Demographics

  • Gender: female
  • Race/Ethnicity: asian
  • Residence: texas :(
  • Income Bracket: ermmmm high enough that I won't get aid
  • Type of School: large competitive high school
  • Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): NONE BRUH

Intended Major(s): so I applied to a variety of majors depending on the school: my application was focused on business/finance but I applied econ to schools without a business major and engineering to a few schools for fun (I hate myself). I want to pursue pharma consulting-> biotech startup in the future, so I honestly felt like engineering OR business would help me with that.

Academics

  • GPA (UW/W): ermmm my schools gpa is weird but I submitted a 4.28. I had all A's in all my classes though so yea
  • Rank (or percentile): top 5% of my class (1000+ students)
  • # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: took 16 ap classes in high school, no ib and no dual enrollment
  • Senior Year Course Load: guys dont do what I did but I took ap lit, ap spanish lit (NEVER TAKE THIS CLASS), ap chem, apes, ap gov, ap macro, ap stats, deca (yea its a class for us)

Standardized Testing

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

  • SAT I: took it twice, 1540 superscore (770 r and m)
  • AP/IB: 5's on hug, bio, lang, whap, calc bc, calc ab subscore, 4's on apush, spanish lang (my proudest one), csp and a 1 on physics 1 (didn't submit)(we dont talk about it)

Extracurriculars/Activities

bruh I had to go look at my commonapp again for this LOL. gonna be vague so I dont get doxxed cause I know some sweaty little nerds from my school are on this sub.

  1. created a medtech device designed to solve a social problem, started working w/ a biotech company to start producing and getting it into pharmacies (talked about this in a LOT of essays and I was super passionate abt it)
  2. founder and president of my schools personal finance and startup competition club (most boring thing ever did not talk about it in ANY essay except my UC leadership one)
  3. research w/ a professor as a mentor on the problem related to the medtech device I created, had a historical and marketing spin to it. I submitted it to the concord review but didn't hear back so it was kinda sad on my apps just writing submitted LOL
  4. cofounded a 'nonprofit' (not really) basically holding national charity gaming tournaments. was super fun and prob one of my favorite ecs I did (also thought It was p unique)
  5. captain of my schools science olympiad team- ive done scioly since like 5th grade and I genuinely enjoyed doing it even though I know its not really business related haha
  6. internship at a medtech startup; worked on a project that was implemented in like 200+ clinics in a country in Asia. I hated this because I did it last summer and I had to wake up at like 5am to join meetings as the company is based in Asia T_T
  7. manager at a cafe. SUPER FUN OMG it took like 15-20 hours of my week every week since junior year but I loved my job. it was definitely my fav ec ever and I genuinely grew so much as a person from working. HIGHLY RECOMMEND getting a job if you can, the extra money is nice too <3
  8. president of an interest club at my school (think like art, crochet, board games, etc) basically a club for a hobby. dont wanna be specific. but it was one of the biggest clubs in the school.
  9. varsity LD debate. I really only debated for like freshman, soph, half of junior year but I judged a lot of tournaments and wrote cases/cut cards for my team after that. kinda hated debate towards the end.
  10. invested money into businesses in 3rd world countries and helped them to grow/expand their profit; received high returns. I used some of my income from my job for this. didn't take much time, was mostly a side thing

Awards/Honors

  1. diamond challenge finalist- top 50/700+ global teams (basically this is a pitching competition)
  2. taekwondo black belt, ITF
  3. deca state qualifier grades 9,10,11 (LOL I SUCKED AT DECA)
  4. national merit commended (I sold on the psat bruh)
  5. league of legends plat (dont make fun of me I literally had NO other honors)

Letters of Recommendation

calculus bc teacher- 6/10 me and him were pretty good friends id say? we would joke around and make fun of my other friend in class. he knew I was a hard worker and smart, but I wouldn't say we were super close.

apush teacher- 7/10 I actually read this one haha (she sent it to me). I really love her, and I genuinely liked apush and would participate in class to an extent. I wouldn't say its the BEST letter out there but It was decent and nice <3

piano teacher- 8/10 she has known me since I was 5 and I LOVE this woman. she is the sweetest person ever, seen me grow through the years. she also let me read her letter, so I know that it was really sweet and honestly quite beautiful.

counselor rec- 5/10 I think my counselor lowkey hated me. he was opping me so hard at the beginning of the year abt my schedule, and I had to fight him a few years ago to take bc without having taken ab calc LOL. I dont think it would have trashed me, but he has definitely written better letters for people.

Interviews

I only had a few interviews and ironically I didn't get into any of the colleges I interviewed for LMAO

georgetown- 8/10, I think me and my interviewer def clicked and I thought my responses accurately presented myself how I wanted to. he was super chill though, and he told me I would do great wherever I go <3

penn- 2/10, my interview was like 20 minutes long bruh. the guy was reading off a list of questions, he didn't really ask my like follow up questions on anything. I liked my answers for the most part but I dont think the overall interview was very good.

mit- 8/10, i REALLY liked this interview, I had a lot of really great responses and me and him clicked over liking boba lol. I also kinda gave him an idea about his professional life so maybe points for that?

princeton- 7/10, the guy was super chill and young so it was much easier to talk to him. it was kinda weird tho he emailed me asking for a photo of myself so he could recollect his memory a few days after the interview? idk man but he seemed nice and he sent me what he wrote. was kinda a mid report but not anything bad so w

dartmouth- 6.5/10, she was also young. she also just read off a list of a few questions, not really any follow up. interview was 25ish minutes and we didn't really connect although I thought I had decent responses.

Essays

commonapp essay- 8.5-9/10. it was about my relationship with a family member, and I really REALLy liked this essay. it was probably the most genuine and raw thing I've written, and I got it reviewed by a few trusted adults. one lady told me that I shouldn't submit this essay, but I felt like honestly writing anything else would not represent myself as truly as this did. im glad I stuck to my gut haha

uc essays-6/10 i hated these essays with a PASSION I hated how I wrote them, I wrote about the most BASIC things ever (like the talent essay I wrote about freaking music. like bruh every asian is gonna write about music). idk what any uc saw in these lol

supps- 7-9/10 I wrote about some really quirky shit for a lot of them, I had to grind all my rd apps the 2 weeks of winter break after getting rejected from penn ed haha. was not fun dont recommend DO UR APPS BEFORE AND DONT EGO IT LIKE ME

honestly for essays, just stay true to yourself. dont try to be someone else, dont say things because you think they will get you in. to some extent, yes you have to do that- but if you genuinely believe in yourself or something you've written, stick to your guts.

Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)

Rejections:

  • ed- penn (wharton) (got straight up rejected ed)
  • ea- mit (business) (deferred ea-> rejected rd)
  • rd- every single ivy- applied econ or business to all
  • rd- georgetown (business)
  • rd- northwestern (engineering)
  • rd- uchicago (business economics)
  • rd- johns hopkins (biomedical engineering)

  • rd- stanford (econ) ngl after ivy day this was my last hope and it genuinely crushed me when I got rejected haha

  • Waitlists:

  • umich (lsa/business)

  • nyu (stern)

  • ucsb (forgot what I applied for ngl)

  • williams (econ)

withdrew all my waitlists except for duke as I wouldn't pick any of them over berkeley.

Acceptances:

  • ea- texas a&m (engineeering)
  • ea- ut san antonio (econ)
  • ea- ut austin (business)
  • ea- iu kelley (business)
  • ea- uva (I applied business but I think you reapply after a year, so I was admitted to the l&s college I think)
  • ea- usc (business) (applied ea, got deferred, then accepted rd)
  • rd- vanderbilt (engineering w/ $6k stipend)
  • rd- ucsd (engineering)
  • rd- ucla (business economics)
  • rd- uc berkeley (got in to l&s)
  • rd- duke (biomedical engineering) initially waitlisted--> accepted --> attending!

Additional Information:

I know imma sound like a fuckin loser nerd typical senior who got into a t10 and suddenly has 'wisdom' but like genuinely. this process is so fucked up and weird and you genuinely dont know how tf its gonna turn out. I applied to WAY too many colleges, and ended up having to rush them all haha. I guess it worked out in the end and I would LOWKEY recommend shotgunning but If you do decide to shotgun please don't do what I did.

I was initially committed to berkeley, and at first I was super upset. I know that sounds stupid, but for someone who has had their eyes set on the Ivy League/t10's since she was 5, it was genuinely upsetting. I remember literally bawling my eyes out on the airport floor when I got all my rejections one after the other on ivy day because I was so upset haha. I understand what it feels like, but honestly after a few weeks I felt much better and was actually excited to go to berkeley (I literally JUST bought merch too LMAO). like the college you go to is really what you make of it, and yes I know its not like I was going to squidward cc, but even berkeley felt like it wasnt enough for all the blood, sweat, tears I had poured in over the years. but things happen for a reason, and I do think I would have been 100% happy at berkeley had I not gotten off the duke waitlist (I had literally 0 hope for it, I wrote the shittiest LOCI ever too LOL). I know im kind of rambling, but basically this process doesn't define you and you can and will find reasons to be happy at the college that you get into and decide to go to. I know it feels like life is ending but everything will work out eventually, even if you don't see it now. be proud of where you go, and happy that those people saw your value and wanted to admit you.

if anyone has any questions def lmk! my dm's are open <3 and if you think you know me, no you don't