Calling all Columbians!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
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<p>I was just wondering if you could spare some time to chance me? I really really love Columbia U but I don't think I have a good chance at getting in. Here are my stats:</p>

<p>Gender: Male
Ethn: White
Grade: Junior</p>

<p>Objective:
Class Rank: Only given decile, top 10% out of like 240
GPA UW: 3.7
GPA W: 4.4
Course load: Only junior in 3 APs, soon to be only senior in 4.
APs: Junior: Calc AB, Eng Lang and Comp (self-study), US History, Phys B (not taking exam).
Senior: Stats, Bio, Eng Lit, Spanish, Chem (taking a weekend course at MIT), Calc BC (self-study), POSSIBLY Psych (am taking an honors course, self study the rest).
Senior Year Course Load: I broke my schools three AP limit (first since institution of rule):
AP Stats, AP Spanish, AP English Lit, AP Bio, Psychology H1, Religion
SATs: CR: 770, M: 790, W: 760, T: 2320
SAT IIs: None yet taken: Planning on taking: Lit, Math II, Spanish, and US History</p>

<p>Subjective:
Clubs: Math Team, Academic Decathalon (Captain), Amigos (volunteer program), joining SADD next year, NHS
Sports: Varsity Tennis Team Captain
Volunteer at Local Food Pantry/Community Center
Bolunteer at Local Hospital
Work at Cold Stone Creamery
Have had a job at Stop and Shop</p>

<p>Essays: Should be really good, I already have topics planned out.
Recs: Should be really good as well.</p>

<p>So, if I were to apply would I have a decent shot? I am highly considering applying ED and I probably will. What do you think?</p>

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<p>Also I am a peer minister at my Church.</p>

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<p>I don’t get what’s “Subjective” about the fact that you worked at Cold Stone Creamery. Did you melt peoples’ ice cream such that some people might not characterize that you did as “work”?</p>

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<p>^He meant “non-transcript, non-College Board, not elsewhere on a formal document.”</p>

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</p>

<p>A W-2 tax form isn’t a formal document?</p>

<p>In any event, it helps when people say what they mean.</p>

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<p>Essentially, I meant Objective as academic, and subjective as anything that could be interpreted in different ways. Some colleges may see work experience as not very important, whereas others may value it.</p>

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<p>bump to all except Columbia2002 and his gratuitous sarcastic comments…</p>

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<p>You need to think this logic through a little bit more. Your “objective” listings “could be interpreted in different ways.” E.g., “GPA UW: 3.7” could be great at some high schools and could be pretty mediocre at other high schools.</p>

<p>Perhaps you mean “academic” and “extracurricular,” which is how most people provide their profiles. I’m not sure why you took it upon yourself to try to be all fancy, and have proceeded to defend yourself rather than recognize your improper diction.</p>

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<p>If you want to call out my improper diction, I suggest you simply look at the listings for Harvard Acceptances for the Class of 2013. It states that each student put his or her decision, followed by his or her OBJECTIVE stats and then SUBJECTIVE stats. So seriously, enough of your unsolicited comments. This website was created to be constructive, and you are uprooting that. Stop trying to be all cool by bringing others down because of their diction. Either start giving real criticism about stats along with helpful suggestions, or seriously, get off.</p>

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<p>Dreamsofivy - I was in your shoes last year, and i understand your anxiety. My suggestions are as follows:
-you mention that you plan to join SADD; be careful of joining clubs/activities you junior and senior years. it will appear to admissions officers that you are simply joining clubs to beef up your resume.
-Keep up with the AP classes and make sure to emphasize that you went beyond other students and took more AP’s than your school normally allows
-Your GPA is good enough
-check and see if you can get a better idea of where you stand within your class, they may be willing to give you a more exact percentile.
-SAT scores are excellent! no worries there - im sure your SATII’s will be great as well
-as for SATII’s i would reccomend taking a science one. Columbia focuses on a well rounded undergrad education, with a core that includes humanities and science course requirements.
-as for your extracurriculars, try to obtain as much leadership as possible - it is more important to show a significant committment to something you love than a limited committment to a bunch of things.</p>

<p>Overall, it will come down to how you can make yourself stand out. your sats and grades will make you extremely competitve within the pool of applicants, but what will get you in is your ability to stand out. write essays that reflect your personality, pick good teachers for recs, play up anything that you have done that is unusual, and put your time into the app.</p>

<p>Good Luck! Hope to see you at CU in a couple of years!</p>

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<p>Care to explain how this proves that your diction is correct?</p>

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<p>ok let’s not get in any more pointless debates here…</p>

<p>but anyway, your stats look all right. i’d say gpa is a bit low, try to make up for them w/ strong sat IIs. ECs are pretty average.</p>