Black Mr. Frizzle gets SAVED by ONE T20 waitlist after straight rejections

Demographics

• Gender: Male
• Race/Ethnicity: Black
• Residence: Midwest
• Income Bracket: Low - > 70k
• Type of School: Private on scholarship
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): URM, First Gen

Intended Major(s): Education, Sociology

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 3.7
• Rank (or percentile): N/A
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 9 APs
• Senior Year Course Load: AP Gov, AP Euro, AP Calc AB, AP Stats, AP Physics 2

Standardized Testing

List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported.

• SAT: N/A
• ACT: 34 (36E, 31M, 36R, N/A S)
• AP/IB: AP Lit (5), AP Lang (5), AP Bio (4), AP Chem (4)
• Other (ex. IELTS, TOEFL, etc.): N/A

Extracurriculars/Activities

List all extracurricular involvements, including leadership roles, time commitments, major achievements, etc.

1. Summer Teaching Job x2, created my own curriculum, intern for English department, 9 weeks

2. Family Responsibilities - taking care of siblings most weekends and after school while parents worked

3. Created a cheap tutoring program for local kids in the community; ran through Zoom and sometimes in-person.

4. Volunteered with Black Men Who Teach

5. Started HOSA chapter at school and serving as President; this is when I was exploring my interest in pure medicine, now more focused on research and sociological elements surrounding healthcare.

6. Mentored by community college professor researching how income inequality and teaching methods impact educational outcomes

7. Teen community service board; participated in city volunteer projects like community cleanups, event donation drives, library, food pantry volunteering

8. Working at a movie theater last couple of years

9. Awards/Honors

List all awards and honors submitted on your application.

1. 100 hours of community service volunteering award at school x 4
2. Nothing else. Frick my life, where did y'all find competitions? 💔

Letters of Recommendation

(Briefly describe relationships with your recommenders and estimated rating.)

AP Bio: 6/10, I did good in her class but I wasn't even really that close with her, I did it because I needed a STEM and Humanities letter

Independent Research 8/10: I love her sm and I felt really close to her and she pushed me to explore my interests, only downside was I only had her for a semester but it was great one!

Interviews

I only interviewed for Georgetown and I got rejected, it felt fine to me, we vibed, but like lmao guess it wasn't that great...5/10

Essays

My essay focused on the importance of failure, how it can build confidence, and how my experience teaching middle schoolers during the summer changed the way I view learning and leadership. My essay was centered around growth essentially and I thought it was pretty fun, I dived into the antics of the kids and our film we made in the film course I designed.

Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)

Acceptances:

• UMN Twin Cities
• Fordham University
• Reed College (+ full tuition)
• Middlebury College (+ full tuition)
• College of the Holy Cross (+ 30k scholarship)
• University of Michigan (+ 50k scholarship, originally committed)

Rejections:

• Duke University
• Brown University
• Northwestern University
• Cornell University
• WashU
• Amherst College
• Williams College
• Georgetown (REA)
• JHU
• UChicago
• UNC Chapel Hill
• Tufts University
• Columbia University

Waitlists/Deferrals:

• Emory University
• Wake Forest University, deferred -> waitlist
• USC, deferred -> rejected

• !Vanderbilt University -> ACCEPTED 5/7 ( + full tuition, committed!!!) !<

Additional Information:

My best friend died in the fall which crushed me and I could barely focus on my essays. My supplementals were a hot mess, like really bad. I hadn't even made a final list of colleges and just spammed a bunch of schools I found that were prestigious and could give me money. Like, for example, JHU? Ivies? Out of state universities? I should've known some of these schools did not make sense for my intended path and rigor of application, so looking back, I wished I had made a more balanced list. But, ultimately, shotgunning worked out in my favor so I have nothing else to really say.

I had originally had a very tough decision to make between UMich and Middlebury. I'm very grateful to the schools I got into and I think what helped was focusing on researching unique elements of the school you couldn't find from a simple search. My final school is def taking a chance on me and I think my LOCI helped!>!anyways, Anchor Down! ⚓️🖤💛 !<