LATAM Student | Bio-related major | Yale REA, Ivies & T20s

Demographics: Female, LATAM (low-income, but not first gen) Attended T10 national public boarding school w/ scholarship. Currently in my gap year.

Intended Major(s): Anything Biology-related

ACT/SAT/SAT II: 1540 (790 math, 750 r&w)

IB: 37/42 (I know it seems low, but it was the highest score in my class. Kinda worried about it not being competitive enough) 66% of my schoolmates score between 24-29 (or even less) out of 45.

I'm explaining in additional info my school's hardships: school underwent a mudslide, a wildfire and severely reduced financing for IB studies from government).

Course rigor: Took Math AA HL & History SL (instead of History HL & Math AA SL) and Bio SL (instead of other science in SL; there was no HL). My school didn't allow me to choose other subjects beyond that.

UW GPA and Rank: 3.95, 1/250

Awards:

• Bronze Medal at Intl Natural Science Olympiad, Natl Mathematics Olympiad (w/ +1M participants) & Ntl Math Contest (the oldest competition in my country)
• Fully-funded scholarship for Intl Science Exchange at Japan & intl research program.

Extracurriculars: (Had classes for around 11 hours per day, so I didn't have that much time to pursue a lot of extracurriculars during my HS years)

1. Science Olympiad (basically summarizing part of the honors). I was recommended to include it as an extracurricular because my school had no training program for it and apparently AOs can sometimes skip honors. (11, 12)
2. Founded NGO that led preparation program for national applicants competing for a scholarship at the boarding school I studied in. Arranged +80 Math/Verbal Aptitude lessons for 2k public HS students, trained 100 mentors for +300 mock interviews; edited 30 class videos w/ around 200k views. (10, 11, 12, PG)
3. Research/robotics project on soil bioremediation. Modeled an Arduino-based robot applying biomimetics principles for the agricultural sector for farmers in my country. (11, 12, PG)
4. Neuroscience research (w/ orientation from a PhD student) on gut-brain axis, anorexia nervosa and appetite (Did not include STEM supplemental for Yale, but hope to finish my paper to submit it for RD when possible) (PG)
5. Cultivator of edible/medicinal mushrooms at small enterprise. Developed method for mushroom growth with recyclable materials, assisted over +50 customers with mycology questions (+$600 in revenues). Sold mushroom grow kits for beginners (PG)
6. HS Biology Club (President). Adapted statistical genetics lesson for +400 middle and elementary school kids attending nat'l science fair. Led olympiad prep for 40 students and built website for sharing study resources. (10, 11, 12)
7. STEM Summer Program at an Ivy. Did final project on Neuroscience, hunger hormone and bulimia nervosa patients (12)
8. Participated as Main Speaker at nat'l school forum organized by my country's government in the Public Health Chamber. Advocated for rural hospitals' autonomy over their health budgets (11)
9. Project on predicting chronic diseases through clinical datasets (applied Machine Learning & biostatistics) (PG)
10. HS/Local soccer team player and captain . Arranged +60 trainings, competed in regional tournaments since 6th grade. Created HS team uniform. (9, 10, 11, 12)

Essays: Main one talks about surviving public transportation in my hometown (shift from competitive to collaborative) (I'd say it's a 9/10, got it revised by over 10 individuals saying it showed how I viewed the world) Supps may be a 8.5/10

LORs:

Counselor (& Bio teacher): I asked him to include a fundraising campaign I led to ensure the participation of my school's 1st team to a particular int'l Olympiad.

Math teacher: Told me he included an anecdote on how we first met (because of a math olympiad) and my perspective on women in STEM. I asked him to include the fact that I had 8 (out of my 13) IB exams, and two other national math competitions (in which I got two bronze medals at national level) scheduled in the same week.

History teacher: Idk, hope it's decent as I was the best student at her class. I did a lot of tutoring for my classmates, so she's probably including that.

Schools: Yale REA (already submitted), possibly applying Duke/Johns Hopkins EDII. RD for Columbia, Brown, Princeton, NYU, Pomona, Northwestern, Rice, Stanford, Williams, NotreDame, Bowdoin

Do you know any other school with a great biology program that offers full financial aid for international students?