Carleton College: Fill & Download for Free

I applied in the year of 2017. I applied to 21 schools, and was admitted by 5 of them.Admitted: USC, UVA, UCSD, UNC Chapel Hill, Univ of RochesterWaitlisted then rejected: UCLA, UIUC, Carleton CollegeRejected: HMC (ED1), Swarthmore, CMU, MIT, Caltech, Rice, JHU, Duke, Tufts, UCB, UPenn, Cornell, Brown, ColumbiaHere are some stats about me:International student from China, went to an IB high school in ShanghaiApplied to CS major or BiocomputationDidn’t apply any financial aidIB score: 44/45 (earned IB diploma, lost one point due to my Extended Essay)Old SAT: 2270 (780 Math, 720 Reading, 770 Writing. I still remember that I missed “2-digit number” in the last question of math section…)SAT Subject: 800 Math, 800 Physics, 800 Chemistry, 790 BiologyAP: Computer Science (5), Biology (4) (AP were just taken for fun. I spent no more than a week on them)EC: ESAP@UPenn, CMU Pre-College Game Academy in summer, HiMCM Meritorious, AMC, AIME, Lead of programming club in school, member of acapella club in school, volunteer with Raleigh China, took various CS online courses, etc.The result didn’t meet my expectation at that time. I guess it was because my EC did not really stand out. I didn’t devote much effort into it so cannot complain anything about it. I finally chose USC over UVA because there are many more career opportunities here in California. But I’m not really satisfied and want to get enrolled in a more competitive CS program. I failed in transfer application to Stanford, and I’m still waiting for my result of UCB transfer which will be released in a week.Update:Turns out that I was rejected by UCB earlier today. I have a 3.98 GPA at USC. Maybe it’s because of my EC again? I didn’t participate in any club because I was rejected by those I like (like the AI club or mobile app develop club). I did have a summer intern at Siemens PLM though and I’m heading to Amazon SDE Intern this summer. The result doesn’t define who I am, but I am just a little bit disappointed in myself…

I applied to 22 colleges. It cost me a grand total of $140, which is about as much as it costs most people to apply to 3 colleges.Note – these are only the colleges I applied to with the Common App. I applied to 6 more outside the common app.Why did I do this? Because no matter how much you know about a certain college or how much you want to go there, there’s always a better opportunity that you don’t know about. I wanted to get into as many as possible. Of all of these colleges, I received acceptance letters from 18. I was denied to UCo Boulder, BYU, and Carleton. I received hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of scholarship offers. I was able to look at all these offers to get the best one possible.How did I do this? Well, most of these colleges have free applications. I just researched which colleges have free apps, and then applied to tons of those. For the rest of them, I simply applied for a fee waiver. My dad was unemployed when I applied to college, so it was easy to get. I only had to pay for my $80 application to Dartmouth and my $60 application to University of Utah. And it didn’t take me long, as I would either use the common app or just paste over my essays into different applications.Do I recommend it? Yeah. Except don’t go as crazy as I did. Cut down the number of colleges to about 10–15. It’s much more manageable. Also, it does cost some money to send ACT scores if they require that. Also, I didn’t really even consider going to some of these colleges, so applying was a waste of time. Only apply to 3–6 colleges with paid applications. Then get a waiver or apply to free colleges.It’s not crazy to apply to only 3 colleges. But it is narrow-minded. You should consider all the potential options. Deciding not to apply to these colleges is a massive loss of opportunity. Apply to all the universities you’ve ever seriously considered going to. (As long as the app fee doesn’t break the bank). This allows you to choose the best financial aid, academics, and environment out of the offers you’re given.

I feel that I am uniquely qualified to answer your question, because I too am American, and have recently received an offer to study at LSE.In the first place, you must attain 5’s on AP tests. LSE requires 5 AP tests at grade 5 as a minimum. It is best that you take as many as you can possibly handle this May, so that you can get close to an unconditional offer. Take a broad range of subjects. My junior year, I took World History, Psychology, and English Language, earning 5’s in all three. This year, I will need two more 5’s to solidify my offer: I am taking Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, English Literature, World Geography, and Calculus BC. Note that I did not take a single foreign language or natural science. Depending on the degree to which you apply, this will not matter. But the Calculus qualification is very important — especially if you are applying to Economics or any other quantitative degree.The Personal Statement is absolutely crucial — and must be academically oriented. I devoted 70% of my statement to my academic interests — books I have read and analysis of them, essays I have written for the IB diploma programme, etc — 25% to how I intended to make use of a degree, and 5% to other pursuits. LSE publishes a guide on what they look for in a personal statement. The Personal Statement is what earned me an offer: I guarantee it. I worked about twice as hard on it as I did on my Common App essay, to give you an idea.The UK, and LSE (with Oxbridge) especially, only cares about your demonstrated academic ability and passion. I rank outside the top 10% of my high school class — yet I have read extensively in the fields of my interest. I was waitlisted at Wake Forest, Carleton College, and Villanova, but I earned at offer at LSE. LSE does not look at your high school transcript, nor your volunteering, nor your ACT/SAT: they care about AP (or IB) tests, your personal statement, and your reference. If you work really hard this next year, if you read at least 20 books over the summer in your field of interest, if you develop concise and clear writing, and if you put at least 40 hours into your personal statement, you stand a good chance.