Thank you to everyone who clicked on my thread.
I am planning to apply to Columbia as a bio major (pre med) on early decision November 1.
I feel that I’m a quite poor test taker and don’t exactly have revolutionary ECs (I didn’t know what was important to include so I just put pretty much everything). I know it’s a bit late, but I am willing to do whatever I can to improve my chances of getting in, so please let me know where I stand as of right now and what else I should be doing to improve my chances. Please be brutally honest.
-Current senior
-Female, Middle Eastern, lower middle class with divorced parents
-Likely valedictorian (I’ve been rank 1 since sophomore year so hopefully I don’t get booted off last minute) at an arts school (I’m a classical piano major and have been playing piano for ~10 years)
-4.0 unweighted/4.45 weighted GPA at the end of junior year
-1210 freshman PSAT, 1230 sophomore PSAT, 1450 junior PSAT
-1480 SAT superscore of 2 attempts (770 reading/710 math 8/6/8 essay)
-770 Biology-M SAT II
-650 Literature SAT II
-Have taken all but one of the AP and DC courses my school has to offer, took all DC summer classes through my local community college: DC Pre Calculus (2 semesters Jr.), 5 semesters of DC film classes (summer 2018, 2 sem. Jr, 2 sem. Sr), DC Psychology (summer 2017), DC Sociology (summer 2018), DC US Government (summer 2016), DC Economics (summer 2017), DC Speech (summer 2016), AP English Language (5 Jr.), AP Human Geography (4 Fm.), AP Environmental Science (4 Soph.), AP Art History (4 Jr.), AP US History (4 Soph.), AP Music Theory (3 Soph.), AP Spanish IV (2 Soph.), AP Physics I (2 Jr.), AP Calculus (TBD), AP World History (TBD), AP Chemistry (TBD).
-All other core courses I’ve taken in high school have been Pre-AP (my school doesn’t do honors classes so this is kind of the equivalent) and the rest of my classes have been the mandatory 3-classes-per-year-in-my-major (classical piano).
-National Merit Scholar Semifinalist
-Harvard Book Award recipient
-Volunteer concierge at Medical City Dallas: Summer 2018
-Volunteered in the oncology research lab at Children’s Medical Center: Summer 2018
-Leader of the 2nd place high school team at 24 Hour Film Race Dallas: 2018 (planning to compete again in Spring 2019)
-Assistant Director of Public Relations of a local film festival: 2018
-Written, directed, produced, shot, edited, and crewed for numerous short films both for school and leisure: 2017-present
-Co executive producer for 4 short films for my school’s film class this summer, as well as line producer for one of them, assistant director for two, and script supervisor for the last
-National Honor Society member: 2017-present
-Silver Medal at state level University Interscholastic League for solo classical piano: 2018
-Mu Alpha Theta Tutor: 2015-present; Officer: 2018-present
-Anime Club founding member: 2015-present
-Debate Team: 2014-2017 (club dissipated)
-Judging debates for Dallas Urban Debate Alliance: 2016-present
-Team Award at Dallas Urban Debate Alliance: 2014, 2016
-Freelance piano instructor: 2016-2018
-Freelance math and science tutor for all grade levels below own: 2016-2018
-Occasionally volunteer at the Dallas Arboretum 2015-present
-Have been volunteering to cook for and feed the homeless with my church since I was a kid once a month
Thanks again for your input.