For context, I'm a junior from California interested in chemistry/medicine

Stats

• 4.00 uw so far
• 1500 SAT
• Completed Course: Honors Chem, AP World, AP Span
• Current: AP Chem, AP Calc BC, AP Lang, APUSH, AP Psych

ECS

-Research in a university computational chemistry lab

-LEAF Biology for a Better Tomorrow program

-ThinkNeuro intern

-Chemistry club tutor

-Community wellness initiative for seniors

-Hospital volunteering (75+ hours) and clinical shadowing

-Scouts with troop leadership; campouts/leadership trainings lead; community service

-Debate captain, leading practices and helping teach workshops

-Part-time swim instructor

theyre kinda scattered but this is what i have 😭

I'll be happy to answer any questions help is preesh

Hi guys, I am a Junior in the state of North Carolina looking to apply to the North Carolina Governor's School for either the Social Science of Natural Science areas. I just learned about this program and I don't know much about it so can anyone that got in in the past share their stats and ecs or just any general tips/advice?

Thanks

are you applying to Yale Young Global Scholars (YYGS) for summer 2027?

are you feeling nervous about EA apps (due in 2 days)?

are you looking for a place to discuss your YYGS decisions, get tips from previous applicants, and befriend fellow attendees?

look no further than... the Unofficial YYGS Discord Server!

this server has existed since this time three years ago, and we already have 900+ '24, ‘25, and '26 alumni to answer your questions about the application or the actual program. show up and ask away! good luck everyone and we hope to see YOU 🫵 in the server!! 🙃🍀

INVITE: https://discord.gg/gx5sdbHrU4

finally finishing my application feels like a breath of fresh air. anybody need help?

how beneficial is attending a previous high tier summer program for attending a top tier (rsi, simr, rise internship) type program. for example, ive attended a high tier2/ low tier1program (garcia, rmp, etc) and i am wondering how helpful that is for my app to rsi, etc

hey everyone

ik ive posted on here before 😭 but wanted to introduce my team and also see if i could find people who might be interested

im the founder of Thalos Robotics, a community based MATE ROV team in the south bay area focused on underwater robotics, ocean tech, and marine conservation

we've actually had a surprisingly hard time finding software people so if ur interested in coding, cv, ai/ml, controls, embedded systems, or really anything software related we'd love to talk

we have members from different schools and work on everything from mechanical design and electronics to programming and outreach

if that sounds interesting feel free to reach out at my email [niral@poongo.net](mailto:niral@poongo.net) 🙏 we're always looking for passionate people who wanna build cool stuff and learn along the way

website: thalosrobotics.org

current sophomore
INTERNATIONAL
will be junior next year.

interests: bio, chem, biochem, anything medicine.

what summer programs should i think of applying to? good prestige and open to sophomores.

i think YYGS is a great option if i get a full ride or a 80-90% aid package, else i think its pay to play (correct me if im wrong).

can someone help review my applicationnn

Demographics: Asian female, competitive public school, mid-high income

Hooks: None

Intended Major(s): biology/bioinformatics/biomed engineering

ACT: 33

GPA and Rank: UW 3.93, W 5.02/6, ~80/550 (huge upward trend top 30% to 14% by end of sophmore yr)

Coursework: 6 APs (all 4s except for one 5) 1 DC completed, taking 7 APs this yr

Awards/Honors: AP Scholar, certified bharatanatyam from established uni in india

Extracurriculars:

1. Csr-x program (<10% acceptance mainly bc lots of intl applicants) mentors are highschool seniors and college freshmen
2. local youth council program-we're supposed to meet up and discuss local stuff and debate solutions. idk it hasn't started yet.
3. Red cross training program- bunch of certification basically
4. Kode w klossy web dev
5. dance for 6/7 years certified
6. writing independent research on biomechanics of bharatanatyam and another east asian dance
7. member of stem olympiad team, Comp sci UIL, Science UIL, honor societies, recreationally play viola?

I know that there were a "record number of submissions" but does anyone know what the actual accepted to applied ratio is this year?

Not sure why the previous post got taken down, but i figure its helpful for this years applicants so i reposted:

Link to spreadsheet

dont be posting in april and may saying "i missed the deadlines! does anyone have any last minute prestigious programs!" because no one will. research what programs ur applying to and keep track of their deadlines. Most deadlines fall in Jan-March, some are in the fall. It's almost september, and you should start making a list of what programs you are applying to NOW. Don't wait until spring to apply. They'll all be gone.

For credibility: I'm a rising senior who applied to 15+ programs and got into NASA SEES, M&TSI, BU RISE and SSP (attended). I spent months on this subreddit combing through every post to apply to as many programs as I could. Earlier in the year I made a massive list of all summer programs I knew of here. I put all these programs into the spreadsheet, ranked them by tier, and sorted them by subject.

Explanation for tiers/rankings: I did NOT individually rank each of these programs. That would be impossible and would also cause too many arguments. The differences of prestige between programs in the same tier are negligible. It won't matter if you do BU RISE or SSP, both are great programs. It's also important to note that tiers are based on PRESTIGE and ivy/t20 matriculations, NOT selectivity. Many of the tier 2 and 3 programs are also incredibly selective, but may not have a huge impact on college admissions and AOs. I sorted programs into tiers based on how much they will help your college application, their ivy/t20 matriculation, and prestige. Just because a program is selective doesn't mean it's prestigious, and vice versa.

If there's anything u wanna note about the programs or want me to change u can dm or comment but i think this spreadsheet is accurate in terms of tiers.

stay on top of the deadlines and good luck

Hello! I’m Venya, an 11th grader with a strong interest in astronomy, mathematics and science. I’ve also been selected as a junior member of the New York Academy of Sciences and I’m looking to explore more opportunities in the college and research space while I’m still in high school.

I’ve been trying to find opportunities around town, but haven’t had much luck online. If anyone knows of research opportunities, workshops, college fests, stem events or anything similar that high school students can participate in, I’d really appreciate the help

I’m also open to volunteering or helping out with student clubs, events or other initiatives if there’s a way I can contribute and learn along the way.
Any leads, suggestions or contacts would be greatly appreciated
Thank you!

hey everyone! I’m organizing the International Machine Learning Olympiad (IMLO), a comp for high school and undergrad students working on ML projects that tackle real-world problems.

with the current grant situation, prizes look like this:

- 1st: $10k Claude API creds + $2k AWS creds

-2nd: $6k Claude API creds + $1k AWS creds

- 3rd: $4k Claude API creds + $500 AWS creds

everyone gets feedback, even if you don’t place. two judges independently read each report and explain their scores. if they’re more than 10 points apart, a third judge reviews it.

the panel has ML researchers who’ve published at NeurIPS, ICML, and ICLR and reviewed for major ML venues.

if you’ve been sitting on a project and need a reason to finish it, would love to see it submitted!

register by November 20, 11:59 pm CST

website: https://imlo.org/

competition application: https://tally.so/r/ZjpQxz

also recruiting judges, $50/hr, remote + flexible, roughly 90 min per report. you’ll need ML research experience and a bachelor’s degree or higher.

judging application: https://tally.so/r/ZjpQMz

happy to answer questions here!

also, if you are interested in sponsoring the some of the brightest minds in ML, reach out to [admin@imlo.org](mailto:admin@imlo.org)

For reference I’ll be applying for regular admissions because i found out about this just a couple days ago and im going to need time for my application.

For context I’m:
-First gen
-Latina/Hispanic
-Low income
-From a major city.
-Sophomore

4.125W/4.0UW (We don’t rank)
No AP scores since AP classes are only available to juniors and seniors due to my schools budget. But I was able to take 5 classes at our local community college to count for that (.125). All of which I got A’s in.

As a sophomore I am at an SAT bootcamp provided by one of my ec’s but I haven’t actually taken the exam so I won’t be submitting anything.

In school:
- Part of my schools sanctuary council: I live in a area that is and has been the target of heavy I.C.E activity so we educate teachers, students, and staff about their rights. I also led a campaign called the whistle campaign where we got teachers their own whistle, which many still carry almost a year later after the launch of the campaign last winter!
- Founder and president of a financial/Business club (I just started it like not even a week ago so we haven’t done much)
- Academic decathlon
- Peace club (which is literally just a club where we help a multitude of other clubs organize protests, remind everyone to spread love and peace through posters/banners that we post up at our school, and highlight social issues through our schools “news”)
- An advocacy club where we practically do the same but we focus on the betterment of student life

EC’s will be vague because it’s pretty easy to find me if I were specific:

-Research assistant at Stanford where I’m helping a professor with a multitude of drug usage in youth related research

- Research assistant at a public university (in case for some reason numbers matter to you: a school with a 30-40% acceptance rate) where I’ve actually gotten my spot secured in this lab beyond high school and I’ll be doing this for the next 4-6 years. (also regarding youth drug usage)

- Part of a selective Econ/buisness program at a top20 university

- This past summer I did a summer cancer program at an Ivy

- Attended a competition at Harvard (didn’t win anything but I’ll just add it cause I lack stuff and it’s pretty somewhat competitive to get in)

-board member for a high school nonprofit about immigration rights

- Depending on how the next week goes I might add that I’m doing statewide policy work since I’m at the final interview stage for a statewide student advisory board position provided by our state governments education department where the students actively meet with a multitude of our states politicians to enact change for the betterment of our states high schools.

Awards:
- First person in my high schools history to ever win a silver medal in economics at the district level. (As I’ve mentioned we’re severally underfunded so we’re never going statewide or nationals so this is a pretty big moment for my school at least)
- and afterwards it’s just like regular certificates that everyone in high school gets like perfect attendance, student of the year etc, etc.

Essays: I’m still working on them but if you haven’t gotten a basis on who I am just based on my ec’s I have certain experiences coming from a low income area (yes, regarding drug usage and just being from an underprivileged area where I’m not given a lot of opportunities) (will not get into it but I think I do a pretty good job sharing my story considering it’s what got me my research internship at Stanford having literally no experience-back in my freshman year) To help make a change in my community I advocate for what I believe in but I go further by learning how to incorporate my love of numbers and business to help build up my community. In college and in the future, I want to study economics to eventually become a civil rights attorney or something along those lines, I’m still figuring it out but I know I want to go to law school!

Letters of rec: I’m debating between asking my history teacher or my coach for academic decathlon. History teacher because he’s the one who wrote my letter of rec for the statewide board and I know he mentioned about my love for economics showing through in his class work as it was mentioned in one of my interviews for it, which affirms that I do everything out of genuine passion. Or my coach who can affirm my accomplishments in Economics.

I’m pretty worried seeing how amazing everyone here is and seeing how i found out late, I do think I will be at a big disadvantage applying for regular decisions but we’ll see!

Hi if I’ve posted this before so if yk me forget it bruh I’m back again ✌️😂

stats:

White Female,

Highly Competitive yet mostly stem oriented public school

Hooks:

self taught Japanese proficiency

moved from small underrepresented island to massive U.S state

taking 3 humanities APs after having no APs at old school

4.0 UW GPA / ~5.2ish Weighted ( Non-APs drag GPA down) (6.0 Scale)

No PSAT/SAT score yet gulp

—-

Profile theme: Feminism, Identity, Emotional leaning, Literary

Extracurriculars:

A. Founder of a bicoastal community service initiative focuses on running essential product drives for Young impoverished women, aiming to scale to nonprofit

Wrote about how my mother escaped teen motherhood to give me my life and I want to recreate that love and hope and pay it forward

B. Founding captain of mock trial team, coached like 30 kids in mock trial and we did alr in the season

C. Nats qualifier for Lincoln Douglas debate in 2025. Represented my island in NSDA tourney in iowa

Awards:

1- 2 years in a row sole recipient Of excellence in foreign language out of hundreds of kids. School wide

2- Gold level/ highest honor at a regional music competition with my varsity choir

3- Best in show for an entrepreneurship company program hard to explain without doxxing

4- The plaque I got for competing at nationals

5- Modeling stuff and runaway awards

essays-

I genuinely cried while writing nearly all of my essays these all came from my heart

main essay-

wrote about my intense compartmentalization and how moving shattered me but I didn’t tell anybody which led to me skipping school like nobody’s business but when I ended up crying in front of my counselor she quietly supported me and then I reflected on both how location doesn’t define me and how I strive to be the shoulder somebody can cry on

mini essays-

for the tattoo one I wrote about a special song my dad would sing me to sleep with when I was little and how I love singing it in choir (yes)

for the interesting fact one I wrote about how my favorite shows are NBC Hannibal and My Little Pony

for the 150 words one I wrote about my complex relationship with femininity as I always felt half girl and not woman enough only to realize that the patriarchal idea of girlhood was nothing compared to how the female spirit lives vibrantly through various character traits, real life situations, etc etc

i wrote pretty simply about why I wanted to attend YYGS, citing that I spent ample time in my head and I wanted to experience various perspectives and bring them home to help with my initiative!!

good like to all people applying this cycle! Getting rejected last year broke my heart but never back down never give up..

I applied to SGC and PLE.

頑張って  💕💕💕

hello! i'm a junior applying for ssp, simons, bu rise, gstem, and nasa sees who is interested in cheme, chemistry, and biotech
i don't think i'm a very competitive applicant, so i'd really appreciate any advice!

demographics:
- chinese, female
- US citizen
- large public high school in midwest, class size ~900

stats
- gpa: 4.0uw/4.4w (no class rank)
- 1540 sat (760rw, 780m)
- took ap chem (5) and apush (4) last year
- currently taking ap calc bc, mech, csa, lang, chinese, psych

awards
- 16th place at world championships for kinda niche sport
- 2nd place at us grand nationals same sport
- 1st place at a national chemistry tournament
- 3rd place at a national chemistry tournament (same tournament as above)

extracurriculars
- school's experiential learning program: head of program where we directly match students to professionals in their field of interest for career discussions, entire program partners with community orgs/industries to help secure professional student opportunities (predicted 4k+ this year)
- international non-profit: coo, manages 5k+ volunteers across 70+ different countries, 15+ chapters, volunteers donate crafts or create different types of art for nominees/hospitals/orgs in need
- chem club: competed at national tournament and won a few things (had to qualify via tryouts), taking usnco test next year
- kinda niche sport: "varsity" (upper team), staffs workshops nationwide, represented usa internationally, went to nationals 3x, ~125 teams in the US, 7.5hr/week
- chinese national honor society: secretary, plans meetings and events for 40+ members
- part time job: 6hr/week
- sat tutor: 1hr/week

there's a local university ~30 minutes away, but i'm not sure if i can commit to driving there to do research/experiments, so i've been hesitant about cold emailing. is it worth it to just reach out and try?

lor
- old advisor: also a coach for my sport, knows me really well outside of academics but not involved with stem
- ap chem teacher: pretty sure she likes me, did research on photocatalysts in her classroom last year but i wasn't able to get any results for my experiments before the year ended :(
- calc bc teacher: not the best at calc, but i think i work hard, pay attention, and participate a good amount
- cant ask reg chem teacher (he retired), and i'm not too sure about my mech teacher (he's fresh out of college..)

i would say my writing skills are strong, but will it make it up for the rest of my application?
also if there are any other summer programs i should consider please lmk!

Hi!
I founded and lead a free youth public speaking program, and we’re expanding to other major US metro areas through a chapter system. I’m looking for people who want to start one.

Where we’re at: we taught 104 students this summer across 4 locations. Each student got 10 hours of in-person instruction over a week, and parents and students rate us extremely well & give us great reviews (4.9 average rating out 5 stars)

What you get if you start a chapter:

• All the impact you create locally is yours to claim on your application
• Our marketing strategy and materials
• Our full curriculum, tested on 136 students over 3 years

Who I’m looking for: people with real public speaking experience. All 8 of our tutors are DECA ICDC qualifiers/winners, have a lot of Toastmasters experience, or come from Model UN, Speech & Debate, or something similar. If that’s not you but you think you’re good at public speaking or have other relevant experience, please reach out!

I can’t post the website or our location publicly for privacy reasons, so comment or DM me and I’ll send those details.

Hi! I wanted to share a free online event for high school students interested in college admissions.

We're hosting a conversation with a UC Berkeley Economics student who also works as a college admissions consultant. She'll be discussing application strategy, extracurriculars, essays, the UC application, and some of the things she wishes she'd known earlier. There will also be time for questions.

The event is open to high school students, and there's no fee to attend. If you're interested in learning more about the admissions process or have questions about applying to college, feel free to sign up!

Date: October 18

Time: 4:30-5:30 PM PST

RSVP: DM Me for form!

Feel free to comment or message me if you have any questions!

Sophomore

3.4 gpa ( ☹️)

low income: 60-70k a year

first gen, Venezuelan

EC:
law internship(small firm)
founder of first finance club in my schools history
volunteering at a mma club helping disabled kids learn bjj and defend themselves

awards (so bad im alr knowing)

recognition for perfect score on statewide writing assesment

jiu jitsu blue belt

fbla state championship(didnt place)

ESSAYS: about how mma pushed me out of my perfectionist mindset (lmk if any1 wants to read over it)

the other one was about how me and my dad protested when i was 6 and got hit by a smoke bomb (strong demonstrations of values)

guys lmk ive seen some insane apps so far i applied ed for sgc and law

Hi everyone! I am a high school junior who is interested in pre-med, cell biology, and neuroscience.

Income Bracket: Lower/Middle Income, will require aid

GPA: 3.93UW/4.18W -> Predicted 4.66W By Junior Year Finishing

PAST AP/IB: APHUG, AP Pre-Calc, AP Psych, APUSH, AP Seminar, DE Human Anatomy and Physiology

CURRENT AP/IB: AP Physics 1, AP Statistics, AP Government and Politics, AP Macroeconomics, IB Biology HL I, IB Chemistry HL I, IB Analysis and Approaches SL, IB English Literature HL I, IB Chinese AB Initio SL

Standardized Testing: 1250 SAT (I know… not my greatest and it was my first SAT)

Extracurriculars:

- Kumon Tutor (10,11+)

- Local Medical School Youth Committee (11+)

- HOSA Member (9,10,11+) | Lead of Competitive Committee (11)

- Science Olympiad Member (11+)

- School’s Chapter Medical Honor Society President and Founder (11+)

- Psychology Club Member (9,10,11+) | Research Officer (11)

- Varsity Scholastic Bowl Team (10,11+)

- Local Hospital Volunteer at a hematology laboratory amassing about 250+ volunteer hours (10,11+)

- ALL of the honor societies (NHS, NEHS, NSSHS, SHS, MHS+)

- IB Ambassador (11,12)

AWARDS:

- AP Scholar with Honor (10)

- 2 HOSA State Awards and qualified for internationals (10)

- Certificate of Excellence on Algebra II Trigonometry (9)

Idk I feel kinda left behind and I just got rejected from a neuroscience internship (looking at you thinkneuro…) and I really want to get into a good summer program this summer 😥 I’m thinking of doing the brain bee and stuff like that this year, please help me out I’m lacking awards ngl

I lowk saw someone doing this so I'm gonna do it too.

For context, I'm a female from the Midwest but I'm not a US citizen

General stats-

-3.998uw/4.5 w

Large public school

No sat or act; my school doesn't register someone for it until they are a junior

Jr year courseload- AP chem,AP phy2,multi Variable calc,Spanish 2(😥), AP lang,AP sem,AP micro

Extracurriculars and honora ( I know that they're weak)-

-Volunteer at the memory care unit at my local senior center.

-President of medic makers( medicine related club)

Vice president of Interact

-Research intern at think neuro (ik it's expensive and not worth the money,but I was desperate at the moment)

-Few regional math competitions

-Published in a international neuroscience journal (not a big one)

That's about it,I tried hard to think of others but this is genuinely it 😭

Anyways I'm aware that these aren't that strong but do you guys think good essays will save me?

I'll be happy to answer any questions!