<p>I'm a female Asian...bad, I know.</p>
<p>Stats:
SAT I: 2300 total
AP/IB taken/scores: None yet. Will take in May: English Lang, Biology, Physics B, European History. I project 5's and 4's on all.
GPA weighted: 4.3
GPA unweighted: 4.0 (This is the one that means purely without the extra AP/honors weights, right?)
Rank or % estimate: School does not rank...and it benefits me, I think. (Could this be detrimental?) </p>
<p>SAT II's: Have not taken yet. Probably 700+ on Math II and 700+ on Physics. </p>
<p>Location/Person:
State or Country: Pennsylvania
School Type: Fairly large and suburban...I don't know what else to say.
Ethnicity: Chinese
Gender: Female
Financial Aid?(Y/N): Y
Legacy Yes/No: No
Important ECs: Math Club (President); Philosophy Club (President); Model United Nations; Speech and Debate Team; GreenTeam (Environmental Club); will start a bioengineering internship during fall of senior year; volunteering at a science-related museum (100 hours so far); tutoring free of charge; Church altar-server. </p>
<p>Hook (if any): Nothing...</p>
<p>This summer: Will either do research at a bio lab or volunteer at a kids' science camp (bio-related). I might also learn a foreign language at a local university! (German or Italian).</p>
<p>Senior Course Load: Calc AB, Physics C, Chemistry, Spanish, Economics (All AP); honors English </p>
<p>Please chance me for Early Decision to SEAS and regular decision to SEAS.
And I realize that this is a CU part of the forum, but just for the heck of it, please also chance me for other colleges that I'm interested in! :D They are: Brown, Dartmouth, Penn, MIT, Caltech, UMichigan, and Duke.</p>
<p>"School Type: Fairly large and suburban...I don't know what else to say."</p>
<p>What's your school's placement record to top schools, and what is the pct. of Asians in your class? If you were to guess your rank, what would it be? Out of how many?</p>
<p>"I'm a female Asian...bad, I know."</p>
<p>It's not all bad. You are female (advantage) and SEAS has the highest percentage of Asian students in the upper band of engineering schools, excluding CalTech.</p>
<p>ECs: Anything indicating a leadership role beyond your high school? For example, invitations to debate competitions at the state, regional or national-level? Have you entered any state math competitions?</p>
<p>"SAT I: 2300 total" - What is the breakdown of your score?</p>
<p>Why have you selected this particular group of schools?</p>
<p>
[quote]
It's not all bad. You are female (advantage) and SEAS has the highest percentage of Asian students in the upper band of engineering schools, excluding CalTech.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>where do you get any of this from, please substantiate. Seas is 32% female, if the applicant pool was 32% female and there weren't differences in applicant quality then you have no claim. You see there are 3 input variables and 1 output variable (% female in class).
1)what % of pool was female
2)how competitive they were relative to males
3)how likely are females to accept offers over males</p>
<p>until these three are gauged you have no way of figuring whether women are hurt or helped or neither. Columbia undergrad is pretty even: 52male 48female, add barnard into the mix and the density of women shoots up. So maybe they want seas to bring in the men.</p>
<p>The same can be said about Asians, if many Asians apply to SEAS, then us taking more is not indicative a preference. And we are close to Jersey and in NYC both of which are infested with Asians :p</p>
<p>CC - If you've attended an engineering college, you would know that all them them except for MIT have many more males than females, and therefore the standard for admission for females is relaxed a bit for the latter in order to boost their numbers.</p>
<p>And we all know what putting "Asian" on your application does for your chances of getting into an elite college. That is why there are URMs (+) and ORMs (-). Still, some schools have a reputation for being more hospitable than others towards Asian applicants. Try comparing Princeton vs. Columbia, for instance. All you have to do is take a walk on the campuses of both and you can see the difference in about 15-20 seconds. And that's the most complete data you'll have, because most private colleges no longer release admissions (%applied vs. %accepted) statistics by race or sex, for obvious reasons (lawsuits).</p>
<p>Why do you think Diet Pepsi lamented: "I'm a female Asian...bad, I know." We're not blind. We've seen and heard about college admissions office practices from Columbia to Princeton first-hand and from others, and we have to adjust our expectations accordingly.</p>
<p>This is not a rant, just statement of the facts that we all know to be true. I'm not here to mislead her. All I'm doing is trying to help someone get into a college I happen to like.</p>
<p>To James:</p>
<p>Umm...my school has maybe 5-10% Asians? I really don't know. We send maybe 5 out of a senior class of 700 to HYP/Stanford/MIT each year (and couple more for Duke, Penn, Cornell, etc.). </p>
<p>Even though my school classifies itself as a non-ranking school, the top students may ask for it to be shown on their transcript. I definitely WILL NOT ask for this because my unweighted GPA is fairly low due to extraneous circumstances (I moved here from a school that did not offer any AP/honors...so even though I got all A's and continue to get all A's in my AP courses, it does not bring up my freshman/soph completely unweighted grades). I might be in the top 10%...if I'm lucky. </p>
<p>To reply to your EC comment:
Well...I'm going to be a summer camp leader...if that counts at all. Like I said, I moved right after sophomore year. So do you think the adcoms will not mind a bit if my ECs aren't totally perfect/continuous from 9th through 12th grade? </p>
<p>"SAT I: 2300 total" - What is the breakdown of your score?</p>
<p>800 Math, 750 CR and W</p>
<p>Why have you selected this particular group of schools?</p>
<p>Penn has a SEAS like Columbia and offers the same urban environment...and is close to home.
MIT and Caltech...great engineering...great prestige...what else can I say?
UMichigan - Dad lives there
Duke, Brown, Dartmouth - reaches that I'd say are same level as Columbia</p>
<p>But...don't get me wrong about my interest in those other schools...I am far more committed to Columbia that the ones I mentioned. I plan to tour NYC with my dad this summer, attend those info things, and possibly do an overnight stay in fall to check off those boxes on the application :D</p>
<p>Quick observations:</p>
<p>1) School profile - You're at the right place. Too many Asians means too much competition. In NY and SF, there are high schools with 30-70% Asian population. At these places, test scores are high, but acceptances to top schools are lower than one might expect. "Regional diversity" is the rationale, of course.</p>
<p>2) Class rank is a bit low, if at the 10th percentile. Last chance to boost that up is this semester.</p>
<p>3) SATs are where they should be.</p>
<p>4) Leadership - I understand that moving can mess up your feeling of continuity, but that should not stop you from taking the initiative and competing in math and debate at the regional level, and state-level if possible. What about Model UN, clubs and tutoring, etc.--has that led to any awards or recognition at your school or regional-level? Have you worked other summer jobs (for financial reasons)?</p>
<p>5) Schools - Start looking at schools like Carnegie-Mellon, Lehigh, Emory or Johns Hopkins as "target" schools. Ivies plus Duke/MIT/CalTech/etc. are "reach" schools for virtually everyone. Then, consider applying to smaller schools like Williams--they have 3-2 exchange programs with Columbia.</p>
<p>Weaknesses - Really, your class rank and ECs need some work. Try thinking about some leadership roles you can take during the summer and in the first half of your senior year.</p>
<p>If Columbia/SEAS is really your thing, don't forget to apply ED. It's a significant boost to your chances.</p>
<p>Good luck to you!</p>
<p>
[quote]
CC - If you've attended an engineering college, you would know that all them them except for MIT have many more males than females, and therefore the standard for admission for females is relaxed a bit for the latter in order to boost their numbers.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>With all due respect, did you ever wonder if this was because most engineering colleges (with the obvious exception of MIT) do not have an unduly high inclination to accept females over more qualified males? Why would Columbia need to boost the amount of females when CC and Barnard already provide for a female:male ratio on campus that is almost 1:1.</p>
<p>"Why would Columbia need to boost the amount of females when CC and Barnard already provide for a female:male ratio on campus that is almost 1:1?"</p>
<p>Because Columbia would like to have more women enrolled in the engineering school. Why is that so hard to understand? Someday, try walking into the Mudd Building and look into a classroom or two. It's almost all men.</p>
<p>There's a difference between wanting more women and compromising standards--the latter seems to be what you are insinuating that the admissions office does. You are implicitly insulting the women at SEAS by claiming that it's easier for them to gain admittance.</p>
<p>To James:
For my class rank, is there anything else I myself can do except get all A's in my classes? Won't the other top kids at my school continue to get A's as well (like always), thereby just shifting the spectrum?</p>
<p>Well, I guess we're going to have to toss out the whole Affirmative Action and Legacy thing--it's insulting to Underrepresented Minority students and Alumni!</p>
<p>Diet Pepsi - At all schools, there will be students ranked ahead of you who haven't taken as many AP or Honors courses. You're going to need to crush your classes this semester. Maybe it means focusing on classes, and perhaps putting off some of your AP exams and/or SAT Subject tests until later.</p>
<p>Still, I'm not saying that you won't be admitted to Columbia and others if you're ranked, say 70th out of 700 students. For perspective, try looking at "class context". Specifically, it means noting the students from YOUR HIGH SCHOOL who have just been (or will be) accepted to Columbia, Penn, Duke, MIT, etc. For these students, do you observe a pattern with their class ranking? For example, I think what you will find is that MIT-accepted students are almost all in the top 1-2% of their classes (except for URMs, legacies and athletes of course!). Pay close attention to the profiles of engineering candidates (at your HS) to those schools you are targeting. For reference, check out these statistics from Penn: Penn</a> Admissions: Incoming Class Profile See the drop off in the admissions rate in the 2nd decile? It's likely to be similar for Columbia SEAS.</p>
<p>If you are interested, PM me and I will send you some more details</p>
<p>To James: </p>
<p>I accidentally left you a visitor message instead of a PM...so check that out.
I will do well in my classes...I mean, after the AP tests, we basically do just projects and stuff.
I will focus on leadership roles and maybe some new ECs...Do you think getting a part time job will help me a bit? I've been thinking about getting one at a movie theater (after AP tests). </p>
<p>Thanks for all your help by the way...Being a first-born, it's really valuable for me to get feedback from people who know the process...</p>
<p>Part-time job only helps a bit if you are in a low-income category. After all, it makes sense that lower income students would spend more time working than with sports and ECs. Not sure if it applies in your case.</p>