My Background

My name is Vicente Miranda, and I’m from Santiago, Chile. I grew up in a Catholic private high school that followed the national curriculum, with no AP or IB. In Chile, most students are encouraged to stay, study locally, and follow a straightforward path. I was raised with that expectation, too, but my life took a different turn.

Chile’s high school year runs from March to December, with winter break in July. It used to be a rigid track: humanities, math + science. Now, schools offer options of roughly twenty electives across five areas, so you can mix, for example, art with calculus. That flexibility came a bit late for me. By 11th grade, I still didn’t know what to study. I just knew I wanted my life to have an international environment and impact.

How I Decided to Study Abroad

In 11th grade, I spent five months in the United States on an English program. I came back in December 2023 and January 2024 with a period of reverse culture shock. I missed my friends, the different languages, and a sense that life could be global. That feeling didn’t fade; it clarified what I wanted: to bring international experiences into my everyday life and career.

Around the same time, a Chilean classmate announced she had been accepted into university in the US. I reached out. She sent me a voice note with an application checklist that felt impossible: extracurriculars, essays, translations, forms. For a moment, I thought, there is no way. But I knew that if I did not try, I would regret it.

Test scores

I knew that applications, tests, and visa fees add up fast. 

• SAT: 1340 in one sitting. I used Khan Academy for a couple of weeks. Math on the SAT felt easier than Chile’s curriculum, but the timing was tough.

• English proficiency: Duolingo English Test 145 out of 160, chosen because it was affordable and widely accepted.

• GPA: 4.0 unweighted, about 6.9 on Chile’s 1 to 7 scale

My Application Decisions

Early Applications:

• Northwestern (ED): Deferred

• UChicago (EA): Deferred

• Babson (EA): Deferred

• Richmond (EA): Rejected

Regular Decisions:

• Notre Dame: Accepted

• UPenn: Waitlisted

• NYU (NY): Accepted

• Northwestern (RD): accepted no aid

…and a handful of others

Financial Aid

In April of my senior year, Notre Dame invited me to Rally, the admitted students event. Besides getting to visit the campus, our  mission was to meet university representatives and the Financial Aid office, face to face.

After conversations and a review, Notre Dame now covers about 89 percent of the total cost of attendance. I will work on campus, my family contributes what we realistically can, and  it makes the dream possible, and I am committed.

Extracurricular Activities

1. Marketing internship in London and local work: I worked with EF and gained hands-on marketing experience abroad, then brought these skills back to school and community initiatives in Chile.

2. Digital literacy for adults, “Advice” Instagram workshops: I created and sold short courses teaching parents and adults how to use Instagram strategically.

3. Small business, cookie shop: I started and ran a home-based cookie venture. I handled product, pricing, branding, and customer service, and learned real P and L the hard way.

4. TV channel internship in Chile: I supported research and production, mixed journalism tasks with basic management, and learned how communication meets operations.

5. Beach cleanups with the municipality: I co-founded a program to clean coastal areas. I coordinated volunteers, managed the Instagram, and partnered with the local municipality for two years.

6. Faith-related activity: I helped prepare younger students for First Communion and stayed involved in Catholic community life.

Awards and school leadership: I placed in the top ten of roughly 1,300 students in a strategic communications program run by Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez with a TV partner, earned consistent academic honors, shared a valedictorian-type recognition, and competed on the track and field team.

My Personal Statement: The Tripod

I wrote my personal statement comparing my life to a camera on a tripod. Each leg of the tripod represented something important: my family, my faith, and my voice. One leg was still “in progress,” which symbolized resilience and how I was still building myself.

At the time, I thought the metaphor was strong and simple. But when I read it again later, around February, I felt it could have been different. Maybe I could have written about something else that showed more of who I was, not just resilience, since so many people write about that. Still, I kept it straightforward and personal, and it reflected the way I understood my journey at that moment.

Helpful Resources

EducationUSA was my main starting point. I joined the Undergraduate College Club, where they gave presentations on need-aware versus need-blind admissions, financial aid, and essays. It wasn’t very personal, but it helped me get oriented.

Borderless was where I really built my first college list. The platform asked questions about what kind of aid I needed, what major I was considering, and what type of universities I was looking for. Based on that, it gave me suggestions and resources. That’s also where I found links like the College Essay Guy guide.

For test prep, I used Khan Academy for the SAT and chose Duolingo for English since it was cheaper and faster. On top of that, I reached out to people on LinkedIn and Instagram, and my EF exchange gave me the motivation to keep going.

My webinar in Spanish

If you’d like to learn more about my journey, please watch a webinar I did for Borderless in Spanish:

My LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/vicente-miranda-pica-7418a826a