Discussion

Demographics: - Male, Hispanic - Texas, public school - First-gen, low-income - No major hooks Academics: - GPA: 3.82 UW / 4.3 W - SAT: 1410 - 8 APs (mostly 4s, two 3s) - AP Scholar ECs: - Retail job, junior and senior year, 20+ hours/week - Volunteer tutor at local community center, 150+ hours - Science club officer - Debate team, made district - Hospital volunteer, 100+ hours Awards: - School leadership award - Community service recognition Acceptances: - Rice University (merit scholarship) - Vanderbilt - UT Austin (Plan II Honors) - Texas Tech (full ride) - SMU Rejections: - UT Austin McCombs Going to: Rice, pre-med track Reflection: Essays honestly carried me. My stats aren't crazy but my counselor and teachers wrote about the work ethic and what first-gen meant for me. Rice felt right the second I visited. Plan II was tempting but pre-med at Rice just made more sense. Working through high school meant I couldn't do research or fancy ECs, but I think admissions saw that I was doing what I had to do. Excited to be a Owl.

Academics: - GPA: 4.0 UW / 4.6 W - SAT: 1560 - Rank: 6/450 - 11 APs so far, mostly 5s ECs: - USACO Gold (been grinding for Plat) - Founded women-in-tech club junior year, 40+ members, ran a hackathon with 100 attendees - 3 years tutoring middle schoolers in math, 4 hrs/wk - AMC 12 honor roll twice - varsity tennis since sophomore year Schools I'm looking at: MIT, Stanford, CMU SCS, Berkeley, GTech, Michigan, Cornell so like, I know the reach schools are a reach, but I'm lowkey anxious that my ECs don't stand out enough for CS specifically because hackathons and coding clubs feel kind of generic at this point and I don't have like a published research paper or a startup or anything that's actually impressive and I'm wondering if I should even bother with HYPSM or if I'm just setting myself up to get rejected and should focus more on matches instead, but also I feel like I should at least try because my stats are decent and the women-in-tech angle is something. am I being realistic or am I cooked 😭

okay so i'm a junior at a magnet school in nj, cs-intended, pretty solid stats (usaco gold, amc 12 honor roll, founded women-in-tech club). full pay which i know helps but also means no hooks. my list is mostly t20 cs programs, cmu, mit, stanford, berkeley, georgia tech. the thing is i'm starting my common app essays and i'm realizing like... a lot of cs applicants probably say the same stuff about loving to code and wanting to solve problems. i've been coding since middle school, have some projects, but nothing that feels like a crazy research paper or viral thing. and my why-school essays are gonna be hard because everyone applying to these places probably has the same reasons. lowkey spiraling because i feel like my ecs are solid (club founding, usaco, amc) but they're not like... rare or unexpected for someone applying to mit or cmu, and i'm worried the essays are gonna be where i either stand out or just blend in with 50,000 other stem kids who did the exact same stuff. how do people actually differentiate themselves in essays when your whole app is just "i like cs"? am i overthinking this or should i be panicking 😭

so im a junior at a bay area magnet school, math track, aime qualifier. been trying to get into research since sophomore year but kept getting rejected or ghosted. decided to actually cold email this summer instead of waiting for school connections. sent 15 emails to professors at nearby r1 schools. specific, personalized, mentioned papers ive read, asked about summer availability. one replied and said maybe in fall when a grad student leaves. the other 14 nothing. is that just how it goes or should i expect better hit rate. also wondering if i should try different schools or just wait to hear back from the one professor. tbh the whole thing feels kind of random but i know people who got into mit primes and rsi so clearly some people are getting research early. should i keep cold emailing or is there a better approach at this point in the summer.

Demographics: - Black female - Illinois - top private prep school - upper-middle income - first-gen college (mom has associate's) Academics: - GPA: 3.98 UW / 4.7 W - SAT: 1560 - 15 APs (all 4s and 5s except one 3 freshman year) - Taking AP Calc BC, AP Econ, AP Comp Gov senior year ECs: - Varsity track captain, state finalist 4x4 relay - DECA international competitor, qualified twice (made top 50 nationals both years) - Investment club co-founder and president - Paid internship at commercial real estate firm (finance analysis) - 100+ volunteer hours at local food bank Awards: - All-State track (sophomore, junior, senior) - DECA nationals top 10 (business strategy) - AP Scholar with Distinction Acceptances: - Wharton ED1 - Stern - Ross - McIntire - Marshall Going to: Wharton, finance concentration, targeting Goldman HCM or McKinsey BA Reflection: the investment club and the internship report in my essays were what made the difference i think. essays and ECs that actually prove you care about the field matter way more than padding. also being captain of something real helped. Wharton's the move for recruiting but i'm not sleeping on the work ethic piece either.

Demographics: - Black female - Senior, Illinois - Top private prep school - Middle to upper-middle income - First-gen adjacent (parent in tech, not finance) Academics: - GPA: 3.98 UW / 4.7 W - SAT: 1550 - 14 APs (all 4s and 5s, mostly STEM and econ track) - Econ honors, calc BC, stats all senior year ECs: - Varsity track captain, state finalist 4x4 relay - DECA international qualifier 2x, nationals top 10 in business strategy - Summer internship at regional PE firm (sophomore/junior) - Volunteer financial literacy tutor, low-income HS students, 120+ hours - School finance club founder and president Awards: - All-state track (junior and senior) - DECA All-American (national qualifier recognition) - AP Scholar with Distinction - School leadership award Acceptances: - Wharton (ED) - Stern (RD, withdrew) - Ross (RD, withdrew) - McIntire (RD, withdrew) - Marshall (RD, withdrew) Going to: Wharton, targeting Goldman Sachs HCM or McKinsey BA program Reflection: The PE internship and DECA wins were the real difference. essays were strong but generic prestige-chaser energy without the finance depth. having something concrete to talk about (portfolio analysis, pitch work) made the 'why Wharton' land different. track helped but didn't carry anything. targeting HCM or BA program freshman year, so choosing classes and recruiting timeline now.

so i'm stuck between two essay directions and neither feels quite right. one is about my sophomore year when i was injured mid-season and had to come back as captain junior year, which is the obvious adversity story. the other is about the actual competing part, like the mental side of being in the last 200m and knowing exactly what you need to do, and how that translates to how i approach decisions (which is where the finance thing comes from, i think). the problem is the injury story feels like it's been done to death and my counselor keeps saying "colleges want to see what you've overcome" but the competing essay feels more genuine. like i'm not trying to sound humble but i didn't really struggle with the injury, i just came back and ran faster. it wasn't some transformative moment. the competing essay is also shorter and tighter right now but it feels risky because it's not explicitly about hardship. should i force the adversity angle or trust the competing one. also if i go with competing do i need to address the injury thing somewhere else (supplementals maybe).