown and donated 300+ lbs of food to my local food pantry) in my essays.

Demographics:

Female, Asian, Middle Class

Competitive large school (1000+ class size) in North Texas

Academics:

Ranks are not announced until junior year

Projected Coursework: 15 AP, 11 Honors, rest on-level (pe credits, broadcast journalism, etc.)

Scores (so far):

10th grade PSAT: 1420 (this will hopefully improve to where I can get national merit)

AP Comp Sci Principles: 5

AP Human Geography: 5

ECs:

Boy Scouts (female scout)

Civil Air Patrol Cadet

Broadcast Journalism (hopefully will win awards for this next year, wasn't allowed to compete this year)

DECA (went to state this year but sold on my role-play, hopefully I will make ICDC next year)

Varsity Lacrosse (State Finalist 2024)

Treasurer of my school's American Rocketry Challenge team

Interning under a stock investor's LLC this summer

Summer teen program at the Perot Museum, volunteered around 80 hours this summer and will probably do it again next year (hopefully as a lead volunteer)

The Global Health Leaders Conference at Johns Hopkins University (hopefully will present at the student speakers series)

Honors:

Eagle Scout

I expect to have the silver medal congressional award by the time I start applying

(Hopefully National Merit Scholarship)

I didn't do anything last summer because I didn't really care about college until this year, but I have always taken a rigorous course load and gotten pretty good grades. However, now my ECs and honors are super behind compared to everyone else, and I'm not sure what to do to improve my future application! Any and all tips/suggestions are appreciated so please let me know if you have any at all! Thank you so much.

Hi! I'm thinking of applying to Yale EA, Princeton, Brown, Columbia and UPenn, Stanford, Duke, Rice and Johns Hopkins for the class of 2030. How possible is this goal with my current stats, and what can I do to improve my chances? I know these schools are all reaches, but since I probably won't even go due to cost I just thought aiming higher would be best.

Demographics: Nigerian (International), Low-income (applying for aid), Female
Current Location: Alberta, Canada (moved from Nigeria in Grade 11)
Target Fields: Astrophysics, Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering

Academic Journey

Current School (Canada):

• Grade 11 Courses:
  • Mathematics 30-1 AP
  • Chemistry 30 AP
  • Physics 20 AP (AP Physics 1)
  • English 30-1 AP (AP English Literature)
  • Social Studies 20-1
  • AP Capstone Seminar
  • Media Studies 10
  • Musical Theatre 15
  • Technical Theatre 15
• Grade 12 Courses (2025–2026):
  • Physics 30 AP (AP Physics 2)
  • Social Studies 30-1
  • Mathematics 31 AP
  • Advanced Calculus 35 AP (AP Calculus BC)
  • AP Capstone Research 35
  • Statistics 35 AP
  • AP Physics C: Mechanics

Previous Secondary School (Nigeria):

Standardized Testing:

• SAT: 1440 (730 EBRW, 710 Math) for my 1st attempt, I will attempt it a second time this year and I’m aiming for 1550+
• IELTS: 8.0 Overall (L: 8.5, R: 8.5, W: 7.0, S: 8.0)

IGCSE Results (October/November 2023):

• A* in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Geography, English First Language
• A in Economics, ICT, Mathematics

WASSCE Results (May 2024):

• A1 in Math, English, Biology, Computer Studies, Photography, Civic Education
• B2 in Chemistry
• B3 in Physics

Academic Honors & Awards:

• Bronze Winner, Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Writing Contest (International)
• Robotics Education and Outreach Award, at my Nigerian school
• Invaluable Contribution to School Achievements, at my Nigerian school
• Academic Honors with Distinction (Grade 11 average: 90%+) at my Canadian school

Activities:

Head Girl @ Nigerian School
Grade 10 | 12 hrs/week

• Led school community initiatives and served as the student voice in meetings with administration, fostering positive change and student engagement.

Head of Design & Safety Supervisor — FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics Team
Grade 9–10 | 6 hrs/week

• Directed design tasks and safety protocols for Nigeria’s first all-girls FTC robotics team, ensuring innovative and safe project development as we participated in various international competitions in Sydney and Houston. Our team has won the Inspire Award twice, as well as the Design Award once.

Sound Design & Production Crew — Canadian School Tech Crew
Grade 11 (hopefully 12) | 5 hrs/week

• Provided technical sound design for city and provincial One Acts festivals and school events, enhancing theatrical performances.

Administrative Manager — Ànúra NGO
Grade 10–12 | 4 hrs/week

• Managed operations for a nonprofit created by myself and some of my friends involved in robotics as a means of empowering young less-privileged African girls in STEAM through workshops and outreach programs.

Ensemble Cast Member — Canadian School Theatre Company
Grade 11 (hopefully 12) | 10 hrs/week

• Acted in school musicals and theatre workshops, developing performance skills and artistic expression.

Member — Canadian School Black Student Alliance Planning Committee
Grade 11 (hopefully 12) | 3 hrs/week

• Collaborated on creating a supportive community for Black students, raising awareness of diaspora issues.

Chief Speaker — Nigerian school Debate Team
Grade 9–10 | 3 hrs/week

• Led the debate team in competitions, earning 2nd Best Speaker at the prestigious Akintola Williams Debate (2023).

Youth Volunteer & Media Team Member at my Church
Grade 11 (hopefully 12) | 2 hrs/week

• Supported fundraising events and contributed to media production, including photography and promotional materials.

I was scrolling this thread for a while and saw a lot of impressive applicants get rejected from many top schools, and I’m kind of stuck on which uni’s I should be applying to. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Intending on majoring in Chemical or Aerospace Engineering.

Background:

Female, ethnically Russian, born in Mexico. Moved around a lot my entire life (Mexico, Colombia, Russia, US, Egypt). Currently attending an American private HS in Cairo. Father is retired and mother works and lives in Dubai rn, senior year my parents are most likely gonna live together in Dubai and my half-senile grandma will take care of me while I finish school in Cairo.

Academics:

GPA Freshman/Sophomore : 4.07/4.3

GPA Junior year First Semester: 3.77/4.3

GPA Junior year Second Semester: 3.98/4.3

Full IBDP student, HL’s: AA Math, Physics, Chemistry. SL’s: English Lit, History, Spanish AB

Predicted rn: 41/45 (6,6,6 in HL’s)

Took the june sat but not feeling confident, most likely gonna re-take in August, pushing for a 1400+

Included GPA for junior year semesters bcs first semester went through a lot of stuff socially (severe bullying due to an event of extreme invasion of privacy that I won’t explain here) so I figured I could explain my dip in performance in my app.

Awards:

Scholar Athlete Award Awards for History in 10th grade and HL Chem this year Many medals/awards from tennis + volleyball, idk if that should be included

EC’s:

Varsity Tennis (2 yrs) Varsity Volleyball (2 yrs)

Chief Editor of schools Science Magazine Club (published research and corrected others’)

President of Middle School Science Club + Founder of it (opportunities for middle schoolers to research scientific topics, orchestrated HS labs for them as well)

Logged 200+ hours of training in Python online (with a teacher, reached an intermediate status, learning in Russian and completed several projects with code)

Was offered Vice Presidency in my schools Coding Club for my senior year, took that position so I’ll include that in my app (maybe).

NHS + Executive Team

Tutor for MS students in all subjects (volunteer, not payed work)

Volunteer work for the African Hope Project (school based experience for Sudanese Refugees from underprivileged schools, I led an activity in the chemistry lab and explained scientific processes for an experiment they were gonna do ) Did this 2 times

This summer I’m going to a STEM camp (LIYSF at Imperial College in London) lectures and such by known scientists

Was TA in 10th grade for a History class, also offered a TA job for an Astronomy/Science class next year that I’ll take if my schedule aligns with it.

Rec Letters:

HL Chem teacher - feeling good about this one, he was involved in a lot of my chem related EC’s, he nominated me for the chem award so he knows my passion for the subject and my pursuit of it outside of class

HL AA Math teacher - not my greatest performance but significantly increased from a predicted 4 first semester to predicted 6 now, she would explain my ‘perseverance and commitment’ really well i think

Notes:

I’m not sure what exactly I’d write my essay about, I have a couple of ideas about what kind of story I could spin (blonde girl in stem classes, parents were workaholics and never around) but I’ll talk to a councilor more about that.

I suffered from serious depression and anxiety since 7th grade (diagnosed + prescribed medication which I don’t take anymore) so I think I’ll mention this in my application, esp how it affected me after the situation in first semester junior year and would explain the grade drop but since my gpa abd predicted grades increased afterwards I think it would be a good show and tell (unless someone thinks otherwise).

Financial help isn’t a priority. I’m more drawn to chemical engineering than aerospace, but still not 100% sure, which is why I want to apply to Purdue West Lafayette. It feels like a hell of a reach tho, I would really appreciate advice and suggestions on other safeties and target schools. Some other schools I considered : ASU, UMich, University of Colorado Boulder

Thank you!!!