Alyssa, similar to Miguel, started thinking about colleges early on. A driving force in her initial interest in Brown was visiting her older sister on campus. For her personally it was the community at Brown that attracted her and the freedom offered around majors. Brown offers a unique open curriculum education. 

As far as pushing herself Sun participated in 3 major extracurriculars, one being fencing. Her advice when asked about setting yourself up for application success is choosing an extracurricular you’re passionate about and sticking with it. Like many others her most rigorous year of schooling was junior year based on her difficult schedule and the pandemic in the midst. This also made it difficult for her to continue with fencing. Sun also works as an assistant engineer at a small start up, which in her opinion gave her an edge in her application.

She began working on her Common App with Miguel in August. This allowed her to also work on supplemental pieces and take a big portion of the stress out of the application process. Sun didn’t end up submitting test scores with her application, but maintained a high weighted gpa and had an impressive list of AP classes under her belt. 

Her moment of acceptance was something to remember. “My parents crowded around my computer and awaited the results with me,” said Alyssa. There was a lot of hugging and pure emotion shared in that moment. Her mom even wore all red as a Chinese tradition of good luck and prosperity.  

At Brown Alyssa plans on studying computer science but is also toying with the idea of becoming a mechanical engineer. Whatever she choses there’s no doubt she’ll be a success.