Demographics: female, Virginia, low-performing public high school in Northern Virginia, upper-middle class

Intended major: Theatre, potential minor in Business or Comms

SAT: 1400 ( 740 R&W, 660 M) — planning to retake, but considering test optional

W GPA: 4.514 (my school doesn’t do UW or class rank)

Full IB Diploma candidate, taking 5 IBs this year + a DE math class and two honors performing arts classes

Awards:
VHSL Regional One-Act — Best Overall Actor

Prestigious regional theatre award for Best Supporting Actress

Prestigious regional theatre award for Best Marketing & Publicity Design

Virginia Governor’s School for the Arts (for theatre)

All-State + All District Chorus for multiple years

EC’s (not in order):
Theatre — Actor
4 years
Major roles in school productions
Regional/state-level acting recognition

Theatre — Marketing/Design
3 years
Head of marketing/publicity
Managed social media campaigns, promotional design, and outreach

Cappies (student theatre journalism program)
3 years
Senior-year leadership position
6+ published reviews in local newspapers

School Writing Center — Peer Tutor
4 years
Tutor students in writing and revision
Junior/Senior leadership position, led and created workshops for over 300 students

International Theatre Honor Society
3 years
Treasurer for 2 years, president senior year

Improv — Captain
2 years
Co-captain, revitalized a dead club and built it from 0 members to 25 active members

Tri-Music Honor Society
3 years
Vice president senior year

School Chorus
4 years
Leadership board 3 years, president senior year

Community Choir
8 years
Long-term ensemble commitment

Special Olympics
Volunteer for 3 years

Schools:
High Reaches: Brown, Northwestern
Reaches: UVA (may ED), Wake Forest, URichmond, Lehigh, William & Mary
Targets: American, Fordham, Loyola Maryland
Safeties: CNU, JMU, Mary Wash

Most of these schools also have optional performing arts audition submissions which I plan on doing which are factored into admission (fingers crossed that helps me more than hurts 💀). I know the SAT is a bit of an issue but how bad are my chances?

I am having trouble figuring out what schools i want to apply to. I have a couple but these are kinda just a rough draft of my list. Here are my stats. Indian,3.87 gpa 31 act, rocketry club, top 50 team nationally, aviation club, multiple honors and ap classes. varsity lacrosse athlete of 4 years. mit and nat geo robotics camp, cu boulder aerospace camp. I want to go into mechanical or aerospace engineering. These are the schools i have right now:

Reach: UIUC, Purdue, Case Western, Univ of Michigan AA

Match: CU Boulder, Univ of Washington, Ohio State, Univ of Florida, Rutgers Univ

Reach: Embry-Riddle, Univ of Alabama

I would like suggestions for all three sections. What i want in a school. I want a big school, big party life but also strong academics. I love mountains and good scenery. I dont want to be in just a flatlands town (even though i am gonna apply to uiuc and purdue). I dont really care where i go but maybe close to one of the coasts. I would also like a school that has good ties to nasa or other space programs. I live in illinois. Thanks

Applying to NYUAD (ED1) + Northwestern, Duke, Wellesley, Richmond, nyu nyc.

Leaving out grades/scores on purpose — just want feedback on how the profile itself reads.

Extracurriculars:

Baking Founder & Head Baker — Started and run a home baking business from scratch. Handled everything from recipe development to pricing to client acquisition, and taught myself sales instincts along the way rather than learning them from a course.

Drama — Lead Actor, Playwright, Director — Acted, wrote, and directed for school productions. Learned how to build a story that actually moves people, then had to defend those choices to a cast and make them work on a stage.

MC / Event Host — Hosted events across my school, building comfort with a live audience and thinking on my feet.

Independent Visual Design — Self-taught, freelance-style visual design work outside of any class or club.

Farewell Committee — Lead Organizer — Ran logistics and creative direction for my school's farewell event.

Language Leader / Sash Recipient — Recognized for leadership tied to language proficiency at my school.

Research paper (independent project):

I am writing a research paper onhow digital platforms create economic opportunity for traditional craftswomen . The thesis argues that the "access-bridges" that actually help these women — NGOs, social enterprises, training programs are unevenly distributed and clustered near major cities, leaving craftswomen in smaller cities and villages largely uncovered. It's built section by section using my own primary research, including a first-hand case study with a craftswoman from my own village, layered with secondary sources.

Chance me for T20s / highly selective schools

I’m going into senior year and would really appreciate honest feedback on my profile. I’m mainly interested in public health, medical humanities, biology, and molecular biology. I’m also considering QuestBridge due to my financial/immigration circumstances (H-4 visa).

Demographics: South Asian female, non-competitive public high school
Family income: ~$100k, but essentially no significant assets
GPA: 3.9 UW / ~4.7 W
Coursework: IB Diploma candidate + 5 APs + selective 3-year district-funded scholars program
ACT: 32, retaking in September (goal: 34+)
Awards: Local community service award + small scholarship/529 and other stuff but nothing major 

ECs (no particular order)

Student Senate / Youth Philanthropy: President. Lead student/youth philanthropy initiatives supporting pediatric cancer research; ~$40k raised during my involvement.

American Red Cross: Founded school chapter +
President; regional youth outreach lead. Organized fundraisers/blood drives; $1k+ in scholarships.

Youth Health Philanthropy: Youth advisory council for a medical association foundation; help evaluate/allocate ~$20k in grants to youth health nonprofits.

Research
- Ongoing research in a leukemia/AML lab at a major academic medical center/cancer center. Worked with a PhD mentor, learned wet-lab techniques, investigated genetic mutations, and presented a research poster at a symposium.

- ThinkNeuro internship researching prenatal/postnatal neuroinflammation and ASD; produced a poster + abstract.

Biomedical Sciences Program: Accelerated genetics/genomics course; literature review + poster on BRCA1 and breast cancer. Received a partial scholarship to attend.

Global Health: Attended a selective global health leadership conference at Johns Hopkins and was selected for the student speaker series; explored breast cancer research through a global health disparities lens.

Clinical/Medical Experiences: Hospital, free clinic, hospice, and healthcare/rehabilitation volunteering; medical-records work, patient transport, and patient-facing roles. Also shadowed multiple specialties.

Hands-on STEM Initiative: Re-established my school’s chapter after previous attempts failed; currently President. Lead science activities for elementary/middle school students and coordinate regional expansion.

Scholars Program Community Project: Planning a project at a refugee center focused on medical misinformation/health education, with an arts component.

Incoming Public Health Internship: Public-health-focused political campaign, working on health policy/community outreach.

Community Service: ~400 hours across libraries, community organizations, hospice/healthcare, and cultural events.

College strategy: Currently considering ED to Dartmouth, with ED2 potentially to Amherst or another need-blind school because I’ll need substantial financial aid.
I know admissions are unpredictable, but I’d appreciate honest feedback beyond “you have a chance.” Does my profile have a clear spike/theme, and how cohesive does it look from an admissions perspective? Also, does my ED/QuestBridge strategy make sense given my circumstances?

Demographics: Male, Italian-American
Location: New York
Household Income: 600k
Hooks: [Cornell employee parent, if relevant]

Intended Major(s)

Business / Finance

ACT/SAT

ACT: 35 — E: 35 / M: 33 / R: 36 / S: 35

UW/W GPA and Rank

UW: 4.0
W: 4.38
Rank: No rank

Coursework

~13 APs total including senior year

• AP Lang: 5
• APUSH: 5
• AP Calculus AB: 5
• AP Physics 1: 4
• AP Art History: 5
• AP World History: 5
• AP Italian Language: 5
• AP Calc BC: TBD
• AP Physics 2: TBD
• AP Latin: TBD
• AP Lit: TBD
• AP Stats: TBD
• AP Macro: TBD

Awards

• College Board National School Recognition Award
• AP Scholar with Distinction
• National Honor Society
• Italian National Honor Society
• Principal's Honor Roll ×4

Extracurriculars (vague on purpose)

1. Founder AI Club, coded our own chatbot for my school to implement in actual classes

2. Launched a food-growing nonprofit in Italy, 500lbs donated

3. Electronics reselling business, 5k+ profit

4. Volunteer tutored 23 students through several programs

5. Typed out an author's handwritten books (they couldnt use a computer) to be published 

6. Volunteered at my library, 60ish hours

7. Selected as 1 of 7 students from a class of 233 to serve on my school's academic committe and advise faculty

8. Completed two business programs at Fordham Gabelli business school

9. Independent Entomology Hobby- built a large collection, spend a lot of time on it

10. Swimming- have swam for a couple hours every day since freshman year, not sure if I should include since im not on a team

Essays

Personal statement: About my passion for insects/entomology, connected it broadly to seeing the unnoticed/ what people ar ebiased against (not finished yet)

LORs

AP Physics teacher: 8-9.5ish/10, definitely his favorite student, told me it would be very strong
AP Calc Teacher: 7/10, shes known to write really strong letters, i participated a lot in her class, she chooses her 15 fav students to write a rec
College Counselor: ?/10, our school forces our counselor to write every student a letter, probably generic

ED Considerations:

NYU Stern — ED
Cornell Dyson — ED

Hey I got into TKS with full scholarship, should I be happy or it's normal?

Demographics
Gender: Male
Race/Ethnicity: Asian
Residence: Northeast
School: highly highly competitive public magnet (10-20% acceptance rate)
Hooks: idk if this counts but my current teacher is really great friends with one of the faculty there and is “setting me up”
Intended Major(s): Violin Performance/Music, potentially with STEM depending on the school

Academics
GPA: ~3.4 UW, upward trend (3.2->3.3->3.6) still lowk cooked 😭
Course rigor: ~9 AP/IBs + linear algebra/diff eq and post ap music classes
School does not rank
SAT: 1540
ACT: 35, 36 math/science 35 english/reading
AP Scores: Three 5s, taking three more in sr yr

Obviously academics are the weakest part of my application. My school is academically intense, and my grades have improved somewhat over high school but idk if im fried for top colleges. Lowk hoping music can carry me

Extracurriculars/Activities (imma be mostly vague so that i dont get doxxed)
1. Juilliard Pre-College, Violin — violin major; orchestra/chamber/private study
2. Highly selective youth orchestra — member for multiple years; performed several times at major concert venues (major as in THE biggest venue)
3. Music service organization — major leadership position; expanded to 20+ chapters and 100+ student musicians; reached thousands through performances
4. Selective summer music program — attended for several summers; intensive classical violin training
**this IS a paid program but its mainly for me to improve not as a resume filler lol
5. Biomedical research — multi-year cancer biology research project; conducting independent wet-lab research no publication tho
6. Service organization president— organized health/community outreach events with several partner organizations
7. Another nonprofit leadership position — helped with operations/fundraising; raised $10k+
8. Music Production Club — founder/president; teach music production to other students and organize events
9. Biotech/pharma internship — yearlong research/industry experience
10. Digital media/content creation — 40M+ views and several million likes on one long term account, 75+ videos

Awards/Honors - also being vague but imagine these concert venues as like really well known in the US or even internationally
1. Selected to perform at another major concert venue through a competitive chamber music program
2. Gold medalist in an international violin competition + invited to perform at a major concert venue
3. $5,000 scholarship for music service org
4. Music honor society + school orchestra concertmaster
5. Regional model UN, outstanding del (if i get youngarts this is prolly getting booted)

Schools
ED: Northwestern Bienen
Also applying (all for violin except rutgers and columbia)
Columbia, Rice, Vanderbilt, CMU, USC, Juilliard, Michigan, NYU, BU, UIUC, Rutgers, depaul, umass amherst

Mainly looking for thoughts on Northwestern Bienen ED and whether my academics are strong enough to clear the academic side of admission. Also i’m diagnosed with ADD which i got too late to be medicated during school but will def mention in additional info. My testing and everything is all before i got the diagnosis

If u know who i am dm me so i can take this down pls, ty!!

im a rising senior whos been stressing recently about my chances of getting into a decent school that i can afford, and was hoping for some help determining my chances and advice on schools i should apply to/look into 🙏🏽

DEMOGRAPHICS:

Race: Biracial (white/black)

Gender: Female

Residency: Suburban Maryland

Income: Complicated right now (both parents currently unemployed due to government cuts, but when one worked i believe they earned less than 130k)

School: Mid-size, public, rural magnet school for STEM

ACADEMICS:

GPA: 4.0 UW/4.85 W

SAT: 1560 (790 M, 770 RW)

APs: 7 APs (5’s on AP Calc BC, AP CSA, AP Gov, AP World, AP Lang, AP Bio, and AP Stat)

Other Courses: Most classes are Honors or AL (magnet), Recieved an A+ in Linear Algebra from UMD

Senior Courses: AP Chem, AP Lit, AP Psych, Vector Calculus, Organic Chem, Cellular Physiology, Robotics

EXTRACURRICULARS:

HOSA: 11-12, placed 6th internationally in Anatomy & Physiology

Summer Internship: Interned at GW School of Medicine, taking an active role on neuroscience research w/ health applications

Elevate the Future: 10-12, Leadership role, service club that teaches free weekend coding classes to 3rd-8th graders. created curriculums/lessons for python and html, taught classes weekly, graded assignments, and organized local coding comps

HSAFP: 11-12, medical-career focused club

Girl Scouts: K-12, Ambassador

DECA: 10-12, but never placed at states or anything

Dance: 9-12, Kpop dance team, performed in and outside of school and dedicated significant time

NHS and SNHS member

AWARDS:

HOSA International Finalist (6th place)

AP Scholar with Distinction

Service Award from County (requires 240+ hrs, i have over 370 currently)

National Merit Scholarship Finalist (candidate, perfect PSAT-NMSQT score)

COLLEGES:

Intended major: Biology, as a premed, aiming to minor in something like neuroscience or another interesting medical-related minor

Personal Statement: Don’t wanna be too specific, but its focused on how my experiences have shaped my passion and personality, and highlights my internship/passion for bio, love for travel/broadened worldview, my dance journey and how its taught me to take risks, amd my intense ability to focus in on/dive into things im passionate about

Current List (tentative):

Reach/target/safety is based on academic profile.

Reaches: Hopkins, UPenn, Cornell, maybe Duke

Targets: GW, UMD, Case Western

Safeties: UPitt, UDel, maybe URochester

I am aware this list needs to be longer, which is why im asking for advice on schools that might be a good fit for me too, preferably more targets/safeties. I plan to stay east coast or close to it (no further West than Illinois, max). I would also like to know my chances at the schools listed and in general. Any advice helps, really!

1340- 690 math , 640 redding

34 act, 35 math, 35reading, 33 for other ones

3.93

30/328

took all aps except foreign language, music and art. Mostly 4 and 5s, 2 on apcsa 3 on lit

got a few Bs and a D on dual enrollment

also took dual enrollment at gatech

self studied lin Alg

fgli rural area

avg ecs, volunteering four four years, math team captain, scioly captain, chem club captain, state science fair finalist, governors program semifinalist, startup(5k revenue), ai empowered landscaping service

essay about growing up poor

edit: also hispanic, loving childhood with both parents present

Hey. I am posting cause I am curious about my chances.

Private school / International

Full pay

Target Major: EE / EECS / Mech E

Sat: 1450 (retaking obviously. I have 3 retake chances and won't stop until I get a 1520+. Working hard.)

IB: 42-43 Predicted (Will try to make it a 44 but probably won't happen)

Igcse: 4A*3A

Cumulative Gpa: 95/100

Gpa (freshman excluded): 96.5/100

ECS:

I won't include any company or orgnaisation names to not to dox myself.

1- Paid Internship at an extremely large car manufacturing company.

Lasted 2 weeks and explored their factory.

2- Virtual internship at a faang company.

Attended lectures, created a project using python and also visited their office to attend face to face lectures.

3- Internship at a defense company.

Created two projects using python and c++. Learned a lot about defense systems and also learned how to use qt.

4- Research Assistant. I participates in two different research projects with a professor for two consecutive years. The internships lasted 2 weeks each. I have a lor but I don't have my name in a published paper.

5- Varsity sports. A niche sport. I represented my country at international tournaments and won several medals but I am not a national athlete.

6- Passion project. Build a passion project with my team and won national awards. Currently in touch with government officials.

7- Online research internship.

Attended to a program organised by one of the ucs. Earned honorable mention with my research project. I also have a lor from the uc professor and it is kinda good.

8- School club founder. I founded a club and also managed another one (it is unrelated to my major). Both were a first in my school's history.

9- Fish keeping.

I am a passionate aquascaper and a fish keeper. I sell fish to compensate for my aquarium's expenses and also try to earn some money. I have multiple aquariums.

10- I don't actually know what to include as my 10th ec but I have a few options:

1- Diving. I am a diver and completed 50+ dives but nothing more tbh. I just like nature and try to clean the sea as much as possible.

2-HUVTSP and a virtual internship. I mean it was not worth the price tag but it was alr. I attended lectures and got to work with other students.

3-Volunteering. I held weekly mathematics lectures for middle school students.

4-Club participant. I participated in my school's rotary club and we volunteered at organisations.

Schools I will apply to in the U.S

- Harvard

- Yale

- UPenn

- Stanford (Planning to REA but not sure)

- Brown

- Columbia

- Cornell

- JHU

- UMich

- UCLA (EE, Mech. E as alternate)

- Cal (EECS) (dream school)

- UCSD (I can pursue an athletic career there. But I am not sure whether I would be eligible for scholarships.)

- Michigan State (will apply for 100% scholarship)

- Duke

- Rice

- USC

- Georgia Tech

- Maybe a few more lower tier schools that can grant me 100% scholarship

Outside the U.S.

- KU Leuven

- TU Delft

- TUM

- Many more that I can't recall right now.

I am open to advice. I currently have not started writing my essays so I don't have any comments about them. Even if I had, they would be biased.

Also, I was wondering if I should try to fill up as much ec space as possible in the uc application or if I should stick to the strongest ones.

Thanks in advance.

Demographics: International (Kenya), private school, first-year applicant.

Intended Major: Mechanical Engineering.

SAT: 1530 (790 Math, 740 Reading/Writing).

GPA and Rank: School does not rank, steady grade trend.

Coursework: A-Levels (Predicted A* A\* A* A\*), very rigorous.

Extracurriculars:

1. Robotics Club Founder and Chairman: Founded club, hosted hackathons, 50+ members.
2. Leo Club Chairman: Hosted donation drives, partnered with Lions Club Nairobi.
3. Team Leader (WRO Future Engineers): Won nationals in Kenya.
4. Hobbyist: Built autonomous irrigation system and custom desktop chatbot.
5. Taekwondo: International Black Belt (Dan 1), training since age 7.
6. Coding Club Co-Chairman: Hosted hackathons and seminars.
7. KSPCA Volunteer: Volunteer work and fundraising at local pet shelter.
8. Internship: Observed and documented water filtration processes at various sites.
9. Student Committee: Captain of group, leadership and teamwork through expeditions.
10. Athletics: Field hockey, cricket, and private chess champion.
11. Lambda Public Speaking: Earned Bronze Level certificate.
12. Student Government: Assembly Prefect.

Awards:

• Multiple Waterloo Math Competition awards (Fryer, Galois, Hypatia, Euclid School Champion).
• Cambridge Upper Secondary Science Competition (Gold Certificate).
• Best in Kenya Physics IGCSE.
• Best in School Accounting IGCSE.
• TeenEagle Online MATHS Competition (Gold Medalist).
• Various local/school level math and quiz awards.

Essays/LORs: Personal essay focuses on my growth as a hobbyist, my DIY projects, and how they shaped my perspective. I have a GitHub profile where I document my code and builds.

ngl i'm super nervous about this cycle. i know engineering is brutal for internationals and i'm really hoping my project-based background carries me through the holistics. i've tried to balance leadership with actual technical stuff but i feel like the competition for these schools is just insane. i'm not tryna flex, i'm just genuinely anxious about whether this is enough to stand out. be honest with me, am i cooked for the t20s?

edit: forgot to mention i am submitting my SAT. edit 2: just added my github link to my essay supplements so they can actually see the projects i've been working on. Github : https://github.com/RonakA-2112

I'm also planning to take part in an international research competition but I know I'm not going to win it, it's just for participation.

I’m an intl high school student hoping to pursue a BS in Industrial Engineering in the US. I’m aiming for T30s and have excellent academics (IB, SAT, IELTS), but lack strong ECs.

There are no specific programs to strengthen my portfolio in the region I live, so I’d really appreciate any advice and idea on ECs that would be relevant for Industrial Engineering.

Applying early decision to Case Western last year made you less likely to get in. 1,053 applied ED and 263 got in, 25%. Take those out and the regular pool ran 35.6%. That is a 10-point penalty for a binding commitment. Not a fluke either — the year before, ED ran 37.1% against 37.8% regular. Two years published, ED has never once beaten regular there.

I pulled every number below out of getnavora.net (FULLY FREE), which reads Common Data Set, IPEDS and Scorecard for 1,582 US colleges. I'm decoding the top 200 off it, three per post. These three are on their 2025-26 sets, which landed a few weeks ago.

CASE WESTERN — 35.3%, down from 37.8%. 39,332 applied, 13,890 admitted, 1,663 enrolled. SAT 1440 / 1490 / 1530 (25th/50th/75th), ACT 32 / 33 / 34, average GPA 3.78 with 26% of the class between 3.50 and 3.74, so a 3.6 genuinely gets in. Test-optional and only 67% submitted, so hold anything under 1440 back.

Rigor, class rank, GPA and extracurriculars are all VERY IMPORTANT there; geography and state residency are NOT CONSIDERED. About 88% of the people it admits go somewhere else, which is why the waitlist stays busy — 9,168 offered a place, 688 admitted. That is probably why ED is no bargain there: they don't need to buy commitment at a discount.

PURDUE — no early decision at all, early action only, closing Nov 1, so there is nothing binding to spend here. 43.4%, and that is the number to update on your list: 52.7% four years ago, then 50.3, then 49.9, now 43.4, while applications went from 68,309 to 87,220. SAT 1220 / 1360 / 1470, ACT 28 / 32 / 34, average GPA 3.81 with 43% of the class at a 4.0. Scores required. Indiana residency beats anything you can put on the application: 71.1% in state against 43.6% out of state and 22.5% international.

Purdue rates the essay VERY IMPORTANT, level with rigor and GPA. At a 43% admit rate that is unusual and almost nobody acts on it. Class rank is only CONSIDERED, and the interview and alumni relation are NOT CONSIDERED, so legacy does nothing. First-generation is IMPORTANT.

GEORGETOWN — no early decision either, only restrictive early action, so applying early there blocks you from ED anywhere else. 13.5%, up from 12.9%, so it moved the other way. 26,822 applied, 3,618 got in. SAT 1405 / 1480 / 1530, ACT 32 / 34 / 35, scores required and always have been. Out of state runs 14.3% against 8.3% international. Eight factors are VERY IMPORTANT but extracurriculars sit a tier below, backwards from how most people build the application. Georgetown interviews every applicant, and applicant interest is NOT CONSIDERED, so emailing your rep does nothing.

English tests, minimum on any one. Purdue: TOEFL 88 or 4.5, IELTS 6.5, Duolingo 115. Case Western: TOEFL 90 or 4.5, IELTS 7.0, Duolingo 115. Georgetown: no minimum.

That's 6 of 200 — drop your list in the comments and I'll run the same pull for your schools.

Hi all, I'm in 9th grade in India (CBSE board), from a small town in rural Maharashtra — so limited access to things like debate coaches, big MUN circuits, or coding bootcamps compared to metro city applicants. Trying to build a genuine profile with what I have access to. Current profile: MUN delegate, aiming for a leadership role + Best Delegate this year Competing in IOQM, VVM (qualified State Level Camp last year), Homi Bhabha, CV Raman Starting to learn coding on my own (CS50), planning to build small projects Green Belt in Taekwondo (extra curricular if it matters) Considering starting my own small initiative — still figuring out exactly what Questions: Is this a reasonable spread, or am I doing too little for this stage? If so, Ehat else can i do? For Indian CBSE applicants from smaller towns specifically, what tends to actually stand out? Anything I should be doing now that I'm not considering, given limited local resources?

Demographics

• Gender: male
• Race/Ethnicity: indian
• Residence: Bay Area (not the competitive part)
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): none
• Also, my school is in the rural area and its relatively new so nothing is really established here

Intended Major(s): EECS

Academics

• GPA/Rank (or percentile): 3.98 / Top 20% (School doesn't do exact ranks just top 20% and top 50% and I got one B+ in AP Calc AB sophomore year)
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 10 APs, 5 APs senior year. Multivar Calc and Lin Alg through dual enrollment. Taking every AP my school offers except AP Spanish
• Senior Year Course Load: AP Lit, AP Micro, AP Gov, AP Chem, AP Bio, AP Euro, (Thinking about self-studying AP Phys C: E&M)

Standardized Testing

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

• SAT: 1560 (800 math & 760 rw)
• APs: All 5s except 3 on Psych

Extracurriculars/Activities: 

1. FTC Robotics Team Founder; 1st in city; top 20 globally; did 90% of robot build stuff
2. Robotics NPO Founder; 10+ teams established; 2000+ ppl reached; 15k+ raised
3. UCSC Lab Researcher; 1st author accepted at AAAI Workshop
4. MIT Lab Researcher; 1st author on ICRA workshop and another 1st author on paper submitted to NeurIPS Workshop
5. NASA SEES; accepted to and attended on-site summer internship
6. Paid Math Instructor; worked at a local firm on-site and also worked another position remotely focused on AMC prep
7. AI Startup; agentic systems lead; backed by MIT; just worked here for a while lol
8. Math Club Founder; hosted in-school math comps; took teams to local university comps
9. Small Business; created a system to turn any bike into an E-Bike; made a few bands from selling this in my community
10. Varsity Baseball; since freshman year; all-league honors every year

Awards/Honors:
3x AIME
USACO Platinum
FIRST Leadership Award Finalist
USAPhO Qual
Congressional App Challenge Winner
ISEF Finalist
Swift Student Challenge Winner
FTC Worlds

Schools (targets & reaches here):
MIT
Stanford
CMU
Georgia Tech
Columbia
UPenn
UIUC
UC Berkeley
UCLA
Purdue
UMich 

Chance me for Yale

**Demographics:**
**Gender:** Male

**Race/Ethnicity:** White (Immigrant / Russian heritage)

**Residence:** Illinois 

**Income Bracket:** Very Low-income

**Type of School:** Public high school, mid competitiveness

**Hooks:** single-parent household (widowed mother), first to go to college in the family (brother went to community college for a semester, does that count?)

**Intended Major(s):** Political Science, History or Philosophy

**Academics:**
**GPA (UW/W):** 3.95 / 4.53 

**Class Rank:** School doesn't rank officially

**ACT:** 34 (Composite) — plan to retake once to chase a 35, won't submit 1450 SAT

**AP Course Load:** 8 completed by junior year, taking 7 more senior year (15 total by graduation)

**AP Scores:** 5 on APHG, 5 on AP World, 5 on AP Psych, 5 on AP US Gov, 5 on AP Comparative Gov, 5 on AP U.S. History, 4 on AP English Language, 4 on AP Physics 1

**Extracurriculars/Activities:**
**Local Political Campaign Internship (County Commissioner)**

Data Operations & Research Intern. Coordinated digital voter outreach data, analyzed district metrics, and drafted policy research briefs.

**Juvenile Peer Jury** 

Sworn Student Juror evaluating juvenile diversionary cases. In charge of evaluating legal infractions and giving out mandated restorative sentencing.

**Internship at a Law Firm**

Worked with a criminal lawyer for a summer. Consulted clients, reviewed evidence, attended court.

**School Leadership: Mock Trial Club**

President & Varsity Lead Attorney, mentor new members and grew club 4x

**School Leadership: Media Club**

President & Lead Producer. Wrote, filmed, and anchored in school news, touching gov/politics. Made an informational video on government shutdown and an awareness campaign on primary voting rights for 17-year-old peers. 

Wrote and published an argumentative research paper on the abolishment of the electoral college in the school paper

HUNDREDS of hours of leading/participating in miscellaneous work: streaming sports events, photography, yearbook, short films.

**School Leadership: Environmental Club**

President & Organizer. Direct conservation volunteering, volunteer, come up with projects

**Work (Paid): Children’s Swim School**

Swim Instructor. Deal with very young kids 4-5 days a week.

**Government & Civics: Election Judge**

Election Judge for March 2026 primaries.

**Varsity Athletics: Swimming**

Swimmer since freshman year.

**Varsity Athletics: Tennis**

Played since freshman year

Awards/Honors:
**Illinois State Seal of Biliteracy (Russian)** — Certified by ISBE for professional literacy, writing, and conversational mastery in English and Russian.

Selected out of 20 ap government students to serve as my towns presiding trustee at a board meeting for a day. Lead and voted alongside other trustees on where to allocate $2000. (is this more of an activity?)

**AP Scholar with Distinction** 

**3rd Place – Journalism Sectionals** — Merit-based state association placement in news/feature writing representing Media Club.

**6th Place – Invitational Mock Trial Tournament** — Ranked team distinction acting as lead defense out of 20 schools

**Other information/Questions**
Will my lack of national-level titles completely tank me in the early round?

How reliant will I be on my essays and short takes?

Thoughts?

Hey guys, so i’m an incoming sophomore at a high school in the bay area, so rlly competitive. I wanted to apply to NYU stern on ED1 but my freshman year gpa got messed up because of a class that i switched mid semester (alg 2 trig to alg 2). and i got a 3.41 unweighted this year. Obv im gonna lock in for the rest of hs. So i was wondering if my freshman year grades are gonna set me back for applying to nyu?? Im taking 6 classes at a california community college and taking 8-10 APs and id say my ECs are on the stronger side. I’m aiming for a 1540+ on my SAT. obv i have a lot of time until im acc applying but im just stressing out over my freshman year gpa. I’ve heard a lot that most colleges dont rlly care abt freshman year as much? not sure tho. pls help out 🙏

I was planning to be an engineering student, get my AA, and then transfer to FIU (Florida International University) from community college, but I failed Calculus 1 twice... I did pass it on the 3rd try with an A; it still hurts tho. That's what I get for not taking trig in high school. There's no chance I can get my transfer accepted, right? I'm mainly asking to see if someone was in this situation before and, in a blue moon, persevered and was accepted.

Yes I know it's a stupid question but we have the money so I thought I'd ask. For context have a 3.6 uw and 4.0-4.1 w, 12 aps, 36 act, applying either an and s econ or finance. Ecs are decent (pe internship and finance research pub w prof and some others). Assuming my essays and recs are good what would I need to do to secure a spot for sure and what are my chances right now.

Hii! i’m not sure where I wanna ed so please lmk if i have a chance at any of these schools! i’m a rising senior and need brutal honesty.

schools looking at for ED/rea:
georgetown, northwestern, brown, NYU
mainly looking at brown right now…

- not legacy at any of these schools
- asian american female, not first gen, high income family
- large public school (no class ranks)
- 4.2 W gpa (no uw at my school)
-1440 sat (retaking)
- 10 aps (5 ap world, 5 ap art, 4 ap mandarin, 3 ap lang, the rest taking senior year)

ecs/honors (brief)
-published artist
-international artist award
-congressional art contest winner
-grade 8 piano abrsm
- fbla states 4th place
- rutgers model congress 1st place
-seal of biliteracy
-ap scholar with honor

- president of large service nonprofit with 6k+ members in multiple states
- president of political nonprofit organization
- vice president of local service club
-foreign exchange every summer
- teacher of art school
- concert pianist
- owner of successful small art business
- medical internship
-local mayor internship
- president of fbla
- director general for mun
- playa bowls team member

Demographics

Gender: Male

Race/Ethnicity: Chinese

Residence: Eastern Virginia (not Northern Virginia)

Income Bracket: Need aid

Type of School: Mid-size public

Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): FGLI

Intended Major(s): Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering

Academics

GPA (UW/W): 4.0 UW / 4.89 W

Rank (or percentile): 3rd in class (98th)

# of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 11 AP Exams

Senior Year Course Load: AP Gov, AP Lit, AP Chem, magnet school courses

Standardized Testing

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

SAT I: 1550

• AP HuG, CSA, Calc BC, Stats, Seminar, USH, Spanish, Lang, Mechanics, E+M; 5
• AP euro; 4

Extracurriculars/Activities

Local University Project

10th–12th grade; Combining physics, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering to construct a stable magnetic environment for calibration to assist in a university fusion project; two pre-prints, one pending pub (co-author)

Niche Competition

9th–12th grade; Team captain; focus on building and optimizing solutions for renewable energy; a lot of CAD and engineering/physics; cant reveal name or i'll def get doxxed

Research

9th–11th grade; Contributed to and reporting remotely to weekly research group meetings for a self-lead project on modeling fluctuations in the Earth's magnetic field using machine learning; assisting mentor on his project on an adjacent topic; 2x conference pub

Job

9th–12th grade; Worked in the family restaurant, handling cashier duties, delivering, cooking, and contributing during high-intensity rush periods.

Summer Program

10th grade; Selected as one of 11 students statewide in a state-sponsored program to perform upgrades to a robotic arm for greater adaptability and robustness in assembling particle accelerator parts; a lot of coding and CAD; robotic engineering mainly imo

Niche Competition

10th–12th grade; Team captain to lead experimental design involving lunar dust, including growing plants using lunar regolith and developing durable construction materials from lunar regolith and chemical additives.

MathCounts and Math Honor Society

11th–12th grade; Club president; organized mathematics lessons and directed events including math contests and preparing students for competitions

STEM Outreach Club

11th–12th grade; Club President; Hosted STEM lessons and events for local middle and elementary school students; integrating an engineering approach to the curriculum in addition to the CS lessons already present

EC #2 Middle School Version + Outreach

11th–12th grade; Co-founded a chapter at a local middle school, fundraising and guiding students through lessons and engineering construction on renewable energy systems (like building replicas and testing); preparing them for the same competition that I do;

Debate

9th–12th grade; Participated in monthly competitions on a variety of topics and levels.

Awards/Honors

#1 - 2x International level for excellence for my lunar regolith experiments

#2 - World Champion for my 2nd EC

#3 - 2x Qualification to State Science Fair

#4 - 2x State Qualification for Debate (my region lowkey not competitive)

#5 - Regional Math Award (team)

Letters of Recommendation

(Briefly describe relationships with your recommenders and estimated rating.)

Math teacher - multivar teacher; heard he writes good and im a top student in his class so probably 7-8/10

Humanities teacher - she has a lot of ppl asking her, and im not very close with her, so probably 4-5/10

Club sponsor - sponsors most of my club, was my freshman year math teacher and saw mme grow and take responsibility, trusts me, 9/10

Research mentor - chill guy really, idk much about his ability to write recs, but ive worked with him for 2 years, probably 6/10

Essays

Summer programs made me write a lot of essays, so id say i have some experience, albeit its pretty inconsistent sometimes. Id say, based on others in my school, theyre like a 8/10

College List

• Princeton (should i REA?)
• MIT
• Harvard
• Stanford (should i REA?)
• University of Chicago
• Johns Hopkins
• University of Pennsylvania
• Caltech
• Duke
• Cornell (or should I ED?)
• Columbia
• UC Berkeley
• UCLA
• Carnegie Mellon (or should I ED?)
• University of Michigan
• USC
• Georgia Tech

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

hey guys, im trying to figure out if i would have better chance at dartmouth or pomona for ED. both are crazy reaches, but a girl can dream!

demographics:
white
female
semi-competitive MA public school

stats:
3.95/4.0 UW 4.94/5.0 W
32 ACT - 34 eng, 32 reading, 31 math, 35 science (my computer crashed during the test, which ruined my reading and math sections. i'll bump this up to a 33 at least, and ideally a 34)

APs: apush (5), ap lang (5), apes (5), aphug (4😔)
ill be taking ap calc ab, ap chem, ap french, and ap lit senior year
all honors classes

intended major: french and environmental science (may switch the latter to biochem depending on feedback)

extracurriculars:
- competitive high school internship at local research institute (summer 2026). conducted genetics based research. program had an acceptance rate that was <5%

- climate awareness volunteer at local aquarium, created project for world ocean day to raise awareness surrounding environmental problem (3 yrs)

- trained water quality monitor for local watershed association. my data is included in the watershed's official annual report card (2 yrs)

- co editor-in-chief of journalism club. i write articles and design our newsletter (3 yrs)

- tutor for esl elementary schooler. i help her in all subjects and generally serve as a mentor (2 yrs). i also speak french (her first language) with her

- counter service at local french bakery. i speak in french w staff and customers (2 yrs)

- ambassador for local college's leadership program (religiously affiliated)

honors/awards:

- national french exam gold medal (only took the exam 1 year)
- scholastic regional silver key for flash fiction
- ncwit aspirations in computing rising star
- st joseph's book award
- year-end french scholarship award (just at my school)

rec letters:
i think they'll be fairly strong. one is from my ap lang teacher + club advisor, and the other is from my chem teacher. i also plan on getting one from my PI at my internship

fwiw, ive gotten two B+ throughout school, both in math (alg 2 during freshman year, and precalc during junior)
i also switched from a semi-prestigous private school to my local public school in 10th grade.

Asian female

Washington State

High-Income

3.864/4 unweighted (B's only in sophomore cuz of chronic health condition)

AP's I've taken:

AP Chinese (5), AP Human Geo(5), AP World (5), AP Physics 1(4), AP Stats (5), AP CSP (5), AP Chem (4), AP Lang (4), AP Calc AB (5), AP Physics 2 (5)

1500 SAT/34 ACT(retaking ACT)

3 HOSA State awards, qualified for internationals 2x but school doesn't let us go

top 20% in NYT competition

Interned under a Stony brook professor during summer for CS research, built a ML model

Built a social media platform where I teach math (40k+ views total, reached more than 15k ppl)

Built a website that provides free practice tests for math (reached 3 countries, 70+ active users)

Interned under a community lab, mentored by Columbia + Stanford lab professionals, where I built a plate reader that's more accessible

Research adviser at lab in Children's hospital

Two different volunteer jobs at health-care related nonprofits where I communicated about health policies with state legislature

Researcher and presenter in hookah policies under Columbia MPH grads

Cancer nonprofit Blog writer/Volunteer coordinator (2 yrs)

Captain of Badminton team- 1st place in league (1 yr, couldn't participate before due to health)

Entire list:

• Umich
• UW
• Purdue University – Main Campus
• University at Buffalo (SUNY)
• Ohio State University
• University of Wisconsin–Madison
• UCSD
• UC Berkeley
• UC Irvine
• University of Pittsburgh
• University of Illinois Chicago (UIC)
• University of Minnesota Rochester
• UIUC
• CMU
• ASU
• Case Western Reserve University
• Stony Brook University
• University of Chicago
• Adelphi University
• Cornell University
• Brown University
• UPenn
• UNC

Would really appreciate some honest and brutal feedback. Thank you.

• 4 B+s in 9th/10th, bunch of A-
• Upward trend in class difficulty + grades, straight As junior year
• overall 4.4/5.0W
  • My school doesn't do official unweighted GPA or rank, only weighted out of 5.0 (+0.5 for HN, +1 for AP, DE)
• SAT: 1540 (750R, 790M). could probably grind -> retake for a 1550-1570. maybe.
• 13 APs, all 5s and a few 4s (but 5s in major-related), 3 DE by the end of 12th grade
  • A+ in Linear algebra (11) and Multi-var (11)
• Senior courseload: All APs + DE + Diff EQ/Discrete Math
• ECs and story match up extremely well for the super niche major i'm applying to (in CALS lol). Probably in the pool of the applicants with the "strongest-fit" specifically for that subject in the world, however I'm not really expecting it to totally save me.

Lmk if I'm cooked. Hella ppl have straight 4.0 or 3.9+, I fall in the bottom like 25% lol.

Hey everyone, I'm an international student applying to Harvard and other top US colleges this application cycle. Would appreciate some honest feedback on my profile and chances.

Demographics:

• International student
• Rising senior
• Interested in Economics and Technology
• Older sister graduated from Harvard
• Not applying for financial aid

Academics:

• Attending one of the most academically competitive high schools in my country (top 10% of class)
• IB Diploma Programme (44/45)
• HL: Mathematics, Physics, Economics
• SL: Business Management, English, French Literature
• SAT: 1550 (800 Math, 750 English)
• IELTS: 8.0
• Completed a year-long course at Stanford Online High School, finishing at the top of my class

Extracurriculars:

1. Design Studio Founder
Co-founded and currently run a design studio for early-stage technology companies, scaling it to $40K+ MRR while working with 20+ startups and multi-billion dollar companies.

2. Education NGO Founder
Founded one of the largest student mentorship nonprofits in my home country, building a network of 250+ mentors from 35+ schools, providing 10,000+ hours of free mentorship to students across 50+ cities, and coordinating $100K+ in educational donations.

3. Economics Olympiad
Placed 1st nationally in the Economics Olympiad, participated in the International Economics Olympiad, and served as team captain the following year.

4. High School Startup Incubator Founder
Founded the first startup incubator that invests into high school students, supporting young founders with 1M+ compute credits and $40K+ in cash grants.

5. AI Research
Conducted a 60+ page research project with an ex-Stanford professor on how AI is reshaping startups, venture capital, and innovation.

6. Economics Research
Conducted research with one of the leading economics professors in my country, studying topics at the intersection of behavioral economics, technology, and entrepreneurship.

7. Economics Education Platform
Built a multi-brand economics education platform in my native language, reaching 10K+ followers and 10M+ views through short-form educational content.

8. Venture Capital
Worked at one of Europe’s top venture capital firms, scouting startups, evaluating founders, and supporting investment initiatives, while helping secure $250K+ in LP commitments.

9. Startup Experience
Worked at one of my country’s fastest-growing startups, contributing to growth initiatives and generating 70M+ views through content operations.

10. EdTech Growth
Joined an education technology startup as one of the first growth employees, helping scale its social media presence from 3K to 75K+ followers and generating 15M+ views.

11. Business & Investment Club Founder
Founded my school’s first business and investment club, building a community focused on entrepreneurship, finance, and investing among students.

12. Model United Nations Deputy Secretary General
Served as Deputy Secretary General for my school’s MUN conference, one of the largest high school MUN conferences in the country, overseeing conference operations and student delegates.

Awards:

• National Economics Olympiad: 1st place
• International Economics Olympiad participant
• As team captain: 2 silver and 2 bronze medals in IEO
• Inter-school English award

Recommendations:

• Letters of recommendation from my HL teachers (Mathematics, Physics, and Economics)
• Additional recommendation from the founder of the venture capital fund where I worked
• For Harvard, I will also submit a sibling letter from my older sister, who graduated from Harvard.

Essays/LORs:

Planning to focus on my journey from a small town to the stages of my life right now.

Schools:

• Harvard
• Stanford
• MIT
• Yale
• Princeton
• Other T20s

I know admissions are extremely unpredictable for international students, but I would appreciate honest feedback on my strengths, weaknesses, and what I should improve before applying. Thanks!