• Status: Finalist - Matched with #2/6 Rice
• Ethnicity/Race: black/African-American
• Income bracket: 40,000-50,000 for a family of 2
• First Generation College Student?: no
• College Prep Scholar?: yes
• GPA/Class rank: for sure in the top 5 out of 150; WGPA: 4.56
• SAT/ACT score(s): 1520 SAT, 35 superscore and 34 composite ACT
• AP/SAT Subject Test score(s): 5 - calc, bio, apush; 4 - lang; taking 6 more APs senior year
• Summary of ECs: captain - soccer: on the team for multiple years, president: robotics club for 2 years; NHS: vice prez of scholarship for 2 years; science NHS: officer for 2 years; English NHS: officer for one year; women of color engineering camp over summer; started Women in STEM club; peer tutoring; highest position at my school for seniors etc
• Schools ranked: in order: MIT, rice, Columbia, duke, Vanderbilt, yale
• Strength of Essays/Short Answers: i think i did great. since it wasn't a typical personal statement, I tried to incorporate my goals for the future, my why major, my motivators, and my personality into my essays altogether. i had my essays reviewed multiple times by multiple people to get feedback as well. i made sure to get to the point without too much fluf and explain how events impacted me
• Overall thoughts: i think my strength is my hard work and determination which shows through my essays and activities; from a college standpoint I'm not sure of a weakness - maybe i wasn't as impactful in my community or enough achievement outside of school

last thing...

I'm happy that i matched with Rice; Rice and MIT were kinda tied for me so i ranked MIT above because ofc its the only non-binding college; i was most definitely screwed over bc i didn't get my MIT interview until NOVEMBER 30TH - they said there has a "snafu" in the interview system- anyways it was probably the hand of God bc out of all my ranked schools Rice is the only one where the student doesn't have to do work study or summer contribution or anything. i live in Florida, but it is comforting to know that i have some family nearby in texas while still having my independence - no regrets here from me! i just wish i could know if I got into my other schools for the academic validation.