<p>I understand that these are high level schools and are reaches, but I wanted to know if I have any chance at these schools. Any advice would be much appreciated.</p>
<p>Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2050 (670 R, 680 W, 700 M) - Should I retake?
ACT: Haven't taken yet.
SAT II: 800 Physics, 760 Math IIC
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.96
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 10/266 (Reporting as upper 10%)
AP (place score in parenthesis): Physics B (5), Microeconomics (5), English Lang. (4), Macroeconomics (4),
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: 4 APs not including Physics C independent study
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AP Scholar</p>
<p>Subjective:
Extracurriculars:
- Student Government (4 years): Freshman/sophomore class president, school assembly director (junior year), student body president (senior year)
- Sports: Varsity water polo (4 years, 2 years captain), varsity swim team (4 years, 1 year captain, district record)
- MUN (4 years): State undersecretary (junior year), state vice president (junior year), attended international conference as one of 30 select U.S. delegates
- Youth & Government (3 years): Committee chair (junior year), running for speaker of the house (senior year)
- Rubiks Cubing: Third/second place in state, attended two national conferences
- Clubs: Extreme Urban Sports Club (president), formed Fellowship of Athiest Athletes (president), formed Knitting Club (president)
Job/Work Experience:
- OSU Physics Internship: Worked as research assistant to nationally-renowned nuclear physics at Oregon State University nuclear reactor
- Portland engineering form (Digiwest)
- Worked at Honeybaked Ham
- Math tutor
Volunteer/Community service:
- Founding member of "Beyond Our Bubble: Teen Challenge", an organization wherein a group of students worked to rebuild a house and aid a family in need
- Misc. National Honors Society work
Summer Activities:
- Internship
- Beyond Our Bubble
- Took AP Calculus online to advance a year
Essays: Not polished, but solid. Wrote about experiences with cubing.
Teacher Recommendations: One from leadership/math/swim teacher, one from physics teacher. Not so sure about the second one
Counselor Rec: Probably okay.
Additional Rec: N/A
Interview: Haven't gotten one yet, but I'd do great</p>
<p>Other
State (if domestic applicant): Oregon
Country (if international applicant): U.S.
School Type: Public college-prep, regarded as among the best in Oregon
Ethnicity: White
Gender: M
Income Bracket: 150k+
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): N/A
Reflection
Strengths: Extracurriculars, strong leadership theme, etc.
Weaknesses: Test scores</p>
<p>Great EC’s. Work on those test scores. Calc AB online seems pretty sketch considering it is a major component of the high school curriculum.</p>
<p>Unless you vastly improve test scores, Ivies will most likely filter you out. If you live in Cali you have a pretty good shot at Berkeley and UCSB but not Stanford(like Ivies). If you aren’t those will be much harder to get into.</p>
<p>In what alternate, nebulous world is a 2050 “low”</p>
<p>If you came off of your elitist high horse, you would see that there are hundreds of thousands of kids who would kill to break a 2000. But…sorry, it’s low.</p>
<p>Is it worth it to apply ED to columbia (by far and away my number one choice) as my stats stand now?
Or should i wait and hopefully improve my SAT? (goal: 2150+)</p>
<p>I understand that neither scenario makes my application likely, the main question is just which puts me in a better position.</p>
<p>You are in a position similar to me: Amazing EC’s, but below average SAT scores (in terms of the most selective schools, at least). I know for a fact that it is a difficult position to be in.</p>
<p>With that said, I’d personally wait until regular decision to apply to Columbia. Though I’m confident that applying ED to a college marginally helps, the fact is that, at top schools, the main reason for the inflated acceptance rates in ED is because applicants who apply ED tend to be much stronger candidates.</p>
<p>With that said, I think it would be much to your favor if you wait for RD at Columbia and bump up that SAT score. With your great EC’s, you don’t need amazing SAT scores to get in, in my opinion. Even if you could bump it to 2100 or a 2150, I think that would greatly improve your chances of acceptance from where your chances currently stand. Remember, the SAT isn’t everything in the college admissions game, but colleges do want to see that you are academically competitive. </p>
<p>Whatever path you take, I truly do wish you the best of luck!</p>