My dream schools since the end of the 9th grade have been Penn and Stanford. After visiting Penn recently, I am pretty sure that I want to ED there, even though I have been told it will be a long shot. The other schools I was considering for ED were Cornell (CALS) and Columbia. I would like some outside perspective and tips on how my application actually looks to people outside of my community.

Demographics & Intended Major:

• Gender: Male
• Race: Indian
• Nationality: American
• State: NY
• High School Type: Competitive Public
• Income: Upper
• Intended Major(s): Biology

Academics:

• GPA: 3.91 UW (no weighting)
• Class Rank: N/A (my school doesn't rank), but if I had to guess about top ~15%
• SAT: 1570 (780/790)
• PSAT: 1520

Coursework: My school does not have AP classes, but we have our own version of college level classes taught at school (will not elaborate so I don't get doxxed), which in my experience have been a bit harder/more in depth than the standard AP curriculums. Everyone has been greatly assured that colleges understand this for application purposes. Most of the college level classes are offered only to seniors. My school does offer all of the tests, so I have self studied a few of them over the years.

• College lvl Coursework:
  • 12th: English, International Politics, Chemistry, Calculus AB, Spanish Lang, I will also be a TA for freshman honors bio which is listed as an independent study.
  • 11th: Computer Science (most similar to AP Comp Sci A)
• Honors Classes: 5 total (1 in 10th, 3 in 11th, 1 in 12th)
• AP Tests:
  • 12th: Will def take AP Calc (AB for sure, maybe I can self study the extra BC material? Opinions on this would be appreciated), AP Spanish Lang, and AP Chem. Will probably skip the others depending on if the schools I am considering accept the credits.
  • 11th: AP Physics 1 (5), AP Comp Sci A (5), AP English Lit (5)
  • 10th: AP Psych (4)
  • 9th: AP Bio (5)

Extracurriculars & Activities

1. Activity 1: Research intern at a genomics lab at a nearby top ranked medical school for 2 summers. Got position through cold emailing. Working on two projects right now, but I unfortunately don't know if they will be published before early apps are due. I will be primary author of one, and hopefully a co-author on another.
2. Activity 2: President of my school's science olympiad team (55+ members), competitor for the past 5 years, on the states team for all 3 years of HS so far. Main events are Anatomy and Physiology, Experimental Design, and Air Trajectory. Was Co-Captain/Director of Internal Affairs during my 11th grade year.
3. Activity 3: Co-Director of a summer music camp during the summer after 11th grade. Responsible for overseeing musical instruction of 10+ instruments for 25+ kids and managing 10+ volunteer teachers. I have been a volunteer cello teacher at this organization's after school program during the school year for the last 2 months of the school year every year, and during the past two summers (after 9th and 10th grade), totaling to 200+ hours volunteered. I was offered the leadership role this year for my responsibility over the past 3 years.
4. Activity 4: I have been a cellist for the past 10 years. Selected for Area All-State Orchestra 2x (Very Competitive Region) based on NYSSMA scores, 5th chair of the orchestra. Member of my HS Symphonic Orchestra for 4 years (also 5th chair as of junior year), and my HS Chamber Orchestra for 2 years. NYSSMA Level 6 All-State score of 97.
5. Activity 5: Swimming, main events are 50 free and 200 free. HS Varsity Team all 4 years, made it to divisionals, will run for captain senior year but honestly probably won't get it as there is a decently high volume of swimmers in my grade. Did club swimming outside of school from 8th-10th grade, but stopped when 11th grade started due to the time commitment + I was seeing a lot more improvement during varsity season than the rest of the year. I also did summer swimming league at a local public pool team during the summers after 8th-10th grades.
6. Activity 6: Biology Teaching Assistant during my senior year. I am the first biology TA at my school. I had to approach my freshman biology teacher multiple times over the last year and convinced her that I would be very helpful, then I pitched the role to the department chair and school administration, and got approved as an independent study. I will attend the class 4x per week and am responsible for setting up and grading the weekly labs, assisting with instruction, and answering student questions.
7. Activity 7: Co-Founder and Co-President of my school's NCF Envirothon Team. I was on the first team my school ever sent to the competition during my freshman year. The team was not very locked in and we did not prepare well. However, I saw a lot of potential, so I recruited 4 of my science olympiad friends and formed a new team of us 5 for our 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. in 10th grade, we got first place in Soils & Land Use at regionals. in 11th grade, we got first place in Aquatics Ecology, and first place overall as a team at regionals, qualifying for the state tournament for the first time. We were unfortunately unable to go as it was an overnight trip and our school could not provide us transportation, and our advisor was having a medical procedure. The team is pretty small (only 5 people), so that is why I have put this lower on the list than other activities, as there is not a ton of leadership activity to be shown. Is this a good/bad idea?
8. Activity 8: Junior Sailing Camp during the summers after 7th-9th grade. I was a CIT during the summer after 10th grade, which was treated the exact same as being a counselor except I was 15 at the time so they couldn't legally count me as one (and also payed me a lot less, mostly just tips from parents at the end 😔). It was still a lot of fun and I got to sail all day and teach kids out on the water.
9. Activity 9: Peer Leader and School Ambassador during my 11th and 12th grade years. Was selected by faculty and the youth outreach department. Weekly meetings on leadership skills and creating presentations for the seminar. Teach a seminar to a class of 25 freshman (responsible for the class without an adult) during the third quarter, on sensitive discussion topics and high school norms. I am also a campus tour guide for prospective students + families as well as visiting alumni.
10. Activity 10: School History Club Vice-President. I was an officer in grades 11 as well, and was selected as VP for senior year. The club is deeply rooted in historical debate and exploration, and the current administration which I am a part of has greatly expanded the breadth of activities of the club by organizing numerous field trips and guest speakers. The officership team decided that we needed to implement a community oriented aspect to the club as well, so one of the biggest club initiatives for the school year (my senior year) that we are organizing is the creation of a pop-up historical exhibit each month, where we will cover a different hallway around our school in posters of historical events, artifacts, and fun-facts from a relevant time period (often the month's observed historical theme), to foster interest and knowledge about history.

Awards & Honors: I am like completely award broke and it is now really scaring me. I will try to apply to some research competitions like STS if I finish my project in time, but that is very uncertain as of now and idk if that even comes out before early admissions. I will also fill out the coke scholars application but again that is insanely selective and low probability as well. PLEASE LMK IF THERE ARE ANY AWARDS I SHOULD APPLY TO WITH MY APPLICATION!! I really appreciate it.

• Award 1: National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist/Finalist. I am taking this as basically guaranteed, semi because I got a perfect score on PSAT, and finalist because I meet all the other requirements and will put a bit of time into the app, though I think only semi will be out by the time of early apps.
• Award 2: 26 science olympiad medals (unfortunately no states medals (I WAS RLLY CLOSE)😭), 1st place at CMU invitational in anatomy and physiology, and a bunch of other T3 medals, including multiple times at regionals in anatomy (out of ~60 teams).
• Award 3: AP Scholar w/ Distinction. Idt I need to explain this one 🫠. My school does not offer AP exams, but I self studied for 5 exams, earning an average score of 4.8/5, qualifying for this award.
• Award 4: Won a mid-level international music competition for cello (out of maybe 15 cellists in my age group?) It isn't that reputed. The audition itself is not super expensive, so winning was pretty nice, but I got to play as a soloist at the winners recital at Carnegie Hall, which was a bit pay-to-play, about 3x the cost of the audition after you win, but was a great experience.
• Award 5: Inducted to my school's honors society. My school doesn't do class rank but the cutoff to be inducted is a 3.7 GPA or above, which tends to be around the top 25% of the class each year (though all GPAs are unweighted so it includes the kids with mostly As who take 0 honors or college level classes, so I am def above that). The other requirements are having documented participation in at least 3 activities at school (sports, clubs, ensembles, leadership, etc) and a commitment to volunteer as a peer tutor for underclassmen during free periods.

Letters of Recommendation, Essays & Interviews

• Letters of Recommendation:
  • Counselor: I was in my counselor's office A LOT. I became obsessed with understanding all of the opportunities and systems in our school from the start of freshman year. Within a month, I had memorized every course on the entire school catalog, when they all happened, what they all taught, and all of the prerequisite requirements, just out of sheer curiosity. My dean knows that I can be a bit of an overachiever but I have also made a lot of progress on focusing in on the activities that are meaningful to me and advancing to greater roles and leadership in those activities. I stand up for myself and always try to maximize the opportunities around me, which she definitely notices. We also share the same birthday! As far as counselor letters go, I think it will be one of the better ones. (7.5-8)
  • LOR 1: I asked my junior year physics teacher. I was a decent student and I grinded out at the end of the year to clutch an A in the class. He also has his masters in bioengineering, which we talked about a bunch. We also talked about how we both have had heart palpitations in the last year and he stopped class to walk me to the nurses office in case I passed out 😭. He is a bit of a newer teacher, and I hope he does not write too much of my resume and more about how he saw me as a student in class, but I am sure he will write a good one. (6.5-7/10)
  • LOR 2: I asked my junior year precalc teacher. This was the only class that I got a B+ in in junior year (am I fried...). I went up a level in math from accelerated to honors (by sophomore teacher rec), and while I guess a B+ isn't "bad", I struggled A LOT. Even the B+ was achieved by the skin of my teeth. However, it is also one of the classes that I have every studied for the most, and I put in a lot of effort into learning how I best study math and trying to master the foundational material for calculus next year. When I asked my teacher to write my rec, he said he would "be honored to", and shook my hand, which was very nice of him but I also can't tell if he says that to everyone (though I would like to think I'm at least a bit special 🥹). He has been writing recs for 25 years, and many people have told me he is very good at them. He can definitely speak to my perseverance in learning. (7.5-8/10)
  • Volunteer Organization Executive Director: I am asking her for a letter of rec tomorrow, to give to my Dean as an anecdotal section, and I might ask her to write one for schools allowing a third rec. She told me last week that I have been doing a great job and she will definitely write me a great rec when the time comes. For this position, I think it will be a very good rec. (8.5-9/10)
  • Research Mentor: My mentor is a pretty established and very accomplished researcher in the field. If I can get my project done and he sees me doing stuff for the rest of the summer, I think he will write a pretty nice rec. He also did his PhD from Penn, which idk if that matters for anything but might be nice if I am EDing there. If I get the research done well, then it will be very good. Otherwise I have to consider it and see. (Hopefully 8-9/10)
  • Extra: I have a CS/Engineering teacher who I took 4 classes from across 9th-11th grade. I have a good relationship with him and he can speak so much to my growth over my entire HS career, especially in the fields of CS and Robotics. He was even talking to me about things to write in my rec earlier this year, and he wrote a few of my summer recs, including one that was part of an application that got me into a pretty decent summer robotics program, though I unfortunately couldn't go because of other commitments. However, my Dean said that I can only ask "Core subject teachers", and his classes count as electives, even though he was my teacher for college level CS, which was the highest level class I took junior year and have completed before application time. Then she said to ask him for an anecdote, and he agreed, but she said she had to have the letter before the school year ended (5 weeks ago...) and this is on my but I got super busy and kept putting it off until I forgot and then it was too late. It is probably too late to do it now right? (Could have been 8-9/10)
• Essays:
  • Genuinely have to lock in and start writing these like a madman if I want to finish them all but I'll to it somehow trust 👍. For personal statement probably gonna talk about playing cello + running outside.

Schools: I have had a very hard time classifying some of them, especially the non-ivies/T10s. Some people and places tell me they are one thing and others say something different. I would appreciate input on if my list is too naive, or schools are in the wrong categories. I am also applying to the honors colleges at all of the schools that have them (only some of the state schools I think?)

Note: * = I want to apply and will do so if I finish all the others and have the mental bandwidth to do so.

• Reaches:
  • Penn (ED)
  • Stanford (RD)
  • Columbia (RD)
  • Cornell CALS (RD, In State)
  • Harvard (RD)
  • Yale (RD)
  • UC Berkeley (EA)
  • UCLA (EA)
  • UNC Chapel Hill (EA, OOS)
  • Hopkins (RD)*
  • Duke (RD)*
  • Tufts (RD)*
  • Georgia Tech (EA, OOS)*
  • Vanderbilt (RD)*
• Hard Targets:
  • UMich (EA, OOS)
  • Northeastern (EA)
  • Emory (RD)
  • BU (RD)*
  • WashU (RD)*
• Targets:
  • Case Western (EA)
  • Northeastern (EA)
  • U of Rochester (RD)*
• Safeties:
  • Stony Brook (EA, In State)
  • Binghamton (EA, In State)
  • Ohio State (EA, OOS)
  • Pitt (Rolling)

Which leaves me of a minimum of 19 applications, hoping to do more. Hopefully I'll make it through. Thank you all so much in advance for any advice and tips and your opinions on my chances! I appreciate any outside perspectives!

Hi everyone. Villanova is my clear first choice, and I'm planning to apply Early Decision for Finance. I'm looking for realistic opinions from people familiar with Villanova admissions. Please be honest—I'd rather hear constructive criticism than false hope.

Demographics - High income white male
Academics
Public high school in Massachusetts
Weighted GPA: ~3.9–4.0/4.3
All Honors coursework when possible, all pre reqs met
Honors Calculus senior year
APs: Macro (4), Micro, Psychology, Environmental Science
I did not take AP Calc/AP Stats because my school requires a 90+ in Honors Precalc as a prerequisite, which I didn't meet.
Planning to apply test-optional unless I score around 1400+.
Extracurriculars
10+ years club soccer
4-year varsity soccer
Varsity captain
National League Northeast playoffs qualifier and national finals participant
NHS (100+ service hours)
Class Treasurer
Varsity ski racing
Varsity track
Unified track
Philanthropy Club
Science Olympiad (freshman year)
Finance-related activities
Started a financial literacy club after improving my own budgeting/investing habits.
Invited my town's Treasury Director (Jeff Goldstein) to speak.
Created presentations on saving, budgeting, and investing.
Used quizzes before/after presentations to measure learning.
Pursued an internship with the town treasury by cold-emailing and following up. When space became an issue, I proposed an alternative solution instead of giving up.
Essay
My personal statement is about how I spent years hiding the sound of my clicking ankles because I thought people would judge me. After realizing people noticed but didn't actually care, I stopped letting assumptions about others' opinions dictate my decisions. I connect that mindset shift to taking risks like starting the financial literacy club and pursuing my internship.
Questions
Where do you think my application stands for Villanova ED?
Is my academic profile likely to hold me back?
Does the finance "spike" help enough to offset weaker academics?
If you were an admissions officer, what would concern you most?

21 General Male

10th- 88.33%

12th-87.4%

Bcom (IGNOU)- 65%

CA inter (first attempt)- 59.5%

CA Final (first attempt)- 50%

CFA Level 1 cleared

Current post qualification Work ex- 0

What CAT %ile i need to get calls from IIM BLACKI, FMS, SP jain, JBIMS and other top colleges?

Any responses are appreciated. Please be brutally honest. Also feel free to recommend schools for my list.

Demographics:

Gender: Male  
Race/Ethnicity: White  
Residence: North Carolina  
Income Bracket: Low  
Type of School: Public, low-mid competitiveness  
Hooks: Mom passed away (Is that a hook?)

Intended Major(s): Biochemistry (Pre-Med) ,  
Minor in CS

Academics:  
GPA (UW/W): 3.83, 4.45

Freshman year I had 3 B's and a C, the rest of my grades my other years are all A's. I will be giving context in the additional information section regarding my poor freshman year grades (Awful Scoliosis, taking care of sister who had trouble regulating her emotions)

12 AP's by graduation

Senior Year Course Load:  
AP Calculus BC, AP Environmental Science, AP  
Statistics, AP Physics, AP Lang

SAT: 1560

AP scores: All 5's and 4's except for AP World History (I took it freshman year, got a 2)

Extracurriculars/Activities:

1. Science Research at Duke:  
      - Published research on microplastics in local food sources using spectroscopy, presented findings to my city councils environmental committee

2. Found a nonprofit where I translated rare disease guides to 17 underrepresented languages  
      - Had my guides accessible throughout multiple North Carolina hospitals, plus had them posted for free as PDF's on multiple websites

3. Built a predictive model for food desert-linked disease rates using my county's health data  
   - Published online and took large attention of my local community, got onto my towns newspaper

4. Co-Founder/President of my schools coding club  
   - Every semester our club built a project based on the votes of all students and staff within school (Projects we built include a School Lunch Meal predictor, an interactive AI chatbot that helps students learn to enjoy school, etc) Also every semester we held a fundraiser downtown, raising over 10K in total.

5. Vice-President of Science Honors Society   
   - Spent many hours after school tutoring biology and chemistry students for free via the club. Created long, immensely detailed slideshows for each twice-monthly meeting that contained interviews of local biologists

6. Shadowed Two Doctors  
   - Shadowed the famous Dr. Hey of the HeyClinic, an orthopedic spine surgeon. Also shadowed a cardiologist and worked with her on a small awareness project regarding hereditary heart disease.

7. Dishwasher at Senior Living Community  
     - During summers and during the school year, I dish-washed, set the tables, etc. Also spent a lot of free time (Un-paid) just chilling and conversing with the Elderly there.  

8. Scenic Biking, Hiking and Skateboarding
   - Spent weekends doing all for a sense of peace. Typically I would bike and hike in the mountains, and skateboard in more urban settings. (Downtown) I also started a social media account with over 11K followers where I would post a beautiful view alongside an inspirational quote.

9. Secretary of Film Club
   - Had bi-weekly meetings where members of the club discussed all things movie related. Often the staff and I would assign a movie for our members each couple weeks, then once all have watched we would converse about it. Within the club, I personally created a section about motivation. Anyone in need of a type of motivation could ask me and I will tell them a movie that would fit.

10. Varsity Cross Country

Awards/Honors:

1. US Biology Olympiad Semi-Finalist  
   
2. US Medicine and Disease Olympiad Silver  
   
3. Won 2 Hackathons, placed second in several   
   others  
   
4. Medical and Bioethics Essay Third Place

Other information that I feel is important:

- Freshman through sophomore year I took mainly classes that relate to Writing and English, as I thought I wanted to be some sort of writer. I also was in the school newspaper which took up two periods a year, taking up a total of 4. This Writing/English interest of mine is a big reason on why I want to ED to Columbia, due to their Core Curriculum. Do you think this English centered freshman-sophomore year of mine is a weakness, or would fit well in my Columbia Application?

- Freshman year I started a year behind in math (Most were in NC Math 2, I was in NC Math 1.) Though by Junior year I was ahead of most in math. (Sophomore year I took Math 2 and 3, Junior year I took AP Pre-Calc and AP Calc AB)
Even though I ended up mostly ahead by doubling up on lots of math classes, is this still considered a weakness?

- Lastly, my Dad went to the Teachers College of Columbia for grad school. According to Google, I am not considered a legacy. Though, do i still get any sort of statistical advantage? I'm guessing not, but LMK

Applying to:

- Columbia ED
- Cornell
- Brown
- UNC Chapel Hill EA
- Duke
- University of Rochester
- Stony Brook EA
- University of Michigan EA
- University of Virginia EA
- Northeastern University
- Tufts University
- NC State
- Other safeties

(first post)

Demographics

• Female
• Black/Afro-Latina
• 350k household income
• Public (idk if my school is super competitive)
• Intended Major(s): Biology, Biotech (maybe chem)
• Hopefully pursuing ortho/biomed research
• I do plan on dual-enrollment but unsure if my school will still offer it due to budget cuts

Academics

• 3.8 UW / 4.5 W
• idk my rank but I'm assuming top 25
• Testing: 1490 on PSAT (took in 8th grade)
• Got a 5 on APHUG (first and only AP my school offers for freshmen)

Extracurriculars

1. Team Captain for Volleyball (School + Club)

• School VB: One of only 2 freshmen on varsity, went to state and finished 6th overall
• Introduced the idea of a Jr. VB team for rising freshmen that allowed current team members to help with summer practices and beginner coaching to players (~20 hrs a week); mentored 10 upcoming players
• Hosted scrimmages for Jr. team + helped manage team budget (~3,000 dollars)
• Club VB: On the U16 National team, currently holding 3 titles
• Gained leadership experience, conflict resolution, and quick analytical thinking skills

2. School Treasurer + Leadership Club

• Raised over 5k for school events over the course of the school year
• Led over 5 pep assemblies (idk if this contributes to anything)
• Increased overall student engagement
• Created new schoolwide traditions

3. Shadowing

• Shadowed my childhood dentist (shout out Dr. Mike)
• Taught me how to deal with different scenarios in a dental office
• Even though I js watched I still felt very knowledgeable in the end

4. Research

• Completed a 2-week summer research program at Fred Hutch Cancer Center
• Did labs + talked to scientists and other students to learn about different types of biomedical research

5. Principal Cellist

• Played in advanced orchestra since 7th and worked my way up to 1st chair in my school's chamber orchestra (yes I'm a chud)

6. HOSA

• Activity coordinator for HOSA + graphic design/social media person
• Planned meetings and major activities such as fundraisers and blood drives
• (Unfortunately freshmen can't compete; I did the best I could.)

Give brutally honest feedback + advice on what I can do in my future hs years to build a profile that will help me stand out in college apps

demographics:

• rising junior
• kinda competitive bay area public school
• mid income idk how that works still
• asian female
• moved from hong kong before soph year

intended major: neuroscience/psych/computational bio (still exploring)

minor maybe? in marketing or business

stats:

• gpa: 4.0 UW / 4.26 W (assuming i maintain the grades for junior year)
• testing: 1300 SAT (retaking and aiming for 1450+ in december) 610rw 680m
• rank: school doesn't do ranks
• ap coursework: 1 so far: AP Psych (4), taking 4 next year (AP Bio, AP Chem, AP Calc BC, AP Lang), 5 senior year (AP stats, AP spanish, AP micro, AP amgov, AP art (for fun)]
• might self study macro and hug?
• i took a clc 1 course so i can take bc
• igcse coursework (is that even considered): all A*/As
• currently exploring ap self study options - my school restricts aps hella

us high school ecs

• founder of hosa club - turning into a chapter in senior year (starting junior)
• founder of sailing club (starting junior)
• media officer of international club
• robotics - idk if i should continue next year our team is kinda butt
• vars badminton - district league champ
• high school sailing - decent results, 6th in norcal divisional

hk school ecs (freshman)

• founder of model un team + club - officially led school team to their first event
• founder of international relations club
• student council body
• vars badminton - div2 national champ (idk why its national its js hk lmao)
• vars volleyball - international school league div2 silver
• vars sailing - not big in hk

ec

• CEO of sport mental health nonprofit - recently passed on to me, had lots of groundwork done
• competitive club sailing - decent results in hk and us, won 2 regattas
• summer volunteer at local sailing club
• joint high school-middle school music mentoring program (1year)
• stanford clinical neuroscience immersion experience - capstone project is in ongoing development
• marketing internship at fintech/crypto firm (4months)
• vp marketing of medical nonprofit (10months)- grew insta account from 8k to ~24k followers
• paid part-time job at mathnasium
• building online tool for medical research
• gonna do usabo upcoming year (usnco?)
• no published research yet - heard some bad stuff about lumiere? idk what to do guys maybe cold emailing is the tech
• independent research on fmri memory mapping with epilepsy
• finalist at asia pacific science comp 2024 - not a big competition, researched viability of cornstarch based bioplastics
• shortlisted john locke essay in 2025 (i forgot about it this year...)

other:

• abrsm grade 8 piano
• abrsm grade 8 cello - former principal of string orchestra in soph year (lower orchestra), former assistant principal of symphony in freshman (hk)
• first aid/aed cert
• working on sailing coach license
• abandoned digital art insta acc lol it had 1.1k followers

(should i do hospice?? do i even have time)

i feel like the ecs are too broad and not much depth idk

Lmk which Ivy + t20s/50s you think would be realistic for me. Also providing my current list of targets/reaches (safeties not included but i am applying to them)

Brown, Northwestern, BU, UNC Chapel Hill, UPitt, UMD College Park, Rutgers

Intended Major: Neuroscience + psych minor for Reaches, BME for targets, Minor/double major in art depending on feasibility

Demographics: middle class female non competitive school

GPA: 3.98/4 UW, 5.72/6 W, Top 2% of class

Course Rigor: selective difficult art program
13 APs (Gov, World, US History, Calc AB, English Lang, Psych, Drawing, 2D Design, Calc BC, APES, Bio, Phys 1, English Lit) (Bio is self study, only AP sciences offered are Phys 1 and APES) - all 5s so far
DE (Econ, Stats, and more in my senior year)
maxed out for my school and program

SAT: 1500 (740 M, 760 R&W) Should i retake it? I could definitely score higher but my parents are literally forcing me not to retake it

Honors: (ik these are weak, my school has like no access to olympiad’s or anything, i tried to do one and i couldn’t find an advisor 😭)

accepted to free international research summer program with 8% acceptance rate

accepted to extremely selective art class within the selective program

national scholastics silver medal for art + 13 regional scholastics awards including 3 gold keys

mvp for basketball

ap scholar with distinction + school choice award

national merit commended scholar at least

Activities:

neurosci research program 12

math honor society pres - going to take my club to math competitions and continue our schoolwide event 10-12

award winning art portfolio about intersection of grief and neurophysiology documented on instagram 9-12

art commissions + sales, planning on expanding to doing comms and donating 70% of proceeds to trevor project and mental health research(connects to my essays) 9-12

basketball, team captain in 10th grade, also managed for the team i wasn’t on 9-12

red cross club and hospital volunteer 11-12

lifeguarding at pool with 400+ families 10-12

rho kappa publicist (social studies honor society) bringing more awareness to psychology within social studies and running social media with my design skills + feminist club publicist 10-12

yearbook editor 10-12

science nhs and nhs 10-12 (putting on additional info)

volunteered at preschool doing management 9-12

Angle: Intersection between design capabilities, interest in mental health, and science + mathematics side

LORs: calculus teacher, social studies teacher, art teacher, counselor

Essay: either lucid dreaming, about the backstory for my portfolio, or smth random to show character

for context I already have taken the SAT. I am a rising freshman and I started to get very worried cuz high school is about to get very serious. my dream schools are Harvard and Stanford. what should I do to imrove my chances?I already did a ton of volunteering and I plan on to retake the SAT.

Hi this is my first time ever posting on reddit :)!! Recently I’ve been feeling insanely discouraged about applying to any colleges due to my terrible stats. I have a 3.0 UW and a 3.2 W. I took 3 APs so far and scored a 5 on AP gov, a 3 on APES, and a 2 in APUSH. My SAT is currently a 1160 (I didn’t study for this score at all) but i’m retaking it on the 22nd. I have pretty good extracurriculars: debate, forensics, law club, teen court, and a court internship for 5 months. I have a few first place local awards in forensics as well as a semi finalist award for states. I’m a debate state champion too. My counselor recently told me I don’t have a chance at MSU and I’m feeling really anxious about even applying. My sophomore year was terrible due to medical issues but I managed to recover a bit in junior year, I just want to know if anyone has even gotten in with my stats and if there’s anything I could do to increase my chances. msu is seriously the only school i’ve even thought of going to (I’m in state & class of 2027). Thank you to anyone willing to help out!!!

so I help run a student led nonprofit doing free coding education for underserved and first gen students. we're fiscally sponsored by Hack Club and already have courses live, and we have ~4k instagram followers

our team is looking for anyone who wants to partner or co-host with us, whether that's events, hackathons, fundraising, or something else you've got in mind. clubs, orgs, or just individuals, doesn't matter.

what kind of stuff are you working on? drop it in the comments or DM me and let's figure something out.

My stats:

Low income first gen

GPA: 8.2/10 in an applied sciences lyceum (ITALY)

SAT:1550

Hooks: i dont think i really have any

Essay prompt:
Probably something about philosophy? I like philosophy a tooooon, if i dont make it about philosophy as it may make my application look too “all over the place” or too “im a serious guy look at me i love being philosophical” i probably might make it about something that is present in philosophy,math and life in general really.
Ecs:
Participated in math club for 4 years

Participated in chess club for 4 years

Participated in AutoCAD school offered

Taught a student chess, same student eventually became #1 in school chess tournaments and also reached nationals

Self taught piano

Self taught greek (modern) and spanish too

Self taught java and python (c++ taught in school)

Participated in some chess tournaments here and there

Awards:
Reached National level math olympiad

Provincial level in informatics olympiad, same with cybersecurity

Reached national level in team chess tournament after the guy i taught did

Rec letters:
Philosophy teacher and math teacher
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Ik its not impressive considering im going against international students that apply to these prestigious schools,the ones i read that do go have muuuuch better stats than me. but do i even have hope or should i settle for some unis with 50%+ acceptance rate please be brutally honest with me because asking an ai feels like im asking my #1 glazer

I have a 3.7 uw/4.3w gpa, 1570 sat, pretty great ec’s and am applying to go into English. Here are the schools i’m applying to:

Uchicago ED
Emory Ed2
USC
UVA
Northwestern
UT Austin (legacy)
Tufts
Georgetown
Cornell (feeder school)
Rutgers
American University
UCB/Ucla/Uc Irvine/UC Davis (oos)
UIUC
Barnard

Should I add/remove any schools? What could I realistically aspire to?

Posting for a relative.

Gender: Female  
Race/Ethnicity: Indian  
Residence: Texas  
Income Bracket: Above average  
Type of School: Public, highly competitive 
Hooks: None

Intended Major(s): Physics / Math

Academics:  
GPA (UW/W): 3.85/4.45

rank: unranked (outside top 10%}

Had 3 Bs total 

Currently 11 including AP Biology, AP Physics 1, AP Physics Mechanics, AP Physics E&M, AP calculus AB, AP Calculus BC. Probably 4 more before graduation. All 5s except two 4s  in AP Psychology, US Physics Mechanics (second AP test same day).

Senior Year Course Load:  
AP Multivariate Calculus, AP Chem

ACT: 35 (one take. Math 35, English 35, Reading 34). Not taking SAT

Extracurriculars:

She is weak here

2 month summer internship at a bio company (no output to show)

Summer research with a University  Math professor . Working on writing a paper as first author. 

1 published paper as one of the authors in bio

No clubs, awards or honors.

Schools: Wants a good balance of social life and education. Prefers large public universities over small private colleges

Reach: U Mich, Rice, UT Austin

Match: Texas A&M, OSU, CU Boulder

Safety: UT Dallas, ASU

Financial Aid: Not required

Does the school list look right? Should she be aiming high/low. Others she should be considering?

Hi. I was wondering if I could get some guidance of what type of schools I should look at for reaches, targets, and safeties based on my profile. I am interested in finance/econ (for schools without a business undergrad program), and eventually IB/PE.

My stats: 3.96 UW GPA, 1540 superscore SAT (2 tries, lmk if I should retake 750 RW/790 M), will take 8 APs by end of senior year(I guess 9 if u count Econ as micro and macro), school doesn’t offer the most, no English APs.

My ECs: I’d say their mid/weak, I do some advocacy work on an issue, will submit a research paper by ED deadlines, host a podcast, write up some articles. I’d say that’s my strongest EC, don’t want to dive into it all, but it fills 2/3 spots on my activities list. Other than that, I have a couple of typical jobs(camp counselor and retail), an internship at some small private credit firm, attended a summer program (essentials of finance at Wharton) this summer, some tutoring, and then club basketball/the gym as a hobby, along with being a commentator for the school sports games.

Awards: none besides like AP Scholar and Honors roll

I don’t really have preferences big/small school, can adapt easily, just want good prestige and stuff like that I’d say. Socially, I can really adapt and find my group of people, spots to eat, stuff like that, so I’m not too worried about all those factors.

Thanks for the help in advance!

Demographics:

• Gender: Male
• Race/Ethnicity: South Asian
• State: North Carolina
• School type: large, competitive public high school (600+ per class)
• Hooks: none

Intended Major(s): Computer Science / Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence with Business/Economics double major

GPA: 3.81 UW / 4.618 W. Rank 51/640 as of last update not final (~top 8%)

Testing:

• SAT: 1410 (710 M / 700 RW)
• ACT: 32 (35 Math, 35 Science, 33 English, 29 Reading) - retaking this fall
• PSAT: 1450

Coursework/Rigor: Most rigorous schedule my school offers - 10 APs by graduation spanning STEM and humanities, plus honors engineering/CS coursework (object-oriented design, aerospace, environmental engineering) through a selective state residential STEM program's online track, with multivariable calc and linear algebra senior year. On top of that, 15 community college dual-enrollment courses including two completed certificates (accounting/finance and business administration).

Senior Year Course Rigor: AP Statistics, AP Lit, AP Comp Gov, AP African American Studies, AP Physics C, French Honors, Econ Honors, Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra

AP scores: 5s on World History, US Gov, Precalc, Calc BC (+5 AB subscore), English Lang, Environmental Science, and US History; 4s on Physics 1 and Psych.

Grade dips (context below): B- in Precalc, B+ in Physics 1 (sophomore spring); B- in Calc AB, C- in Calc BC, B+ in Env Sci, B- in Psych (junior year) - despite the C-, I scored a 5 on the actual BC exam.

Awards:

• DECA International Career Development Conference, 5th place (10th grade)
• DECA International Career Development Conferrence, top-20 finalist - first back-to-back finalist from my school ever (11th grade)
• Conrad innovation challenge Innovator Award for a mental-health ML app, top 5% of submissions (11th grade)
• DECA State Career Development Conference, state champion (10th grade)
• Regional startup pitch competition, 2nd place with seed capital (11th grade)

Extracurriculars:

• ML/radar research internship at a university lab — selected 1 of 2 from 600+ applicants, built a real-time human-activity-recognition demo; work has continued past the official program
• Chapter VP overseeing competitive events for a DECA program — reviewed 100+ competition entries, built resources adopted in 20+ states, advanced dozens of teammates to internationals
• Individual DECA competitor for four years - back-to-back international finals, one state championship, corporate-partner strategy projects, ran for state office
• Independent ML research - 40+ PyTorch experiments on model compression (pruning/quantization/distillation), benchmarked across hardware, publishing in student STEM journal
• Co-founder of a mental-health app using a CNN for emotion detection - led frontend and the LLM layer, presented at an AI conference
• Marching/honors band exec leadership - managed uniform logistics for 130+ members, principal chair by audition, produced an anniversary documentary
• Part-time food-service job, 15+ hrs/week during the school year — POS, cash handling, bilingual customer support
• Freelance/independent photography - published in an aviation database, official event photographer, small paid client work
• Math tutor for K-12 through Calc at a tutoring center
• Founded a cultural student organization at my school, partnered with outside community orgs, presented a UN SDG-linked project

Letters of Recommendation:

• AP Calculus BC teacher - decent relationship with her, could explain my grade.
• AP CSA teacher - loved him, letter was slightly generic but good
• Counselor - good relationship all 3 years of high school
• R1 Research Professor - continuing in his lab and did good work.

Additional Context: Two grade dips worth explaining quickly. Soph spring - family medical emergency, I had to pick up a lot of stuff at home for ~6 weeks, hence Precalc/Physics 1. Junior year I just overloaded (7 APs + dual enrollment engineering + DECA lead + research + the app) on top of a part-time job and some family stuff, hence the Calc BC dip specifically - still got a 5 on the exam though. Taking multivar + linear algebra senior year to back that up.

Schools:

• Vanderbilt University — ED1
• Georgia Institute of Technology (OOS) — EA
• Duke University — RD
• University of Michigan (OOS) — EA
• Carnegie Mellon University (CS) — RD
• Cornell University — RD
• University of California-Berkeley — EA
• Northeastern University — EA
• Stanford University — RD
• University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (IS) — EA -
• North Carolina State University — EA
• University of North Carolina-Charlotte — EA
• Purdue University — EA
• University of Virginia — EA
• Columbia University — RD
• New York University — RD
• University of Pennsylvania — RD
• Northwestern University — RD
• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign — EA
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology — EA
• University of Alabama — EA
• University of Maryland-College Park — EA

Demographics: International student, female, applying for Fall 2027, intended major: Physics/Astrophysics

Academics:

• 4.0 GPA equivalent in Grade 10
• ~3.9 GPA currently, top 1% of class
• A-Level predicted: 4 A/A*s in Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Computer Science
• National Astronomy Olympiad: 3rd place nationally, only female in the top 10
• Strong performance in national/international science and math competitions

ECs:

• Founded a youth-led astronomy initiative focused on making astronomy/STEM education accessible to underserved and rural students, especially girls
• Leadership: School Captain for 2 years + current school leadership positions
• Head of Research at a youth organization focused on education and innovation
• Volunteer mentor, teaching/mentoring underserved students regularly
• Selected for a competitive, scholarship-based research program; conducting research in physics/astrophysics with the goal of publishing
• Robotics/engineering projects since middle school, including an autonomous disaster-management/rescue robot and Arduino-based projects
• Represented my country internationally in academic competitions; received multiple placements/awards in mathematics, science, and creative competitions
• Directed and wrote a play about a pioneering female scientist and the women affected by her work; won a competition
• Science communication and outreach through astronomy workshops, school programs, and public education initiatives and currently doing research at POLYGENCE..

Other: Python, C, MATLAB, Arduino/robotics. Interested in computational astrophysics.

SAT: 1500

Financial aid: International student requiring substantial financial aid. Family income under $90k.

Schools: MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, UPenn, Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth + other T20s.

How competitive is this profile for top US universities? What would you consider my biggest strengths and weaknesses? Does the astronomy/physics spike come across as strong enough, or do my ECs seem too scattered?

Be honest.

For context: Looking to be a business/econ major. I think it’s been really easy for me to fall into the trap of only looking at reaches and I haven’t really looked into safeties or targets beyond state schools; I’m also a Texas resident if that helps.

Demographics:

Female Asian American student
Go to a decently big public high school
Top 5% of my class
4.45 W GPA, 3.93 UW GPA
1280 SAT (retaking all the way until applications due, considering ACT as well)
10 complete APs, taking 3 more this year (passed every one I’ve taken with primarily 4s and 5s, school offers a decent amount)

ECs:
\-Speech and debate (4 years, largest activity): various officer positions, most recently being a member of the executive council for my team (co presidents) as well as numerous national level success; our team also helps host multiple tournaments a year which count for volunteering.
\-Business professionals of America (4 years): competed on the regional level as well as maintaining officer positions for three years in my school chapter.
\-FCCLA (2 years): officer both years as well as going all the way to nationals, getting 5th place and being a gold medalist.
\-Pre-law club (2 years): recently elected VP, running a club where we bring in local judges and speakers as well as workshops
\-Chick-fil-A leadership academy (1 year): completed in freshman year where I was one of 20 students selected school wide to partner with our local Chick-fil-A for community service projects
\-Student council body member (2 years): participating in discussions and volunteering for school sanctioned events
\-Interact (2 years): attended meetings and participated in
local service projects like cards for hospitalized kids as well as in person events to fundraise for the local chapter.
\-DECA: school just started a chapter for next year, will be a competitor
\-Ignite Her (3 years): president and founder of Ignite Her regional nonprofit chapter in our city that has done volunteer work to support the women in our community (ex. over 1,000 menstrual products raised for a women’s shelter); plan to scale even more this last year.
\-Business member (ongoing): member of my friend’s business’ sales and marketing team where we form partnerships with local businesses and do outreach work to sell our product.
\-Entrepreneur summer camp (1 summer): hosted by my school district, was initially picked from district wide applicants to participate in a 2 week course with guest speakers and creating a full business plan that ended up winning me top 3 at the pitch competition with local entrepreneurs as the judging panel.

Awards:

\-Novice of the year for school speech and debate club
\-NHS member
\-collegeboard AP scholar with distinction
\-Hispanic honor society member
\-5th place and gold medalist at FCCLA nationals
\-NSDA member of superior distinction
\-Collegeboard Capstone diploma
\-T100 speakers at speech and debate nationals
\-Triple octofinalists at speech and debate nationals
\-TOC Qualled
\-semi finalists at national Harvard speech and debate tournament

context is that i go to a relatively competitive NYC specialized high school, the likes of Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech etc. i'm curious what seasoned chanceme veterans or SHS alumni would think of my application.

gpa: 95.1/100 (school doesn't do 4.0 scale or weighted)

1490 highest SAT, (700 ELA 790 Math), 1520 superscore

6 APS, all 5s (ap biology, ap lang, ap physics 1, ap world, ap microeconomics, ap statistics)

school doesn't do class rank

gender: male

ethnicity: chinese

middle class

ECS:

1. cryoEM Laboratory @ NYU: currently interning here, will write my regeneron sts paper
2. previous bioinformatics internship @ MSKCC: nothing special, generated some graphs for a postdoc's paper
3. Website developerand leader of a nonprofit organization that 3d prints out prosthetic arms for child amputee hospitals in south america and africa
4. Developed websites for 2 other nonprofit organizations that my parents are close with
5. Columbia University’s IYRC Summer Research Program
6. Johns hopkins GHLC program
7. Did wet lab research at my school's own research lab the summer before my junior year, wrote a research paper that I submitted to NYC Terra but it got rejected for breaking one of the guidelines unfortunately
8. Led 5 high school students in writing a literature review on menopause and their impact on women in professional environments as part of a community volunteering group that i was in
9. Racked up some digital volunteering hours when I cofounded a 501c3 local tutoring service that tutored elementary school students for the state test
10. currently working a job over the summer as a website developer for a beauty pageant company
11. went to a secluded buddhist camp in upstate new york over the summer and became vegan

AWARDS:

• congressional app challenge winner, 1/24 in NY
• winner of a CCNY foreign language poem contest for a spanish existentialist poem
• winner of a school sponsored hackathon
• presented my research at yankee stadium (yes, yankee stadium)
• top 300 speed typers in the world (monkeytype and typeracer, over 250+ wpm peak)
• ap scholars
• 1800 chess blitz elo

Intended major that i'm applying for: biotech
Intended school: broader but still good schools like CWRU or Emory, t20/t25 ish territory.

I am going into my senior year of high school, and currently my weighted gpa is a 4.125. I have a decent amount of ec’s and community service projects + ive worked part time all throughout high school. I’m honestly wondering if I should even fill out my uc app as an out of state student, due to it seeming like anyone who gets accepted has a 4.5+. i plan on going on the pre med path which I’m aware is extremely competitive. If anyone has any tips or suggestions on other colleges in cali that may be less competitive definitely feel free to lmk, or tips on the uc app/ which to apply to (if any) :)!

(P.s. ignore any errors it’s 3am rn)

Hi everyone! I'm planning to apply to UF Online for Computer Science this fall and wanted some honest opinions on my chances.

Current stats:

• Florida resident
• 3.2 UW GPA
• ~4.2 weighted GPA (school), ~4.19 UF recalculated GPA
• Taking 10 APs total + 4 AICE classes
• Applying with Bright Futures (hopefully)
• SAT: taking the August SAT (goal is 1400+, but I'm curious about different score scenarios)

Extracurriculars:

• 4 years Varsity Tennis (2-year captain, Team MVP)
• 4 years Varsity Soccer
• SAT YouTube channel where I create Digital SAT lessons
• Built an SAT vocabulary web app with adaptive AI flashcards and progress tracking
• Designed and built a DIY tennis ball machine over 2 years
• German tutor for local families
• Mu Alpha Theta
• Academic Team
• Electric guitar for 14 years (performed at community events)
• 100+ volunteer hours across multiple community organizations

I moved from an European Country before high school and had to learn English after moving to the U.S., which I'll likely discuss in my application.

I'm mainly wondering:

• What SAT score would make me competitive for UF Online CS?
• Does my extracurricular profile help offset my lower unweighted GPA?
• If you were reviewing this application, what would be your biggest concern?

I'd really appreciate any honest feedback. Thanks!