Whiteboy gets rejected by UMich LSA EA
Demographics: Male, white, Bay Area, extremely competitive public school, very high income.
Hooks: First-gen, single parent.
Intended Major(s): Statistics/Applied Math/Math
ACT/SAT/SAT II: 1590 (790 Math/800 EBRW)
UW/W GPA and Rank: 3.86 UW, 4.41 W. Due to undiagnosed and unmedicated ADHD, I had bad grades in 1 semester of sophomore year. I have otherwise gotten all A's (and 1 A-). 17/401 rank.
Coursework: LinAlg, DiffEq, Discrete Math, Abstract Algebra, Probability Theory, Mathematical Statistics, Linear Modelling, Operations Research, Introduction to Analysis 1/2, Numerical Analysis, Complex Analysis, and Logic. This semester, I am taking Operations Research 2, Numerical Analysis 2, Probability in Computer Science, and Mathematics of Physics.
And 16 AP's on top of that.
Awards:
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Principal's Award. This is an award given to one senior each year who best demonstrates the school's values of Compassion, Curiosity, and Academic Excellence. This award is a big deal at my school and everyone who's received this award in the past 8 years has gotten into an HYPSM.
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AIME qualifier 3x
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Won a non-fiction writing contest hosted by my school newspaper
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Academic high honors award.
Extracurriculars:
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Math Research for 3 years. 2nd author on 3 math papers published in good-quality journals. This was real research, not like the fake stuff that happens a lot.
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President of school's math club for 2 years. Organized weekly meetings, grew club from 40 to 101 members in 2 years. Brought in 2 professors and 5 PhD students to speak to the math club about their research over 2 years.
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Taught math to underprivileged kids through a non-profit.
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Electronic music producer. One song I made received 135k views across all platforms, and I have 310k across all platforms in total.
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Self-studying mathematics.
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Math team for 4 years.
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Debate team for 2 years.
Essays/LORs/Other:
Essays were reviewed/edited by an external college counselor who has gotten many kids into Ivies. She said that my essays were Ivy-level.
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LOR 1 (Math Professor I Did Research under): I read this letter and he basically says that I am genius. My college counselor said it's one of the best letters she's ever seen.
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LOR 2 (Math Club Advisor): She chose me to be the math club advisor over 11 other candidates, so she must like me.
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LOR 3 (AP Lit Teacher): I did not know her well, but I had the highest grade of anyone in the class.
Schools:
MIT (EA) -> rejected
UChicago (EA) -> deferred -> (ED2) -> rejected
UMich (EA) -> rejected
Northeastern (EA) -> deferred -> ???
USC (EA) -> accepted
UC's (RD)
NYU (RD)
CMU (RD)
Princeton (RD)
UPenn (RD)
Yale (RD)
Northwestern (RD)
Caltech (RD)
Stanford (RD)
Harvard (RD)
Notre Dame (RD)
UVA (RD)
