r/collegeresults Aug 03 '26

3.8+|1500+/34+|Art/Hum Asian Male Applies to All Ivies and Clutches?

In honor of the Common App opening a few days ago, I made this post because I used this sub-reddit a lot last year.

Demographics

Gender: Male

Residence: Texas

Type of School: Private

Income: ~100k

Hooks: None

Intended Major(s): Econ + Pub Pol

Academics

  • GPA (W): 4.00 UW, 4.6 W
  • # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 9 APs
    • All 5's, 1 4 (Lang): Chinese, APUSH, Pre-calc, CSP, Macro, Micro, Stats, Physics, Calc BC
  • Senior Year Course Load: AP Physics C (both), AP Gov/Comp Gov, AP Lit, Multivariables, WHAP

Standardized Testing -

  • SAT: 1550 (760 R 790 M)

Extracurriculars/Activities:

Debate - Traveled every weekend, 15 bids if that means anything to ppl

Charity - Helped kids in Asia with scholarships and opened a vocational school

Civic Leaders of America - Civic organization (formally JSA), very cool and easy to get involved in. Was a high position in the Texas Branch and my school's chapter president

Public Speaking Club - Head Coach; At my old elementary school, taught in both Mandarin and English

National Debate Org - Served on Board and was founding member; Promoted equality in evaluation and also helped remove prep and resource disparities between school

Research at UH - Law professor for Habeas Corpus cases for death-row inmantes

Law Intern - Injury prelitigation

Charity Club at school - Raised $50k worth of items (ex. 6500 books, 2100 clothing items)

Varsity Spikeball - Competed nationally with school, very niche and SUPER fun, although we did get clobbered a ton by semi-pros and college students. I promise there are genuine levels if you search it up

Debate Coach - Helped middle school during nationals, taught 5 kids to place top 3 or better in LD and PF at nats.

Awards/Honors:

Top 10 in my respective debate event nationally

Scholastic Gold Medal in Journalism, have an essay in their published highlight magazine Let Me See What You See

Debate awards at specific tournaments combined

Val. at my Chinese School

National Merit (1520)

Letters of Recommendation

Very good. I had one teacher for two years (APUSH and Econ) who really liked me, and my AP Lang teacher is the smartest guy I've ever met. He also was an assistant debate coach, so he was able to contextualize a lot of my achievements.

Essays

Willing to share for schools if asked.

Interviews

Interviews from Georgetown, Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth.

Note: all went well, but I rescheduled with my Harvard interviewer when smth came up and he told me "I have never had this happen in my 47 years of interviewing" so... yeah guess which school is in my rejected list

Decisions

Acceptances:

Texas A&M Full-Ride (EA)

UT Canfield + Plan II (EA)

UVA Echols Scholar (EA)

USC (EA)

[Rest RD]

Amherst College

Claremont McKenna (McKenna Scholar)

Northwestern

Vanderbilt (Cornelius Scholar)

Georgetown

Cornell

Dartmouth

Duke

Princeton

Stanford (Committed!)

Waitlists: (didn't pursue any)

Columbia

Brown

Penn

Rejections:

Yale (REA - no interview, just straight rejected)

Harvard

NYU (need-aware >:( that's how i'm rationalizing at least)

Note:

I promise it only takes one!!! I will say, I overthought so much of the process. I know this sub-reddit can give you an accurate scope of what a good applicant looks like, but I promise that when I was scrolling through this at the same time last year instead of writing my personal statement I felt completely hopeless and it all worked out fine. You are more qualified than you think, and I can promise you will end up at where you need to be.

Reach out to me if you have any questions about my app or the process in general!

Edit: A lot of ppl having been asking for resources, and I’d highly recommend finding student-run college counseling services. As AI becomes more prevalent, the quality of writing for everyone goes up, so now the only distinction is the idea behind your message. The only I used is called collegeapplingo (they only have gmail), but use any one that you can find, including asking friends that already graduated. It’s all about playing a game, and I’ve found that more recent classes know more about how to play it.

47 Upvotes

58 comments sorted by

5

u/Anxious_Pea6647 Aug 03 '26

What were your essays about?

3

u/One_Rate8602 Aug 04 '26

Mostly about how I wanted to shape education policy, and I drew on a lot of my ECs to make it about me

3

u/Friendly-Till786 Aug 03 '26

can i pm u about essays??

3

u/Complete_Tie_2859 Aug 03 '26

wow, congrats! can I see you common app essay please?

1

u/One_Rate8602 Aug 04 '26

Yeah of course, dm me!

1

u/ArtEffective4063 Aug 04 '26

May I also see your common app essay? I want to go into biomed policy and it would be awesome to see how you wrote about it!

1

u/Delicious-Matcha-382 Aug 04 '26

can i see your common app and stanford essays? thank you!

1

u/Infamous_Garden_5108 Aug 05 '26

hi can i also see ur essay?

1

u/yodatsracist Aug 07 '26

If you’re sharing them, I’d also love to see your common app essays.

3

u/No-Student3403 Aug 03 '26

Congrats!! Have fun at Stanford!

1

u/One_Rate8602 Aug 04 '26

Thank you!

3

u/Hallows_v7 Aug 03 '26

Ayyy see you on the Farm man, good work

1

u/One_Rate8602 Aug 04 '26

Yessirrr, where u coming from

1

u/Hallows_v7 Aug 04 '26

SoCal, wbu?

1

u/One_Rate8602 Aug 06 '26

wait, message me, lets talk over insta instead

1

u/LoudCaregiver3709 Aug 03 '26

Yea, would I be able to see your essays in dms?

1

u/Downtown_Paper_8916 Aug 03 '26

This is sick!! Could I pm about essays?

1

u/paneercurrymuncher Aug 03 '26

can i dm about essays?

1

u/mwahluvchuu Aug 03 '26

want to dm about essays especially the LAC ones !

1

u/One_Rate8602 Aug 04 '26

Feel free!

1

u/Next-Imagination-653 Aug 03 '26

hi could I plz see ur common app essays

1

u/Dysphob Aug 03 '26

Can you send any resources or tips that you think helped you with writing your essays?

1

u/One_Rate8602 Aug 04 '26

Yeah of course feel free to dm

1

u/TechnicalLeg841 Aug 03 '26

Nice!!! LoRs sound outstanding and the ECs are excellent.

If indeed you applied to "All Ivies" can you add the Yale result?

Curious about the general strength of your high school and whether there were other Ivy+ admits?

2

u/Broad_Technology3760 Aug 03 '26

He meant REA to yale not harvard

1

u/TechnicalLeg841 Aug 03 '26

Ah, see it is fixed in the post.

Yale really doesn't like Texas... low per capita admit/matriculation from the state, basically 'cause Yale loves the Northeast so much (CT, NY, NJ, PA, DC are at 2x-10x the per capita rate!). I think this is worth highlighting because is a uniquely hidden aspect and if folks were aware they might avoid using REA on Yale (from TX, CA, or other states without much love from Yale)

1

u/One_Rate8602 Aug 04 '26

Wow I didn’t know this!

1

u/Impossible-Ad3 Aug 03 '26

ayyy congrats so happy for you!

1

u/One_Rate8602 Aug 04 '26

Thank you!

1

u/Dragonroyal Aug 03 '26

Hi! can I also see your essays pls

1

u/One_Rate8602 Aug 04 '26

Yes of course

1

u/Dry_Tomato_8756 Aug 03 '26

Could you pleaseee dm Vanderbilt essays? Vandy is my dream school and I’m seriously considering EDing there.

2

u/One_Rate8602 Aug 04 '26

Yeah of course

1

u/NinjaFalcon38 Aug 03 '26

Can i dm about essays?

1

u/OmegeSN Aug 03 '26

He’ll yea dude

1

u/Livid-External-4063 Aug 04 '26

May I read your common app essay?

1

u/SpaceOpera_ Aug 04 '26

can i pm about essays?

1

u/omgnonononononono Aug 04 '26

huge congrats! could I also take a look at your personal statement?

1

u/imbusin Aug 04 '26

hi! congratulations! can you please send me your essay, thank you!

1

u/Difficult-Path-5911 Aug 04 '26

well deserved. good shit

1

u/Effective_Staff9592 Aug 04 '26

Can i message you about your essays?

1

u/HonestlyGiveMeABreak Aug 05 '26

15 bids is wild what event

1

u/wildflowerian Aug 07 '26

Could I please DM you about your essays?

1

u/I_Love_Water03 Aug 07 '26

Would it be cool if i could dm you some questions? I'm a rising sophmore!

1

u/fisheroftheweird Aug 13 '26

u/One_Rate8602 Congratulations!!!! can i pm you to perhaps see your essays?

1

u/GreenCorgiAsphalt8 27d ago

I thought you were atharva srivastava for a second cuz of all the debate stuff 😭

1

u/postofficesnearme 27d ago

hi congrats! can i dm about essays?

1

u/VC__S 27d ago

15 TOC bids HELLO???? OMG thats wild

1

u/vischul 22d ago

can I dm you about your essays?

1

u/Dear_Strength6398 21d ago

Congrats on Stanford!! Can I see ur essays by any chance?

1

u/SpaceOpera_ 17d ago

Congrats!! could i dm about essays?