Tags: Tufts

Institution: Tufts University

Study: Major in biology, minor in French

High School Experience

I went to a small independent school so I liked that class sizes were small and disliked the lack of resources (no cafeteria, only 1 college counselor, etc.).

Course choices

French was an interest from the beginning, I took French III honors, YAS (York (my school) Advanced Study—it’s like their version of an AP) French IV Honors, and Advanced French V. I also studied abroad in Paris between sophomore and junior year with CIEE and was president of the French Culture Club and French Honors Society. Biology was also an interest, I took regular bio (no honors offered), marine bio, AP bio, and anatomy and physiology over the summer at my local community college. I also really liked reading books so my senior year I designed my own Russian lit independent study

AP/IBs

I took AP Bio and AP Calc as classes. I got a 4 on both AP bio and French and I haven’t gotten my calc scores back yet.

GPA

4.6 weighted

Standardized Testing

ACT: 33; 35 E, 36 R, 30 M, 32 S, 11 W

SAT Biology E: 780

Extracurriculars

I did competitive dance outside of school for a bunch of years and was team captain but I quit before senior year. I did a couple of sports as well but not very seriously.

Recommendations

I had my French and AP bio teacher write my letters. My French teacher and I were really close, my AP bio teacher liked me and had good things to say but I wasn’t super close with her.

Essays

I wrote my common app essay about cooking, the other essays were about a lot of things. I think I read somewhere that every different essay should show a different facet of your personality so that’s what I tried to do.

Strengths

I’m pretty well rounded as a student and I demonstrated a lot of academic interests in my application. I also presented a paper on nuclear non-proliferation at the Middlebury institute of international studies which probably looked good. I was really proud of my essays and felt that they were original and well written.

Advice

Do what you’re interested in and you’ll go far. Take opportunities that are given to you even if they require extra work.

Circumstances

My first language wasn’t English which is something they ask about, I’m not sure how much of an effect it had.

Why?

I chose it because I liked it a lot when I visited and wanted to try something new in college. (I’m from CA.)

#Tufts