My background

I’m an international student from Antalya, Turkey. I went to a high school named Antalya College Science High School and it was not really focused on studying abroad compared to some other schools in Turkey. It was mostly based on preparing students for our national exam. Most of the things I did in high school were up to me in terms of studying abroad.

Why study abroad

I decided to study abroad because I wanted to pursue my career in biotechnology and bioengineering after college. In my home country, bioengineering or molecular biology programs are not strong enough due to a lack of research opportunities and other factors.

Why the US and what other countries I have considered

The country that I most considered was the USA because of its research opportunities, internships, scholarships, and funding. I also have a cousin who has been studying in the US since he was in high school and it was a big influence on me while I was growing up. Colleges in the States are flexible in terms of majors as well and it is easy to major and minor in different disciplines. I’m mainly interested in biotechnology and molecular biology, but I also want to become an entrepreneur and I have interests in photography and environmental science too. Besides the US, I applied to colleges in Canada and the UK because of the vast number of research and funding opportunities.

Universities I got in

I applied to two universities in Canada, five universities in the UK, and the rest were in the US. I got into the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia in Canada. In the UK, I got into the University of Warwick, the University of Edinburgh, and the University of Bristol. I also applied to UCL and the University of Oxford and got interviews from these two universities, but ultimately I was rejected. In terms of the USA, I got into Michigan State, Drexel, Minerva, UNC Chapel Hill, the University of Miami, and the University of Richmond. Overall, I got into 13 schools. I was also waitlisted by Tufts University, Emory University, and Colby College.

Why University of Richmond

The main factors I considered were scholarships, science departments, and outcomes after graduation. My choices were down to the University of Toronto, UNC Chapel Hill, UMiami, and URichmond. I eliminated UNC Chapel Hill first due to the higher cost compared to other schools I considered. I received a full ride from both the University of Miami and the University of Richmond. I had a big scholarship from the University of Toronto too. I was awarded the International Scholar Award with additional merit scholarships from the Mississauga and Scarborough campuses. All of them add up to 200K Canadian Dollars for all four years.

Mostly, I was deciding between my full-ride options, the University of Miami and the University of Richmond. Although Richmond doesn’t have engineering majors as a liberal arts institution, it has a variety of programs in collaboration with Columbia University, Duke University, and University of Oxford for study abroad and combined degree for engineering which I was interested in. I thought studying pure science first and applied science later in college would be better for my goals and dreams. Also, the city of Richmond is closer to cities on the East Coast, including New York and Boston, where healthcare is on a large scale.

Financial aid

At the University of Richmond, I was selected as one of the 25 Richmond Scholars and it covers my tuition, housing, and food. I also received additional financial aid from them which covers my other school expenses like insurance and fees. I will only pay for my flights and visa.

Stats

My GPA was 99.6 out of 100. In 9th and 10th grade, I took 5 IGCSE classes at school as my school followed the Cambridge Program. In the last two years, I took three AP courses outside of the school curriculum which are AP Calculus BC, AP Biology and AP Chemistry. I got 5 from all of them. Additionally, I took the IELTS (one time) and SAT (four times). My IELTS score is 8.0 and my SAT superscore is 1520. I submitted all of my scores to every college I applied.

Extracurricular activities

I would categorize my extracurricular activities into three parts which are community service, STEM and research, and environmental science. My first activity was a nonprofit organization that I started in 10th grade with my friends named Vertie. We started an initiative to raise awareness of current environmental problems and suggest sustainable solutions to students. Within two years, we reached more than 300 students and are still in the process. Our project has received many awards, funds and recognition in the national media. Then I was a part of a nonprofit organization called YGA (Young Group Academy) in Turkey. I got into their extremely competitive program which out of 50,000 applicants, only 25 were accepted. There, we learned about social entrepreneurship and did various volunteer projects. During those projects, I was able to teach children about STEM in village schools and conduct scientific experiments. I also worked with students who were visually-impaired, orphaned, and affected by the earthquake. We visited different cities and reached out to earthquake victims, especially to children to immerse them in STEM. Another activity that I listed was my project manager role in a high school initiative. We initiated many voluntary work for high schoolers but the most impactful was gathering different necessities and sending them to earthquake zones in 2023 after serial earthquakes happened in Turkey.

Talking about activities in the STEM and research fields, I was accepted into the Lumiere Research Program and wrote a 25-page research paper on vitiligo pathogenesis with the help of my mentor from University of Cambridge. Another thing I did was a lab internship in a genetic diagnosis center at a local university. In 12th grade, I also started a physics research with my teacher on image processing techniques. Initially, I did not list it on my CommonApp. However, I sent updates to schools about this research in February. I was also a writer for a college bioengineering magazine, publishing articles about new accomplishments in the bioengineering area.

For sustainability and environmental science, in addition to Vertie, I also mentioned my passion for climate activism, and how I took research positions in two different organizations. Additionally, I participated in a virtual exchange program named AFS Global STEM Accelerators, organized by AFS and UPenn. We were learning about intercultural communication and sustainable development goals. At the end, other participants and I developed our own capstone projects in which my project was on sustainability.

The last thing that was not really fitting into my application was that I spent a lot of time interning at the Nobel Company. There, I was an intern and later became a mentor and a part of the MC team.

Essays

My personal statement was about my mom having health struggles in the past and how this led me to cooking. While she was having these struggles, I had to cook for the family. Initially, I was not good at cooking, but over a year, it developed significantly and helped me express my feelings and ideas. Cooking has become a way for me to communicate with people.

In my supplemental essays, I mostly talked about my interest in biology and experience of having an autoimmune disorder. In high school, I had a teacher who also had an autoimmune disorder and in her class, I wanted to learn more about my disorder. That was how I started to research immunology and other topics in molecular biology. Another experience I was writing about was the initiative that I started with my friends and how I would transfer my knowledge and skills from it to the college life and campus.

Structuring the application process

I started to prepare for college in the 10th grade, right after Covid-19, starting with learning about my interests and doing activities that I’m passionate about. I prepared and took SAT, IELTS, and AP exams in 11th grade, not leaving them until my senior year, and started to look into essays. I was constantly thinking of ideas, sometimes trying to brainstorm them. For my recommendation letters, I did get them at the very beginning of my senior year.

Helpful resources

I read the College Essay Guy and College Vine, watched YouTube videos, and watched advice from college freshmen on TikTok. They share pretty good advice on essay writing. The subreddit called Applying to College was also helpful. Make the Internet your best friend, and do a lot of research there.

I would also recommend connecting with current students who are already studying at your target universities. I connected them myself through LinkedIn or Instagram. I also used Borderless in my junior year and was selected for a free meeting with Veronica, co-founder of Borderless.