Demographics

• Gender: Male
• Race/Ethnicity: Asian American
• Residence: United States
• Income Bracket: ??
• Type of School: Fine arts (arts/design)
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): None.

Intended Major(s)

Graphic Design or Illustration. Also interested in a lot of STEM fields (especially maths and environmental science) but probably gonna keep that as a hobby and side passion.

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 3.9417 (weighted 4.1792)
• Rank (or percentile): N/A
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 8 APs
• Senior Year Course Load:

AP: AP CSP (4), AP LANG (2), AP PHYS 1 (3), AP WH Modern (3), AP CSA (?), AP ES (?), AP CALC BC (?), AP 2D ART & DES (?)

Standardized Testing

• SAT: 1420 (650 EVBRW, 770 M) (qty: 5)
• ACT: N/A
• SAT II: No longer offered.
• Other (ex. IELTS, TOEFL, etc.): N/A

Extracurriculars/Activities

No leadership position :(

1. Volunteer (Givechances, After school tutor for underprivileged students, 12th grade, 3 hwk)
2. *HS environmental club
3. *HS Art Honor Society
4. *HS French Honor Society
5. JV Bowling (High School Athletic)
6. Taekwondo first degree black belt
7. School literary magazin photographer
8. Art Classes and Portfolio prep
9. Helping my family business

Awards/Honors

1. Regional Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards (3 silver key on photography, 1 gold key on Design, 2 honorable mention on portfolio and photography)
2. Photographic Society of America photo festival (one of the projected category)
3. regional Math Fair research paper silver medal
4. In school senior art scholarship

Letters of Recommendation

1. Art teacher
2. French teacher
3. English teacher

Essays

Personal Statement: My gratefulness on people's patience when talking with me and the resulting progress of my social anxiety getting better.
Worked on my personal statement all rising senior year summer and also part of fall. Rest of fall and all of winter worked on my supplemental writing.
Spent all summer (6 days a week, July onwards) on my portfolio and essays.

Decisions

Acceptances + merit (no grants or faid shown)

• School of Visual Arts (EA) ($23.5k per year)
• Pratt Institute (Reg) ($18k per year)
• New School Parsons School of Design (Reg) ($25k per year)
• SUNY Fashion Institute of Technology (Reg)

Rejections

• Brown (ED)
• RISD (Reg)
• NYU (Reg)
• CMU (Reg)

Awaiting

• Cooper Union for Advancement of science and arts

I regret not doing anything my underclassmen years and beibg so socially awkward and anxious and unable to fit in anywhere until halfway through junior year. But what can I do. I'll do better from now on.

Demographics

• Gender: Female
• Race/Ethnicity: White/Eastern European Jewish
• Residence: Texas
• Income Bracket: 250k+
• Type of School: Public, students must pass "gifted and talented" test to attend
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): N/A

Intended Major(s): Women's/Sexuality/Gender Studies
Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 3.59 weighted (school doesn't do unweighted)
• Rank (or percentile): N/A
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 9 honors, 11 AP
• Senior Year Course Load: Scientific Research/Design, Statistics 2 Honors, AP English Literature, AP Macroeconomics, AP Government, AP European History, AP Psychology

Standardized Testing
List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported.

• ACT: 33 (35E, 29M, 36R, 31S)

Extracurriculars/Activities
List all extracurricular involvements, including leadership roles, time commitments, major achievements, etc.

1. Social Justice - Founded coalition of artists donating profits from commissions to rotating charities every 3 months.
2. Internship - interpret curriculum for LGBTQ+ diversity training for medical professionals into interactive lesson plans and videos.
3. LGBT - Events chair of school GSA
4. Other Club/Activity - Founded school's fashion club (serves as a sustainable fashion activism club)
5. Religious - President of school JSU, stepped down senior year to allow for new leadership, doubled club membership from pre pandemic
6. Religious - treasurer of local youth Jewish group
7. TheateDrama - campaign director of social committee, assistant directed production and participated in varying degrees in a variety of plays throughout highschool
8. Theatedrama - taught at a theatre summer camp for 11-15 year olds
9. Internship - at the mayor's office, helped develop app for local art tours
10. Work(Paid) - worked at local pottery painting shop

Letters of Recommendation
AP Research Teacher - Had a difficult beginning of the year in her class but she was able to see me grow as a student and I ended up doing really well on the AP and found a passion for humanities related research that I want to continue in college, I was able to read the letter and it was very good
AP English Language + Creative Writing - Hyped me up, probably talked about how I'm a good storyteller and my creativity. He is my homeroom teacher so we have a great relationship
AP Statistics and Statistics 2 - Did not do well in his AP class Junior year due to struggling mental health, took his optional secondary statistics class so we have a good relationship, I believe he spoke a lot about my growth.
Interviews
All the interviews went fairly well I believe, I managed to connect with the interviewers pretty well and got to talk a lot but also ask a lot of engaging questions.
Essays
Personal Statement - Spent a really long time on it, multiple people cried after reading it so I believe it was good
Supplements were all okay but not my best writing, especially compared to personal statement
Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)
Acceptances:

• Brandeis University (Jan 2024 Admission/RD, Legacy)
• Clark University (EA, Merit Scholarship)
• Connecticut College (RD, Merit Scholarship)
• Curry College (Rolling)
• Gettysburg College (EA, Deferred initially but awarded Merit Scholarship)
• Lafayette College (RD)
• Lasell University (Rolling)
• Sarah Lawrence College (EA, Merit Scholarship)
• Skidmore College (RD)
• Trinity College (RD)
• Union College NY (EA, Merit Scholarship)
• Wheaton College MA (EA, Merit Scholarship)

Waitlists:

• Bryn Mawr College (RD, accepted waitlist spot and will see what happens)

Rejections:

• Smith College (ED, was my top choice)
• Mount Holyoke College (ED2, was second choice)
• Vassar College (RD)
• Wellesley College (RD)
• Williams College (RD)

Additional Information:
A big part of my application was the explanation for my low GPA. In the first 3 years of highschool I received Cs in my math and science classes and struggled a lot, in the application I took responsibility for what happened but also explained why my GPA was the way it was. All through highschool my grades were on an upward trend and they increased exponentially in the first semester of senior year. I also spoke about this in interviews and my rec letters mentioned it so I believe this was fully explained.
​
Final Thoughts:
I came into this process convinced that Smith College was the perfect place for me, so of course I was disappointed. However, I was more disappointed by what happened with Mount Holyoke. When I was rejected, I noticed that the college had made the decision (ED2) without waiting for my senior year grades to come in. In my letter they stated that they liked me a lot but wanted to make sure I was prepared so they wanted me to transfer after receiving strong grades at another institution. I am confident that if they had seen my senior year grades my result there would have been different, especially after receiving acceptances from so many more selective schools. Overall, I am very happy with my results. I do not know where I will end up attending as I have yet to visit, but I am very grateful for all the options I have to choose from. If I get into Bryn Mawr, I'll probably go there but I would like to visit all my options first. I hope everyone reading this has great luck!

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in the Ultimate LIGHTS Survivor! This was an especially wild ride with all these songs being amongst Lights' most popular songs on this sub. Nearly every elimination had multiple different reactions with some people happy and others devastated, which proves that the fanbase has a diverse range of favourite and least favourite songs.
We ended up with a final two of Muscle Memory and Okay Okay. Both songs won their original album Survivor, and one of them is now being crowned the winner yet again.
Coming in second place, the fourteenth and final song voted out with 93 out 159 votes was...

Okay Okay

...which means that the winner of the Ultimate LIGHTS Survivor is...

Muscle Memory

Muscle Memory has proved once again to be an unstoppable force in these polls! Thank you again to everyone who voted and commented throughout the Ultimate LIGHTS Survivor! This concludes Survivors for her main album songs, but we will be doing Survivors for her acoustic albums and dEd in the near future. Before doing any acoustic Survivors, I'd like to ask your opinions on a couple things:

• Would you guys be interested in a mini-Survivor for the Lights.Acoustic EP? Or just stick to the full albums?
• If we do another Ultimate LIGHTS Survivor but with the top songs from her companion albums instead of the main albums, would you guys like it to include dEd or keep it strictly acoustic?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
A chart showing a breakdown of each round's vote count in the Ultimate LIGHTS Survivor can be found here. I also included links to the results of each poll in the table below.

Summary of results

Songs eliminated by round

Round	Song Eliminated	% of Votes	Tiebreaker	Finish	Results
1	Saviour	11.28%	-	15th place	Link
2	Ice	16.78%	-	14th place	Link
3	Second Go	16.08%	-	13th place	Link
4	Where the Fence is Low	21.62%	-	12th place	Link
5	We Were Here	14.38%	-	11th place	Link
6	Almost Had Me	17.02%	-	10th place	Link
7	(Tie between Prodigal Daughter and New Fears)	15.75%	-	-	Link
7	Prodigal Daughter	-	15 votes	9th place	-
8	Salt and Vinegar	24.24%	-	8th place	Link
9	New Fears	24.24%	-	7th place	Link
10	Same Sea	23.98%		6th place	Link
11	Speeding	25.17%	-	5th place	Link
12	Siberia	32.09%	-	4th place	Link
13	Toes	42.19%	-	🥉 3rd place 🥉	Link
14	Okay Okay	58.49%	-	🥈 2nd place 🥈	Link
14	Muscle Memory	41.51%	-	🥇 Winner 🥇	-

Second most voted-against songs by round:

Round	Song	% of Votes
1	Ice	10.26%
2	Where the Fence is Low	11.41%
3	Where the Fence is Low	15.58%
4	Salt and Vinegar	14.19%
5	Almost Had Me	11.76%
6	Salt and Vinegar	14.18%
7	Salt and Vinegar	14.38%
8	New Fears	17.42%
9	Siberia	18.18%
10	Speeding	18.58%
11	Toes	24.48%
12	Toes	29.1%
13	Okay Okay	33.59%
14	Muscle Memory (winner)	41.51%

These are not necessarily my favorite songs from IY but they "hit" differently. In reality, these were all heard pretty close together. It's been 20 years, the gap between ED1 and ED3 is nothing by comparison, but as much as Dearest is my all time favorite anime ED, for pure "nostalgic effect" nothing will ever beat My Will. Just the first second of it transports me back to high school and staying up late to catch more of my feudal fairy tale. (I love when they introduced that slogan/catch phrase later on)
For an actual song in the show, Naraku's Theme. Hearing those eerie chords really takes me back. Inuyasha was so dark and ominous and even a little bit horrifying to a young me.

DEEN

Strength

• Knocks out Illya with a chop^SN
• Punches Caster^UBW

Durability

• Punched by Kuzuki^SN

Speed

• Jumps down a flight of stairs^SN
• Dodges Sakura's tendrils^SN

Magic
Azoth Dagger

• Shirou using it punches it into Kirei and kills him after releasing its magical energy^SN

Bounded Field

• Puts a soundproof barrier up that traps Shirou in a classroom^SN
• Puts up a soundproof Bounded Field that could keep a missile detonation silent, supposedly^SN

Command Spells

• After giving her two Command Spells, Saber destroys the Grail mass^UBW

Defense

• Puts up a shield that stops Sakura's tendrils^SN

Familiars

• Has an owl familiar^UBW

Gandr
Properties

• Worsens the condition of those it hits^UBW

Usage

• Shirou compares them to knives^SN
• Defeated a group of Dragon Tooth Warriors without taking any injuries: SN, UBW
• Blows up some Dragon Tooth Warriors^SN
• Broke a stone pillar^SN
• Blasts a desk that Shirou strengthened into splinters^SN
• Breaks Rider's chain^SN
  • She hits it while it's thrown^UBW
• Pops some of the Grail mass^UBW

Jewels
Base

• Blows up some Dragon Tooth Warriors with her gems^SN
• Neutralizes Caster’s blast^UBW
• A topaz gem blows away a corridor of Dragon Tooth Warriors^SN

Peak

• Freezes Berserker's arm^SN
• Melts Berserker's face with five max-power gems^SN

Magic Crest

• Transfers it to Shirou, which has a side effect of letting him see her memories^UBW

Medicinal

• Knows how to heal a girl who had her life force drained: SN, UBW
• Purifies Sakura^SN

Pendant

• Saves Shirou's life after Gae Bolg pierced his heart: SN, UBW

Power

• [Limit] Can only drain, not erase, Rider's unactivated Bloodfort Andromeda^SN

Other

• Contracts Saber^UBW

Ufotable

Strength
Striking

• Kicks down a door^S1E0
• Punches Caster, causing her to spit out blood^S2E5
• Sends Caster flying back with an amped punch^S2E5
• Strikes Luvia, breaking the stone ground beneath them into large chunks, before further breaking the ground with a dive kick after propelling herself off a pillar^S2E13

Other

• Pushes a stone altar^S1E0

Durability

• [Blunt] Punched back through the air by Archer^S2E1
• [Blunt] Punched by Kuzuki^S2E5
• [Blunt] Suplexed onto stone ground, breaking it and throwing large chunks away, and immediately continues fighting^S2E13
• [Electricity] Zapped by an Einzbern Castle trap^S2E2

Speed
Agility

• Re-orientates herself in midair after being thrown and propels herself off a pillar^S2E13
• Magically reinforces her leg to jump higher^HF3

Movement

• Barely dodges Lancer's charge^S1E0
• Dodges a blast fired by Illya’s familiar^S1E3

Reaction

• Easily hits back 120kph-traveling baseballs^S1E12

Travel

• Dashes forwards, breaking the ground beneath her^S2E13
• Runs away from True Assassin^HF2
• Slides under a shapeshifter’s arm^HF3

Magic
Azoth Dagger

• After infusing all of her gems into the Azoth Dagger, it has a hundred times Shirou's Magical Energy capacity^HF3

Bounded Field

• Puts a soundproof barrier up that traps Shirou in a classroom^S1E5
• Puts up a soundproof Bounded Field that could keep a missile detonation silent, supposedly^S1E10

Command Spells

• Warns her if she's being watched by another Master^S1E0
• After giving her two Command Spells, Saber destroys the Grail mass^S2E12

Defense

• Creates a shield using emeralds^S1E3
• Doesn’t seem affected by Caster’s gas^S1E4
• Blocks Kuzuki's punch with mana-infused arms^S2E5
• Creates barriers which stop Caster's beams^S2E5
• Shields herself and Shirou from a large explosion^HF2

Familiars

• Sends familiars to three separate locations a great distance away from her and can tell when one is destroyed^S2E10

Gandr
Properties

• Rapid-fires them^S1E5
• Would give a normal person a cold for two days^S1E10

Usage - Objective

• Cracks a stone floor^S1E5
• Destroys a classroom with rapid fire shots^S1E5
• Burns up Kuzuki's umbrella^S1E10

Usage - Scaling

• Destroys two small, dog-like Dragon Tooth creatures^S1E3
• Fires blasts at Illya^S1E3
• Destroys Illya’s familiars with a charged shot^S1E3
• Destroys a large Dragon Tooth creature^S1E4
• Breaks Rider's chain^S1E5

Jeweled Sword

• It’s an heirloom that harvests magic from infinite parallel universes^HF3
• Destroys a portion of a cave ceiling^HF3
• Kills a shapeshifter^HF3
• Shakes the foundation of a cave^HF3
• Cuts through a shadow cage^HF3
• Kills a shapeshifter, then a bunch of stuffed animals, then candies^HF3
• Full fight vs Sakura^HF3

Jewels

• Creates a rock dome that constricts Berserker momentarily^S1E3
• Floods a room with light before seemingly exploding^S1E5
• A topaz gem blows away a corridor of Dragon Tooth Warriors^S1E8
• Multiple gems chase after Caster^S2E1
• Throws mana-infused emeralds at Rider, shocking her^HF2

Magic Crest

• Runs along her arm, and allows for faster spellcasting^S1E5
• [Transfers it to Shirou, which has a side effect of letting him see her memories: 1 / 2^S2E10

Medicinal

• Knows how to heal a girl who had her life force drained^S1E5

Pendant

• Saves Shirou's life after Gae Bolg pierced his heart^S1E1

Power

• Overpowers and destroys Gilles' bracelet^Z
• Infuses her legs with mana, letting her jump over the fence guard on the roof^S1E0

Other

• Fixes Shirou's window^S1E2
• Determines that Berserker’s power surpasses that of Saber’s^S1E3
• Analyzes Illya’s familiars^S1E3

• Gender: Male
• Race/Ethnicity: Black asf
• Residence: MN
• Income Bracket: EFC: 5k for a family of 6
• Type of School: Your average public school
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): URM? Low Income??????

Intended Major(s): Geography, Environmental Studies. I just think they're cool
Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 3.51 UW 3.72W. I don't really got an excuse for this im just not a great student
• Rank (or percentile): N/A
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: i've taken 4 APs lmao. If we counting "accelerated" classes then that's an extra like 6 more i think idk.
• Senior Year Course Load: AP Lit, Econ, Pre-Calc, APES, other classes that would dox my exact school so shhhhhh

Standardized Testing
List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported.

• SAT I: didnt take that garbage #midwest4life
• ACT: 26 (26E, 23M, 32R, 23S) ???? i cant remember for the life of me but i think those were the exact scores
• SAT II: refer to the first SAT
• AP/IB: all 3s for APUSH, AP Lang, and AP bio,
• Other: nah

Extracurriculars/Activities
List all extracurricular involvements, including leadership roles, time commitments, major achievements, etc.

1. #1 UPWARD BOUND WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I could write a lot about this but oh my godd I love this shit, part of student leadership council, go to tutoring for like 2 hours a week and have to commit to the whole summer program. Worth it though. (9-present)
2. #2 Was Co-Captain of Schools archery team in 11th grade, Did it from 9-11th grade and it was cool, never won anything major so sorry y'all. Probably spent like 8 hours a week on this bru
3. #3 Research Organizer. Did some research for the University Of Minnesota, was very nice. Can't give away more cause you can dox me AGAIN. Spent like a couple hours a week on this though (12th)
4. #4 Part time job at a caribou. I mean it's just a part time job y'all, what do i gotta say. Was a cashier, handled payments, the whole 9 yards, spent like 15ish hours a week till i quit (11-12)
5. #5 Teacher Assistant. TA'd for the library and just checked in and out books. Had to handle events when they were happening in the library and managed the online system for books. So like 4ish hours a week here (started this year lol)
6. #6 Schools Tennis Team. Joined REALLY late last year but I'm doing it again this year! Never won a tournament or anything so yeah. Spent like 8 hours a week here (11-present)
7. #7 Food Shelf Stocker! Stocked food mostly, just keeping inventory checks and all that. But I did a lot of work up front handing stuff in. Really nice stuff. (11-present)
8. #8 School Event Organizer. Was with a team of 3 other seniors to set up and plan our schools African American culture night. This started kinda late though so I was only able to put it on a few of my applications sadly. (did it for like 3 months this year)

that's it.
Awards/Honors
List all awards and honors submitted on your application.
Awards? I Barely know her!
Letters of Recommendation
English teacher for 3 years: 10/10 oh my goddddd I love this guy and he can write so well. I wish he didn't leave the school senior year though :(((. Amazing letter though truly
APUSH Teacher: I needed another letter if i'm being honest and its nothing special. 7/10 though!
Upward Bound Mentor: 10/10. For a guy I didn't really start speaking to until last year he knows his shit fr. Felt like he knew me through all of high school it was so heartfelt. <3 thank you so much bro
Interviews
St. Olaf: 8/10. We had to do these for Upward Bound and it was nice! She had to leave really quick though but I felt like we connected
Carleton: 9/10: AWESOME INTERVIEWER!!! She was so nice and we shared so many interests. The only thing that's stopping me from giving this a 10 is I was so nervous the whole time and stuttered so much oh my godd
Macalester: 5/10. First interview btw. There was a time when he asked a question and i just didn't know how to respond and had a little breakdown in my head trying to come up with something. Could've gone better but like oh well man.
Essays
Personal Statement: I thought it was pretty nice. Talked about how Formula 1 quite literally changed my life and made me who I am now in 9th grade.
Supplemental. They happened. They felt mostly good though! I ended up reusing one of the Occidental prompts for Carleton cause I just didn't wanna bother.
Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)
Acceptances: all of these below were either EA or rolling btw

• University Of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
• UMD (University Of Minnesota Duluth lol)
• Cornell COLLEGE. NOT THE IVY LEAGUE ONE!!
• Gustavus Adolphus College
• Lawrence University
• Stony Brook University
• University Of St. Thomas
• Adelphi
• St. Olaf College
• Colorado Boulder
• Sewanee
• Lewis & Clark College

Waitlists:
Carleton. Honestly I am 100% sure that my interview is what saved me from an auto-rejection. Probably won't get off but frankly I'm thrilled I'm ever here.
NYU??? IDK what these guys were thinking. I applied for Gallatin cause I'm a sucker for them liberal arts if that makes any difference. Still kind of surprised I wasn't just rejected.
Rejections:

• Macalester. Not at all surprised though lmao
• University of Denver, there goes me thinking that yeah this is a good target school. Didn't even give me the option of transferring after a year lmao
• Case Western, i mean who wants to live in ohio for college anyway bruh
• Colorado College, not rich enough ig
• Occidental, (ngl this one kinda hurt cause i loved my essays for this so much)

Additional Information
After all this I can 100% say that I hated every second of this college application process but, what can you do. Will probably end up committing to St. Olaf cause they gave me almost a full ride for some reason plus I already know the college well. Also like this is actually like one of the best kept secrets for colleges wtf. Seriously! Their financial aid is top notch and it's in the most stereotypical college town ever. Sometimes I swear it's people thinking it's one of *those* Christian colleges cause of the name (it's barely even Christian anyway.)
Hope everyone here can get what they want though! You all deserve it so much.

Demographics

• Gender: Male
• Race/Ethnicity: Mixed (White and Asian)
• Residence: DMV
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): Recruited athlete, legacy at UPenn, and elite private school.

Intended Major(s): Economics
Academics

• GPA/Rank (or percentile): 3.8/4.25
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 7 APs
• Senior Year Course Load: 2 APs

Standardized Testing
List the highest scores earned and all scores that were reported.

• SAT/ACT: 1510
• SAT II: N/A
• AP/IB: N/A
• Other (ex. IELTS, TOEFL, etc.): N/A

Extracurriculars/Activities:
Varsity lacrosse all 4 years with team captain senior year
Club lacrosse for a top team
Hosted lacrosse clinics and camps for younger players
Research at a top university
Internships
Snowboarding and skiing club
Awards/Honors:
Tons of lacrosse awards
Small awards from my school
Essays/LORs/Interviews:
I built a good relationship with my teachers throughout high school, so I think they should be good.
Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)

• Acceptances: (list here): UPenn ED
• Waitlists: (list here)
• Rejections: (list here)

Additional Information:
I'm extremely blessed to be in the current position that I am in. The connections and opportunities have definitely helped me along the way in the admissions process. If anyone has any questions, feel free to comment or DM me.