- Nora Sun
Tags: Barnard, Columbia
Institution: Barnard College at Columbia University
Study: Major in computer science and philosophy
High School Experience
For me, the first two years of high school were completely different than the last two. The first two years were more strict with required classes versus junior and senior year where I could take a bunch of classes I was actually interested in. I really didn’t like taking required classes I knew I wasn’t interested in but I loved how later I was given the freedom to pick my classes. Easily my favorite classes were AP Computer Science Principles and AP Gov, which lead me to want to be a computer science and philosophy major. The coolest experience of high school for me was this year when I took an honors capstone class and I made an Arkansas scholarship “search engine” app (which will hopefully be published soon).
AP/IBs
AP World, AP Lang, AP psych, AP US History, AP gov, AP Lit, AP computer science principles, and AP human geography
GPA
4.38 weighted
Standardized Testing
ACT: 30
Extracurriculars
I co-founded a nonprofit called ARCodeKids with my dad and some other folks. I also volunteered for a Girls in STEM program for two years (my nonprofit allocates money to this program too), the Angels of Hope program which has high school girls help care for a cancer lodge, and I was a senator at Girls State. As a senator at girls state, I helped create mock legislation along with other girls state senators. I was there for about a week last summer. For girls in stem I was a volunteer and I helped set up demos for female stem experts and questions that our girls had. I did this for the last two summers. I also dedicated a week of my winter break doing an internship for the museum of discovery (the museum that hosts the summer program) to help brainstorm activities to do for the coming summer
Recommendations
I had three teachers write a recommendation letter for me and all of them had a huge impact on me. They all were willing to talk with me after class whether it was a question about the class or just about life. I was only planning on having two teachers write letters for me but for a college I decided to apply to last minute I needed another teacher because of a requirement. So my computer science teacher wrote me a letter last minute, and it ended up being for Barnard which is where I’m going. I’m very grateful for all the teachers who put effort into me and helped me get to where I am today.
Essays
I mainly wrote about my nonprofit and my experience volunteering with girls in stem.
Strengths
I think my work with Arkansas stem (mainly encouraging young girls to go into stem) made me a strong applicant. For people looking to apply to college I suggest looking inward to see what truly inspires you and figuring out how you can make your college application stronger by doing something you truly care about
Advice
Circumstances
No, I’m fortunate to be from a privileged family. I wanted to help Arkansas students that were in an underprivileged living situation to have the same access to a college education as me, which is why I made my scholarship app
Why?