chance me bay area asian guy
sorry if these posts are annoying but I already got my decisions back this year; I'm honestly just curious what people think i might have gotten into
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 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:
- 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
- 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
- Elementary School Tutoring Organization (Founder + President)
- Varsity Volleyball Captain & Libero (4 Years)
- 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
- Girl's volleyball team/game manager (4 years)
- Class Government President (fresh+soph)
- Mathnasium Math Instructor (senior only)
- FIRST Tech Challenge Founding Member & Lead Programmer (soph only): learned I didn't really like robotics all that much
- Babysitter (soph + junior): for older sister's children
Awards/Honors:
- National Merit Semifinalist
- AP Scholar w/ Distinction
- A $3,000 Math/Science Scholarship from school (1 out of all 400 students)
- National Honor Society, Sociedad Honoraria Hispanica
- $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)
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
Schools I Applied to:
- UC Riverside
- UC Santa Cruz
- UC Davis
- UC Santa Barbara
- UC Irvine
- UC San Diego
- UC Berkeley
- UCLA
- SJSU
- Cal Poly SLO
- UChicago
- Northwestern
- Harvard
- Yale
- Princeton
- Columbia
- UPenn
- Dartmouth
- Cornell
- Stanford (REA)
- USC (EA)
Posted Mar 30, 2026, 6:04 AM UTC
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