Letter Of Household Contribution: Fill & Download for Free

Ivy League schools, along with Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, Chicago, GW, Johns Hopkins, and the many elite colleges and universities receive 15-20 applications for each freshman class position → that means only 5–8% of academically qualified applicants receive letters of admission.Now, someone with valedictorian level achievements knows (or at least should know) that an SAT1480 is a very high result, 98th percentile (average is 1055). While acceptance rates for perfect SATs are significantly higher (40% acceptance), even those with perfect SATs are not accepted 60% of the time. Between 1450→1590, there is practically no difference in acceptance rates.The reason I chide you regarding labeling a high SAT as “average”, is that that demonstrates frustration, humble/brag, and ignorance — not a great testimonial about you. And those are the judgments admissions officers look at when applicants all have comparable GPAs, test results and extracurriculars/volunteering. Like you, every qualified applicant is promoting their extras too.Admissions officers are looking for two important assessments over-and-above grades/scores/extra: 1) likelihood of completing a degree; and, 2) how individual contributes to the academic body.In your admissions essay, address dedication to education and extras. What makes you special, particularly when you consider that each of your fellow applicants believes they too are the special one. What adversaries did you face? What were your failures? And, how did you learn from failure to gain?Remember, fellow applicants will include kids who lost [a] parent(s) very young and some while in high school. Some kids had to raise younger siblings; some work outside jobs; some are homeless; some care for grandparents. [When I wrote my essay, now 40 years ago, I included household duties I took over because my mom entered college, and, about weekly household cleaning and shopping for my grandmother.]Also, include what special talent(s) or knowledge you have — some applicants will be concert-level (or near) musicians, some dancers, some chess and bridge, some sports. [I included my interests in bridge (had a few master points), cooking and baking (wrote how I learned from the knee with my grandmother and mother), and travel (had been to every state, Mexico and Canada).]What to do? Charm them with your essay → that is the only printout that differentiates you from all the other applicants.

I'd like to think myself as an embodiment of holistic review actually being executed at USC.I don't think there was no way that I would've gotten in with a 4.12 GPA, for Engineering, whilst stealing someone's spot who probably had a 4.3+ GPA or a higher SAT/ACT score. But it comes to show that holistic review actually does actually exist and it does matter for students; students like me.I want to share some insight on how I might've gotten in based on holistic review and how my grades and test scores might've been overlooked. I don't want to go into details on academics like GPA and test scores because those are given ones, but rather I want to show why I might have gotten in in spite of my lower GPA and test scores.1. Excel on the Common App essayDo everything in your power to polish your common app essay as much as possible. That includes revising, lots of editing, and even scrolling through various revisions or versions of your essays.For the common app essay, I'd like to believe that the more personal your story is, the better you can articulate it. That's the case with my common app essay. I made it as personal as personal can get; suicide. I talked about how I almost executed my own suicide because of the stereotypical connotation that's associated with being Autistic, and how that gradually developed severe depression. After writing about my suicide, I talked about the lesson that I learned from it, and how I grew from that adversity. I then talked about wanting to help others that might be dealing through the same adversities as me, so I created a Autism awareness club to insitiute inclusion at our school.I believe that the synopsis of my aforementioned common app essay demonstrates two important things:1. I talked about something extremely intimate, yet unique; Admissions officers most likely get essays ranging from sports, to leading a club/organization, so when you talk about something unique like suicide, it definitely hooks the readers as it's a appreciated change.2. It shows maturity and growth from prior adversities; Talking about my suicide experience is meaningless without learning from it. Well I did. The lesson I wrote was “Rather than letting myself be under thumbs by society, I should just let others say what they need to say about me to fuel my flame.” I believe that lesson on it's own would've been sufficient enough, but I took it a step further. I talked about creating my own club to gradually end the very thing that was going to end my life. I think demonstrating a huge accomplishment like that definitely demonstrates maturity, and to a large extent.2. Don't take it easy on the USC-catered questionsJust because you wrote one fantastic common app essay, doesn't mean you don't have to spend as much time on the USC-catered ones. Truth be told, I sort of spent an entire day on them, on the 14th of January, one day before the application was due, but I still believe that what I wrote captured the picutre of what I want to pursue in life.The way I like to tackle the why school and why major essays for any school question was thinking of it as a life roadmap. I'd like to envision myself unrolling a roadmap, with a road, but nothing on it. It was my job to clearly fill in all the steps, and the direction you had to take to go from point A to point B. That's exactly what I did with the USC essays.There were three questions that more or less, had to do with the past, present, and future of my career aspirations.So basically, I talked about what commenced my aspiration for Computer Science and Engineering in the first place; it was basically how I asked my mother how our technology such as the home desktop worked when I was smaller and she would always say “I don't know,” causing me to explore my own questions to establish my own answers.I then referred to what I was going to do now to continue my career aspiration. I referenced specific departments, specific resources, specific professors even that would've all contributed towards the growth of my career aspiration, all which underlie the question of what I will do in my present time.Shifting over to the future, I then talked about where this long roadmap, filled to them brim with twists and turn, would eventually lead to. I wasn't shy to talk about various plans for the future, such as either establishing my own start-up at Slicion Valley or working at a technology firm that pioneers in innovating technology.3. Get glowing letters of recommendation“Student X is a great student.” “Student X is a hard-worker.” Ya, we'd all heard of these letters of recommendation, and to be honest, aren't sufficient enough and won't add depth to you as a applicant. Obviously you're a hard working student, that's why you applied to USC. This is why you want to be as strategic as you can when getting your letters of recommendation. You'd want to choose teachers and counselors that know you for not only your stellar academics, but for your extracurriculars as well, and maybe even in a more personal level. Something to note is that USC only requires one letter of recommendation from a counselor, and two letters of recommendation from teachers are optional, but you'd definitely need to get those if you're serious about attending.I'd like to believe that I chose the right teachers for my letter of recommendation. They both knew me as a student who was hard-working and intelligent, but it went beyond that. They saw as a leader, a captain, always taking the initiative inside and outside the classroom. They knew me for my intensive extracurriculars that I had, and they appriecated how much I involved myself I was.However, my counselor's letter of recommendation was the epitome of a fantastic letter of recommendation. She would always support me during my Autism awareness fundraisers, among other extracurriculars. I would occasionally help her with errands. She knew my past adversities and how she saw me as a reslient individual. When it came to asking her for a letter of recommendation, she said she didn't even need a brag sheet because of how much she already knew me. Those are the types of letter of resignation you're looking to pursue.4. Write down extracurriculars that are meaningful, demonstrates initiative, and correlate with your intended majorI'd like to believe that this part alone saved me from rejection, because of how involved I was outside of my school, and possibly why I didn't have the most stellar grades. At first, I was a bit reluctant to put anything other than Computer Science / Engineering extracurriculars, but then I realized that I had to deviate a bit from pure STEM extracurriculars, because sure I am demonstrating that I'm well-rounded, but with all STEM extracurriculars, am I really well-rounded? I'd always recommend choosing extracurriculars that demonstrates commitment.For the list of importance, it might not come to a surprise when I placed my hackathons as my #1 extracurriculars. Why choose a outside extracurricular over a school one? Well, I chose it based on how meaningful it was, and hackathons are such a essential part of my identity. At that point, I don't think it matters where the extracurricular stems from, just that it does. I definitely chose this one as my number #1 because it shows the most commitment, the most relevance, and the most success I have gained from it, in the form of awards.For #2, I wrote about how I founded the Autism awareness club. I felt like it was important to touch upon it because even though I briefly mentioned it on my common app and how it doesn't correlate with my intended major, but it shows intiative. I went out of my way to create not only a club, but a club that has lots of meaning to me and one that I will shape to become a successful one. I talked about how it's one of the higest-count member club at 150 students, and how thanks to my help, my school now promotes a inclusive culture. Definitely place a club like this near the top if it sounds reminsent to how my club stemmed.For #3, I deviated from STEM based extracurriculars and I placed my Intermediate Theatre Arts Honor Society. I think this was huge in the sense that I was pursuing other things outside of academics and extracurriculars, but to a larger extent. Also, the fact that it's a Honor Society shows that you had to go through a rigrious and selective process to get into, which I “did.” I also talked about how I perform often, how I worked with my teammates to create plots and stage props. Even though I have no intentions of pursuing a career in the theatre arts, it shows how I'm pursuing extracurriculars in a wide breadth, and now I'm contributing towards my teammates in a positive manner.Extracurriculars #4 - #7 are more or less STEM based, the Science Olympiad being an example, so I won't go over those, but be assured that they still capture the essence of commitment and relevance.Extracurricular #8 is a weird one in the sense that it's not so much a extracurricular, but a hobby. I took a gamble and I wrote about how I worked with computer technology on my spare time. I work with Raspberry Pi's, building custom computers, motherboards, and other computer and electrical technology, and I'd like to believe it worked. It might not be a conventional extracurricular, but it shows that I stem off my curiosity in compherending Computer Technology and how much time I invested in it to get where I'm at today. Of course, I embedded other things within this extracurricular such as helping others compherending Computer Technology and teaching others how to code, but I think overall it captured the sense of what I enjoy doing in my spare time and how it has positively shaped me.For #9, I mentioned being a district office representative. I talked about being a district representative because it's actually a huge role, even if I began to slack off in it. Basically I have to go to out district office and meet up with district officals as a board member and go over things like budgets. So basically, I represent the students of my school and how they want to be represented. I believe that's huge, but I placed it lower because it's the only extracurricular out of all of them that I haven't been involved in all my four years. I don't think that might have had a huge effect on it, but even then I never saw it as a extracurricular that meant a lot to me. And as I'm typing this, I'm starting to feel bad that I would occasionally skip a few meetings lol.I just wrote Cross Country for the last one because it was the last extracurricular that I was committed to, and I didn't want to add clubs that had little to no relevance to me. I talked about how I improved my time drastically thtough the hard work I placed in my workout and even qualifying for state finals, although I didn't make it beyond there.5. Additonal InformationUSC specifically says that if USC is your first choice school, write it down! Definitely take advantage of that if you're seriously considering USC. I didn't personally do this, but only because I didn't know about this prior to submitting my application.Hooks like being low-income won't help since USC is need blind, but hooks like being a URM or parents not going to a college will. You don't even need inherited hooks. Hooks like creating a start-up or a non-profit organization are definitely significant ones that would help you immensely. I know this will be significant to very few, but also having disabilities, like in my case having Autism, ADHD, generalized Anxiety and Depression also helps. But schools, or USC in this case won't ask for that information. That's why you have to embeed that yourself in order for it to take effect in favoring you.VerdictThe admissions process in general is undeniably a confusing and abstract process. Of course, I didn't expect to get into more elite schools because of my low GPA, or more specifically, my sheer amount of B's and one C, but it somehow worked out in USC. I'd like to believe that USC is a bit more linent in the sense of forgiving you for not having the perfect grades and not having the most impressive extracurriculars, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try your best.With USC being such a extraordinary school, you yourself has to be extraordinary, but that doesn't necessarily have to be reflected in your academics.I'd say little things like overcoming adversities are fantastic ways of showing that you're a extraordinary person. I know that with the current pandemic in place, it's hard to distinguish yourself. But simple things like making your own website to start a business, or contributing in some way to combat the pandemic are things that will definitely make you distinctive.Good luck to any prospective USC applicants, and I hope to see you on campus soon enough 😄Edit: I should touch upon the point regarding my suicide essay. I'm pretty sure you guys are aware of mandated reporting, so when I wrote that essay the admissions counselors had the right to report my household for writing that. There was an entire case regarding my suicide attempt and proof that I underwent therapy to rehibilitate myself, and what I basically did for all my colleges was that I made a PDF of that case and attached them as a “supplement” to my essay so that they wouldn't report something that happened to me years ago. Sure, it worked for me and helped my essay, but if you're going to write an essay that requires you to submit any additional information, then it's probably not the best idea, but the notion of attempting to make an essay as initamate and personal as possible whilst not emulating my approach of an essay is always the key.

Because the authorities told us what to do, plus we do social distancing by default“Waiting for the bus like a Swede”. We did this before COVID-19 (image source)Swedes have the following mentality: government and authority exist to serve us, and to deal with problems that are too big for the individual to handle on their own.With this comes the acceptance that these institutions may then say “Okay, but in order for us to do that, we need you to do the following things”. We realise that making a fuss just for the heck of it, will hurt only ourselves. We may grumble and complain about authorities and government in calm times, but when the crap is in free-flight towards the fan, we instantly turn to them and say “Fix this, let us know what we need to do”.A few other factors play in…The Swedish government is — regarding areas of competence and expertise — very hands off, compared to most other nations. Government agencies are nearly completely apolitical. Cabinet members are not allowed to micromanage these agencies other than — once a year — give a “letter of regulation”, outlining the agency’s work for the upcoming year. Hence, experts get to do their job without politicians telling them how to do it. While we do not have a technocracy, the government and Riksdag (parliament) rely heavily on expert advice.All able-bodied Swedes have what is called “Total defence duty”, meaning that every person between 16 and 70 has a duty to contribute to the defence of Sweden in an emergency, either in a military or civil defence capacity. With the exception of a few up-nosed millennials and some grumpy old farts still harping on about 1968, Swedes in general know when it is time to do one’s duty. And unlike some others, we tend to not make a big deal about it; bragging about how noble one is, is not very Swedish. So when the authorities said “Do not get sick, here is how you avoid it”, the Swedes got simply down to business and complied.The first line of defence when it comes to keeping people healthy is actually the employers. Employers in Sweden have a duty to make sure their employees do not get unhealthy. So the employers were right quick off the mark in saying “If you are not critically needed on-site, work from home”. And it helps there that virtually everyone has fiber, cable, mobile broadband or ADSL at home.We do social distancing quite well. Especially people visiting from the US or UK have a hard time understanding why Swedish people seem so “cold”, because whenever they try to chat someone up — as they do — they instead get weird looks, as if they had just intruded.…which is because they have. “Waiting for / riding the bus like a Swede” is not just a funny meme, it is a social code. A Swede that is out and about — especially commuting somewhere — is in their private sphere. You are expected to respect that privacy and not intrude with idle chatter. Only in venues that are designated as social gathering-places is it not considered improper to approach strangers.So, Sweden is “laid back” because…the authorities rely on expert advice, and Swedes know thisheavy-handedness is not needed, Swedes comply when things are serious anywaythere is a low-key sense of duty, one does not make a fuss and defy authority just to make some kind of vain pointemployers were early in telling people to work from home, and we have the technical infrastructure to do so — including that very-hard-to-achieve “last mile” i.e. that we do not only have a network back-bone, but that households are actually connected to it as wellsocial distancing is our default mode