Hi everyone! If you don't know me, I'm your friendly neighborhood cube! You can call me Rubix. Although I love it when readers call me Rubix-Sensei or Author-San. My readers are so cute! I love you guys!

Comment here of anything you'd want to see in this guide. I can only do broad topics like essay writing not how to study for my 9th-grade geometry class. This will really be for high school students because I'm currently a college student and I'm struggling folks.

I want to tell you about myself as a student so you'll know better who you're getting your advice from. I kind of want you guys to have some faith in me that I know what I'm talking about. Feel free to ask me any school-related questions about myself and I'll put it in a separate chapter or add it into this one.

I'll also give you some of my "statistics" so you'll know where I'm at as a student. You should NEVER compare yourself to me or to anyone because every student is unique and we value that. If anything, I want to give you all hope because of the potential you all have.

As a student, I was very studious and mainly focused on school. For fun, I would read books, read manga, or watch anime. I also wrote stories but during my junior and senior years, I took a semi-break to focus on school even more for college applications. I had friends who had the same hobbies as me and we would go hang out afterschool sometimes.

As I'm writing this guide, I'm currently a junior at the University of California-Berkeley studying Civil Engineering. Now then, here are some of my statistics. I had to do some digging to find everything.

Also if you're not in America, you can just ignore this stuff and move on to another chapter that is relevant to you. Or you can read it if you're bored and want to know more about a cube.

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My Timeline: 2015-9th Grade Freshman, 2016-10th Grade Sophomore, 2017-11th Grade Junior, 2018-12th Grade Senior

GPA: 3.92

Note: I was a 4.0 but senioritis got the better of me- got two Bs and a C I think. This is to show that you can have your GPA dip down a bit after college applications but not too much.

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Standardized Tests:

Note: I'll elaborate more about standardized tests in a different chapter. Just know that I only did the SAT, not the ACT.

Note: I did with the SAT with essays because I'm pretty confident in my essays especially after the 11th grade AP Lang exam. You should take it with the essay if you're good at essay writing because even though it's more work, the admissions officer will see more of you as a student.

Note: I didn't take the ACT because the colleges I wanted to apply to all accepted SAT, so I didn't want to waste my time studying for a different exam. So it's best to know what colleges you want to apply to so you'll know if you have to take the SAT, ACT, or both. 

SAT Scores:

SAT with Essay: (SAT out of 1600, Essay out of 8)

1410 (Reading/Writing: 710, Math: 700) [2017, 12th Grade, December]

Essay: Reading (6), Analysis (4), Writing (6)

1330 (Reading/Writing: 640, Math: 690) [2017, 12th Grade, August]

Essay: Reading (5), Analysis (6), Writing (6)

1300 (Reading/Writing: 680, Math: 620) [2017, 11th Grade, March]

Essay: Reading (7), Analysis (6), Writing (7)

Note: You can see I started focusing more on the actual test than the essays. My poor essay scores- I'm a fraud lmao. 

Note: Also it's good to do all the tests as soon as possible. You can get it out of the way and you still have the knowledge in your head. Don't wait in between or you'll risk losing your touch.

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SAT Subject: (out of 800)

[2017, Math Level 2] 550 (October) → 610 (November)

[2017, Biology Molecular] 570 (October) → 580 (November)

PSAT/NMSQT: (out of 1520)

1210 (Reading/Writing: 640, Math: 570) [2016, 11th Grade, October]

1190 (Reading/Writing: 600, Math: 590) [2015, 10th Grade, October]

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AP Tests: (out of 5)

2016:

European History (3)

2017:

Biology (3)

United States History (3)

English Language and Composition (5)

2018:

English Literature and Composition (Didn't take the test)

Computer Science and Principles (Didn't take the test)

Calculus AB (2)

Physics C: Mechanics (3)

Microeconomics (3)

Macroeconomics (4)

Note: Yes, there is an irony that a Civil Engineer is terrible at math and science haha. I'm still proud of my AP Lang score though. I thought 5's were a myth. I didn't take AP Literature because I only needed to get a high score for an AP English exam to get credit for my college.

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Extracurricular Activities:

JV Soccer: (2015-2016) 

Academic Decathalon: (2016)

Habitat for Humanity: (2016-2017)

Korean Resource Center- Student Intern (2017-2018)

Architecture, Construction, and Engineering (ACE) Mentor Program: (2016-2018)

Note: You're at a great advantage if you know what major you want to study in so you can already participate in extracurricular activities related to your major. However, if you haven't decided, don't be discouraged and do something you enjoy as it will help contribute to your college personal essay. If you're unable to do something because of personal circumstances such as family, don't worry and know that you can write about that instead.

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Colleges Applied: I applied for Civil Engineering when offered or General Engineering with minors in Mechanical Engineering or Creative Writing

There are advantages and disadvantages of applying to a public school and private school. Financial aid was the biggest factor in choosing a college so I'm happy to have chosen a public school like Cal. Also by attending a school in your home state, you save money by paying in-state tuition instead of out-of-state tuition.

[Public School]

University of California (UC):

Los Angeles (UCLA)- Rejected (Whatever. It's not even #1 Public University, don't you dare @ me lmao)

Berkeley (UCB)- Accepted and Attended (#1 Public University! GO BEARS!)

Irvine (UCI)- Accepted

Davis (UCD)- Accepted

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California State Universities (Cal States/CSU):

Pomona- Accepted

San Luis Obispo- Accepted

Note: I can't remember if I applied to any others. I know for sure these two because they have great civil engineering programs. I went into my CSU profile but it's not showing anything.

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[Private School]

QuestBridge: National nonprofit organization that connects students from low-income backgrounds with private university partners. It has an early-deadline (September when regular college deadlines are due November) and if you get accepted you HAVE to go to the college and can't reject the acceptance. When you get accepted, you need to meet the requirements to continue getting the full financial ride.

USC- Rejected

Note: In my defense, I went all the way to the last phase (there are like four phases) but I didn't get accepted by a school in the end. I then applied to them in regular admission. Also, I only chose to apply to ONE school because of the rule that when accepted you HAVE to attend there. Even if you apply for the regular admissions and got accepted to another great school (cough UC Berkeley cough) then you can't go.

I still recommend applying to it because, in the end, I had a lot of material to work on my college application essays so I was ahead of my peers on that.

Common Application:

Carnegie Mellon University

Cornell University

Duke University

Harvey Mudd College

Lehigh University

Rice University

Santa Clara University

Stanford University

Tufts University

University of Southern California

Vanderbilt University

[ALL REJECTED RIP. Can I get an F in the chat?]

Note: I was supposed to apply to MIT but I forgot to because they have their own separate application system. My mom was soooo mad lmao.

In the end, I was between UC Berkeley, UC Davis, and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. All had great Civil Engineering programs- UCB and SLO the best. However, UC's give better financial aid than the Cal States. Davis had a much better financial aid package for me, but Berkeley has the #1 Civil Engineering in the nation soooo.....

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Tell me if you want any other statistics that I may have missed. Let's move on to the next chapter!

Rubix