How I Got Accepted to My Dream Schools: A Comprehensive Guide

hi I'm Molina people around me have been asking how I got accepted into some of my dream schools so I'm making this

video to help anyone who's applying to colleges or just want to hear my story I'll be going over all my stats

including my GPA sat 2s act AP courses as well as honors and awards I received and all the extra curriculars I was

involved in I'll also be sharing some important advice that I have learned from applying myself and also from

interviewing candidates as an alumni interviewer after graduation I've been interviewing High School seniors who are

applying to Colombia so hopefully this video will provide some helpful insight for those of you applying to colleges

and please keep in mind that this is my personal path and everyone has different stats interests Etc first here's a brief

background I went to Harvard for my Master's and Columbia for undergrad I was accepted to most of the schools I

applied to including Colombia UPenn Cornell Johns Hopkins Duke Northwestern Georgetown UC Berkeley UCLA Wellesley

and NYU in this video I will be focusing on getting into undergrad for a bachelor's degree instead of for

master's because what I did to get into grad school is a completely different story I'm a korean-american domestic

student so not an international student I went to a top boarding school and I did not have Legacy in any of these

schools let's first talk about stats I had 3.94 out of 4.0 unweighted GPA when I was applying to colleges a lot of my

classmates in college were valedictorian the war had over 4.0 in their high school but I didn't but my high school

was very competitive and rigorous so your GPA can be seen a bit differently to colleges depending on what kind of

high school you're attending I took the act and got 35 out of 36 which is 99 percentile for the score breakdown I got

34 on English 35 on mathematics 34 on reading and 35 on science I took four sat2 subject tests I got a

perfect score of 800 on math level 2. I also got a perfect score of 800 for chemistry I also took literature where I

scored 750 and biology molecular where I got 740. for AP courses and AP level equivalent courses that were offered in

my school I took Calculus BC chemistry English literature and composition Studio Art linear algebra US History

statistics physics and Chinese and these are the steps I found on the Columbia's website for class of 2025.

my advice for grades and test scores would be that even though your grades and test scores aren't everything in the

application process at all you should still try to aim for the GPA and test score range that's listed on the

University website of whatever school you're applying for because that will give you the best chance of getting

accepted colleges will also recognize that some students have more access to certain academic opportunities than

others they do recognize that different high schools have different grading systems and some are more rigorous than

others so you don't have to attend a boarding school or a private school to get into an Ivy League school in fact I

had to work really hard to keep on my GPA because all my classmates were super smart and my High School courses were at

the level of college classes so just try your best in whatever situation you're in and don't worry too much about things

you cannot change and rather focus on things that you can change now on to honors and worse I was selected as a

Hudson scholar and received something called Hudson scholarship which was given to top science students in my high

school it gave me the scholarship to do a science research internship and attend research seminars in the Summers of my

sophomore and Junior years of high school I was heavily involved in Visual Arts in high school and received a

national award it was called Scholastic art and writing award and I received silver medal nationally and bold key

regionally I received visual art Department faculty award in my school which was given to one student every

year who's dedicated to Studio work I got high honors in my high school every semester and I also got AP scholar With

Honor I was commended for National marriage scholarship for scoring within top five percent on the PSAT out of all

the students who took it that year I did a lot of volunteering work in high school school and I was selected as a

McClellan Society member which honors students who have given more than 400 hours of community service during their

high school years in my senior year I received Henry Woods Jr critical writing award but I received that after applying

to colleges so it wasn't part of my application that's it for honors and awards please don't take this the wrong

way and feel like you have to receive certain Awards or honors to get into these schools now let's talk about

extracurriculars first these are the leadership and academic activities I did I was a president of the woman in

leadership Club in my school and also a president of the art Club I was a research intern at Rutgers Robert Wood

Johnson Medical School Cancer Institute of New Jersey through the scholarship I received that I mentioned earlier and I

did research on tailoring treatment for patients with prostate cancer I was an executive editor of the literary

magazine in my school called the lit I edited other students work and also wrote stories myself and Drew drawings

and published in that magazine throughout my high school years I was a graphics editor for a political magazine

the first amendment I served as the academic representative in my junior year and community service

representative in my freshman year I was also part of math club and I attended the Lawrenceville leadership conference

which was a three-day leadership training Workshop now I will go on to Athletics I was on junior varsity squash

team in my freshman and sophomore year and I was on the varsity team in my Junior and Senior year I attended a

squash camp at Princeton University in my junior year and I also mentioned that I have a ski instructor certificate in

Korea now on to Fine Arts and Music I was part of jazz band and Orchestra where I played the clarinet I also did a

rock band with few of my classmates where I played the drums and we've performed in school meetings I was a

photographer for my school newspaper and yearbook and I did a lot of Studio work where I worked with acrylic paint

sculpture pencil and charcoal and did my own exhibitions and competed in competitions that I mentioned earlier in

the awards section for community service I volunteered as a summer camp counselor at a local Performing Arts camp where I

taught drums for free to elementary school students I also participated in various local community services like

performing for elderly residents with my jazz band and filling backpacks for low-income children okay so I think I

cover most of the extracurriculars here I don't know how I did all this in high school but that's what I did now here

are some of my thoughts and advice broadly there's two types of students Spike student and a well-rounded student

Spike students are ones who are super talented and one thing they might be a national athlete where they're super

good at writing and English so they publish books in high school and there's well-rounded students who are good and

have leadership in various roles I think colleges probably saw me as a more well-rounded student because even though

I applied as a biology major and by the way I ended up not majoring in biology I was involved in a lot of different

extracurriculars and had various leadership positions and that's only because I like a lot of stuff I like

drawing I like playing sports and I like playing music but I want to mention that you don't have to be good at everything

colleges generally want their entire class to be well-rounded but you as an individual can let's say be really good

at music but not Sports so it's okay if you hate Sports and don't play sports at all and what's more important than the

title of the award you won were the leadership position you had in your your student Club will be trying to connect

all the dots and tell a story what it meant to you how you impacted your community what you learned from it and

how you will be continuing on those passions in college and Beyond My beliefs love leaders who will be making

a positive impact in their school community and in the world and another important point I wouldn't have been

able to do all this without the support of my family and teachers especially my mom I was able to openly talk to her

about my feelings and she was always there to listen and talk to me when I was feeling a bit down or stressed she

always made me feel so loved and she was so happy for me that anyone else in the world and celebrated with me when I made

small achievements so try to have a support system it can be your friends family teachers coach really anyone you

can turn to for emotional and practical support it will help you stay motivated feel less isolated word Josh and reduce

any stress that you may have and lastly please keep in mind that what I did is not for everyone this is just what I did

to get into some of my dream schools you should try to do something that is Meaningful to you and make an impact in

that field and try to find a field that interests you because you will naturally want to be involved more if you enjoy

what you're doing the acceptance rate to Ivy League schools are unfortunately very very low so make sure to apply to a

wide range of schools that you would enjoy attending there's no magic trick or simple formula to getting into these

schools but I just wanted to share what I did to help anyone who's applying to colleges you are totally more than which

school you go to or what degree you have so don't put too much pressure on yourself please like And subscribe if it

gave you some insight and stay tuned for more future videos thank you so much for watching bye

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