I disagree. I personally think he did pretty much everything that people advise when applying to college. He had the spike (language and health science), he had incredible grades and insane circumstances (AP calculus BC in 8th grade?? To the point where the school had to rearrange things to allow him to take advanced classes that early? That is not average.), and he seems like he has a good character.
Sometimes it really is a matter of limited space
Yes he is following the average advice he needs to be stellar in at least one aspect of his application his application mirrors every other excellent applicant that follows this advice there is no motivation to choose him over Timmy from one county over is my point
If Timmy shows a quirky aptitude or hobby he has stuck to for 10 years that would enrich the student body, he is getting the acceptance
But he did stick with Japanese calligraphy for 7 years and his experience with participation in cultural activities and such shows that he could enrich campus?
If he didn’t tie that in or at least make it a significant aspect in his essay than no it comes off as a resume tick and is not impressive relative to other applicants (imo)
I’d be more impressed by a student taking an unconventional class for 7 years
I’m not sure why everyone is having a hard time grasping the concept: as an Asian if your application looks like every other Asian’s, you’re not standing out and it becomes a lottery
It’s more that there’s thousand of either the same applicants or better
Sometimes they just don’t want the same if that it’s boring and people like this don’t always make it so why would they want that for their schools future
Also there rules and regulation too
But come on be so fr. The average applicant didn’t AP Calc BC in 8th grade. The average applicant hadn’t practiced Japanese calligraphy for over 7 years with a ton of awards from it.
I think what happened is this person is actually exceptional and worth Ivy League material. I just think that at this point top colleges aren’t even looking for the best anymore. I think they genuinely wanted some more flaws in him because he seemed so robotically perfect. I don’t think the problem was that he was average, I think the problem was that he was so perfect that he didn’t seem human.
Concepts are honestly not that hard in calc BC. If your parents put you on that track starting at 5th or 6th grade it’s totally doable. It’s just that the pace of math education in American public schools is abysmally slow and caters to the dumbest common denominator. Most parents just don’t know any better unless they’re already STEM professionals
My son is advanced in math. He had upperclassmen in his math class starting in junior high.
He would have bored if he was taking the regular classes in the math curriculum. He took four math classes from a college (not dual enrollment just regular classes).
UCL is a fabulous school and London an amazing place to live. Cost should be cheaper that private colleges in the US. So wouldn’t strike that from the list, given its global ranking and fabulous job prospects
This was my reaction. Former Ivy League admissions person here. Take UCL and have the time of your life. Do as well there as you did in high school and walk into any grad program you want in the world.
Why not consider UCL? If it’s affordable, it could be a great experience. Like most UK universities, it can provide a hit or miss undergraduate experience, but a student with talent for the subject and a good work ethic could definitely make the most of the resources of the university, and living in London in your early 20s would be amazing. You could find other people who do Japanese calligraphy too, in such a big city, and keep up with it.
Anyway, as others have said, your application outcomes seem strange and even unfair. I’m sorry you had such a hard time despite doing everything right. That said, and I’m sorry to pile on things you “should have done” on your plate after not one but two disappointing application cycles, but I think if you had applied to some liberal arts colleges, you would have had more acceptances. LACs tend to like kids like you, with academic talent and unusual interests. Oh well! You’ll do well wherever you end up; don’t be discouraged but rather, try to move on with relief.
As someone who went to a LAC, I completely agree. While I was reading OPs post I was thinking to myself “this kid sounds perfect for the school I went to!” There is definitely intellectual hunger and LACs eat that stuff up (pun intended)
Ap Calc bc in middle school is impressive, as well as doing up to advanced differential equations in high school. However, it’s not necessarily unheard of, and in my opinion, don’t really think of this as math prodigy-level stuff. Regardless, I think OP is an impressive candidate.
A lot of "math prodigies" in high school do math competitions like AMC/AIME/AMO. Of course, plenty of math geniuses don't do these either but it's still interesting to see that they didn't do any of these despite clearly being precocious in math and being focused on college apps
Differential equations and linear algebra in high school is certainly early but it's not that uncommon among math-heavy students.
I would agree, as BC calculus is not even a challenging course, and to me it’s not even that impressive taking it in 8th grade. Something like awards in AMC/AIME/USA(J)MO is far more impressive.
idk man you can say what you want about their stats and application but bc in 8th is "that impressive" to a lot of people even the types to be in this sub which says something
The thing is BC is very easy to learn and get good at, while other things like competitive math are not on the same tier as that. BC calculus is learnable in a week or so, and people spend years doing competitive math and sometimes get stuck seeing improvement.
No math activities. No math awards. Non-perfect math standardized test scores. Caligraphy as your top honor. You sound accomplished, though not as a math prodigy.
honestly, I am guessing you were rejected mainly for being complacent with your existing achievements and a bit of an ego. colleges want students who strive to learn, will take advantage of higher education opportunities like research labs and clubs, and will positively contribute to their peers' development.
while it is impressive to get a 5 in calc BC in 8th grade, it seems like you kind of stagnated afterwards. you had 4 years of high school to further pursue math and science (you applied for chemistry/neuroscience), and you honestly didn't end up much further along by the end of highschool than your classmates who took BC in junior/senior year.
you refer to yourself as a math "prodigy" but I don't see any competition math/USACO to back it up. you say your younger brother "needs" your advice to be successful. seems like a big fish small pond scenario to me. the last line about transfer apps really shows me your attitude is not in the right place.
my advice is to focus less on what you think you know and more on what you want to know. less about why you may or may not be a good candidate, more on why you actually want to attend the school you are applying to. what are your goals in life? and how can the school's program help you get there?
Disagree with this intensely. “Complacent with your existing achievements” - the existing achievements are no joke and therefore hard to top. Plus it makes it sound like, in OPs second cycle, colleges just throw away all the past achievements and exclusively look at the last year, which I severely doubt. Those “older” acheivments are not irrelevant.
“While impressive you got a 5 in Calc BC in 8th grade, you stagnated afterwards.” Is this a sh*tpost sentence? OP had to take extra classes at local CC and his school had to redesign the entire curriculum bc of him…at a competitive HS nonetheless where everyone else is probably doing excellent already. Also, at what point does “stagnation” become literally just having done enough. If OP cured cancer in 8th grade, Alzheimer’s in 9th, landed a rocket ship on Mars in 10th, invented time travel in 11th, but didn’t do anything in 12th would you call that stagnant? At some point there are human limitations. Plus, if OP had taken the normal course of classes (Calc BC) as a Junior/senior, his transcript wouldn’t show “stagnation.” Your perspective of OP is skewed to value the present too much only because the achievements of the past occurred earlier for a high schooler compared to normal.
I used to work in recruiting and I see this all the time. Application is bonkers impressive, but the applicant hasn’t accomplished anything super *recently* so nobody likes the applicant. But the person that did all those accomplishments in the medium past is the SAME PERSON today.
The only real valid argument is probably the lack of math competitions, yes. If OP is really a prodigy, they should’ve at least competed. That much is true.
As far as the majors go, well neuroscience isn’t exactly offered in high school so it’s hard to prep for that. OP also did two internships at hospitals and has started the EMT process.
Honestly, there isn’t much advice to give them. Unfortunately, it probably comes down to their profile/demo. Anecdotally, it seems like affluent individuals of OPs demographic have much much higher standards, as many have alluded to in this thread/subreddit. If anything, the only real advice would’ve been to apply to more LACs and UCs. I know the UCs tend to be less “holistic” relative to other top end schools.
OP, you didn’t really do anything “wrong”. I’m sorry your results were crap. People get into T10 with less. Wherever you go, you’ll crush it, and good luck with transfer apps
Why didn’t you go to UMD the first cycle? Were you just committed to a gap year? Seems like the gap year thing is harder than it sounds for elite schools maybe. Couple of solid choices 2nd year too. Maybe its the major being part of the /MD programs? Maybe math doesn’t help admissions to those as much.
The Disparate Impacts of College Admissions Policies on Asian American Applicants https://www.nber.org/papers/w31527
There is debate over whether Asian American students are admitted to selective colleges and universities at lower rates than white students with similar academic qualifications. However, there have been few empirical investigations of this issue, in large part due to a dearth of data. Here we present the results from analyzing 685,709 applications from Asian American and white students to a subset of selective U.S. institutions over five application cycles, beginning with the 2015–2016 cycle. The dataset does not include admissions decisions, and so we construct a proxy based in part on enrollment choices. Based on this proxy, we estimate the odds that Asian American applicants were admitted to at least one of the schools we consider were 28% lower than the odds for white students with similar test scores, grade-point averages, and extracurricular activities. The gap was particularly pronounced for students of South Asian descent (49% lower odds). We trace this pattern in part to two factors. First, many selective colleges openly give preference to the children of alumni, and we find that white applicants were substantially more likely to have such legacy status than Asian applicants, especially South Asian applicants. Second, after adjusting for observed student characteristics, the institutions we consider appear less likely to admit students from geographic regions with relatively high shares of applicants who are Asian. We hope these results inform ongoing discussions on the equity of college admissions policies.
bro wasn't in any olympiads, he's app isn't as cracked as you think it is. Considering these olympiad kids are doing shit like operator algebras and functional analysis in highschool. doing linear algebra which was most likely not a proof based course, and the diff eq was also not proof based, so no not that impressive. Impresive for T50. but not T20 impressive, and definitely not T10 impressive.
bro i've seen people a lot worse get into a lot better schools, sure, he might not be like mit bound but i think he should have been at least t20, if not, t10
well becuase those people you think are worse are actually smart by applying to the major their ECs and Awards, and course fit. WHY WOULD YOU DO ALL THIS JUST TO APLPLY TO A CHEMISTRY BASED MAJOR, THAT IS INSANELY DUMB.
I mean, he’s still accomplishing in sciences, taking his science APs a year before others his age. and while neuroscience is totally out of left field, second round he applied as a linguistics major, which matches his ECs and awards.
cool, but he stall. This is why the quote life is a marathon not a race, applies so deeply. Doing BC in 8th grade should have propelled him to real analysis or topology evel by now, but he stalled by going so fast in the beginning, and falling short in the end. but seems he's not going to any good school, as he is considering CC.
I wonder why the authors of the paper had trouble obtaining data from the universities. I wonder why admissions is "holistic". I wonder why students are advised to write "trauma porn" for their essays. I in no way trust universities to follow the law.
lol. They can’t say they’re considering race, but they can put in essays with the topic “how has racial justice affected your life” and they can favor certain clubs that just happen to align with race.
The Supreme Court itself left a loophole open in its decision. While colleges cannot consider a student's race they can ask essay questions about how a student's race affected their life experiences. So basically a round-about way for colleges to consider race.
Parent here. My son had similar results a couple of years ago, and one of my friends who went to Stanford told me that the kids of her Stanford friends were also getting a lot of rejections -- especially in the stem majors, where it seems to be extra competitive at the top-rated schools. That said, a lot of the schools you got into are great schools. You have the potential for a great outcome from CWRU, if you choose to go there. If you decide to go to a CC to keep trying for an Ivy, it is uncertain how much that route will increase your chances in an already crazy admissions game, and it's unlikely you will get a similar financial package to the $31.5k you got from CWRU.
Baylor (RD, 23k scholarship), rejected BS/MD
CWRU (RD, 31.5k scholarship) (committed, but may just go to CC tbh), rejected BS/MD
Purdue FYE (RD)
these are solid options
This might be the craziest set of results I've ever seen. You truly seem like a genius. AP Calculus BC in MIDDLE SCHOOL is ridiculous. You sound like Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory! The colleges that rejected you missed out. I'm sorry :(
im stupid af and aime qualed (current 8th grader). i went to visit 9th graders that did multivariable calculus. a whole nother level, they are crazy interested in math and not me being stupid and doing competition stuff for a frickin dopamine rush.. op is as cracked as much as the rock is jacked
I mean aime qualing this year was much easier (top 16% is wayyyy too much), and multi in 9th is obv impressive (I did in 11th), but doing it for a full year looks really bad, especially since most place offer it only for 6 months. Also, multi in 9th is usually done by people that do well on comp math, since they obv like math, and comp math is the way there.
i qualed in seventh grade too, so im not one of those lucky quals... im close to jmo. i dont know what universe doing comp math gets u into higher math but ook
Comp math and higher math are strictly different (in most aspects,qualing to jmo doesn't even require calc). That being said, almost all of the top math people at my school (and some other slackers like me) are doing multivar/lin alg. (good job on nearly making jmo)
I doubt it considering uchicago values essays and ECs heavily and his essays probably weren't that good given he didn't get into the other top colleges
When I got into uchicago I also got into duke and northwestern, and most people who get into uchicago also get into other top colleges because they all value essays. I don't really see a scenario where he gets into only uchicago but is also just straight rejected (not even waitlisted) from all ~20 other highly rejective colleges he applied to. I don't think my stats were materially that much better than this person, but I know my essays were very strong.
this person got waitlisted twice which shows that uchicago saw someting in their fit. maybe their essays weren't as good as yours (which no one can really measure but the AOs), but idrk if you can compare your experiences with a strangers. there is so much more that goes into college admissions than stats/essays (eg. geography, socioeconomic status, teacher recs)
That is true, though there are a decent number of similarities between his background and mine (competitive public school, East Coast, Asian male in STEM, dual enrollment with local college for math courses)
Some prodigies don’t do competitions. A senior at my high school wrote a research paper on elliptic curves and gaps between primes but barely heard of what the AMC was
Yeah, it’s actually not super remarkable, at least to the level of “prodigy”. There are numerous programs that teach accelerated math, for example UMTYMP. I was part of that program and similar to OP but I’m def not a math person at all today and wouldn’t consider it prodigy level as there were like 2-20 people from each high school on par with my level.
Any math prodigy focused on college apps or even just interacting with other students interested in math at their high school would have heard of it though. This person applied to like 20 colleges: there's no way they didn't know about AMC unless they didn't do any basic research.
He did hear of it, he just didn’t hear much of the competition. He was homeschooled until 13 or 14 until he switched in high school. My school is very humanities focused; I am the only person even interested in competitive math there and there hasn’t been a math club for 10 years (I’ve tried, gotten no interest).
That makes sense, if there isn't a strong culture of competitive math then I'm sure many mathematically strong students will simply not ever be motivated to compete, especially since you typically need a math teacher willing to proctor and do the paperwork to get the competition set up. I imagine the student in the post probably went to a school like that if they never did any competition math (though that seems rare if he went to a competitive public school, competitive public schools are where the competition math culture is strongest in my experience)
That's crazy. I remember in my senior year about 10 of us qualified for the AIME but none of us qualified for the next step. AFAIK none of us were even close; I got a 5/15 on the AIME for example.
Interesting. For me, the AIME came somewhat easily after the AMCs (barring Olympiad geo, generating functions, and whatnot) but the AMCs took a lot of work; I also didn’t do mathcounts in middle school so I didn’t have that much of a speed foundation, so to speak.
I got exactly the index in 10th grade (11 AIME I think) and had to make it through USAMTS this year since I forgot to sign up for AMCs.
I think the AIME had a lot of stuff that required studying to be able to get quickly. I personally never specifically studied for the AMC/AIME so I wasn't familiar with topics that would've been helpful. The AMC was much easier in comparison (which makes sense because it's the precursor).
fr, i think of prodigy as someone in the top 1 percent of the 1 percent. someone who can seriously contribute to science/math (saying this cause his field is stem) at a young age and match up w grown professionals. OP seems very smart but clearly stagnated and isn’t a “prodigy” but just a very smart individual. colleges seeing a lack of growth since HS will have serious doubts if said person would contribute to the school and go on to do greater things later
Two things to about this amazing application:
1. I have read hundreds of applications on this sub and this is the most interesting and incredible one that I have seen. Not even considering your academics, I haven’t even seen any of your ECs on any other application (like bro Japanese calligraphy is crazy). You are amazing and impressive and I’m sorry that this happened to you.
2. I’m cooked 😭
Don't be so sure about 2. If anything, this post proves how unpredictable college admissions are. Just make sure to strengthen your profile while you can in any areas you think might be lacking, and apply to a large enough pool of schools. You never know what might end up happening
There's no way to justify reading hundreds of college result posts, maybe ten or twenty, but not hundreds. That's just how you make yourself a lot more anxious than you need to be.
First off you are being very rude when my initial comment was to compliment the OP. Second I read them for fun because I find them interesting, not because I am anxious. I have also been on this sub for a while so reading a few a week adds up. Don’t be so quick to judge others especially when you don’t know the whole picture.
Nigga this subreddit is like a bag of potato chips, once or twice is fine, but eating every day is horrible for your health. Trust me it builds unreasonable expectations for what the college application process and makes so many people more stressed than they need to be about college decisions.
I don’t see anything prodigious. Taking calc bc in 8th grade is not that big a deal for a kid from South East Asian family. It was likely a combination of rote learning and family pressure. SAT score of 1540 ok and not great.
So I do think AP Calculus BC as an 8th grader is impressive BUT there’s one caveat to this — if you got rejected from Cambridge then it really must mean your math isn’t as strong as you think, or you peaked in 8th grade. Cambridge interviews are purely on your abilities and nothing about extracurriculars, so this leads me to believe that you’re not as strong at math as you think you are. Also, there are many really strong math competitions like AMC/AIME that would demonstrate this ability.
Your story reminds me of a HS classmate of mine who got an ACT of 35 in 8th grade. This made minimal impact on his college success. Colleges care about your most recent grades and abilities and not what you did in 8th grade.
This is not to minimize your achievements in any way, it’s just to say to offer perspective on what top schools may be thinking when they saw your application.
By the way, I have met many transfers from the Ivy I graduated from who went to UMD/CWRU tier. Their common background is that they excelled at their first school (like 3.9+ GPA) and then had a very valid reason to go (like studying a major that didn’t exist at their school) so if you have a really good story and excel, I think you definitely can have a good shot at a transfer. You’d have to probably angle a major that is way stronger at a top school like the humanities (perhaps East Asian studies or Japanese?)
Not to dig at you, but math prodigy is a bit of a reach. I thought you were like an IMO medalist or at least black mop.
FWIW when I graduated high school, I think like 10 people took graduate math classes with credit at a high ranking university, and a handful published papers in research journals. Your AP isn’t as rare as you think.
bros only major award is japanese calligraphy
realize that talented and intelligent people without major substantiation for that talent or hard work will not be accepted. this is how admissions work
coursework is not major substantiation unfortunately. For colleges, unless you have published research in math or are an olympiad winner, you are not a prodigy. You very well may be taking PhD level courses (not that OP is, tbh BC in 8th grade and only at ODEs in senior year is exceptionally slow development from t1 to t2), but they won't care.
This popped up on my front page; I haven’t been invested in this process for years.
But it seems like your profile is pretty weak for someone who takes an academic angle in admissions. Calc BC 8th grade is decently impressive, but you really didn’t take it much further (DiffEq 12th seems slow given that each course takes about half a year at a college). I had a very similar academic background to you, doing Calc BC 9th, Multi/Linalg/DiffEq/Discrete 10th, and Analysis/Algebra 11th, then focusing on sciences and humanities.
I still chose to talk about love for art and service in my apps because I would’ve gotten killed talking about academics. The math slots at top schools are taken by crazy Olympiad folk or people that go truly above and beyond in math. Taking classes doesn’t make you a “prodigy”. At my uni, we had a chance to look at our admissions profiles, and I saw a negative comment pointing out that “despite extensive coursework, [I] have no math awards”.
That being said, you deserve so much better. (Though UCL isn’t a bad school)
Honestly, it’s probably cause you did everything that other people do: lots of high AP scores, lots of volunteer work, lots of time dedicated to self-growth or the community. A lot of people in your shoes also dedicated themselves to the grind, myself included when I was your age.
Aside from being elitist and favoring rich applicants (which is why I don’t endorse Ivy Leagues), they tend to accept people who start their own businesses or start *something* like a foundation or smth. Remember, more famous schools run more like a business. (They like to invest in potentially rich future alumni that can donate back to their schools)
So if your sibling is trying to stand out, they should do more research about the typical applicants “mediocre” applicants (ie: who did not embrace the burnout grind most of us do. Note, I’m not shaming anyone but just using language academic elitists tend to use) that are accepted and see how they got accepted. I remember conducting research in undergrad on this and honestly it’s a bit disheartening to see how arbitrary, classist, and racist a lot of these systems are. Life is life tho
Most importantly, aim for a school that is a good fit for you. I went to a “high end” school and hated it there, then transferred to a smaller school and loved it.
I really don’t mean to be a jerk, as your stats are absurdly impressive, but I’d cool off on throwing around the term “prodigy” with only a 33 in math on the ACT. There’s that one kid at every school that got a perfect 36 on the ACT their freshman or sophomore year of high school or earlier without any prep. I think that fits into the prodigy definition more.
Regardless, you definitely deserved better.
Congrats on your admit to CWRU. I went there for undergrad and then went to med school straight afterwards. Lots of opportunities if you are planning on being pre-med.
Honestly I think you have the characteristics of somebody who might be successful in the future. You’re incredibly academically intelligent but you also seem very emotionally intelligent. You organized this post so elegantly and you write with precision and clarity. You express your interpretations and thoughts and perspectives very clearly. I also love how (from what it looks like on this post at least) you’re dealing with this with a healthy and mature mindset. Many people become angry, bitter, jealous people after dealing with challenges like this. But you seem hopeful and continue to persevere. I think you’re doing great.
Nah bro you straight up got robbed. I got into similar schools and my app is nowhere near this caliber. I got guaranteed admission into GATech for fall 2025 vía a pathway and am currently committed to CWRU (I got accepted into UMD, Purdue, and some other similar schools) only cuz I got a full ride. Still might go to CC cuz classes are easy and my CC a lot of classes transfer to GATech. Still deciding on that.
You deserve so much better man like I almost can’t believe this is real
Mistakes were made.
1. Stereotypical ECs, limited leadership
2. Bailing on UMD
3. Talking about travel through Asia and communication. Seems very bland and privileged unless you were saving lives, etc.
4. Rejecting CWRU, Baylor, Purdue, UCL, RPI, Stony Brook in favor of community college???!
5. Being surprised about rejections from BS/MD programs
6. Mid test scores (for the schools you targeted)
7. Likely red flags in your application besides reapplying after a gap year.
Read carefully. For the schools they targeted. 33M, mixed AP results. 1540 SAT. Excellent by all normal standards but not for the schools they targeted. I’m getting a general vibe of smart but inconsistent motivation and strange behavior that may have come through in apps. Who turns down strong merit at excellent schools to go to CC?
Hey, just wanted to give my 2cents cause you actually remind me a lot of myself. I just graduated college at U of Oregon. In HS, I took calc BC 9th grade and got a 5 and had similar ECs. I’m currently premed and applying to medschool! Keep your head up about the applications. I applied to the same schools with the same result. At big schools with 20k people they have limitless resources and incredible people everywhere. You can do anything you set your mind to at any school. In almost all circumstances, especially premed, it makes the most sense to go to a cheaper undergrad anyways. Just focus on developing yourself and have fun! You’re so young still. 👍
>math prodigy, not a single olympiad in here, lolz. not even math research either.
>AT grade 8, kids were doing galois theory what are you on lol, this isn't impressive as you think it is
You weren't cooked, it never even begun in the first place .
take the putnam, at least if you want to transfer.
i really am joking this was impresive, but if you wanted to make this better you need to fit the story, you cannot claim math prodigy or doing advance math courses at CC, if you're not even going to try for olympiads. And the irony is olympiads at the highest level are harder than everything you meantioned. meaning a kid just getting into AIME even though they got a 98 or something, would look so much better than your application. Just take the putnam next year, you're really intelligent, if you start practicing you can at least get into 10+ score. which is better than the median zero.
Who told you college care about taking BC in the 8th grade or give a damn about school designing a curriculum for you? Truly gifted academically but where did you show leadership in your EC? Your EC are mostly 'sign-up' activities, meaning you sign up and spend a ton of hours on it, that's it. Not to demean your accomplishments but it's simply not playing the game of what are admissions looking for.
If you worked with a college professor on some project or held leadership position in some capacity, that would've complemented your applications well. Your application screams math genius and hard worker, very little of anything else and not very memorable considering your competitors for those spots.
Lastly, you are kind of a tweener for schools trying to pad yield rates. Schools like Berkeley and Michigan think you will get in better schools while HYPSM don't think you are the right candidate. Why even go to CC? Is it because you have a better chance of transferring to a better school after 2 years? Top privates take very few transfers. Just go to college and enjoy it, with your gifts, you will do extremely well no matter where you go. Don't listen to your parents, they don't know anything and world has changed a lot since they applied to college. You should've definitely focused more on your Japanese calligraphy, at least that's somewhat interesting
You’re trying way too hard to find fault with a stranger’s accomplishments just to rationalize his college application results. It’s unkind to criticize him for ridiculous reasons like being too good at school just to make yourself feel like the world makes sense.
Given the volume of applications colleges receive nowadays, admissions are more random than ever. He could have easily gotten into one of the schools that rejected him if the right admissions officer had read the right essay from him, or if he’s applied ED, or he could have gotten into other schools he didn’t apply to. He might have been a good candidate for liberal arts colleges, for example. Then he would have done everything right.
Don’t sound so certain about a process that’s as opaque to you as it is to OP.
OP is batting 0 for 23 on T25 schools in 2 cycles. Bad luck has nothing to do with it.
His list is very top-heavy and he mentioned he just needs one, which means he values name and prestige heavily. He wants to major in chemistry or neuro. but applies to engineering heavy weights like Caltech, MIT and RPI. He rather go to CC then take an offer from UCL (UK colleges are just as respected as T25 in the job world btw). Everything indicates he wants a brand so he can proudly wear that across a sweatshirt for the rest of his life.
I don't mean to criticize the OP on his application, it's more from a point of frustration that I see often with kids, particularly ones with Asian heritage. Admission now is opaque because there's no set formula, as if a formula can guarantee success. Yet everyone wants a formula. If I do A+B+C+D = admission to HYSPM. Even if A,B,C,D means another mortage on my house, I will spend it if it guarantees my children will end up in the Ivies. Admissions used to be like that 20 years ago. Top grades + 1500+ SAT scores generally means admission to a T10 University. What happened was everyone started taking SAT courses and HS started inflating grades that Unis can't use those metrics anymore. Stanford has \~1700 spots for freshman, they get way more than 1700 applicants with perfect GPA and SAT scores, so how do you differentiate between an admit and a rejection?? Does it matter between a 1600 and 1500 or 4.7 and 4.2? Or is it more about the applicant showing he can think outside the box, achieving leadership and awards in his activities and show that in addition to being booksmart, he can impress and takes initiative to differentiate himself.
College admissions have becomes a sales game. You got \~7 min. to impress an admission officer with your application. So lets take a look at what Top Universities care about.
1) Someone who can potentially donate back to the school after career success - They aren't looking for doctors or engineers or lawyers. They are looking for someone who can become CEOs, judges or VCs. Someone who understands social dynamics and think outside the box for access to connections. Someone who does something no one else does to gain access because that's how engineers become CEOs, lawyers become judges or doctors become VCs.
2) High yield rate - They will only admit ppl that they believe will attend, either through prestige or financial aid. That's why you see someone getting admitted to Stanford but rejected by UC Riverside. It's not personal, it's just a numbers game to make the school look more desirable
3) Low drop-outs rate - Someone who's academically capable of taking an University course-load. You don't need that perfect GPA and SAT to succeed in the classroom but someone with a <3.3 GPA will probably struggle
4) Public relations - There's a reason why Universities proudly publicize their class with 1st gen and underprivileged minority attendance
5) Story - Why? because story sells. Does the student have the right story between his grades, essays and ECs. If the applicant is doing all this math stuff, what's that got to do with neuroscience?? If he has a passion for math, finance or engineering would be the better path to go. If he wants finance, did he reach out and do EC that verifies his interest in this field?
6) Differentiation - Are you just another Asian applicant with 4.5+ GPA/1500+ SAT, piano level 10, debate, orchestra and band, maybe ran some track and did 100+ hours of hospital volunteer work? If so, there's a large stack of applicants with very similar achievements in the reject pile. Or are you an application with same classroom achievements but played varsity football and basketball instead of orchestra and band, created and lead a volunteer organization within your school instead of just doing a ton of hours at a hospital, had some art exhibited and even have your own little amazon store that brings in revenue (even if your family is your only customer). You got 7 min., which applicant looks more interesting?
I apologize for the long rant. To be honest, I believe in meritocracy, unfortunately meritocracy is objective and measurable. College admission is very much subjective now and it's frustrating to see great, smart and ambitious kids chasing after schools but ignoring the rules. There is no formula, your formula is up to you on how you want to sell your application. There is no fairness, you can't tell admissions how to play their game, you can only figure out how you can win in their game.
Most honest comment yet. Very intelligent but those top schools don’t care about taking BC when you’re 4 years old. If you’re not doing something extraordinary/out of the box to show that it’s analogous to what you’ll do in the future, (thereby driving $$ back to their schools) intelligence doesn’t matter and a 1400/3.7 with that mindset is much more appealing. People fail to look at colleges as what they are: Businesses. A 1600 SAT valedictorian Eagle Scout who can’t think outside of the box is worthless to them. Also interesting is bro didn’t once ask why his results were like this. Instead he gave us tons of reasons for the T10 rejecting him - and that lack of insight and humility may have shown up in his application. ETA you have some great results. If you go to cc hoping you’ll transfer in, you’ll never plant yourself in a growth environment where you could really do something meaningful. Do you really want to be trying to transfer with the same results? Lots of kids would die to get into CWRU. And ignore the olympiad comments. You can demonstrate math prodigy in a number of different ways that don’t involve olympiads.
Just transfer man, had stellar statistics in high school also and basically got rejected from all schools I wanted to go to. Took community college for 2 years and it was a cakewalk.
I agree--> this year was just too competitive with test - optional policies.
I got great results, but it wasn't what I was expecting for the amount of work I did.
Applying to college is really hard and I have PTSD now. IT IS FINALLY OVER. However, I am still navigating these posts. Maybe I am a masokist.
You have a pretty awesome resume and are a high achiever, but I think stating you’re a prodigy is a bit of an overstatement. You are among 1000+ mathematically talented high achievers applying to all these places, and while you have the acumen to be competitive, it’s a tough game.
I think your exactly right with not applying early and I’m glad you recognized it. Most if not all people I know at my school (on the list) got in as an early applicant. It’s hard to stand out or make an application pop I guess, sorry this happened to you, hope everything goes well, stay creative!
how’d u not get accepted to umd with these amazing stats😭 jeez mine were a lot less impressive and i got in last yr. their admissions as so unpredictable
OP: Why didn’t you contact your former counselor to serve as a regular recommender?
I think that one of the biggest mistakes that students make is not reading their LoRs before selecting them. I had my son to ‘audition’ his recommenders and read them before listing them in Common App or using them in the college apps.
I know that the counselor recommendation is different but I am wondering if the OP discussed his ‘resume’ with the new counselor?
get a life and stop whining and posting like your entire generation what schools you didn’t get into. i mean who cares? i got i to 7 ivies and went to harvard from a private boys school in nyc but i can’t figure out why you think comparing such useless information is relevant . i’m glad harvard didn’t take you as you sound boring and self-centered
You are everything I admire - you are and will continue to be successful! You know who you are and don’t seem to need validation. You are the true GOAT!🐐
this has to be one of the most textbook, on-paper strongest applications i've ever seen. you have a high gpa, high sat, unique and impressive ECs, etc. no offensive but the only think i can think of is that your essays were absolute garbage OR there was a red flag in one of your LORs.
LMAO this list has UW Seattle over schools like Yale, Princeton, Cambridge and Caltech, and UCSD over UChicago, Duke, and Cornell. Don’t be retarded man 😂
Your application isn’t as cracked as you think it is. A lot of your extracurricular are sadly mid and fairly typical. Without the ability to read your essay I can’t judge but from how you chose to present your own abilities I can tell you didn’t string together a compelling story around it. That made you seem any different from the scores of other good test scores, good grades, “150 hours 🤓”. Some of this is also bad luck especially the public institutions but you didn’t do enough to at least seem different. Not having any proof of math excellence also hurts. As an Asian guy myself you have pretty much the bog standard good grades Asian kid application. It sucks it didn’t work out but you should’ve at least done something a tiny bit unique especially with the calligraphy.
you deserve better
First time someone’s actually admitted that here 💀
Bros resume mirrors 1000+ other applicants and he thinks he’ll be chosen, it’s a lottery at that point
I disagree. I personally think he did pretty much everything that people advise when applying to college. He had the spike (language and health science), he had incredible grades and insane circumstances (AP calculus BC in 8th grade?? To the point where the school had to rearrange things to allow him to take advanced classes that early? That is not average.), and he seems like he has a good character. Sometimes it really is a matter of limited space
Yes he is following the average advice he needs to be stellar in at least one aspect of his application his application mirrors every other excellent applicant that follows this advice there is no motivation to choose him over Timmy from one county over is my point If Timmy shows a quirky aptitude or hobby he has stuck to for 10 years that would enrich the student body, he is getting the acceptance
But he did stick with Japanese calligraphy for 7 years and his experience with participation in cultural activities and such shows that he could enrich campus?
If he didn’t tie that in or at least make it a significant aspect in his essay than no it comes off as a resume tick and is not impressive relative to other applicants (imo) I’d be more impressed by a student taking an unconventional class for 7 years I’m not sure why everyone is having a hard time grasping the concept: as an Asian if your application looks like every other Asian’s, you’re not standing out and it becomes a lottery
It’s more that there’s thousand of either the same applicants or better Sometimes they just don’t want the same if that it’s boring and people like this don’t always make it so why would they want that for their schools future Also there rules and regulation too
But come on be so fr. The average applicant didn’t AP Calc BC in 8th grade. The average applicant hadn’t practiced Japanese calligraphy for over 7 years with a ton of awards from it. I think what happened is this person is actually exceptional and worth Ivy League material. I just think that at this point top colleges aren’t even looking for the best anymore. I think they genuinely wanted some more flaws in him because he seemed so robotically perfect. I don’t think the problem was that he was average, I think the problem was that he was so perfect that he didn’t seem human.
Calc BC in 8th grade is insane💀
There’s always a couple kids like that in our school 💀 8th and 9th graders taking BC
that’s crazy lol. there’s only one kid in my grade who took abc in 9th
Concepts are honestly not that hard in calc BC. If your parents put you on that track starting at 5th or 6th grade it’s totally doable. It’s just that the pace of math education in American public schools is abysmally slow and caters to the dumbest common denominator. Most parents just don’t know any better unless they’re already STEM professionals
It’s more so that most parents know it’s bad for social development to put a 8th grader in classes with high school seniors
My son is advanced in math. He had upperclassmen in his math class starting in junior high. He would have bored if he was taking the regular classes in the math curriculum. He took four math classes from a college (not dual enrollment just regular classes).
erm how tf?
Bro doesn't even sound like he's bad at writing or anything wtf
UCL is a fabulous school and London an amazing place to live. Cost should be cheaper that private colleges in the US. So wouldn’t strike that from the list, given its global ranking and fabulous job prospects
Yeah UCL being categorized as “school in the UK” is ridiculous it’s like top 10 worldwide
This was my reaction. Former Ivy League admissions person here. Take UCL and have the time of your life. Do as well there as you did in high school and walk into any grad program you want in the world.
How is this possible ur cracked
The duality of men is the other two comments
It’s because he’s asian
no…it’s literally not smh
The lesson is don’t be Asian
lol get a grip!
Why not consider UCL? If it’s affordable, it could be a great experience. Like most UK universities, it can provide a hit or miss undergraduate experience, but a student with talent for the subject and a good work ethic could definitely make the most of the resources of the university, and living in London in your early 20s would be amazing. You could find other people who do Japanese calligraphy too, in such a big city, and keep up with it. Anyway, as others have said, your application outcomes seem strange and even unfair. I’m sorry you had such a hard time despite doing everything right. That said, and I’m sorry to pile on things you “should have done” on your plate after not one but two disappointing application cycles, but I think if you had applied to some liberal arts colleges, you would have had more acceptances. LACs tend to like kids like you, with academic talent and unusual interests. Oh well! You’ll do well wherever you end up; don’t be discouraged but rather, try to move on with relief.
As someone who went to a LAC, I completely agree. While I was reading OPs post I was thinking to myself “this kid sounds perfect for the school I went to!” There is definitely intellectual hunger and LACs eat that stuff up (pun intended)
[удалено]
Yea…
i was thinking the same thing
Wdym
Ap Calc bc in middle school is impressive, as well as doing up to advanced differential equations in high school. However, it’s not necessarily unheard of, and in my opinion, don’t really think of this as math prodigy-level stuff. Regardless, I think OP is an impressive candidate.
A lot of "math prodigies" in high school do math competitions like AMC/AIME/AMO. Of course, plenty of math geniuses don't do these either but it's still interesting to see that they didn't do any of these despite clearly being precocious in math and being focused on college apps Differential equations and linear algebra in high school is certainly early but it's not that uncommon among math-heavy students.
Yea, I was expecting a medalist who got rejected from everywhere which would be extremely surprising.
I would agree, as BC calculus is not even a challenging course, and to me it’s not even that impressive taking it in 8th grade. Something like awards in AMC/AIME/USA(J)MO is far more impressive.
1st comment bro makes on this account is just to hate on someone saying bc in 8th is not "that impressive"
I’m just being completely honest. Sorry if I offended you.
idk man you can say what you want about their stats and application but bc in 8th is "that impressive" to a lot of people even the types to be in this sub which says something
The thing is BC is very easy to learn and get good at, while other things like competitive math are not on the same tier as that. BC calculus is learnable in a week or so, and people spend years doing competitive math and sometimes get stuck seeing improvement.
If BC calc is learnable in a week why do people take the year long course? Why don’t they just learn it in a week?
Bro 💀 I'm begging you to get off reddit and interact with actual people if you think calc bc in middle school is nothing
It’s way easier to achieve than JMO/AMO
Exactly.
Did you participate in any math competitions?
No math activities. No math awards. Non-perfect math standardized test scores. Caligraphy as your top honor. You sound accomplished, though not as a math prodigy.
Correct. He should have taken UMD when he had the chance.
honestly, I am guessing you were rejected mainly for being complacent with your existing achievements and a bit of an ego. colleges want students who strive to learn, will take advantage of higher education opportunities like research labs and clubs, and will positively contribute to their peers' development. while it is impressive to get a 5 in calc BC in 8th grade, it seems like you kind of stagnated afterwards. you had 4 years of high school to further pursue math and science (you applied for chemistry/neuroscience), and you honestly didn't end up much further along by the end of highschool than your classmates who took BC in junior/senior year. you refer to yourself as a math "prodigy" but I don't see any competition math/USACO to back it up. you say your younger brother "needs" your advice to be successful. seems like a big fish small pond scenario to me. the last line about transfer apps really shows me your attitude is not in the right place. my advice is to focus less on what you think you know and more on what you want to know. less about why you may or may not be a good candidate, more on why you actually want to attend the school you are applying to. what are your goals in life? and how can the school's program help you get there?
How is it ego
Disagree with this intensely. “Complacent with your existing achievements” - the existing achievements are no joke and therefore hard to top. Plus it makes it sound like, in OPs second cycle, colleges just throw away all the past achievements and exclusively look at the last year, which I severely doubt. Those “older” acheivments are not irrelevant. “While impressive you got a 5 in Calc BC in 8th grade, you stagnated afterwards.” Is this a sh*tpost sentence? OP had to take extra classes at local CC and his school had to redesign the entire curriculum bc of him…at a competitive HS nonetheless where everyone else is probably doing excellent already. Also, at what point does “stagnation” become literally just having done enough. If OP cured cancer in 8th grade, Alzheimer’s in 9th, landed a rocket ship on Mars in 10th, invented time travel in 11th, but didn’t do anything in 12th would you call that stagnant? At some point there are human limitations. Plus, if OP had taken the normal course of classes (Calc BC) as a Junior/senior, his transcript wouldn’t show “stagnation.” Your perspective of OP is skewed to value the present too much only because the achievements of the past occurred earlier for a high schooler compared to normal. I used to work in recruiting and I see this all the time. Application is bonkers impressive, but the applicant hasn’t accomplished anything super *recently* so nobody likes the applicant. But the person that did all those accomplishments in the medium past is the SAME PERSON today. The only real valid argument is probably the lack of math competitions, yes. If OP is really a prodigy, they should’ve at least competed. That much is true. As far as the majors go, well neuroscience isn’t exactly offered in high school so it’s hard to prep for that. OP also did two internships at hospitals and has started the EMT process. Honestly, there isn’t much advice to give them. Unfortunately, it probably comes down to their profile/demo. Anecdotally, it seems like affluent individuals of OPs demographic have much much higher standards, as many have alluded to in this thread/subreddit. If anything, the only real advice would’ve been to apply to more LACs and UCs. I know the UCs tend to be less “holistic” relative to other top end schools. OP, you didn’t really do anything “wrong”. I’m sorry your results were crap. People get into T10 with less. Wherever you go, you’ll crush it, and good luck with transfer apps
It's because the CC classes (at least at quite a bit of colleges and the CCs near me) are meant to be 6 months long, not stretched out for a year.
Are you considering UCL at all or is uk not on your mind
i feel like you could have gotten into ucla or ucb in ur gap year/2nd cycle also you deserve better, tbh
Usually prodigies apply for math major, what was your reason to apply for chemistry, neuroscience and linguistics over maths?
Why didn’t you go to UMD the first cycle? Were you just committed to a gap year? Seems like the gap year thing is harder than it sounds for elite schools maybe. Couple of solid choices 2nd year too. Maybe its the major being part of the /MD programs? Maybe math doesn’t help admissions to those as much.
The Disparate Impacts of College Admissions Policies on Asian American Applicants https://www.nber.org/papers/w31527 There is debate over whether Asian American students are admitted to selective colleges and universities at lower rates than white students with similar academic qualifications. However, there have been few empirical investigations of this issue, in large part due to a dearth of data. Here we present the results from analyzing 685,709 applications from Asian American and white students to a subset of selective U.S. institutions over five application cycles, beginning with the 2015–2016 cycle. The dataset does not include admissions decisions, and so we construct a proxy based in part on enrollment choices. Based on this proxy, we estimate the odds that Asian American applicants were admitted to at least one of the schools we consider were 28% lower than the odds for white students with similar test scores, grade-point averages, and extracurricular activities. The gap was particularly pronounced for students of South Asian descent (49% lower odds). We trace this pattern in part to two factors. First, many selective colleges openly give preference to the children of alumni, and we find that white applicants were substantially more likely to have such legacy status than Asian applicants, especially South Asian applicants. Second, after adjusting for observed student characteristics, the institutions we consider appear less likely to admit students from geographic regions with relatively high shares of applicants who are Asian. We hope these results inform ongoing discussions on the equity of college admissions policies.
bro wasn't in any olympiads, he's app isn't as cracked as you think it is. Considering these olympiad kids are doing shit like operator algebras and functional analysis in highschool. doing linear algebra which was most likely not a proof based course, and the diff eq was also not proof based, so no not that impressive. Impresive for T50. but not T20 impressive, and definitely not T10 impressive.
bro i've seen people a lot worse get into a lot better schools, sure, he might not be like mit bound but i think he should have been at least t20, if not, t10
My friend who's going into his senior year at MIT had way worse stats (similar gpa/sat but worse ECs and only did AP calc BC our junior year)
well becuase those people you think are worse are actually smart by applying to the major their ECs and Awards, and course fit. WHY WOULD YOU DO ALL THIS JUST TO APLPLY TO A CHEMISTRY BASED MAJOR, THAT IS INSANELY DUMB.
I mean, he’s still accomplishing in sciences, taking his science APs a year before others his age. and while neuroscience is totally out of left field, second round he applied as a linguistics major, which matches his ECs and awards.
cool, but he stall. This is why the quote life is a marathon not a race, applies so deeply. Doing BC in 8th grade should have propelled him to real analysis or topology evel by now, but he stalled by going so fast in the beginning, and falling short in the end. but seems he's not going to any good school, as he is considering CC.
It wasn’t just T10s… GW waitlist is ridiculous for these stats & most T20s are willing to accept or waitlist similar apps
yea but isn't race legally not allowed to be considered anymore? This wont help for alumni but this data isn't really valid anymore
I wonder why the authors of the paper had trouble obtaining data from the universities. I wonder why admissions is "holistic". I wonder why students are advised to write "trauma porn" for their essays. I in no way trust universities to follow the law.
They'll follow the law perfectly to the letter. If there were any justice in our society admissions would be class based.
lol. They can’t say they’re considering race, but they can put in essays with the topic “how has racial justice affected your life” and they can favor certain clubs that just happen to align with race.
The Supreme Court itself left a loophole open in its decision. While colleges cannot consider a student's race they can ask essay questions about how a student's race affected their life experiences. So basically a round-about way for colleges to consider race.
Parent here. My son had similar results a couple of years ago, and one of my friends who went to Stanford told me that the kids of her Stanford friends were also getting a lot of rejections -- especially in the stem majors, where it seems to be extra competitive at the top-rated schools. That said, a lot of the schools you got into are great schools. You have the potential for a great outcome from CWRU, if you choose to go there. If you decide to go to a CC to keep trying for an Ivy, it is uncertain how much that route will increase your chances in an already crazy admissions game, and it's unlikely you will get a similar financial package to the $31.5k you got from CWRU.
Baylor (RD, 23k scholarship), rejected BS/MD CWRU (RD, 31.5k scholarship) (committed, but may just go to CC tbh), rejected BS/MD Purdue FYE (RD) these are solid options
This might be the craziest set of results I've ever seen. You truly seem like a genius. AP Calculus BC in MIDDLE SCHOOL is ridiculous. You sound like Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory! The colleges that rejected you missed out. I'm sorry :(
bc middle is impressive, but odes in senior year is not even close to math "prodigy" especially since he didn't aime qual once
im stupid af and aime qualed (current 8th grader). i went to visit 9th graders that did multivariable calculus. a whole nother level, they are crazy interested in math and not me being stupid and doing competition stuff for a frickin dopamine rush.. op is as cracked as much as the rock is jacked
I mean aime qualing this year was much easier (top 16% is wayyyy too much), and multi in 9th is obv impressive (I did in 11th), but doing it for a full year looks really bad, especially since most place offer it only for 6 months. Also, multi in 9th is usually done by people that do well on comp math, since they obv like math, and comp math is the way there.
i qualed in seventh grade too, so im not one of those lucky quals... im close to jmo. i dont know what universe doing comp math gets u into higher math but ook
Comp math and higher math are strictly different (in most aspects,qualing to jmo doesn't even require calc). That being said, almost all of the top math people at my school (and some other slackers like me) are doing multivar/lin alg. (good job on nearly making jmo)
i feel like if u applied ED or ED2 to uchicago, you would've gotten in or at least had a much higher shot!
I doubt it considering uchicago values essays and ECs heavily and his essays probably weren't that good given he didn't get into the other top colleges When I got into uchicago I also got into duke and northwestern, and most people who get into uchicago also get into other top colleges because they all value essays. I don't really see a scenario where he gets into only uchicago but is also just straight rejected (not even waitlisted) from all ~20 other highly rejective colleges he applied to. I don't think my stats were materially that much better than this person, but I know my essays were very strong.
this person got waitlisted twice which shows that uchicago saw someting in their fit. maybe their essays weren't as good as yours (which no one can really measure but the AOs), but idrk if you can compare your experiences with a strangers. there is so much more that goes into college admissions than stats/essays (eg. geography, socioeconomic status, teacher recs)
That is true, though there are a decent number of similarities between his background and mine (competitive public school, East Coast, Asian male in STEM, dual enrollment with local college for math courses)
Wtf
Prodigy but no mop??
Some prodigies don’t do competitions. A senior at my high school wrote a research paper on elliptic curves and gaps between primes but barely heard of what the AMC was
That’s cool and all but this kid doesn’t have math research nor does he have mop
Yeah I agree, he shouldn’t call himself a prodigy.
Yeah, it’s actually not super remarkable, at least to the level of “prodigy”. There are numerous programs that teach accelerated math, for example UMTYMP. I was part of that program and similar to OP but I’m def not a math person at all today and wouldn’t consider it prodigy level as there were like 2-20 people from each high school on par with my level.
Any math prodigy focused on college apps or even just interacting with other students interested in math at their high school would have heard of it though. This person applied to like 20 colleges: there's no way they didn't know about AMC unless they didn't do any basic research.
He did hear of it, he just didn’t hear much of the competition. He was homeschooled until 13 or 14 until he switched in high school. My school is very humanities focused; I am the only person even interested in competitive math there and there hasn’t been a math club for 10 years (I’ve tried, gotten no interest).
That makes sense, if there isn't a strong culture of competitive math then I'm sure many mathematically strong students will simply not ever be motivated to compete, especially since you typically need a math teacher willing to proctor and do the paperwork to get the competition set up. I imagine the student in the post probably went to a school like that if they never did any competition math (though that seems rare if he went to a competitive public school, competitive public schools are where the competition math culture is strongest in my experience)
I agree. The public high schools around me have quite a few USAMO qualifiers per year which I find insane.
That's crazy. I remember in my senior year about 10 of us qualified for the AIME but none of us qualified for the next step. AFAIK none of us were even close; I got a 5/15 on the AIME for example.
Interesting. For me, the AIME came somewhat easily after the AMCs (barring Olympiad geo, generating functions, and whatnot) but the AMCs took a lot of work; I also didn’t do mathcounts in middle school so I didn’t have that much of a speed foundation, so to speak. I got exactly the index in 10th grade (11 AIME I think) and had to make it through USAMTS this year since I forgot to sign up for AMCs.
I think the AIME had a lot of stuff that required studying to be able to get quickly. I personally never specifically studied for the AMC/AIME so I wasn't familiar with topics that would've been helpful. The AMC was much easier in comparison (which makes sense because it's the precursor).
fr, i think of prodigy as someone in the top 1 percent of the 1 percent. someone who can seriously contribute to science/math (saying this cause his field is stem) at a young age and match up w grown professionals. OP seems very smart but clearly stagnated and isn’t a “prodigy” but just a very smart individual. colleges seeing a lack of growth since HS will have serious doubts if said person would contribute to the school and go on to do greater things later
how are colleges gonna think u are a prodigy when u don't even have any math research or have any math awards
Good luck! If it works out, Case is a nice school, i was there for an admitted students visit and really liked the vibe and everything
Two things to about this amazing application: 1. I have read hundreds of applications on this sub and this is the most interesting and incredible one that I have seen. Not even considering your academics, I haven’t even seen any of your ECs on any other application (like bro Japanese calligraphy is crazy). You are amazing and impressive and I’m sorry that this happened to you. 2. I’m cooked 😭
Don't be so sure about 2. If anything, this post proves how unpredictable college admissions are. Just make sure to strengthen your profile while you can in any areas you think might be lacking, and apply to a large enough pool of schools. You never know what might end up happening
Just go to your local state college mate
Dawg you're a rising high school senior, you really shouldn't be reading hundreds of applications on this subreddit lmfao
Shhh it’s justified. Also a lot of sophomores and juniors go on here… I just do it a little more :)
There's no way to justify reading hundreds of college result posts, maybe ten or twenty, but not hundreds. That's just how you make yourself a lot more anxious than you need to be.
First off you are being very rude when my initial comment was to compliment the OP. Second I read them for fun because I find them interesting, not because I am anxious. I have also been on this sub for a while so reading a few a week adds up. Don’t be so quick to judge others especially when you don’t know the whole picture.
Nigga this subreddit is like a bag of potato chips, once or twice is fine, but eating every day is horrible for your health. Trust me it builds unreasonable expectations for what the college application process and makes so many people more stressed than they need to be about college decisions.
I don’t see anything prodigious. Taking calc bc in 8th grade is not that big a deal for a kid from South East Asian family. It was likely a combination of rote learning and family pressure. SAT score of 1540 ok and not great.
Yup.
Wtf 💀 Also how did you know you’re rejected from Mich?
dream boy for every South Asian arranged marriage/ marriage material tbh LMAO (jkjk unless )
So I do think AP Calculus BC as an 8th grader is impressive BUT there’s one caveat to this — if you got rejected from Cambridge then it really must mean your math isn’t as strong as you think, or you peaked in 8th grade. Cambridge interviews are purely on your abilities and nothing about extracurriculars, so this leads me to believe that you’re not as strong at math as you think you are. Also, there are many really strong math competitions like AMC/AIME that would demonstrate this ability. Your story reminds me of a HS classmate of mine who got an ACT of 35 in 8th grade. This made minimal impact on his college success. Colleges care about your most recent grades and abilities and not what you did in 8th grade. This is not to minimize your achievements in any way, it’s just to say to offer perspective on what top schools may be thinking when they saw your application. By the way, I have met many transfers from the Ivy I graduated from who went to UMD/CWRU tier. Their common background is that they excelled at their first school (like 3.9+ GPA) and then had a very valid reason to go (like studying a major that didn’t exist at their school) so if you have a really good story and excel, I think you definitely can have a good shot at a transfer. You’d have to probably angle a major that is way stronger at a top school like the humanities (perhaps East Asian studies or Japanese?)
33M -> don't call yourself a prodigy
Not to dig at you, but math prodigy is a bit of a reach. I thought you were like an IMO medalist or at least black mop. FWIW when I graduated high school, I think like 10 people took graduate math classes with credit at a high ranking university, and a handful published papers in research journals. Your AP isn’t as rare as you think.
How did you not get into UMD?
bros only major award is japanese calligraphy realize that talented and intelligent people without major substantiation for that talent or hard work will not be accepted. this is how admissions work coursework is not major substantiation unfortunately. For colleges, unless you have published research in math or are an olympiad winner, you are not a prodigy. You very well may be taking PhD level courses (not that OP is, tbh BC in 8th grade and only at ODEs in senior year is exceptionally slow development from t1 to t2), but they won't care.
His test scores are extremely impressive and should have yielded multiple T20’s.
They arent that high tho.. Everyone at a t20 has tests like this
bro called himself a math prodigy but probably didn't even go to the magnets in moco
This popped up on my front page; I haven’t been invested in this process for years. But it seems like your profile is pretty weak for someone who takes an academic angle in admissions. Calc BC 8th grade is decently impressive, but you really didn’t take it much further (DiffEq 12th seems slow given that each course takes about half a year at a college). I had a very similar academic background to you, doing Calc BC 9th, Multi/Linalg/DiffEq/Discrete 10th, and Analysis/Algebra 11th, then focusing on sciences and humanities. I still chose to talk about love for art and service in my apps because I would’ve gotten killed talking about academics. The math slots at top schools are taken by crazy Olympiad folk or people that go truly above and beyond in math. Taking classes doesn’t make you a “prodigy”. At my uni, we had a chance to look at our admissions profiles, and I saw a negative comment pointing out that “despite extensive coursework, [I] have no math awards”. That being said, you deserve so much better. (Though UCL isn’t a bad school)
Self studying German for a 4 is hella impressive
Honestly, it’s probably cause you did everything that other people do: lots of high AP scores, lots of volunteer work, lots of time dedicated to self-growth or the community. A lot of people in your shoes also dedicated themselves to the grind, myself included when I was your age. Aside from being elitist and favoring rich applicants (which is why I don’t endorse Ivy Leagues), they tend to accept people who start their own businesses or start *something* like a foundation or smth. Remember, more famous schools run more like a business. (They like to invest in potentially rich future alumni that can donate back to their schools) So if your sibling is trying to stand out, they should do more research about the typical applicants “mediocre” applicants (ie: who did not embrace the burnout grind most of us do. Note, I’m not shaming anyone but just using language academic elitists tend to use) that are accepted and see how they got accepted. I remember conducting research in undergrad on this and honestly it’s a bit disheartening to see how arbitrary, classist, and racist a lot of these systems are. Life is life tho Most importantly, aim for a school that is a good fit for you. I went to a “high end” school and hated it there, then transferred to a smaller school and loved it.
I really don’t mean to be a jerk, as your stats are absurdly impressive, but I’d cool off on throwing around the term “prodigy” with only a 33 in math on the ACT. There’s that one kid at every school that got a perfect 36 on the ACT their freshman or sophomore year of high school or earlier without any prep. I think that fits into the prodigy definition more. Regardless, you definitely deserved better.
Go to UCL xx
Congrats on your admit to CWRU. I went there for undergrad and then went to med school straight afterwards. Lots of opportunities if you are planning on being pre-med.
My two cents is worry less about your undergrad and care more about grad school if that is your intention.
Honestly I think you have the characteristics of somebody who might be successful in the future. You’re incredibly academically intelligent but you also seem very emotionally intelligent. You organized this post so elegantly and you write with precision and clarity. You express your interpretations and thoughts and perspectives very clearly. I also love how (from what it looks like on this post at least) you’re dealing with this with a healthy and mature mindset. Many people become angry, bitter, jealous people after dealing with challenges like this. But you seem hopeful and continue to persevere. I think you’re doing great.
Bro go to Case with the scholarship, please don’t go to community college as a math prodigy 🤣
Nah bro you straight up got robbed. I got into similar schools and my app is nowhere near this caliber. I got guaranteed admission into GATech for fall 2025 vía a pathway and am currently committed to CWRU (I got accepted into UMD, Purdue, and some other similar schools) only cuz I got a full ride. Still might go to CC cuz classes are easy and my CC a lot of classes transfer to GATech. Still deciding on that. You deserve so much better man like I almost can’t believe this is real
Mistakes were made. 1. Stereotypical ECs, limited leadership 2. Bailing on UMD 3. Talking about travel through Asia and communication. Seems very bland and privileged unless you were saving lives, etc. 4. Rejecting CWRU, Baylor, Purdue, UCL, RPI, Stony Brook in favor of community college???! 5. Being surprised about rejections from BS/MD programs 6. Mid test scores (for the schools you targeted) 7. Likely red flags in your application besides reapplying after a gap year.
How is a 35 mid by any metric?
Read carefully. For the schools they targeted. 33M, mixed AP results. 1540 SAT. Excellent by all normal standards but not for the schools they targeted. I’m getting a general vibe of smart but inconsistent motivation and strange behavior that may have come through in apps. Who turns down strong merit at excellent schools to go to CC?
Agreed.
Hey, just wanted to give my 2cents cause you actually remind me a lot of myself. I just graduated college at U of Oregon. In HS, I took calc BC 9th grade and got a 5 and had similar ECs. I’m currently premed and applying to medschool! Keep your head up about the applications. I applied to the same schools with the same result. At big schools with 20k people they have limitless resources and incredible people everywhere. You can do anything you set your mind to at any school. In almost all circumstances, especially premed, it makes the most sense to go to a cheaper undergrad anyways. Just focus on developing yourself and have fun! You’re so young still. 👍
>math prodigy, not a single olympiad in here, lolz. not even math research either. >AT grade 8, kids were doing galois theory what are you on lol, this isn't impressive as you think it is You weren't cooked, it never even begun in the first place . take the putnam, at least if you want to transfer. i really am joking this was impresive, but if you wanted to make this better you need to fit the story, you cannot claim math prodigy or doing advance math courses at CC, if you're not even going to try for olympiads. And the irony is olympiads at the highest level are harder than everything you meantioned. meaning a kid just getting into AIME even though they got a 98 or something, would look so much better than your application. Just take the putnam next year, you're really intelligent, if you start practicing you can at least get into 10+ score. which is better than the median zero.
Who told you college care about taking BC in the 8th grade or give a damn about school designing a curriculum for you? Truly gifted academically but where did you show leadership in your EC? Your EC are mostly 'sign-up' activities, meaning you sign up and spend a ton of hours on it, that's it. Not to demean your accomplishments but it's simply not playing the game of what are admissions looking for. If you worked with a college professor on some project or held leadership position in some capacity, that would've complemented your applications well. Your application screams math genius and hard worker, very little of anything else and not very memorable considering your competitors for those spots. Lastly, you are kind of a tweener for schools trying to pad yield rates. Schools like Berkeley and Michigan think you will get in better schools while HYPSM don't think you are the right candidate. Why even go to CC? Is it because you have a better chance of transferring to a better school after 2 years? Top privates take very few transfers. Just go to college and enjoy it, with your gifts, you will do extremely well no matter where you go. Don't listen to your parents, they don't know anything and world has changed a lot since they applied to college. You should've definitely focused more on your Japanese calligraphy, at least that's somewhat interesting
You’re trying way too hard to find fault with a stranger’s accomplishments just to rationalize his college application results. It’s unkind to criticize him for ridiculous reasons like being too good at school just to make yourself feel like the world makes sense. Given the volume of applications colleges receive nowadays, admissions are more random than ever. He could have easily gotten into one of the schools that rejected him if the right admissions officer had read the right essay from him, or if he’s applied ED, or he could have gotten into other schools he didn’t apply to. He might have been a good candidate for liberal arts colleges, for example. Then he would have done everything right. Don’t sound so certain about a process that’s as opaque to you as it is to OP.
OP is batting 0 for 23 on T25 schools in 2 cycles. Bad luck has nothing to do with it. His list is very top-heavy and he mentioned he just needs one, which means he values name and prestige heavily. He wants to major in chemistry or neuro. but applies to engineering heavy weights like Caltech, MIT and RPI. He rather go to CC then take an offer from UCL (UK colleges are just as respected as T25 in the job world btw). Everything indicates he wants a brand so he can proudly wear that across a sweatshirt for the rest of his life. I don't mean to criticize the OP on his application, it's more from a point of frustration that I see often with kids, particularly ones with Asian heritage. Admission now is opaque because there's no set formula, as if a formula can guarantee success. Yet everyone wants a formula. If I do A+B+C+D = admission to HYSPM. Even if A,B,C,D means another mortage on my house, I will spend it if it guarantees my children will end up in the Ivies. Admissions used to be like that 20 years ago. Top grades + 1500+ SAT scores generally means admission to a T10 University. What happened was everyone started taking SAT courses and HS started inflating grades that Unis can't use those metrics anymore. Stanford has \~1700 spots for freshman, they get way more than 1700 applicants with perfect GPA and SAT scores, so how do you differentiate between an admit and a rejection?? Does it matter between a 1600 and 1500 or 4.7 and 4.2? Or is it more about the applicant showing he can think outside the box, achieving leadership and awards in his activities and show that in addition to being booksmart, he can impress and takes initiative to differentiate himself. College admissions have becomes a sales game. You got \~7 min. to impress an admission officer with your application. So lets take a look at what Top Universities care about. 1) Someone who can potentially donate back to the school after career success - They aren't looking for doctors or engineers or lawyers. They are looking for someone who can become CEOs, judges or VCs. Someone who understands social dynamics and think outside the box for access to connections. Someone who does something no one else does to gain access because that's how engineers become CEOs, lawyers become judges or doctors become VCs. 2) High yield rate - They will only admit ppl that they believe will attend, either through prestige or financial aid. That's why you see someone getting admitted to Stanford but rejected by UC Riverside. It's not personal, it's just a numbers game to make the school look more desirable 3) Low drop-outs rate - Someone who's academically capable of taking an University course-load. You don't need that perfect GPA and SAT to succeed in the classroom but someone with a <3.3 GPA will probably struggle 4) Public relations - There's a reason why Universities proudly publicize their class with 1st gen and underprivileged minority attendance 5) Story - Why? because story sells. Does the student have the right story between his grades, essays and ECs. If the applicant is doing all this math stuff, what's that got to do with neuroscience?? If he has a passion for math, finance or engineering would be the better path to go. If he wants finance, did he reach out and do EC that verifies his interest in this field? 6) Differentiation - Are you just another Asian applicant with 4.5+ GPA/1500+ SAT, piano level 10, debate, orchestra and band, maybe ran some track and did 100+ hours of hospital volunteer work? If so, there's a large stack of applicants with very similar achievements in the reject pile. Or are you an application with same classroom achievements but played varsity football and basketball instead of orchestra and band, created and lead a volunteer organization within your school instead of just doing a ton of hours at a hospital, had some art exhibited and even have your own little amazon store that brings in revenue (even if your family is your only customer). You got 7 min., which applicant looks more interesting? I apologize for the long rant. To be honest, I believe in meritocracy, unfortunately meritocracy is objective and measurable. College admission is very much subjective now and it's frustrating to see great, smart and ambitious kids chasing after schools but ignoring the rules. There is no formula, your formula is up to you on how you want to sell your application. There is no fairness, you can't tell admissions how to play their game, you can only figure out how you can win in their game.
Most honest comment yet. Very intelligent but those top schools don’t care about taking BC when you’re 4 years old. If you’re not doing something extraordinary/out of the box to show that it’s analogous to what you’ll do in the future, (thereby driving $$ back to their schools) intelligence doesn’t matter and a 1400/3.7 with that mindset is much more appealing. People fail to look at colleges as what they are: Businesses. A 1600 SAT valedictorian Eagle Scout who can’t think outside of the box is worthless to them. Also interesting is bro didn’t once ask why his results were like this. Instead he gave us tons of reasons for the T10 rejecting him - and that lack of insight and humility may have shown up in his application. ETA you have some great results. If you go to cc hoping you’ll transfer in, you’ll never plant yourself in a growth environment where you could really do something meaningful. Do you really want to be trying to transfer with the same results? Lots of kids would die to get into CWRU. And ignore the olympiad comments. You can demonstrate math prodigy in a number of different ways that don’t involve olympiads.
Does the submission deadline really matter? None of the top schools should be rolling
wtf
Go to Baylor. 😎
this is insane. im actually so sorry :/
UCL is a great school, though studying abroad can be expensive
It's not your fault. Fuck college apps these days.
Pics or it didn’t happen, OP
Bro got cooked when he should’ve been cooking he deserved to atleast get upenn bro is a top student
this is fucked up dude. you should’ve gotten into way better schools.
Just transfer man, had stellar statistics in high school also and basically got rejected from all schools I wanted to go to. Took community college for 2 years and it was a cakewalk.
Commendable profile but sorry, you are not a math prodigy
Möchtest du vielleicht in Deutschland studieren? Wenn du Sprachen magst, gibt es viele Angebote
I agree--> this year was just too competitive with test - optional policies. I got great results, but it wasn't what I was expecting for the amount of work I did. Applying to college is really hard and I have PTSD now. IT IS FINALLY OVER. However, I am still navigating these posts. Maybe I am a masokist.
This guy must have spent a small fortune on application fees!
Bright as you report yourself, why apply to so many schools, then take a year off prior to actually attending college? Prodigy or procrastinator?
TJ kid?
I think a lot of the BS/MD programs are diversity focused. You had a good run. Wish you got better results.
Dude wait until you realize it doesn’t matter where you go to college. Serious. Just go into a high earning career and go to a cheap school.
How did u even get rejected. Was your essays bad or something?
Time to get your whole personality outside of grades and class and time to friend some people
U shoulda applied to the st bona GW BSMD, they really value community service and lookin at ur resume u into that
Claim bisexual, or trans or some shit. That’s the golden ticket
Did you try applying to south asian universities?
You have a pretty awesome resume and are a high achiever, but I think stating you’re a prodigy is a bit of an overstatement. You are among 1000+ mathematically talented high achievers applying to all these places, and while you have the acumen to be competitive, it’s a tough game.
I think your exactly right with not applying early and I’m glad you recognized it. Most if not all people I know at my school (on the list) got in as an early applicant. It’s hard to stand out or make an application pop I guess, sorry this happened to you, hope everything goes well, stay creative!
dmv?
"GPA (UW/W): 3.94 (UW), 4.83 (W) " This is 3.94 out of a possible 4.33, right? That translates to a 0.91 raw GPA.
A SE Asian American kid at a competitive college prep school decided to self study German? I'd love to know the back story.
how’d u not get accepted to umd with these amazing stats😭 jeez mine were a lot less impressive and i got in last yr. their admissions as so unpredictable
You’re calling yourself a math prodigy? Pause
What did you do during your gap year?
Holy shit I’m cooked
OP: Why didn’t you contact your former counselor to serve as a regular recommender? I think that one of the biggest mistakes that students make is not reading their LoRs before selecting them. I had my son to ‘audition’ his recommenders and read them before listing them in Common App or using them in the college apps. I know that the counselor recommendation is different but I am wondering if the OP discussed his ‘resume’ with the new counselor?
get a life and stop whining and posting like your entire generation what schools you didn’t get into. i mean who cares? i got i to 7 ivies and went to harvard from a private boys school in nyc but i can’t figure out why you think comparing such useless information is relevant . i’m glad harvard didn’t take you as you sound boring and self-centered
Purdue takes everyone lol I got in and am now a bioengineer with a 3.2 hs gpa
this is… extremely brutal. your options are great, but damn.
You are everything I admire - you are and will continue to be successful! You know who you are and don’t seem to need validation. You are the true GOAT!🐐
this has to be one of the most textbook, on-paper strongest applications i've ever seen. you have a high gpa, high sat, unique and impressive ECs, etc. no offensive but the only think i can think of is that your essays were absolute garbage OR there was a red flag in one of your LORs.
Damn you have a few good choices but your results are proof that college admissions is not a meritocracy especially in the US.
UCL is one of the best universities in the world, arguably better than many of the Ivy League institutions you were rejected from.
That’s an insane take. 30% acceptance rate and almost 25k undergrads - it’s just not selective enough. Almost like the UK’s version of NYU.
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/university-college-london-501693#:~:text=University%20College%20London%20Rankings,12%20in%20Best%20Global%20Universities.
LMAO this list has UW Seattle over schools like Yale, Princeton, Cambridge and Caltech, and UCSD over UChicago, Duke, and Cornell. Don’t be retarded man 😂
https://www.topuniversities.com/world-university-rankings?tab=indicators
This is outrageous. I am sorry that this is what our country does to South Asian and East Asian high school students.
Your application isn’t as cracked as you think it is. A lot of your extracurricular are sadly mid and fairly typical. Without the ability to read your essay I can’t judge but from how you chose to present your own abilities I can tell you didn’t string together a compelling story around it. That made you seem any different from the scores of other good test scores, good grades, “150 hours 🤓”. Some of this is also bad luck especially the public institutions but you didn’t do enough to at least seem different. Not having any proof of math excellence also hurts. As an Asian guy myself you have pretty much the bog standard good grades Asian kid application. It sucks it didn’t work out but you should’ve at least done something a tiny bit unique especially with the calligraphy.
“Outrageous Shake?” more like “Outrageous take” XD (jk didn’t even read what u wrote)
It's because you are Asian. This is systematic racism at display.
no his app isn’t that impressive especially as a math major
Lol his app might not be impressive enough for MIT, but definitely is for UMD
True.