- Nora Sun
Tags: Duke
Institution: Duke
Study: Major in mechanical engineering
High School Experience
I went to a pretty academically competitive high school of about 450 students. Baseball was a really big part of my high school experience, but the engineering program was the highlight for me. There was amazing equipment and I got to travel abroad for an international engineering competition.
AP/IBs
I took as many AP classes as I could and got all 4s and 5s. I really enjoyed physics and engineering classes.
GPA
3.9 unweighted
Standardized Testing
SAT superscore: 1550
ACT: 32
Extracurriculars
I played baseball all four years, I was in NHS, I was in an additional community service organization, in which I held a leadership role, and was part of two robotics teams: BEST Robotics freshman year and 4x4 in schools sophomore and junior years. I held a leadership position in 4x4.
Recommendations
I had great relationships with all of the people that wrote recommendation letters. I had traveled abroad with a mentor and teacher, and was one of the few students that the principal wrote a recommendation letter for.
Essays
I wrote about two themes, the first was inspiration, in which I wrote about an experience that opened my eyes to STEM, and the other essay was about my greatest failure, and how I grew from it.
Strengths
My international competitions, great recommendation letters, and experience through an internship.
Advice
Never pass up an opportunity to explore your interests. Joining my first robotics team as a freshman even though it wasn’t cool was one of the best decisions I have ever made.
Circumstances
None
Why?
It was a reach school that I got in to, with an amazing atmosphere and program.