- Nora Sun
Tags: Stanford, international
Institution: Stanford University
Study: Major in mathematics
High School Experience
I did Brazilian high school, pretty standard, no IB or AP classes. Here we have a lot of every subject, and everyone must do everything on an "intermediate" level, which I think it's nice cause I liked all subjects. But I wasn't able to get ahead in math due to this, which I hope doesn't harm my college development
Course choices
I did a scientific initiation on high school, which was about statistics and sociology. There I fell in love with mathematical modeling.
AP/IBs
None
GPA
3.97 unweighted
Standardized Testing
SAT: 1420; 740 math, 680 reading
SAT Math 2: 760
SAT Biology M: 740
Extracurriculars
I won a school merit scholarship, which also gave me the opportunity to be valedictorian in my graduation. I was also a football and basketball player for five years. I was elected Class Representative for the School Committee.
I was an assistant teacher at mental paralysis Institution Cruz Verde. During 2019, I organized protests and strikes on Fridays For the Future, against deforestation in the Amazon. Now, in my first semester in college, I am a volunteer teacher in a popular pre-college support school.
Since 2017, I also attended fairs with my sociology project. I won awards in: Genius Olympiad (US), MOSTRATEC (BR), Exporecerca Jove XX (SPAIN), and FEBRACE (BR). We lectured at Facebook headquarters event and we gave a TEDx Talk. My short story “Laranjeiras” was selected to go to a book and I won an award for an autobiography I wrote. other awards: Gold Medal at International Olympics Mathématiques Sans Frontières, at Interscholar Biology Olympics and at National Geography.
Recommendations
My teachers really liked and cared for me. I had a very paternalistic relationship with both of them, and they were quite important for emotional and academic support.
Essays
I wrote about my sisters, Latin American democracies, and about my passion for naturalistic literature.
Strengths
Definitely my honesty. I am a very straightforward person.
Advice
Do not do things for others, do not fake your way into things. Be genuine, know your limitations but also don't treat yourself badly
Circumstances
I'm a second generation college student, and I needed a really big scholarship (which I fortunately got), but in Brazil I would be considered middle class.
Why?
I choose it because of the broad variety of interdisciplinary research and the amazing faculty (and hence opportunity to work with the world's best researchers).