As a questbridge national college match finalist, I was able to apply to a lot of schools for free. If you're a low-income student and high-achieving, or even if you have a subpar grades but you have a compelling story, I highly recommend applying.

I got accepted into Princeton off the waitlist! Interviews: I had interviews with Stanford and Princeton, and both went well. My Stanford interview went very well, and my interviewer was actually a very recent alumni of my high school, so we bonded over having the same teachers and classes. It was very nice. Princeton's was something to be more nervous of, but I still think that I put my best foot forward. It's important to get specific when they ask you questions--no vague cliches. Essays: I spent probably a cumulative 50 or so hours on all of the essays I wrote, and it was a lot! I know this is cliche, but seriously--show your unique voice. Use slang you would say at appropriate times, detail personal anecdotes, show as much as possible that you are a real person. I think it really helps. I talked about community outreach after a natural disaster for my common app essay, and I heard it was received very well. My school-specific essays were nice as well- I tended to use the same template of ""describe this extremely specific thing you want to do and show off a LOT of knowledge along the way, both about your specialty and about the school"" and this also went well. My favorite questions were the shorter answers, mostly because they were, of course, shorter, but also because they were more unique than the typical ""why do you want to go here/how do you embody these traits"" questions.