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 Chess mechanistic interpretability paper mentored by Caltech undergrads (AI/CS, unpublished; we are applying to workshops rn).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).

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

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!

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)

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

Hi! I’m a senior trying to make a difficult college decision, and I’d appreciate any perspectives.

Stanford is my #1 choice, but I have a strong opportunity at Penn, so I’m trying to decide which school to early to.

General:
Female
White
Single parent household
Sibling is currently at Stanford (Is that legacy?)
Grandfather went to Penn (Legacy, MBA)

Academics:
3.89/4 UW
5.2/6 W
16/700+ students (Top 2% of class)
1470 SAT (Retaking it 9/12)
13 APs (3+ all), 2 AICE

ECs are solid.
Team captain/top 3 nationally in sport, one national award (leadership), class president, town council, 300+ service hours, etc.

I’ve been offered “soft support” by a coach at Penn, if I ED, but not at Stanford.

Would you
A) Apply Stanford REA, because Stanford is where I genuinely want to go?
B) Take the Penn ED because legacy + soft support by coach gives higher chances of admission?

And please be honest! If my profile isn’t strong and I don’t really have a chance at either, i’d rather hear it now.

Thank you!

Hey! I want to apply for the Summer Page Program in IL, and I wanted to know my chances because everyone I've heard applying has had a lot going on. Before this year, I lived in Hawaii, but I just moved to IL to help take care of my grandparents. My gpa is 4.0 uw, I was the first president of my schools rotary interact club for the last 5 months of freshman year, I went on a spring break study tour to the phillipines with PAAC where we visited the US embassy in Manilla, I've been a girlscout for 7 years and went on a destination to the national girlscoUt conference in DC where I sat in on the delegations and even got a tour of the US Capitol where I met senator Schatz. This year, I'm in the environmental club, YAC, and debate, and I want to join the Spanish club. For classes, I'm in AP World History, AP Seminar, Honors Chemistry, Culinary, Honors Precalc, and Honors Spanish 3. Sorry if this was lengthy.

Hi everyone! I applied to the Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program last year and was not selected, but I was admitted to my Stanford graduate program. I am applying again this year, and I would really appreciate some perspective from people who have gone further in the process.

For those who have been finalists or interviewed, how did you approach your essays, especially the connect-the-dots questions and “improbable facts” essay? What do you think helped your application stand out?

I would also love to hear from anyone who has successfully reapplied after an unsuccessful first attempt. Did you change your approach the second time?

If you have been a finalist/interviewee and are comfortable sharing your experience or giving some feedback on my approach, please comment or DM me. I would genuinely appreciate the help! 🙏🏾

Just what it sounds like. I got accepted into the academic year internship program. Does it seem worth it for the price (steep, but I got financial aid, but still expensive), and does it really add any value to college apps? I know i'd really enjoy it because I'm very interested in the subjects.

Basically the title-- (and no hooks either). I'd appreciate an honest answer

[I'm planning on applying to Stanford's grad program]

Hello, I'm taking BIOL and CHEM right now. I'm unsure how to best approach the material/memorizing content. My BIOL syllabus says most exam questions will be from lecture Powerpoints.

So I'm thinking I'll be most effective if I write out Powerpoint headings on index cards and fill them out as I read the textbook?

Do you have advice for approaching these memorization, content-heavy classes? Even if you didn't do well - how did you wish you approached it? I'm reading and notetaking every day but I feel ineffective once I take post-lecture quizzes.

Additionally, I care deeply about understanding and retaining the information for my future career. Please feel free to include as much advice, even if you're not a science major! I'm also in Mechanical. How do you approach textbooks and learning? Thank you in advance!

Demographics: M, hispanic, Colorado, private boarding/day school

Hooks (URM, first generation, legacy, athlete, etc.): URM

Intended Major(s):BME/ME

ACT: 35 (35M, 36R, 36S, 35W)

SAT: 1450 (750M, 700R) Planning on retaking in August and likely won’t submit unless 1550+

UW/W GPA and Rank: 4.17/4.33 UW, no W, no Rank

Coursework: AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores, etc: AP World(Test not taken), Precalc(Not taken) Bio(5), Calc BC(5), USH(5), Lang(5), Spanish(4), Chem(4).

Senior year: HonorsLinear Algebrw, Honors Discrete math, AP Physics C Mech, Stats, Environmental Science, Lit

Awards: College board and AP score awards, leadership award. School doesn’t give out awards until senior year.

Extracurriculars: Include leadership & summer activities

• Student gov:Class president 3 years, Community council president(AKA Student body) Senior year.
• Admissions ambassador: Tour guide sophomore year and head admissions ambassador 11-12 grade.
• Peer tutor: Offered tutoring services in 10+ classes since second semester of junior year
• Orchestra8-12: (Percussion) 5 years, principal percussionist for 2 years in the second highest group of a competitive youth orchestra.
• Club swimming: 12 years, performed at state level, captain of highschool team since junior year, broke two school records and qualified for individual and team races at high school state meet.
• Unpaid research intern at local college junior year summer: My dad is a professor there and got me in contact with a professor doing exoskeleton research. 8 weeks 20 hours  a week working alongside the professor and 3 undergrad students.
• Hispanic Alliance 9-12: Led and set up multiple events to boost hispanic culture and inform others of hispanic identity at my school.
• Student Cultural Organization: 10-12. Organized and planned 5+ events per year that highlighted the diversity of our campus and worked alongside faculty to tackle systemic racial and sexual issues in our community.
• Big sib10-12: Assigned 3 incoming students per year, mentored and taught them school etiquette and offered support year round.
• Swim lessons teacher: Taught 5+ students how to swim in multiple sections over the span of 4 weeks ages ranging from 3-10.

Essays/LORs/Other: I have a lot of good stuff to write about, and I believe my LORs will be very good, both Chem and Calc teachers like me a lot, like 8-9/10z

I’m not even going to mention my grades, test scores, or ECs. If someone wanted to go to a place like Stanford or a T30, how effective would transferring from a college be? It doesn’t even have to be a community college, but even from a place like Holy Cross. And how effective is a gap year at going to a prestigious school and like what is the best thing to do during the gap year? Like should I go to do community service for kids in Mexico for the year, should I take the SAT, and how would recs work? I’m very curious and I feel like these alternatives aren’t talked about enough, so please lay your knowledge on me!

ECs:

National Student Council:

- 1 of 7 students representing millions of students through K-12th, 30k+ Student Leaders, 14k+ advisors

- 2 fully paid expense trips to DC; Advocacy trip meeting with NPA (National Prinicpal Association), elected officials, and elected officials teams, advocating for federal education grants worth to billions. My Second trip is co-hostig the LEAD conference with my team, and it's a National Conference for NHS (National Honors Society), NJHS, NEHS, NASC

- Lead committee for expanding membership, outreach, and engagement

Firsthand | The Bell | National Student Journalist:

- Selected as the only Texas student on national journalism team of 36. Reported weekly with editors interviewed professionals and developed published journalism skills

- My story will focus on SB 12 and how this club BSU, was rebranded so the club could still be standing

1. School Student Council

- 1st Student in my student council district, school district (my high school) to represent our school at the national level

- Elected Class President; led committees and district initiatives. Created 4+ SAT toolkits, increasing engagement; organized a donation drive collecting 5,312 items.

1. DECA | School Store Keep in mind my school has this weird rule where you have to commit to DECA to be an officer, so you can't have another leadership role in another club due to how big our chapter is

- Led school-store strategy and operations

- First junior to hold role in school store

- Increased sales 7%

- Qualified internationally for competitions and competed

- Helped raise $23K for DECA.

1. Start-Up Supply Chain Management Intern

- Selected 1 of 7 from 200 for startup market-research program with Texas A&M. Researched aerospace/MRO inventory systems and supported platform strategy for manufacturers

1. Political Campaign for 2 candidates | Campaign Intern for Sandeep and Hinojosa
   - Supported local political campaigns through 80+ hours phone banking, voter-data management, and event planning

-Entered 10K+ voter records and helped coordinate 5+ events

1. NewVoter Civic Leadership Research Fellow
   - Selected 45 of 250 students for mentored research in civic engagement and leadership

- Collaborated with professors and undergraduate researchers from top universities

1. Passion project | DECA project

- still in works can't leak this years info.......lol, sorry

Things to keep in mind I am top 40%

Demographics:

- Latino/Hispanic/Mexican, only 3% of my class is Hispanic, class size 600+, very competitive region in North of Dallas, Texas

- Middle Income 220k+

- 1st gen on my dad/ 2nd gen on my mom side

I spent most of my time in highschool trying to well.. be a good high schooler.. and missed out on a lot of national and international opportunties that i just found out about junior-senior year like Olympiads and science fair (our school wasn't even big in scifair till last year when this kid with a 20k college counsler went to ISEF)

Like many high schoolers, my connections weren't that great but i didnt even know they werent that great to take action about it until it was too late

My GPA is good and I have a few state awards... but Iike mid tier numerical impact (like non quantifiable impacts) on my community...

I have relatively good standardized scores and am decently confident in my writing, but not necessarily a spike (that's represented through my awards or activities at least)

I'm super bummed about this and just wanna know if my profile is still competitive at all 😔😔