mel10,
UChicago
B.A., Sociology
A Sociology major with a background in activism in the fields of environmentalism, intersectional feminism, and anti-racism.
Features Included
7
Essays
8
Schools
7
Scores
5
Advice
10
ECs
0
Sports

Background

Hometown Cypress, California
GenderFemale
EthnicityAsian
Class of2021
First Gen College StudentNo

Results, Essays, and Advice

Accepted
Waitlisted or Withdrew
Denied
  • University of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
  • University of California - Berkeley (Berkeley, CA)
  • University of California - Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA)
  • University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA)
  • University of California - Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, CA)
  • University of California - San Diego (La Jolla, CA)
  • University of California - Davis (Davis, CA)
  • University of California - Irvine (Irvine, CA)
Tap/click a school logo above to view essays and advice specific to that school.

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL)

Applied for a B.A. in Sociology

Accepted and Enrolled Legacy: No

School Specific Essays

The word “environmentalist” always evoked images of wilderness adventurers and white hippie chicks, and certainly not me, so it never occurred to me to get involved in sustainability. Without realizing it, I had separated myself from the possibility of environmental work; I was too young, too inexperienced, not white enough, and not nature-chick enough to do something designed for folks who went on weekend trips to Yosemite in their childhood minivans. It only took one question to knock down this...
Read more...
Supplemental Essay: “Why us” school essay
892 Words
“And down you go Dr. Nebula!” My imaginary best friend Emily and I shouted, watching our arch-nemesis fade into the darkness. Armed with our wisdom, scoured from books in the Library of Evil that revealed Dr. Nebula’s weaknesses, and with the magic of kindness, we once again used our values to counteract the evil doctor. Triumphant, we escaped Dr. Nebula’s lair of Brussels sprouts and malevolent bumper cars, resolving our latest grand adventure. But alas, Emily and Dr....
Read more...
Supplemental Essay: Unique question posed by school
610 Words
Question 2 (Optional): Share with us a few of your favorite books, poems, authors, films, plays, pieces of music, musicians, performers, paintings, artists, blogs, magazines, or newspapers. Feel free to touch on one, some, or all of the categories listed, or add a category of your own. Books: Dragon Ladies: Asian American Feminists Breathe Fire by Sonia Shah: with a foreword from my personal idol Yuri Kochiyama*, this book is one of the only widely-distributed pieces of published Asian-American feminist literature,...
Read more...
Supplemental Essay: Unique question posed by school
1271 Words
Essay Option 2. Once, renowned physicist Werner Heisenberg said: “There is a fundamental error in separating the parts from the whole, the mistake of atomizing what should not be atomized. Unity and complementarity constitute reality.” Whether it’s Georges Seurat’s pointillism in “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte,” the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, quantum physics, or any other field of your choosing, when can the parts be separated from the whole and when can they not? —Inspired by Ender Sahin, Class...
Read more...
Supplemental Essay: “Why us” school essay
249 Words
Pursuing Sociology at USC will enable me to work toward my career interests in social justice from an academic and scientific lens, giving me the foundation necessary to positively impact the world. I look forward to conducting research by taking advantage of programs like the Dornsife Summer Undergraduate Research Fund with professors like Professor Rhacel Salazar Parrenas, whose research about Asian women and migration aligns with my personal intellectual interests and demonstrates to me the breadth of academic insight I...
Read more...
Supplemental Essay: Unique question posed by school
261 Words
Please respond to one of the following prompts below (200 word limit). USC believes that one learns best when interacting with people of different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. Tell us about a time you were exposed to a new idea or when your beliefs were challenged by another point of view. In my debate-camp classroom, my lab leader nonchalantly asked, “Do you do any environmental work?” My head shake was met by two words: “Why not?” This question knocked down my...
Read more...
Supplemental Essay: Unique question posed by school
142 Words
Short Takes 1. Describe yourself in three words: quirky, inventive, advocate 2. What is your favorite snack? (100 characters) what my family calls "crunchy pretzels" (fried lotus roots) 3. Favorite app/website Forest, a productivity app that plants trees 4. Best movie of all time Me & Earl & The Dying Girl 5. Hashtag to describe yourself #adorkable 6. Dream job Environmental justice researcher or community organizer 7. What is your theme song? No Rest for the Weary by Blue Scholars & Weary by Solange 8. Dream trip Eat at every 3 Michelin...
Read more...

School Specific Advice

How I chose schools to apply to
240 Words
(Note: my full list of colleges is not yet up because I am a high school senior and have not received all of my results. I am still waiting on decisions from Brown, Columbia, and Yale. I have also not formally enrolled in UChicago; again, I'm still a high school senior.) I regret applying to so many safety schools. I would recommend applying to ~2 safety schools (additional if you just really...
Read more...
How to increase chances at my school
234 Words
To get into UChicago, you really need to market your quirky, nerdy, interesting, and unique personality. UChicago also tends to, in my observation, admit a lot of politically-engaged students and debaters. The main place to show your personality is in the UChicago essays. What's great about UChicago is that there is no word limit; feel free to write fairly long, atypical college essays, although don't go overboard. Take an interesting...
Read more...

More Essays

These essays haven't been tagged by school. Click school logos above to see tagged essays.

General Admissions Advice

My advice about getting recommenders
276 Words
Here's some advice for the case in which, like myself, you never developed close personal relationships with your teachers. While, of course, I recommend that you start early and go in after class to ask for help, etc. to develop a bond with your teacher, the reality is, especially for us introverts, that doesn't always happen. In that case, write the best brag sheet ever. Your counselor probably has a brag sheet for you to give your recommenders, which is essentially a...
Read more...
What set me apart from other applicants
260 Words
I was able to set myself apart by strategically using my application to market my specific abilities and what I could bring to the school. I will go over some advice about how you can identify this for yourself, but for me, I marketed my consistent passion and advocacy for social change and anti-oppression. If you go through all of my activities, you will see a trend; wherever I went, I brought this spirit of social change with...
Read more...
Recommended summer activities during high school and college
156 Words
Here, I'm going to provide some general advice and then list some specific resources & advice for those of you that are interested in environmentalism, debate, or any of the activities I participated in. In general, view summer as a chance to expand upon whatever you're doing...
Read more...

High School Performance

Weighted GPA
4.41
 
Rank
Top 5%
 
Academic Performance in High School Steady

Test Scores

Highest SAT
1590
on 1600 scale
Highest SAT
2370
 
SAT Score Details
 
Original SAT Score2370
Other SAT Scores
SAT Prep

AP / IB Classes and Scores

Details11 classes and scores

Sports

Extracurriculars

ActivitiesNonprofit, NGO or Charitable Organization, Diversity Committee / Minority Initiative, Nonprofit, NGO or Charitable Organization, Debate Club/Team, Green Club, Nonprofit, NGO or Charitable Organization, Nonprofit, NGO or Charitable Organization, Nonprofit, NGO or Charitable Organization, Nonprofit, NGO or Charitable Organization, Nonprofit, NGO or Charitable Organization
Elaborate on Extracurriculars or Work

Experience & Awards

Volunteer Experiences
Awards Received

Similar Profiles

firenation
JHU


Accepted to Duke, Williams, Barnard, Pomona, Wellesley, JHU, UT Austin

Political science and creative writing student involved in parliamentary debate, literary magazines, activism, taekwondo, etc.
kimangela97
USC


Accepted to UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UCSD, USC, BU, CSULB

I am a current freshman at USC majoring in Occupational Therapy under the accelerated 5 year Bachelors to Master's program.
twc30
CMU


Accepted to CMU, Emory, Brandeis, Northeastern, Florida, RPI, Case, NYU

Proud Tartan. Born in Taiwan, teenage years in MA.
serendipitousl…
Harvard


Accepted to Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Wellesley, UC Berkeley, UCLA, BC, Tufts, Wesleyan, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCSD

Accepted with a C // Not-so-straight-A student from a LAUSD public school >> Harvard
mgoodyear
UChicago


Accepted to UChicago, UMich, Wisconsin, U Iowa

Went to a public high school, now Byzantine history major at UChicago. Experience tutoring and helping with college admissions.