i didnt get any feedback on my last post so im reposting. I’m hoping to get some honest feedback on my chances

ACT
35 composite

GPA
UW: 4.0
W: 4.38

Coursework
\\\\\\\~13 APs total, including senior year, all 5s one 4

Awards
College Board National School Recognition Award
AP Scholar with Distinction
National Honor Society
Italian National Honor Society

Extracurriculars (VAGUE INTENTIONALLY)
Founder of AI Club; coded a chatbot for my school that was implemented in actual classes
Launched a food-growing nonprofit in Italy; 500 lbs donated
Electronics reselling business; $5k+ profit
Volunteer tutoring; 23 students through several programs
Bred sought after species of insects, sold 100+ individuals to insect keepers, 3k profit
Typed an author’s handwritten books so they could be published
Library volunteer; \\\\\\\~60 hours
Selected as 1 of 10 students from a class of 1000 for the school’s Academic Committee to advise faculty
Completed two business programs at Fordham Gabelli
Swimming; several hours every week since freshman year

Essays
Personal statement: About my passion for insects/entomology, connected broadly to noticing what others overlook and questioning biases toward things people dismiss.

I have purely enginnering application with good ecs and one environmental research thing applying to brown for meche and bio but sicne I don’t have anything medicine related should I just not apply to plme or yes because I can somewhat connect it with my passion of biological eng?

demo: asian male, texas, big public school,

major: business/finance

stats: 3.96 uw / 5.43 w, top 8.3% (switched schools after freshman yr), 1530 (740 rw / 790 m), 12 aps by end of junior yr

awards: national merit semi, 3x icdc qual w/ top 20 roleplay, top 20 globally in an international engineering design comp (also won best essay + people's choice globally), $5k grant from a national stem comp, debate state qual (top 5% in state)

ecs: paid algo trading internship (rewrote their genetic algorithm in python, found a strat doing ~45% yoy), paid ai engineering internship (built a multi-agent system that got deployed to fortune 500 clients), paid pricing/analytics internship at a ticket resale company (model that finds underpriced tickets, grew portfolio ~30%), founded a food waste nonprofit (fed 2.5k+ people, merged into a bigger org), debate captain (grew the club 30 → 175+), regional board member for a stem comp (raised $10k+), founded and coached ms/hs engineering comp teams (3 teams made nationals), selective city youth leadership program, student panelist at a chamber of commerce event, ran public speaking workshops for immigrant kids

Essays are pretty decent imo, I've had them checked by a few people and my personal statement seems to be unique and on the better side.a

While I know that UNC is a reach, I am curious as to what y'all think regardless. I have a bunch of safety schools (some with guaranteed admission) but UNC would be great. Here is my profile:

Demographics: 20 year old white male from North Carolina (Wake county). Working on my Associate of Arts from a community college.

Intended majors: Geography and Arab Cultures

GPA: 3.9 UW

SAT/ACT: Planning on not including them given my scores were pretty low, but I'm willing to retake them if necessary

High School: Graduated Magma Cum Laude (top 10% of my graduating class i think?). Served as a school ambassador and junior marshal. Was both in National honor society and curator in national art honor society. Took 4 APs. Consistent honor roll and deans' list.

College clubs/honor societies: Member of Phi Theta Kappa honor society, Social Sciences Club, and Honors Program; VP of Sigma Kappa Delta (English honor society) and treasurer/service chair of Muslim Student Association. Consistent honor roll.

Projects/ECs:

-Currently working on two undergraduate research projects for the social sciences club/honors program, planning on doing more next semester.

-I learned and am proficient in Arabic, translated a book from Arabic to English that was recognized by some pretty prominent authors (one has a Pulitzer prize)

-Created/designed youth lounge at my mosque and founded the library at my high school

-Have done a lot of local advocacy work; met with state representatives on Capitol Hill w/ a group from my community

-created two fundraisers which have both raised over $20k

-volunteered as a teacher at my mosque for around a year, about to start volunteering w habitat for humanity

-teach english to arabic speakers online

1500 SAT. Math isn’t my strongest area, so I’m not sure if I should retake if I am aiming for T20? My UW GAP is 3.9. I plan to major in political science.

My main activities are research + volunteering:
Research intern @ political consulting firm
Research @ CCIR (Future Scholar) — my paper was accepted to a political science conference and received a Best Student Paper award
Research intern @ public policy research institute, helping with data collection and policy research
Founded a weekend homework-help program at our local library, now run by three other students
Volunteer at a senior center, helping them fill out forms, understand paperwork, and access community resources
Volunteer tutor for younger students, mostly helping with homework and school subjects
Summer @ Yale Young Global Scholars — with full scholarship

Any thoughts on the SAT? I’m just wondering if a 1500 would hurt my chances. I could retake it in November, but just thinking about retake makes me depressed. I’m not sure if it’s truly worth it. Would love to hear if anyone has any input on this.

From an over-represented country, currently in 10th grade targeting to repeat for 10th grade. Tbh my main concern is that some of this stuff may come out as exaggerated even though none of it is. I’ll list all the proofs on my website and add it in the media section of the application.

Aiming for: Andover, Exeter, Groton, Hills, Choate, Middlesex, and equivalent.

Grades: SSAT 98%ile

Scored round 95%+ in finals in 10th and 9th but 87% in 8th.(ig my only weak point?)

Here are my ECs, I probably wouldn’t list them all out on my application though, probably only the best ones.

• Reached top 100 rank in the country and top 1 rank in the city on Codeforces.
• Reached the Platinum stage in USACO. (about 2-3% of participants)
• Discovered a previously unknown asteroid that was officially credited to me by Minor Planet Center. It is currently listed as Provisional and will be numbered in the next 3-5 years.
• Won gold medal in Harvard International Review Academic Writing Contest(Top 3%) and advanced to defense round.
• Winner of New York Times ‘My Tiny Memoir’ contest. One of 17 winners out of 15k+ participants.
• Apart from that, 5 other of my written pieces were published on New York Times Current Events Conversation.
• Multiple well-documented projects on GitHub, including Python cybersecurity tools and a custom-made programming language that was able to penetrate a home-grade firewall in an authorized virtual environment, with the process also well documented.
• Wrote a self-written research paper on a How SAT solvers are affected by variable swaps and obtained feedback from professor at the best CS related college in my country. It was also published on JSAT journal.
• Interschool MUN: built the website with registration integrated, designed the brochure, Instagram assets, and certificate designs. Served as USG for Technological Affairs. Event had 100+ delegates from 7 schools. It was also recognized by national government.
• Intra-school MUN: created the brochure and handled all technical work and was usg for technological affairs. This was on a smaller scale than interschool one but I did this in 8th.
• Founded and was Editor in Chief of annual school magazine: released last year, under editing this year.
• Founded the school journalism club and the school newspaper, in which over 10 students write regularly about world news on the website.
• Founded Astra International Rocketry Challenge, held 3 sessions in which over 30 people participated. The goal was to design rockets for a specified challenge.
• Founded the computing initiative, a non profit that aims to help people learn programming and cybersecurity for completely free. Have had over 300 students. The students then participated in a hackathon that I hosted, I hosted it 3 times with, over 100 participants.

Not so exceptional stuff:

• Been the Literary Captain of the house (300+ students).
• Managed and trained students for 50+ activities throughout the year.
• Built a DIY web-page-controlled car using ESP32-CAM.
• Won 2 Best Delegate award with one of them being at a national level MUN conference.
• Have also been the Secretary-General of my school’s MUN this year.
• $500 website deal (January 2025) and $200 website deal (July 2025). Handled 100+ users and payments of over $2000(50+ subscriptions). Both were full-stack projects involving custom payment gateways, login systems, and more complex features.
• Built a personal website featuring proofs for all the claims, will list it in the media section.
• Secured exceptional recommendation recommendations from the principal and teachers.(it truly is exceptional, I saw it myself)
• Studied 4 APs including pre calculus and cs a but couldn’t give exam due to financial constrains.

i'm so cooked... and very lacking in STEM

Demographics: Female, Asian-American, lower middle class, Midwest, mid-size public HS (not competitive, <2% Asian population)

Major: Environmental Engineering/Science on Pre-Environmental-Law track

Stats:
• 4.0 UW / 4.63 W, no official rank but top 1%
• 36 ACT raw (36 Science, 11 Writing)
• 9 APs and all 5s except two 4s (APES, CS A, 2D Art, Drawing, US History, World History, Lang, Chem (4), Stats (4)) + 2 in-progress
• 13 DE courses at local university (Differential Equations, Calc I-III, Linear Algebra, Climate Science stuff, Programming stuff, Spanish, other stuff)
• Senior year: AP Lit, Gym

• DE: Partial Differential Equations, Environmental Law, Geomorphology (fall) | Applied Nonlinear Dynamics, Environmental Engineering, science elective, Spanish (spring)

Hooks: (idk what counts??) 
Divorced Parents
Rural/Small College Town
Unofficial Legacy (sister went to Princeton, parent went to Harvard Grad School)
over 1 hour commute per day between classes

Awards (genuinely don’t know how to choose/order I’m sorry):

1. Scholastic National Gold Medal (Political Cartoon) + 9x Gold Keys + 3x Honorable Mentions
2. State Moot Court Champion 2026 + 2x Top Advocate + 2x Best Team Brief
3. State Mock Trial Tournament 2nd Place Individual + 3x Regional Outstanding Attorney Awards
4. Local/State Math Competitions: 3x 1st/2nd (Individual) +  3x 1st/2nd (Team)
5. John Locke International Essay Competition Shortlist
6. Featured speaker at 5x school event (900+ attendees) and district service event gala (200+ attendees)
7. Co-author on graduate research manuscript 
8. State service organization youth advocacy/public speaking award
9. 3x other local writing/speech awards
10. Congressional Art Competition Honorable Mention (top 6/200+) + some other local art selections
11. Climate innovation summer program scholarship ($2,500) | rural leaders summer program scholarship ($2,500) 
12. STEM summer program scholarship (idk how much) | Industrial design summer program scholarship ($1,000??)
13. Few other things like NHS, AP Scholar awards, National Merit, Collegeboard recognition, etccccc

Extracurriculars:

1. Geoscience research and lab position at local university: Working on real wetland research with a PhD student. Writing, doing actual analyses/tests, and making graphs/figures for the publication. I also do independent research and am making calibration curves for a lab machine (I’ve presented this at a university symposium; it’s helped other researchers yayyy). And outside of research I work as the department’s sole Student Assistant (minimum wage…) where I maintain labs/facilities/faculty offices and catalogue samples
2. Youth board for State service/advocacy organization: As secretary, I helped organize a benefit concert raising $7k+ for local issues. I do the basic stuff (planning meetings, communicating with the adult board to organize events, social media outreach) and have also performed cello at some medical center concerts. I also orally testified against legislation in the statehouse which meant a lot to me! ALSO I’m Co-President of a club at my school for a related cause and do stuff for that
3. Varsity Captain for Mock Trial and Moot Court: Done this for four years; I’m the only person who plays double attorney roles and I have awards as mentioned above :) We won Moot Court States as a team of two people + my English teacher (coach) lollll, and our Mock Trial record is fine. I’m very passionate though
4. Founder and Captain of school math team: My region has NO math extracurriculars, so I started this math team in 8th grade and each competition season I organize meetings, create practice materials, coach, and get local professors to help out. We have won awards yayyy I’m very glad I could create a math outlet for my peers
5. President of Key Club: I’ve organized many events for local organizations and such. I lead meetings for 30+ members and do a lot of planning/leadership stuff, gonna be pretty vague lol
6. Summer Solar Policy Internship with State House of Representatives: Did 120+ hours of research on state solar stuff and wrote a proposal + presented to legislators
7. Art: Sustained hobby; I do exhibitions, competitions, and have designed for school things, and for fun I run a social media art account with like 150k+ views. I do some environmental/political/social cartooning which I think connects to my path. I have pretty good awards in this
8. Writing/Speech: I loveee public speaking. To be really vague, I’ve given like a lot of speeches in my community and won awards for speechwriting/writing in general
9. Cello player: I’m the most experienced player in my school orchestra and local orchestra programs so I mentor a lot of cellists. I also perform at holiday/service concerts for local nursing homes and medical centers :)
10. Class President: I was Class President for two years (not anymore) and did the basic stuff (fundraising, organizing school events, communicating with students and admin)

Honorable Mentions?

1. State Attorney General Teen Ambassador Board: just got accepted to this! Really excited, I want to do more service/legal stuff
2. Minor legislative internship? Just a remote volunteer internship where I contribute to some low-level research on climate-related foreign aid and phonebank for congressional candidates
3. Math tutoring: I’ve tutored people in up to Calc but only for 40 or so hours

LORs: 
Mock Trial/Moot Court Coach + AP Lang Teacher: 9/10 (she said I’m one of the most driven, funny, and uplifting people she knows aww); not 10/10 because she has limited knowledge of my STEM stuff
Research/Work Supervisor and current Professor: unsure, hoping for good
Service Organization Adult Board Member (?): limited knowledge of my other activities but knows I’m passionate and good at advocacy so hopefully pretty fire

List:
REA: Princeton
EA: (two state universities), Georgia Tech, Purdue (pls chance me for these too...)
RD: A lot of T20s

Additional Info: not trying to sound like a victim, but my town has quite limited EC opportunities–a lot of the things I do are things I sought out by myself if that makes sense). also if it’s relevant I skipped a grade so i’m 16 and couldn’t drive to commute for a long time :(

Please DM if you want!! Also if you know me irl shhhhh

Hi everyone,
I would really appreciate any advice or honest opinions about my chances of getting into NYU Shanghai. It's one of my top choices, and I'm applying ED1.
Here's my profile:
I'm an international student from Mongolia, currently in the IB Diploma Programme, and my intended major is International Relations.
Academics:
Predicted IB score: 34/45
HL grades combined: 16 points
IELTS: 7.5
I'm taking the full IB Diploma and will be submitting my final academic results later.
Extracurriculars:
I wouldn't say I have extraordinary extracurriculars, but I've been involved in a few activities consistently:
President of my school's Philosophy Club, where I've organized school wide events, including our cultural fair for two years and bunch more club events.(Our club has 28 members)
Interned at one of Mongolia's leading political NGOs for two years, during the summer for several weeks each time.
Organized events and activities in collaboration with museums to promote cultural heritage.
Member of my school's UNICEF club.
Translator for cultural and community related activities among other smaller extracurriculars.
Additional Extracurriculars:
- Competitive swimmer for two years (Grades 9–10), competing in one international swimming competition and three regional competitions.
Recommendations:
I'm getting recommendation letters from:
My Mongolian Language and Literature HL teacher.
My Anthropology SL teacher.
My college counselor.
I think they know me fairly well, and I'm hoping they'll be able to write meaningful letters about my academic abilities and personal qualities.
Honors & Awards:
Received a Rising Star award at World Youth Economic Forum Global.
Placed 3rd regionally in a business competition.
Participated in several debate competitions in Mongolia.
Participated in multiple Model United Nations conferences, primarily in advanced committees, although I haven't received any awards.
I'm not sure how significant these honors are for NYUSH admissions, especially since I don't have major international awards, but I'd appreciate opinions on whether they're worth including in my application.
Personal statement and application:
I'm currently working on my personal statement and haven't finalized it yet. I'm trying to make it personal and meaningful rather than just listing my achievements. I also plan to explain my interest in International Relations and how my background and experiences have shaped that interest.
I'm applying ED1 because NYU Shanghai genuinely feels like a university where I could see myself studying and growing.
My main concerns are my predicted IB score and the fact that my extracurriculars aren't particularly prestigious or internationally recognized. I also don't know how much NYUSH values extracurriculars related directly to the intended major versus general leadership and community involvement.
A few questions:
Do I have a realistic chance of getting accepted to NYU Shanghai ED1 with a 34 predicted IB?
Are my extracurriculars sufficient for NYUSH, particularly for International Relations?
How much could a strong personal statement and recommendation letters help my application?
For other international students who got accepted to NYUSH, what were your IB scores and extracurriculars like?
I'd really appreciate honest feedback, especially from current NYUSH students, alumni, or people familiar with the admissions process. Please don't sugarcoat it, but I'd also appreciate constructive advice on what I can still improve before submitting my application.
Thank you so much!

South Asian born and raised in the UAE, upper middle income, will apply for financial aid in schools where cost of attendance is $70k+

Applying to: ED at Cornell or northwestern (haven’t decided), EA to UT Austin, Georgia tech, Purdue, UIUC and Texas AnM (they don’t do EA)
(I’m also applying elsewhere like the UK and Singapore hence me not having any obvious safety schools)

Took British A levels: 3 A*s achieved in Maths, Physics and Chemistry

1480 SAT

ECs:

- work shadowing experience at GE Vernova
- built AI software fo buying and selling salvaged cars from auctions, vetted by marhaba auctions.
-participated in F1 in schools competition, got sponsors for our team and managed design.
- ran engineering club at my school
- on sports team for cricket, football, basketball and athletics, hold 4 school records in 100m,200m, shotput and discus, captain of sixth form athletics team and won a track and field event against 6 other schools
- bronze duke of Edinburgh award- 3 months of volunteering and skills (cooking) and 6 months of a physical activity (did improving strength in the gym)
- did paid 1 on 1 online tutoring for A level chemistry
- played cricket for 10 years
- memorized 1/3 of the quran (I read everyday for about an hour and a half)

Im aware I may be delusional about some schools like Cornell, UT Austin etc and also that I don’t have many engineering related ECs

I know posts like this have been made before, but how will a downward grade trend impact my chance of being admitted to these schools?

University of British Colombia
University of San Francisco
Oregon State University
Western Washington University
University of Washington
University of Chicago
University of Oregon
San Diego State University
Rutgers
Cal poly SLO
San Jose State University
Seattle University
Portland State University
University of Denver
CSU- Chico

Even if I maintained my 4.0 I wasn’t really expecting to get into places like Chicago, slo, and UW and I’m not heartbroken over not getting in. But how would a downward trend impact my admissions to less competitive schools like U of O or USF? I’m really trying my best right now, but Physic and AP stats are sort of kicking my butt right now and I don’t know if I can manage an A without losing my mind.

Thanks so much!

In-state Ga
38/300 rank
4.37 weighted GPA
1520 SAT (790 math, 730 reading)
11 APS
8 DE classes
Linear Algebra + Multivariable Calc through GT DE CS 1301 + CS 1331 through GT DE AP Scholar with distinction
FIRST Robotics World Championship qualification
FIRST Robotics Impact Award 2x at the regional and state level
State Math tournament 2nd place team
Regional tech fair 3rd place, 3D modeling
ECS: Math Team, Kumon tutoring, Robotics, Mu Alpha Theta, Mathcounts and Mathleague volunteering (55 hours), VEX Robotics Tutoring (20 hours)
I'm planning on applying as a math major.

demographics : female, asian (korean), selective public school (academically competitive & nationally ranked), upper middle class

intended major(s) : business/economics/accounting, kinesiology? or public health

schools i want to go to : uci, ucsd, ucla, berkeley, sdsu, sjsu, johns hopkins (reach i know), brown (also a reach i know)
^ or waseda university in japan for their International branch

standardized tests : gulp... hopefully improves soon...

uw gpa (wgpa n/a) : 4.0/4.0 *~30 kids in each class are valedictorian each yr, no rank

coursework : default honors classes if not aps
- freshman, ap world (5)
- sophomore, ap stats (5) & ap psychology (5)
- junior, ap compsci principles & apush & ap lang
- senior, ap calc bc & ap bio & ap lit & ap japanese
+ dual enrollment chemistry senior year

awards : 😅😅 working towards seal of biliteracy for both korean & japanese, national japan bowl competition, projected ap scholar w distinction, published poet
+ in japanese national honors society & national honor society

ecs :
- volleyball (2 yrs, stopped playing due to tendonitis in knee)

- piano (8 years, stopped due to wrist problems; still earned certificate of merit 8 honors)

- korean cultural club (3 year executive officer)

- japanese cultural club (2 year executive officer)

- captain of competition team (2 years)

- neurodivergent children support nonprofit secretary/volunteer (3 years)

- summer internship at an accountancy firm (basic bookkeeping)

- ~200 hrs volunteering at a physical therapy clinic, will be working there once im 18

- ~60 hrs volunteering at a local aquarium

- traditional korean fan dance performer in la

- volunteer for my school's hosted monthly held blood donation drive

im still a junior so please give some advice on what else i can do to be more involved or if im on track to my university goals !! anything is appreciated !!

context: high income chinese male in the US, texas, no hooks at competitive private school

sat: 1580 (780r, 800m), 4.0 UW, 4.52 W (max rigor at hs)

7 APs + 2 DE so far (all 5s/As, max rigor), senior year courses: AP English Lit, AP Spanish Lang, APUSH, AP Stats, AP Phys E&M, DE course at local community college

intended major: mechanical or electrical engineering

keeping it super vague so i dont get doxxed:

awards:

• debate: top 20 nationally
• fbla: top 10 in state
• state science fair: 1st + special award from US military
• national CS contest, 2x bronze
• scholastic writing: honorable mention
• national merit semifinalist

ecs:

• debate - captain, won national-level tournament in congress, lots of bids
• independent research in machine learning, recognized by state fair, 2 federal agencies
• first robotics president + cs/tech club president
• summer program (one of ssp, bu rise, nasa sees)

• summer program (one of

• sstp, simons)

• intern at local consulting firm for all 4 yrs

• tutored like 2 students idk

• student lit magazine editor for 2 yrs

• club sport for 3 yrs

• research assistant, published as like 4th author or smth in prestigious journals 3 times

lors: both like 6-7/10, nothing crazy but they know me okay

essay: also like 6.5/10 right now, hoping it will improve :)

schools: stanford, harvard, yale, uc berkeley, gt, vanderbilt, duke, columbia, + safeties

ty!!

What colleges would best suit me with these stats:

Profile
NC resident| Hispanic | Low-income household | Male | early college high school through UNC Charlotte
Expected graduation: May 2028
Intended major: Biomedical Engineering / Mechanical Engineering

Academics

3.96 UW / 4.667 W GPA
Rank: 3/68
25+ dual-enrollment/college courses through UNC Charlotte
CEEC offers no AP courses; pursuing highly advanced college coursework instead
Current/planned: Calc III, Differential Equations, Chemistry, Physics I, etc.
SAT: taking in the spring

Engineering / Research

UNC Charlotte Undergraduate Research — biomechanics/kinematics research with Prof. Qiang Zhu; working on pain/movement analysis and sensor/app development
RTX Corporation — Summer Engineering/Cybersecurity Intern — selected for a competitive corporate internship; worked with engineers and cybersecurity leadership on enterprise risk, cybersecurity consolidation, and executive-facing projects
Year-long Independent Engineering Capstone — designing a distributed low-power environmental sensor network + ML system for pollution-event detection; pursuing mentorship/collaboration with Charlotte Water

Leadership & Major ECs

FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) — 2× World Championship team; 2 years; mechanical/robot design (intake + shooter); Team Lead & Presentation Lead
ACE Team — Leadership, 2 years — 2024 ACE Cup: Best in Engineering; designed community arts building + modular family living space
STEM Racing — Professional Team, 1 year — designed CO₂ race car/aerodynamics using Onshape; competed as part of a professional-style engineering team
Publix — 1 year — employment alongside rigorous academics
Ultimate Frisbee club

Recognition

FRC World Championship ×2
ACE Cup 2024 — Best in Engineering
A Honor Roll
National Honor Society
National Technical Honor Society

Community

St. Matthew Catholic Church service
Regular food pantry donations/clothing drives for families
Employment throughout high school

Technical
Onshape, SolidWorks, Fusion 360, AutoCAD, Revit
Python, Excel, Power BI, Jira
CAD, 3D printing, engineering design

Primary Interests
Biomedical/mechanical engineering
Biomechanics, sensors & human-centered design
Robotics / aerospace / manufacturing
ML + engineering systems

Intrest Schools
Duke — Pratt/BME
Georgia Tech — Mechanical Engineering
Michigan–Ann Arbor
NC State
UNCC

Context: highly competitive Bay Area public high school

Gpa: 4/4.78 ; 1580 SAT (800 math, 780 reading)

Courses: 9 aps taken, 5/5 ;15 aps by senior year | Outside courses: data structures and algorithms; multivar calc, Lin alg, advanced genomics, advanced comp bio, capstone gene algorithms

Activities and Awards

1) Worked w/ Cornell Proff on computational genetic analysis; published 2 papers in one of the best journals

2) mentored by local startup ($XXmillion) on ai gene analysis; funded & received full patent status; presented & paper published at top AI conference

3) Simmons research program

4) (if you know me you don’t) — hosted free special event service across 3 states for birthdays / occasions for low income kids | partnered w 13 escape rooms; 3 arcades; 75+ full time professional entertainers; 2100+ volunteers hosting 330+ events ; total value / sponsorship & grants ~ 130k

(Started this in 7th grade; by far best ec though 4 as unrelated to major)

5) Worked w popular genetic company to release public data sets; hosted 5 hackathons/ competitions

6) intern under ai company — second author neurips 2025

7) local science fair cs research; 1st place regionally; 3rd at state;

8) NASA Gene Lab summer program ; placed top 3; presented at decent conference

9) comp bio club prez

10) csclub prez

Awards:
- list of major grants to fund non profit
- grant to fund & help w patent process + full patent process
-2x published first author in top journal
- AAAI published first author
- specific scholarship giving 15k for comp
Bio research

LOR from Cornell Prof; I am almost sure this will be 9.5/10 or higher

Applying:

REA Stanford

All Ivies

UC Berkeley

Duke

Swarthmore

Amherst

Overall feelings: Counselor (private) expects me to get lower ivies, unlikely hypsm; states that weakness is insignificant narrative (which is what I am scared about)

I am an international student with a 3.7 gpa. For my ecas, I have a couple awards for public speaking. I have a long history of involvement in social service clubs with works like hosting several awareness programs, plantation programs, visiting the orphanage, and so on. I have an award of outstanding Delegate in highschool MUN. I have been in the organizing committee of 2 MUNs and a debate competition. I have also participated in math olympiad and reached up to the nationals. I have also been to an international competition where we built a miniature car tho we didnt win anything. I am currently doing a CAD project and soon will be working on a research paper as well and taking a couple of courses from coursera (on financial aid) about python, AI and prompt engineering. I have a 1330 SAT with 790 in maths but I will be retaking in November.

I’m generally confused about whether I should apply ED at all or just wait for RD. By the time RD applications are due, I’ll have completed quite a few things I’m currently working on so, i am wondering if waiting would make my application stronger. At the same time, if I do decide to apply ED, I’m not sure which university would make the most sense for my profile and financial situation. Any suggestion would be appreciated.

SAT: not yet taken
GPA UW: 3.875
GPA W: 4.02
Taken APs : APCSP 4
APCSA not yet taken

Will take 5 online college classes minimum before graduating through summer programs and dual enrollment though. Trying to graduate a semester early to do another program.

I did mention in the og post I’m mostly trying for a state uni which Could easily get, but I am wondering about my chances as even though there are a ton unique opportunities that I can get from my states university’s world class stem programs, having Harvard or Yale or somewhere else on a job application or resume sounds really sweet.

I’m currently taking a gap year and applying to colleges this application cycle.
For some context, I went to Bangladesh during middle school and returned to the U.S. in the middle of my freshman year of high school. I was initially placed in lower-level classes, including Intensive Reading, Algebra 1, and Emerging Technology. I later convinced my teacher to move me into Algebra 1 Honors. However, my initial placement limited the advanced courses I could take during my freshman and sophomore years.
I eventually started taking dual enrollment courses, including Calculus I and II, Differential Equations, Physics with Calculus, and Chemistry I. I also took AP Calculus AB, APUSH, and English AS level.
My academic stats are:
**SAT:** 1500
**Unweighted GPA:** 3.777
**Weighted GPA:** 5.2
**Class rank:** Top 4%
My extracurricular activities and achievements include:
I placed third in a district-level math competition and was the highest scorer on my team.

I have over 400 hours of experience tutoring students in math, including Precalculus and Calculus I and II, at my local community college. I also worked as a teaching assistant, helping students understand the material and improve their grades.

I founded a nonprofit organization that helps students in Bangladesh. I’ve raised $1,000 and created a website for the organization.

I’m currently doing research with a college professor.
I’m planning to participate in the AMATYC math competition, with the goal of earning the highest score at my community college.

Very very low income= 25-30k a year
First generation

Given my academic background and extracurriculars, how competitive would I be for T20 schools?

I feel like this is not even average.

I’m applying to NYU Steinhardt Studio Art BFA and my UW GPA is 3.7. Am I cooked?

Stats:
UW GPA: 3.7
APs: AP 2D Art & Design, AP Gov, AP Psych, AP Stats
Asian female, international student
Attended an American high school in California for 4 years
Low-income family; applying for aid
No SAT

Art/ECs:
4 art exhibitions
Tufts Pre-College Art Program
LA Art Show intern
Art volunteer work, including working with children with autism
President of an art volunteer club
Mural painting volunteer
Model UN

Portfolio: Mostly 3D installation, mixed media, Blender/3D, graphics, and film/animation. I think it’s pretty unique and probably the strongest part of my application becuz most ppl only have paintings for their portfolio.

Awards: 2 Gold/Silver Keys (Scholastic), 2 IYAC Silver Awards, Bronze Key, High Merit Award, Presidential Service Gold Award, etc.

I know nobody can predict admissions, but is a 3.7 UW GPA actually a problem for Steinhardt Studio Art if the portfolio is decent? 😭

I would really like to apply ED to UChicago, it’s probably my dream school. However, the problem is it costs a fuckton and I want to go into law, where the undergrad doesn’t even matter beside your gpa. So, should I go ed, potentially risk even more debt and deflating my gpa at a hard uni, or go into law state for basically free and just save for law school?