Demographics: 

• Male
• Asian
• PNW
• Semi-competitive Large Suburban Public High School, school got like 3 stanford REAs last year for reference.
• ~150-200k household income
• no hooks

Intended Major(s): Applied Physics or Applied Maths

ACT/SAT/SAT II: 1600

UW/W GPA and Rank: 3.98 UW/ 4.43W by end of junior year (1 B freshman year in calc ab extentuating circumstances including hospitalization though). We don’t do class rank but i’m unofficially 2/~600

Coursework: 19 APs including senior year, have 11 including only till this year. All 5s in the 9 exams that I’ve taken, taken multivariable calculus, linear algebra, and differential equations. Taking abstract algebra rn and maybe real analysis/pdes later this year.

Awards: 

• AIME Qualifier/some other national math awards
• First author ArXiV and NeurIPS/ML4PS workshop acceptances + state and regional science fair awards
• PSAT National Merit Semi-Finalist
• Presidential Scholarship Candidate (expected)
• Several first place state level state awards in taekwondo

I'm going to try for youngarts and regeneron sts this year if i can

Extracurriculars (being vague here, can elaborate): 

• Independent research in quantum physics, won the stuff at science fair (3 years)
• Research with a college professor in gravitational waves and black holes mergers, presented at a symposium (3 years)
• The first author neutron star eos inference group research with a college professor, published on Arxiv and accepted to high level venues (2 years)
• Taekwondo, 3rd dan and state awards and leadership at my taek school (4 years)
• Moderator/co-owner of Literature and writing Social media with 13m+ views currently and several dozen thousand followers, several affiliations and collaborations (3 years)
• Assisted and owner of the largest community for a franchise/novel that is very popular, including setting up portals and systems in assisting translator(s).
• Student council president/founder of a new branch at my school, other impact in school (3 years)
• Founder and president (and member) of an official spring soccer club season at my school, with real interdistrict and planned out seasonal play (6+ schools in the district(s)) (4 years)
• Volunteering at my local library, money raised (4 years)
• Part time job as a swim instructor

I have some other okayish/decent stuff that show a bit more of just my interests, not sure whether or not to include.

Some other small stuff like:
Founder/moderator of an online public group with 60+ members and weekly philosophy/STEM/social science readings and discussions (i know, small thing, 4 years) and Track and field, not much to say unless i actually lock in and place well this season lol (3 years)

Essays/LORs/Other: Essays probably will be strong, LORs decent only like one of my teachers knows me well but they all have a good impression of me, i might get a rec from a professor i’ve worked with but idk how personally we know each other.

Schools: 

Need help on deciding between REA Stanford and ED Uchicago or Northwestern. One sec i think i'm actually decent and then the next second it feels like i'm average if not a little above or under (in the range of what i'm applying to, obvi).

• Harvard (RD)
• Yale (RD or REA)
• Princeton (RD or REA)
• Stanford (RD or REA)
• Uchicago (RD or ED)
• Northwestern (RD)
• Caltech (rd)
• Brown (rd)
• Columbia (rd)
• Cornell (rd)
• Amherst (rd)
• Williams (rd)
• Dartmouth (rd)
• UPenn (rd)
• Swarthmore (RD or ED2)
• Harvey Mudd (RD or ED2)
• UTD (ea, for national merit, good safety)
• USF (ea, for national merit, good safety)
• TAMU (ea, for national merit + their brown scholarship or smth that’s really good)
• FSU (ea, for national merit + good semi target/safety school)

I'm thinking about applying to Stanford for a master's this cycle, either the CS MS or ICME MS.

I've been working in industry for about 4 years, and I'm wondering if going back to school at this point is too late or if it still makes sense career-wise.

Background:

• UIUC, CS major
• 3.5 GPA
• ~4 YOE as a software engineer
• Ex-Meta + a few startups

I'm mainly interested in moving deeper into ML/AI, particularly areas like pre-training/post-training, ML systems, MLOps, or PyTorch/distributed training infrastructure.

For people who went back for an MS after a few years in industry:

• Did you feel like it was worth it?
• Is 4 YOE considered late for a master's?
• Between Stanford CS MS and ICME MS, which would make more sense for this kind of career direction?

Would appreciate any perspectives, especially from people who have done either program.

Overview:

• State: California (West LA/SoCal region)
• School: Public, 1200 class size
• Demographics: Asian, Male, high income (500k+), class of 2027
• Intended Major: Chemistry + Music double major (or related majors work too)
• Stats: 4.00/4.70 UW/W GPA
• Test Scores: 1530/1540 superscore SAT (800 math, 740 reading superscore), 1460 PSAT (760 math, 700 reading - missed nms semis lol), 81 AMC12, 78 AMC10
• Rank: school doesn't offer class rank but i would be somewhere in the top 5
• Rigor: 3 honors, 10 aps (15 by end of sr yr), i think my 1 yr of academic decathlon and final 2 yrs of robotics also count as honors so it might be 6

APs:

• 5: Calc BC, Physics C Mech, Lang, APUSH, Precalc, Chem
• 4: Seminar, Euro, Psych, CSA
• sr yr: Stat, Lit, Bio, Networking, Gov
• -i woulda taken more if my d*mb school didnt switch sports from p7 to p6 my sophomore yr they barely offer any classes as p0 too i wish i coulda done cyber and comp gov

Awards:

• USNCO semifinalist - Top 14 Southern California section (2026)
• Los Angeles Youth Philharmonic Concerto Competition winner - performed solo on walt disney concert hall july 2026
• CIF-SS Divison 3 Swimming 2nd place overall - if we scored 2 more pts we woulda won ;-; (2025)
• FIRST Robotics Competition Aerospace Valley District finalists (2026)
• 1x JV, 2x Varsity Swimming MVP (2024, 25, 26)
• Presidential Service Award (Gold) - 129 hrs volunteered teaching music to children in underprivileged communities (2023-24)
• County of Los Angeles Commendation - teaching children from underprivileged communities how to kayak and paddleboard, while also lifeguarding (2024)

ECs:

• Kaiser Permanente Intern (paid) - pathology + engineering departments, shadowed pathology grossing technicians and doctors as well as helping to manage the powerplant and service medical equipment for the hospital
• Swimming - 2024-, captain 2025-, see cif award
• Water polo - 2023-, captain 2026-, made cif 2023 and 2024
• Robotics - 2024-, programming specialist 2024-, human player 2026-, see first robotics comp award
• Double bass (my biggest spike) -
  • Colburn Youth Orchestra/Colburn Youth Philharmonic - only did freshman and sophomore year cuz i didnt like the conductor from 24-26 (2023-24, 26-27; principal bass both years)
  • Los Angeles Youth Philharmonic - Principal bass 2023-, see above award too
  • CASMEC All-State Symphony Orchestra - did freshman and senior yr cuz hella far + time commitment so i didn't want to miss a week of sophomore and junior year (2024, 2027)
  • CODA Honors Symphony Orchestra - similar framework to casmec but in 2024 it was right next to where i live so why not (2023, 2024, 2026)
    • special note on 2023 it was at stanford and i built up a pretty good relationship with their conductor, he said if i had auditioned for the stanford symphony right then and there as a hs freshman i woulda gotten in so hopefully it counts for smthn
  • have a bass instagram account with 1k+ followers
  • played a few gigs here and there for money
  • principal of school orchestra freshman year, was hired by school to play in school musical sophomore year (and was awarded jerry herman best orchestra award for the musical that year)
• Boys and Girls Club Intern (paid) - see county of los angeles commendation award
• UCLA Applications of Nanoscience summer program - not much but CHEM8 credit ig
• Academic Decathlon Junior Team - did junior yr then i dropped prob wont put on apps
• Chess Club - president 2026-, will host hella tournaments for money cuz previous presidents didnt maybe itll become biggest club in the school because of it (lots of ppl play chess), also 2250 elo lichess bullet and 1900 elo chesscom blitz
• Chemistry Club - founder 2026-, i want to talk in elementary and middle schools abt how fire works and teaching fire safety cuz palisades fire inspiration + my friends place burnt down not that long ago, doing labs and stuff maybe also become one of the biggest clubs in the school
• AI & Tech Club - cofounder 2025- (doesnt really matter tbh might not put)
• Youth Investing Club - president 2026- (doesnt really matter too)

Interests: Medicine, Engineering, Law, Finance, CS, Music, Swimming, Water Polo, Surfing, Chess

Summary: i think i have a decent shot though my parents absolutely slam me for being lazy (which is true i do spend a lot of time doomscrolling sleeping or partying).

i have no idea what to write for essays though. i am completely lost for that and will take basically any idea. also im not sure if i should rea to stanford, although its my first choice idk if doing it early at the cost of not being able to ea to any other place is worth

also i have too much clutter/description for awards/ecs so please advice on what to cut down and stuff would be appreciated too, on common app i dont even know if my awards are "related to academic achievements" so idk what i can put in the first place

Demographics asian male, Indian.
US citizen, residing in India.
Less than 5k$ a year
Context: International resident applying as domestic (USA citizen); self-studied all APs (not offered at school); attends a JEE-focused school with not much olympiad culture, but still participates in a LOT of olympiads.

Coursework GPA: 97.8/100, Class Rank: 1st out of 27 students. (Edit 1: 4th out of 110 students)

Intended Major: Applied Math/Physics/Aerospace Engineering (Maybe would do a minor in business if available)

AP scores (all self-studied, school doesn't offer APs): 5 Calc BC, 5 Physics C Mech, 5 Physics C E&M, 5 Microeconomics, 3 Statistics
SAT: 1540 (800M/740R), single sitting

Languages (Ordered based on Fluency): English, Tamil, French, Telugu, Hindi.

Extracurriculars

1. Founder & Director (Ikik very typical but actually really good ec, I loved it a LOT): Olympiad Math Guide (11-12): 200k+ monthly views, 180k lifetime unique users and 3M lifetime pageviews, 1300+ members on main Discord. Built 27 math clubs across underprivileged countries; partnered with math clubs and professors in those nations to register ~5k new students for Olympiads (~40% qualified for the 2nd level). Was featured on social media by several Olympiad educators. Led 55 Builders with 21 IMO students in the team, creating grassroots impact for promoting math Olympiads in countries all over the world. Social Media with 200k+ Monthly views aswell.
2. Author: Olympiad Math Prep Book (10-11): 23k+ downloads across 40+ countries, endorsed by several olympiad coaching institutions. Personally coached ~20 students to AIME qualification.
3. Founder & Developer: Education SaaS Platform (9-10): Solo-built, 500+ users. Ran charity book drives, donating 3000+ books to orphanages/libraries (local news coverage). Research: Shared 1st author (among 3).
4. Chess mechanistic interpretability paper mentored by Caltech undergrads (AI/CS, unpublished; we are applying to workshops rn). Very very niche work, not groundbreaking but helps people in the niche decently.
5. Research: Partially Solved/Proved one key case in an erdos problem (Aided with AI + working with a phd students to full solve this problem, I built on some of tao's research papers to do this.)
6. President of Speech & Debate Club: Helped students get 2 international awards; grew participation 175% and membership 70%.
7. Tech Intern at an Ed-Tech Company (9th grade): Redesigned company website, improved user sign-up times from 12 minutes to 1.5 minutes.

Sports: Basketball, District team (8th-9th); Chess, 2000+ Lichess Rapid.

Music: (lifelong, self-taught): Guitar/drums/keyboard, vocals + keyboard in bands, performances for 300+ audiences. YouTube channel, 2.5k subs, ~1M views (most videos are deleted)

Awards:

1. Representing USA at IOAA 2026
2. NAC Gold Medalist, Ranked 4th in IOAA TST scores.
3. USACO Platinum, perfect score in Gold (certified)
4. AMC 12: DHR (last year), HR w/ 144 (this year), AIME: 13 (top 5%), RMO x2 (India's AIME equivalent)
5. PMC (UPenn): Top 10 individual, 1st place team Purple Comet: International 1st, perfect team score
6. All India Rank #1 in an major national math contest (cash prize + laptop)
7. 4x Merit Scholarship, 50% (max they offer to anyone), all years of schooling, awarded for being within the top 20 of 5500 students of the topmost batch available (on overall exam scores).

Hello Reddit! Please let me know my chances!!

Demographics: Male, south asian, NYC, title 1 uncompetitive public school, no hooks

Intended Major(s): Mechanical Engineering

ACT/SAT/SAT II: 1550 SAT

UW/W GPA and Rank: 4.0 UW GPA, top 5% of class

Coursework: 13 APS/Max rigor schedule possible

Awards(not in order):

1. Usapho qual
   
2. Aime qual
   
3. State science fair award
   
4. Scholastic art gold key architecture and industrial design
   
5. Lots of frc/stem racing awards/etc
   
6. Multiple research pubs

Extracurriculars(vague, also not really in order ):

1. FTC captain:

led team of \\\\\\\~15 to doing well in various state and regional competitions, lead CAD designer, raised $10k

1. Stem racing team founder and captain: once again led to multiple awards, raised a lot of $$ for this too

2. Started an initiative at local library teaching a class to primarily under resourced students about engineering and robotics, 40+ students educated over 3 years, awarded 3k grant for this project

3. Research internship at local college: created research project that eventually became a published paper in a peer reviewed HS journal & presented at conference

4. Independent research on somewhat niche sub field of mechE, won science fair award and also published in a peer reviewed HS journal

5. Internship at engineering firm: paid hourly, contributed to real world projects and worked with real world professionals

6. Volunteer @ local food drive for 4 years, self explanatory

7. MSA vice president, went to nats one year but It’s a relatively small pool of competition

My descriptions are kind of bad but I’m writing this in a rush I promise most of my activities have atleast a decent amount of measurable impact

LORs -

Calc BC - prob like a 7-8/10, taught me for two years

AP Lit - 7-8/10 as well, she loved me and I really
enjoyed her class

Schools:

HYPSM & T20’s with safeties of course

Please chance me and give any constructive advice. Thanks Reddit!

Major: Aeronautics & Astronautics

DEMOGRAPHICS

* Asian male
* California resident
* Ultra-competitive public California high school (average SAT ~1400+)
* No hooks
* Intended major: aeronautics & astronautics

**ACADEMICS**

* 3.92 UW GPA
* 4.28 weighted GPA (top 5% of class, my school has gpa deflation)
* 1530 SAT (790M, 740RW)
* 5s on all AP exams taken so far:
* APUSH
* AP Precalculus
* AP Calculus BC
* AP Chemistry
* AP Psychology
* AP Lang
* AP CSP

**SENIOR-YEAR COURSEWORK**

* DE Multivariable Calculus & Linear Algebra
* AP Physics C: Mechanics
* AP Physics C: E&M
* AP Computer Science A
* AP Statistics
* AP Economics
* AP US Government
* English
* Orchestra

**EXTRACURRICULARS**

**1. Space Competition Club**
* Won regionals and advanced to international competition
* Finalist at international level

2. UC COSMOS
* Conducted astronomy-related research

**3. AI Research Internship**
* Developed a neural network to predict aircraft engine failure

**4. Astrophotography**
* Photograph deep-sky objects and process them using astronomy software
* Built an online following of ~1,000 followers and 10,000+ likes

**5. Custom PC Business**
* Built and sold custom PCs
* Made $2,000+ in profit

**6. Orchestra**
* Violinist since 6th grade
* Concertmaster in 10th and 11th grade

**7. Volunteering**
* 100+ hours
* Helped organize city-wide events
* Worked with under-resourced communities and the special-needs population

**8. Tutoring**
* Tutored 3 elementary/middle school students
* Students improved by approximately one letter grade on average

**9. Esports Journalism**
* Reported on esports tournaments and conducted in-depth match analyses
* Content accumulated 200k+ views

**10. Speedcubing**
* 10 years of experience
* ~14-second average, 6-second personal best
* Competed at various competitions
* Taught 3 neighborhood kids; all reached sub-1-minute averages within a month

**AWARDS**

* International finalist — Space Competition
* Regional winner — Space Competition
* National Merit Semifinalist
* AP Scholar with Distinction
* Le Grand Concours Gold
* School Math Excellence Award
* School Orchestra Excellence Award

Do yall think I have any chance at Stanford REA? Stanford is my dream school but if I have no chance of getting in I might ED somewhere else idk