I am a rising senior from Arizona. If you guys have any advice/recommendations that would be much appreciated!
Demographics: Female, Asian (Vietnamese/Chinese), Queer, Higher-income household
SAT/ACT: 1560 SAT, 34 ACT (both one sitting)
GPA: 3.991 UW/4.852 W
Coursework: All Honors classes with the exception of a few visual/performing art classes, for context, I go to a small classical charter school that doesn't offer AP's or dual enrollment.
Intended Major: Linguistics/Sociolinguistics, minor in chem/bio?
(I want to go into academia, but if that doesn't work out I plan on going to dental school so it's important to me that a school has both strong linguistics and STEM departments)
College List (TBD): Stanford, Harvard, Barnard, Pomona, UCLA, UCSD, Scripps, Harvey Mudd, Wellesley, University of Washington, Arizona State
Almost all of the schools I plan on applying to are reaches and out of state, as the state schools where I live are not the best, however I do plan on applying for ASU's honors program as well.
I have gone to the same elementary/junior high/ high school my entire life and am used to the clique-y nature of the tiny student body-my graduating class alone is less than 80 people- so I feel that socially and academically these smaller liberal arts colleges are perfect for me. My brother attended Harvard which is why I'm applying for the possible legacy?
Extra-curriculars:
1. Kumon teaching assistant (2021-present)
2. SAT tutor with schoolhouse.world which is an offshoot of Khan Academy (2023)
3. Math peer tutor for my school (2022-2023)
4. Private tutoring English to middle school age student (2023-2024)
5. Private tutoring math to middle school age student with learning disability (2024)
6. Act as a caretaker for my grandmother with auto immune disease
7. Taught myself Korean; am going to study abroad in Korea for almost a month this summer
8. Was part of my school's drama club (2022)
9. Played non-varsity tennis for a year (2023)
Awards:
1. Gold on the NSE 2 consecutive times (2023 & 2024)
2. Liberal Arts Award from my school
3. Academic Excellence Award also from school
My school did not allow students to start their own clubs, as a result my extracurricular section is very sparse, however I feel that I have a very clearly defined "spike" demonstrating a passion for education. My LOR's are from teachers that I feel know me well/see my potential, and I've already begun brainstorming essay topics. I'm always open to suggestions as to any extracurriculars I could fit in before application deadlines!
I might only be a rising freshman but your profile is really good. The most important thing would probably be the AP's and DC's. As someone who is taking 7-9 APS and 1 Dc in the next 4 years I think with my knowledge those are your going to be your biggest setbacks.
I see that you are helping your community in a lot of way by teaching people, but I don't really see any other passions such as tennis being expanded on (the scope is limited to just teaching). Also, I'm not sure if you did volunteering but that would also help.
To keep this community safe and supportive:
Your application is pretty good I just think it needs to be more well-rounded. It seems like your main focus is teaching/tutoring and there isn't much other than that on your application extracurricular wise. I would try to expand your interests a bit more than just education.