Applying to Columbia?

<p>For those applying to Columbia or top schools, feel free to ask me if you'd like any application or essay tips.</p>

<p>Hey, yea I REALLY want to go to columbia ED, do you think i have a shot?</p>

<p>Year - Junior
GPA (unweighted) - 3.9
GPA (weighted) - 4.7
Class rank - 25/301
SAT I- 2110 (760 reading, 740 writing, 610 math)
SAT IIs- Literature - 700, US History - 700
AP Exams- English (5), US History (4)
EC's -
-Editor-in-Chief of school newspaper (2 years) Writer before that (3 years)
-Vice President of National Honor Society (1 year)
-Vice President of Leo Club (it's bascially a community service club, very large, 1 year)
-Regular contributer to Sun Chronicle (2 years, it's a local paper)
-Cross-Country (one year)
-Volunteer at local churhce's soup kitchen (5 years, 300+ hours)
-Job at Shaws Supermarket (4 years)</p>

<p>Also, my dad went to Columbia undergrad, so I'm a legacy.</p>

<p>I am planning to apply ED, and I want to know if i have any hope of getting in. My class rank isnt as high as other Ivy applicants, but I have ltos of leadership activities and my grades are solid A's all the way through and I take all Honors/AP courses.</p>

<p>soulblade - any way you can get that SAT I math score higher?</p>

<p>On a scale of 1-10 is terms of strength as an ED applicant (10 being the best), I'd give you a 7.</p>

<p>yea thats my only concern is that math score....I'm sure if i retake it i can do better, probably mid-high 600s, but I dont have any time to take them again before the ED deadline. I'm doing more II's in June, and the next test date isnt till october, and then it would be too late to get those scores in for ED. But would they reject me soley on that?</p>

<p>October isn't too late. Do it in October.</p>

<p>You have absolutely,postitively,definitely no shot.
Just kidding, you have a reasonable shot, but you might need to up the SAT score...and also you need to show something you are postively good at, perhaps something with writing</p>

<p>So if i retake the SAT I's in October, could I get my scores in to Columbia in time for ED? If I could that would be great!!!! I could DEFINETELY get that math score way up if I could do that.</p>

<p>And yea, my talents definetely lie in writing. How could I show that in some special way likee you suggest? I am Editor on my school paper, and I plan on writing an awesome essay as well as getting a really good rec from my AP Eng teacher.</p>

<p>Yes October.</p>

<p>Ok excellent, I can definetely get that maht score in the high 600s, maybe even lower 700s</p>

<p>anyone else think i have a decent chane?</p>

<p>awesome. I really want to go to Columbia too. I love its atmosphere and the mandatory CORE Classes. Haha. Plus Columbia has Boxing and Wrestling teams, so thats a big plus for me too. :)</p>

<p>So here I go (make it as brief as I can)
UW 4.0
W 4.7ish
ranking (top 5%) (school doesn't rank) but around 1-2</p>

<p>SAT 1500 720 V 780 M (seems a bit low?)
SAT2's Writing 770 IIC 790 US 760 Physics 770 Bio 770</p>

<p>Going to take around 11 AP's by end of senior year
AP Bio (current), AP English (current), AP US (current), AP Euro (5), AP Stats (5), AP Physics C (Current), AP Calculus BC (current)
AP Chemistry (senior), AP English (senior), AP Gov/Econ (senior), AP Comp Sci (senior)</p>

<p>Church teacher and co-founder of Church youth program for inter-city students (help teach them math, english, science, history) also somewhat like mentorship program (8-10)
Church camp counselor (two summers)
Church Youth Orchestra (7-10) (second chair), member of Church Adult Orchestra</p>

<p>V Wrestling, V Track/Field (pole vault and long jump) with letters and stuff, probably going to do football in 12th
Wrestling awards, etc...
Black Belt Tae Kwon Do
Hobbies (really into Boxing)- hope to compete by senior year because parents just let me start when I was a junior</p>

<p>Going to create Sports club (senior year; preliminary stuff done already)
Science Club Secretary 11th (9-12)
Music Club co founder, vice president (11th), secretary (12th)
Key Club (9-12), communications chair (10), publicity/fundraiser (12th)
hope to become Orchestra president (12th)
INtern for research institute (creating/designing robots from scratch based on novel power supply techniques, planning to write engineering report on it)
Stanford EPGY distance program
NHS, CSF, Pomona Math Award, AIME qualifier, etc...</p>

<p>I attended NSLC Medicine and Healthcare, which was boring. This summer I'm just spending my time in the lab and training for J Robinson Wrestling Camp!!!
Tutoring jobs to help pay for my boxing</p>

<p>well, I have really awesome recommendations from Physics, Bio, and US History teachers.</p>

<p>I see no reason why aha123 would not get in. I think with a convincing essay, its a good bet. Not so sure about soulblade, but its definately worth the ED application. Write an excellent essay and it might happen for ya.</p>

<p>I hope so too. I wrote a personal essay out of catharsis. Maybe I can tweak that and work it into a college essay.</p>

<p>I think you have decent shot, esp applying ED as a legacy-my son (not a legacy) applied ED for Class of 2009 and was accepted with very similiar stats to yours, altho the class rank was a tad higher (5/158) and the SAT I Math score was 700, however he only got a 610 on the Math IIC SAT II, and this didn't hurt him. I recommend taking the SAT I again with some extra prep for the Math section-my son's verbal score , like yours, was very high, but he found some Kaplan prep very helpful in raising his Math score based on practice exams. Also he lucked into taking AP Calc his junior year in a very small class with tons of one-on-one instruction, so having a 99 average for AP calc on his transcript didn't hurt. Pr'aps you can enroll in AP Calc for next term, so they'll at least see that you're taking it. Also, continue to play up your writing hook, my son was that plus a very strong and passionate theatre resume-they seemed to like that.....Good luck to you!</p>

<p>aha, I would definitely play up your interest in the tutoring/mentoring thing as it relates to Columbia's Community Impact Program.</p>

<p>excellent chances aha123</p>