bay area asian is super proud but half-satisfied with results

I say smart because I'm a 1580 kid with 5s on all APs taken and not much stress from grades throughout high school. I say inexperienced because I think there were a lot of things I would have done to "boost" my college app if I had known going into high school (i.e. Science Olympiad, Math Olympiad, research).

Demographics:

• Male
• Asian (Chinese/Filipino)
• Bay Area
• High-Middle Income
• Private Catholic High School (~100 kids per class)
• Hooks: none lowk

Intended Major: Physics everywhere

Academics:

• GPA: 4.0uw, 4.63w
• Rank: 1, although my school doesn't officially track it
• 10 APs (including 3 senior year), 4 Dual Enrollment (all math, with the highest being differential equations senior year)
• Senior Year Course Load: Differential Equations, AP Chemistry, AP Lit, AP Gov

Standardized Testing:

• PSAT: 1520
• SAT: 1580 single score (800RW, 780M) [took it three times, got 1510 first time and 1530 second time]
• All 5s: AP Calc BC, AP CompSci A, APUSH, APWH, AP Physics 1, AP Lang, AP Stats

Extracurriculars:

1. ASB President (former ASB business manager): organized rallies, promoted school spirit, fostered community whatever whatever. i was most passionate about this EC throughout high school since I am very social and I love connecting with everyone regardless of age
2. Quantum Computing Mentorship: this lowk didn't result in anything. I had self-studied quantum computing beginning in April my junior year and became super passionate about it. I cold emailed so many bay area people but only San Jose State University grad students (who actually already graduated) reached back out. They helped me start a project comparing different quantum neural network architectures, though I never really finished it because I didn't think I had sufficient technology
3. Elementary School Tutoring Organization (Founder + President)
4. Varsity Volleyball Captain & Libero (4 Years)
5. Self-Taught Programmer & School Website Manager: literally taught myself coding languages, mostly Python and TypeScript (React + Next.js) and mostly worked on web development and deep learning
6. Girl's volleyball team/game manager (4 years)
7. Class Government President (fresh+soph)
8. Mathnasium Math Instructor (senior only)
9. FIRST Tech Challenge Founding Member & Lead Programmer (soph only): learned I didn't really like robotics all that much
10. Babysitter (soph + junior): for older sister's children

Awards/Honors:

1. National Merit Semifinalist
2. AP Scholar w/ Distinction
3. A $3,000 Math/Science Scholarship from school (1 out of all 400 students)
4. National Honor Society, Sociedad Honoraria Hispanica
5. $12,000 Presidential Scholarship from school (a bunch of students get this though)

Letters of Rec:

• My school is small so my teachers and counselor knew me very well and prob wrote very strong and personal ones (ap calc, ap phys, and ap lit teachers)

Interviews:

• I lowk just winged my harvard one i didn't really care all too much about it

Essays:

• I wrote my PIQs about the intersection between tutoring/Mathnasium and babysitting my 1-2 year old nephew, origami as my creative outlet (resourcefulness), dancing with my younger sister to bond, and my passion for quantum physics
• I wrote my Personal Statement about each one of my 9 cousins/siblings whom I have been particularly close with my whole life. I wrote about my unique dynamic with each of them, as I think they reveal a different side of who I am as a person and the lessons I've learned throughout the years. honestly, i didn't think this essay was all that good or outstanding but maybe the structure of it was unique.
• most of my supplementals revolved around my passion for quantum computing and how it started, my struggles with being short (both physically and figuratively) but how I've learned to love my height, and being athiest at a catholic school

Decisions:

Acceptances:

• SJSU
• Cal Poly SLO
• UC Santa Cruz (applied for free)
• UC Riverside (applied for free)
• UC Davis
• UC Santa Barbara
• UC San Diego
• UC Irvine
• UC Berkeley
• UCLA (I'll probably commit here lets goooo)

Waitlists:

• Princeton (pls accept me!)
• Columbia
• Cornell
• UPenn
• UChicago
• Northwestern

Rejections:

• Stanford (REA)

• USC (EA deferred -> rejected)

• Harvard

• Yale

• Dartmouth

I'm super duper happy and proud of my results. over the summer i got super stressed because i started comparing myself to other cracked students with national awards, novel research, and internships. I was also scared that i was just another basic smart asian chudburger. I barely had a job and most of my ECs revolved around school. when EA decisions started rolling around, i got stressed since people were getting accepted to USC but i got deferred and a lot of people had high expectations for me. however, when march rolled around and the UCs came out i was relieved. on ivy day i had really low expectations, so i was kind of shocked about all the ivy waitlists. I am also really satisfied about getting into all the UCs since the UCs have been pretty random in their rejections and acceptances from my school and the people I know (some people got into UCLA but not UCI or UCD, for example). i say i'm like half-satisfied, though, because those waitlists means i was qualified they just didn't have the space. woulda been nice to get one confetti screen :(. anyways if I get off the Princeton waitlist i'm off to new jersey asap. Columbia and UPenn I'll consider, and the other three i'm not even considering tbh.

anyways sorry for so much text i just haven't had the chance to really speak about this anywhere else