<p>SAT II
Math 2 - 710
US History - 660
Chem - 600</p>
<p>Took 7 AP Classes - scored two fives, one three and the rest were fours.</p>
<p>Extracurrics
-High School Newpaper: wrote for Features, Arts and Entertainment, and did comics
-Two years; part time and summer working for Tutoring Service.
-was in like, one theater production.
-ARISTA honor society member
-briefly worked as a volunteer for a local politician
-100+ hours volunteering at nursing home.
-~20 hours volunteering at Mt. Sinai hospital
-Sophomore Advisary Council
-Yearbook writer
-College OP-ED magazine Contributing Writer
-Treasurer of the Cheese Club</p>
<p>I'm pretty bad at taking tests and my extracurrics are kind of weird/mediocre, but I've been known to write a pretty mean college essay. I also have/had good teacher recs, so I'm hoping I'm not too badly off. </p>
<p>I'm thinking of majoring in English and minoring in CompSci. I'm an Asian female from Stuyvesant High School (so that GPA is no joke!!!)</p>
<p>Obviously your GPA in college will be important, to show you can handle top college level work. Beyond that, you'll need a good reason for wanting to transfer and for why Columbia is better for you. Given that you would have had a chance at Columbia the first time around, you probably have a better chance than most of the "dreamy" transfer chances posts on here.</p>
<p>Stuy sux. Try competing with an actual public school where we don't get to cherry-pick from 2 million kids in the city. Oh wait... we used to crush you guys - in debate, in science olympiad, in what-the-heck-ever. We brought the funk, the noise, and the moral victories over fancy-pants schools like Stuy.</p>
<p>I'm a first year, so I don't know what my GPA is going to be like yet. I'm assuming I'm doing pretty well though; I haven't been slacking off or anything.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone who has replied/will reply! I kind of lack confidence in my academic record (I blame Stuy), which is why I didn't go for Columbia the first time around.</p>
<p>Denzera - Haha, I love Stuy - but I agree we're not invincible. I think most students from other schools think more highly of us than we deserve. Stuy was full of awesome, down-to-earth kids, which I hope to find at Columbia.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Stuy was full of awesome, down-to-earth kids, which I hope to find at Columbia.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Columbia stands out among the other Ivy's in my mind because I haven't met the ridiculous, snobby, trust-fund kids that you would expect in this kind of institution.</p>
<p>I'd like to co-sign Karot's statement. "People who don't take themselves too seriously" was one of the differentiating factors for me that made me want to go to Columbia.</p>
<p>Spooner - touche, generous response on your part. I don't actually care, I'm just always amused every time I start thinking about my own high school experiences. While we're on the subject, let me give you a quick piece of advice - you may lack confidence in your academic record, and assume that therefore in order to just stay afloat at a place like Amherst or CU, you'd have to bust your arse and go at 100%, 100% of the time.</p>
<p>I entered Columbia with that exact same attitude, and it's the only thing that kept my grades up and my academic competitive instincts honed. Top, ultra-competitive high schools are more stressful environments than even Columbia (I can't speak to, say, MIT). I probably did more work at Columbia than at LHS, but it was lower-stress and there were more kids who weren't taking things as matters of life and death. In high school there's a sense of competitiveness among the kids that makes everything seem momentous. At Columbia, everyone is smart and works hard, but there is a definite lack of the same sense of panic.</p>
<p>In other words, your preparation to go to a top school is excellent, and don't lose that edge. That edge was the only thing that kept my grades up freshman and sophomore year. After that I kind of fell off the wagon, but still... 2 years of great grades.</p>
<p>from karot: "Columbia stands out among the other Ivy's in my mind because I haven't met the ridiculous, snobby, trust-fund kids that you would expect in this kind of institution."</p>
<p>karot, unfortunately is not one such person, had she been good enough to get into hyp, she would have sold her soul in a second. She still resents not making it, and considers herself above us. Her parents own most of our endowment and that's the only thing keeping her at columbia, without it, her 1.37gpa would have put her on academic probation here and seen her transfer to lesser schools like amherst :D.</p>