Chance a wisher for columbia FU engineering (chemistry)

<p>Hi,
I'm a latino (dominican republic) going for columbia fu engineering for Chemical Engineering. </p>

<p>my SAT's are terrible:
M: 740 CR: 570 W: 560</p>

<p>but my chemistry is fair
chem sat ii : 800
math ii: 630</p>

<p>my EC's are just A/V and DJ (job/volunteer)
I participate in the lit mag, and yearbook :D</p>

<p>reccomendations: chem teacher says im the most improved student that hes ever taught and math teacher will say that im generally a good student except for that i dont contribute much to class discussion</p>

<p>im taking full IB diploma
IBH anthro
IBH Japanese B
IBH chemitry
IBS MAth (not math studies)
IBS English A1
IBS Biology</p>

<p>in terms of class rank i'm not sure but when it comes to chem i know that theres only 2 maybe 3 people better than me. </p>

<p>idk my GPA i know i get mainly 5's and 6-'s except for chem which was 7- 7 :D</p>

<p>for 'ethnicity' i'm the son of immigrants that came in the 80's so i guess i'm 1st gen or something.
I speak spanish at home. so u know its all about rice and beans over here :D </p>

<p>i'm not sure if Fu engineering accepts based on major. b/c i know that a good majority of applicants are going for financial engineering.</p>

<p>it doesn’t look good, i dont see you have passion in math/engineer/science, and your SAT is not in their range,although as a URM, but it still worth a try.</p>

<p>

This in particular will hurt; why else would you apply to Fu unless you have a genuine interest in the mathematics and sciences? The fact that you ostensibly don’t take much interest in mathematics, combined with the relatively low SAT subject test score (630 is far below the norm for applicants), will not look good.
However, as a URM you will have a better chance than others with the same stats, so definitely do try. What’s the level of competition in the Dominican Republic, like are there many applicants competing against you to go to Columbia or not?</p>

<p>iluvcake2, do not apply to columbia seas, first is that you very likely won’t get in. But I think you will be miserable and probably do badly here. Columbia for diversity reasons might accept you, even though it is clear that you might not be able to cope with the seas curriculum. here’s why you should apply to other schools:</p>

<p>1) Chemical engineering actually has very little to do with chemistry, and chemistry in college has very little to do with chem in high school. Chemistry in college becomes quite mathematical and chemical engineering is intensely math and physics based.
2) Given that both are going to stress math, you do not seem to have the results to do well here. your sat 1 is ok, but that’s math at an 8th grade level. your SAT two in math is 630 which is below the world average. IB math SL is really not adequate preparation to beat competition at Columbia. You should be in HL math and be cruising through getting a 7 or a 6 if you are lazy.</p>

<p>I honestly think you misunderstand what engineering entails, any form of engineering is intensely math based. If you have a love for chemistry you should try to be a chem or bio major in a liberal arts college and then switch out if you don’t like it. So consider applying to columbia college and not seas, and in general do not apply to engineering schools because you might really hate it / not be able to cope. A liberal arts college gives you more flexibility.</p>

<p>p.s. I’m a senior at Columbia’s engineering school, so I do have some idea what I’m saying. I happen to love Columbia seas, but it is definitely a school for a specifically interested and focused student.</p>

<p>There are liberal arts colleges that have a 3/2 program for engineering at Columbia. The way it works is- you get accepted to the LAC, study there for 3 years- mostly math, physics, chemistry- all the pre-engineering courses. Then, as long as you have a B average, you can transfer to Columbia for 2 more years and graduate with a BA from the LAC and a BS in Engineering from Columbia. Two schools that seem within your reach are Clark University in MA and Drew in NJ. There are plenty more.</p>