Any unhooked applicants accepted w/o top 5%??

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

<p>Completely disregarding ECs, recommendations, essays etc, is it possible for someone outside of the top 5% to get in? (Not just Columbia, but top schools in general)</p>

<p>My school only does unweighted ranking and my 6 APs this year really hurt me, since most seniors don't take as many.</p>

<p>After first semester senior year, I'm looking at an uw rank of 40/550 - barely within the top 10%. After looking at chance/decision threads, I realize that this type of ranking is virtually unseen on CC.</p>

<p>So my question is, do I still have a chance?</p>

2

<p>“Completely disregarding ECs, recommendations, essays etc”</p>

<p>Disregarding those would make any decision meaningless. If you have stellar essays and recs, you don’t need to be in the top 10%. If you don’t, it probably won’t matter if you are in the top 10%. It’s a holistic evaluation.</p>