<p>Here is my deal. Not a chance thread but kind of like that!</p>
<p>I have been getting 3.97s, 4.0s and 4.05s since my sophmore year of high school. Freshman year I had 3.0s. :( I have a lot of leadership experience in my ecs and I've done lots of volunteer work. My ACT is a 28, and I hope to score higher by September. I think my guidance counselor can write a fantastic report on my character (even though I come from a huuggee public school) and I can get good teacher recs. I've begun writing my essays. Does anyone think I have a shot at Columbia if my ACT was higher? My transcript does not show a steady improvement of me maintaing 3.8s or 3.7s but a it shows a sudden jump into 3.97s and beyond (so please take this into consideration). Anyways, I'm not thinking too highly of myself so please don't consider me an arrogant fool because I am well aware of Columbia's acceptance standards it's just that I've been hearing of their wild acceptances and it kind of got my hopes up.<br>
This is my senior schedule:
AP English
AP Spanish
AP Calc
AP Chem
AP Gov
AP Psych
Physics</p>
<p>academically you are slightly below par if you ask me, that said you are not by any means much below par, columbia takes people with very varied strengths, if you can stand out in a few things they will probably take you. I'm glad you understand the competition at play, but one good thing is that columbia very much does not have a certain type of student that they like taking. the admissions is also done holistically and open-mindedly. you would allow people to have a better idea of your chances if you added ECs to the above, but really your chances for columbia simply cannot evaluated accurately by these limited sets of information (unless they're extreme). you, next year or whenever, would have to shine brighter than 9 other qualified applicants (4 if you do ED), and the ways to go about doing that are numerous. so should you expect to receive a heavy packet? - no. do you have a reasonable chance at admissions? - depends, either way this board won't be able to tell you accurately, should you apply? - if you feel the university matches your interests, definitely.</p>
<p>*Officer for math club since sophmore year
*Committee chair for math club (did brochures, created design, organized meetings, etc.)
*Layout editor for newspaper
*Writer, columnist, assistant editor for newspaper
*Spanish Club (weak - just general member)
*National Honor Society
*Academic Olympics (equivalent to "Quiz Bowl")
*Science Club
*Political Science Club
*Bug displayer for Milwaukee Public Museum (countless hours of volunteer work)
*Music production (website, blogs/zines, college radio)
*Math competitions at UW-Madison</p>
<p>BTW, I'm also an immigrant currently residing in the suburbs of Milwaukee, WI. I'm a white male.</p>
<p>I think that your academics are a litter below what Columbia would normally accept. I can't tell from your list of ECs how long you've been in them, but if you have any that you've spent years at, then be sure to mention it. Write good essays, get good recs. You have a shot. If you are truly in love with Columbia, ED might boost your chances a bit.</p>
<p>Your ACT is actually right at the bottom of the middle 50. But only 18% of applicants submit ACT scores and a lot of kids take the ACT or only submit the ACT because it's supposedly 'easier' than the SAT.</p>
<p>Bottom line: All is not lost. But you really need to teach yourself how to organize your ECs better.</p>
<p>ie:</p>
<p>Math Club
- Member since blah blah, committee chair, officer
- participated in math competitions</p>
<p>I would list the bug displayer above school newspaper editor, that has to be the most clique rec for ivy league applicants (sigh.) Every applicant I met while touring CU was the editor of the school newspaper and thought that would buy their way in.</p>
<p>Your AP's are great but are scattered - There is no really no interest in one particular field, rather a general interest in loading up on AP courses. No harm in it though.</p>
<p>Thanks all for your encouraging advice. I was just listing my ecs in a forum, I didn't plan to organize them but I do know which ones are key.<br>
I'm very interested in studying bio with chem as a double major. I have recently concluded AP Bio and I received a 4 on the exam (soph year I had a 4 on the AP Comp Sci exam).<br>
But I really think that a lot of the AP courses I will take next year will prepare me for college. Psych, Chem, Calc, English will all be useful for my college education and I took Gov because I enjoy politics. AP Spanish has recently replaced Spanish Five at my school so I had to take that to get my four years of secondary language (technically my third). And of course, as much as I hate saying this, but, all of these courses will look good on a mid-year report provided I do well in them.
Also, I have taken the SAT but my sub scores were all in the 600s. I also took the SATII Bio-E and MathII and I received a 640 and a 650 respectively. I'm pretty sure Columbia has not received my SAT score report.</p>