ClaireL,
UCLA
B.S., Mathematics
UCLA Class of 2020. Orange County native.
Features Included
6
Essays
12
Schools
15
Scores
7
Advice
6
ECs
2
Sports
Background
Hometown
Foothill Ranch, CA, California
GenderFemale
EthnicityAsian
AdmissionRegular Decision
Class of2020
First Gen College StudentYes
English First Language
Yes
Other Language(s) Spoken
Cantonese
Results, Essays, and Advice
Accepted
Waitlisted or Withdrew
Denied
-
Tap/click a school logo above to view essays and advice specific to that school.
University of California - Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA)
Applied for a B.S. in Mathematics
Accepted and Enrolled Legacy: NoSchool Specific Essays
School Specific Advice
How to increase chances at my school316 WordsI'm writing this for UCLA, but this really applies to any school, in my opinion. Particularly for large schools, I think it is crucial to make yourself stand out in some way. In your application, try to demonstrate a passion, something you're really, really interested in. Starting in high school, try to find a particular something you enjoy and keep working on it. I've heard it said before that colleges aren't looking for well-rounded individuals, but rather a well-rounded student body; I very much believe this to be true. Especially for a school as large as UCLA, there will be...Read more...More Essays
These essays haven't been tagged by school. Click school logos above to see tagged essays.
I was eight years old and my parents could take no more. They were out of options. I was going to get some help. Why? I was never a classroom insurgent, or a budding James Dean. It was actually the complete opposite-- I was, in essence, scared of everything. I mean everything in the most literal sense. I stayed awake crying until 3AM nightly because I was afraid of 1) the dark 2) robots in my closet 3) falling asleep and having nightmares,...Read more...Supplemental Essay Issue of personal significance387 WordsUC "Describe the world you come from" It was my fault. I had chosen this topic for my math exploration, armed with only the feeblest grasp of the actual concept. Music, math, and the harmonic series… I sighed. In the time-honored tradition of all students, I had turned to Google for succor. The words on the screen blurred together hazily. “Pythagoras discovered that a string exactly 1/nth its length produces a frequency n times the original frequency…” It just didn...Read more...Supplemental Essay Scholarship application256 WordsA tragic lack of athleticism brought me to cross country—the only no-cut sport— in freshman year. Upon joining, I dutifully attended all the practices and meets, running more miles per day than I had fingers. I tried my best to improve. Really. I stuck with it for two whole years, but finally, I quit. The reason was simple. As I ran laps around the track, I realized how rote it had become. If I was to be honest with...Read more...Supplemental Essay Scholarship application194 WordsDescribe an extracurricular activity. "Music Therapist" is a pretty fancy title for a volunteer who gets to wander around a hospital with a viola in tow but hey, I'll take it. Job description: the aforementioned wandering, playing everything from Bruch to the Beatles in the ICU, lobbies, cancer treatment centers, and more. In my time as a volunteer, I have met people with the most fascinating life stories, have played for bedridden patients undergoing chemotherapy, and, once, was offered $500 on...Read more...Supplemental Essay “Why us” school essay457 WordsWhy Carnegie Mellon? Music and math have been a part of my life since, well, forever. I love music for its sheer beauty and poignancy; I love math for its complexities and challenges. Together, they form an inextinguishable aspect of my character. It is oddly fitting, then, that music showed me the beauty of mathematics. Immersing myself in musical pursuits, I began to notice math’s unmistakable handiwork. It was everywhere. I saw it in the patterns of notes called...Read more...Supplemental Essay Other79 WordsMy main essay was about a fairly common topic (orchestra) in the college application world, which may have hurt me. I attempted to balance this out by putting my own spin on all of my essays and letting my voice show, and you can see the results of this above. In retrospect, my essays seem a little vague and general; if I had to write them over again (gah), I would try to narrow down to more specific subjects.Read more...General Admissions Advice
My advice about getting recommenders286 WordsChoose your recommenders carefully, taking into account the recommender's position, your personal relationship with the recommender, and what you hope the recommender can add to your application. The teacher I had the closest relationship with in high school was my calculus teacher: she wrote me a very kind letter that spoke to my strengths in math, as well as adding personal touches that showed that she truly knew me as a person. I think that really gave my application a boost, especially as a prospective math...Read more...What I’d change about my application process221 WordsI would have started much earlier with the essays. So, so many essays- during winter break of my senior year, I ended up having to write 18 essays/short-responses in 12 days. It was miserable. I had begun writing some of them as a class assignment in June of my junior year, and it still wasn't early enough for me, since I spent a good deal of that...Read more...How I chose schools to apply to147 WordsI applied to 12 schools total, and tried to do around 6 target schools, 3 reaches, and 3 safeties (although I believe I ended up with a few more reach schools than that). I'd been touring schools since middle school but found it difficult to choose based on...Read more...What I now know about my school that I never would have known prior to enrolling132 WordsPeople always told me UCLA was a big school. I thought my high school was a big school. But UCLA is a BIG school. One of the most overwhelming aspects of the experience thus far is the sheer amount of...Read more...Recommended summer activities during high school and college153 WordsI regret that I spent most of my summers in high school not doing anything truly productive or original. I usually go out of the country for a few weeks each summer; in addition to cross country training my first two summers and a lot of...Read more...List of schools I interviewed with and my interview experience747 WordsInterviews are really not my strong suit but I had read that you should always do them, even if they're optional, so I ended up having to do a few (MIT, Cornell, UChicago, and Harvard). First was MIT, at a local Starbucks by an alumnus. He started off right away asking, "Why do you want to go to MIT?". From there he started asking about my classes, my extracurriculars, etc. There were a few awkward pauses, but he kept the conversation going with questions on different things. At one point, he asked me if I knew this one math concept,...Read more...High School Performance
GPA4.00(no specification of weighting)RankTop 1%
Academic Performance in High School Steady
Test Scores
Highest SAT1600on 1600 scaleHighest SAT2400SAT Score Details
Other SAT ScoresSAT Prep
PSAT Scores
AP / IB Classes and Scores
Details13 classes and scoresSports
SportsCross Country, Track & Field
Extracurriculars
ActivitiesLocal Orchestra / Symphony / Band, Key Club, National Honor Society, School Jazz / Orchestra, French Club, Hospital Volunteer
Elaborate on Extracurriculars or Work
Experience & Awards
How Spent Summers
Volunteer Experiences
Awards Received
Application Additional Materials
Similar Profiles
WyTeavUCLA
Accepted to UCLA, CSULB, San Jose State, Cal Poly, Cal Poly Pomona, UCSD, UC Davis
I like airplanes. Creative kidPennilessUCLA
Accepted to UC Berkeley, UCLA, NYU
I am currently a freshman going to UCLA. I am interested in biology and may go into the medical field. I really hope to help as many applicants as I can in applying for colleges.KayceethebruinUCLA
Accepted to SDSU, CSULB, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly, UC Irvine, UCSB, UCLA
I am an incoming freshman attending UCLA with an interest in research in MicrobiologyzhessUCLA
Accepted to UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UCSB, UCSD, Washington, Cal Poly
Learning always - in and out of the classroombarriola98UCLA
Accepted to UCLA, UCSD, UC Riverside , UC Davis, CSUS, CSU Fresno
I am a Mexican-American who is hard working, persistent and driven to accomplish my goals.BackSign Up to AccessRegister to view profiles for free!
- or -Already have an account? Log In here.BackLog InIt's good to see you again!- or -Don't have an account? Sign Up here.Forgot Password?You will receive instructions on
how to reset your password.Email has been sent toYou will receive instructions
on how to reset your password.