Chance Me (Please): Columbia ED, Johns Hopkins RD, Brown RD, Cornell RD

Hi! I’m a junior applying for the Class of 2023. Any insight on my chances at these schools or areas of improvement would be greatly appreciated!

Intended Major: Neuroscience
Demographics: Asian Female from New York

SAT: 1560/1600 with 22/24 Essay
GPA: 3.95/4.00 UW, 6.93/7.00 W (Strange scale, I know.)
Rank: Top 2%
AP: (Note: My school does not offer AP courses until junior year. I self studied AP Psych last year, though.) AP Psychology (5), AP Chemistry, AP Biology, AP Statistics, AP Language & Composition, AP United States History, AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics + 6 more in Senior Year.
*I’m taking my SAT subject tests in May/June.

Extracurriculars (things in which I pour my entire heart & soul):

  • Founder of a neuroscience nonprofit that promotes accessibility to STEM education; featured on some news outlets & receives hundreds of views every week
  • Clinical psych research at a local university with a professor; my independent research has won regional awards
  • Founder of another nonprofit STEM program that teaches fifth grade girls how to code & do advanced science/math concepts; the purpose of this was to dispel implicit gender myths regarding females in STEM
  • Writing: I'm a published poet with a full-length poetry book for purchase & my poems have been published in 10+ online magazines & journals; I've won international, national & regional awards for my writing
  • Founder of my school's neuroscience Brain Bee team; we compete at regional competitions
  • Founder & EIC of an international publishing magazine; I manage staff from London to India & have published Pushcart Prize nominees, etc; the website receives hundreds of views every week
  • President & EIC of my school's literary magazine
  • President of my school's Key Club
  • National ambassador for a nonprofit that promotes access to opportunity for low-income students
  • President of a female empowerment/social activism club that is currently raising menstrual products to donate to the homeless; the fundraiser has collected 2,000+ hygiene products to donate to homeless shelters

Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to chance me!

Be careful with how you structure your Common App. Founding 4 organizations/clubs that require this much time makes it seem like your dedication to each is less than presumed, at least to me. On top of that you are president of 3 others.

@kjake2000 Good point. I forgot to mention that two of the organizations I founded operate predominantly during the summer so they don’t conflict with my other activities. Thank you for the advice; I’ll definitely take your words into consideration when completing my Common App!

Your ECs are extremely solid. However, as an aspiring STEM major, you probably need to differentiate yourself with some national-level science awards as well. Do you do independent research? USABO/USACO/USAPho?

@anonpenn2022 I do independent research, but I haven’t gone to ISEF or published a paper. I’ve won first place at regional & state science fairs, but I agree that this is negligible in comparison to kids winning ISEF! I’m entering Regeneron next year, but I know that those results come out after ED. My school doesn’t offer USABO/USACO/USAPho, unfortunately, so I’m still searching for competitions that I can still enter before my junior year ends.

@rsiken Ah, that’s a bummer. Still, your commitment to research won’t be disregarded just because you didn’t make ISEF. Of course, all of these schools are reaches regardless, but I’d say you have a better shot than most at all of them!

Side note: Do you do Columbia SHP? If not, it might be too late to take the entrance exam (probably for next year lmao), but I don’t know the exact details.

You are a very competitive applicant. Your stats and ECs are great. What’s even better is that your ECs are mostly related and show your passion as well as skill in a specific field. Write great essays and you could get accepted to any of these schools

You do not need national competitions. You do need collaborative math-science activities in the hs, for several reasons, and Brain Bee seems to be the closest, but only. So much of what you’re doing is outside the hs. That can seem calculated. True leadership qualities aren’t just about a list of titles and accolades.

You need to take time to learn what these schools look for. How you actually decide to present yourself in the app/supps will be key. The whole, not just the main essay, including knowing how best to answer any Why Us question.

@lookingforward Thank you for your advice! I know that Columbia has a Core Curriculum that values interest in science and humanities, which is something that I’ve always been drawn to. Is there a particular way I should strive to present myself on my apps/supps? Alternatively, what should I try to avoid coming across as? Thanks again!

You need to get behind the veil, so to say, dig in until you get a sense of what matters to them. What each of these colleges want and look for will be different from the others, depend on their sense of the college’s identity, purpose, strengths and opportunities…plus the fun aspects.

Rarely do I say to notch it down. But imo, you need to learn more about these schools and then step back and assess how you’ll come across. They aren’t looking for just drives or passions. Even Harvard says, will others want to work with you, will you make a good roommate, etc, (however they word that.) Top colleges value more than the resume. You want them to like you, not sit in awe of a series of titles.

And if you do use the relationship between science and the humanities, eg, that’s more than writing a book or running a couple of lit mgazines, one of which is at a distance.

Not someone who is in a position to give advice, but I’m thinking of using writing as my core extracurricular. Could you please tell me how your writing developed so well and what tips you’d give to a Freshman considering writing? Thanks in advance.

I’m sure we run in the same sort of writing circles, but honestly, how do you do all of this? I can’t think of how you would find the time in the day. These are undeniably strong ECs, but your 10 ECs are all sort of “main” ECs that would take up the majority of someone’s time. Have you thought about how you’re going to break down the hours on your extracurricular section?

I don’t think I’d agree that too much of your list is outside the HS, even though it might seem that way from the sheer magnitude of your listed ECs (even by themselves, EIC of lit mag, Brain Bee and president of Key Club are pretty heavy commitments for school involvement, IMHO). But I can’t imagine getting a 3.95, 1560, 7 APs in one year, and doing everything on your list, even if you get no sleep whatsoever. You really need to consider the amount of hours you’ll be allocating and how that breakdown/total will come across to an admissions officer.

@wontonandrice The biggest piece of advice I can offer (though I don’t think I’m qualified enough to offer advice in writing, haha) is to just keep writing. Also, reading a ton of quality writing from online literary magazines can help you establish the types of writing you like versus the types you dislike so you can implement other people’s writing styles into your own, without plagiarizing, of course. If you’d like more specific information about developing your writing such as summer programs I’d recommend or specific literary magazines, feel free to PM me!

Your EC’s are so insane that all those colleges will want to validate if they are even true. I think the biggest highlight is being a published poet in 10+ magazines and having multiple awards to show for the success of it. Its incredibly impressive that you managed to do that in HS. Therefore, despite all those being reach schools and the fact that you can’t ever have a guaranteed admission, I would say that you will at the very least get into one of those (if you continue your performance).

Just curious, how do you run the nonprofit STEM program you found to teach fifth grade girls how to code & do advanced science/math concepts? it seems you have not taken or done any coding course/work yourself.

@hooverhoo I taught myself how to do basic coding concepts. Codecademy is a great resource, as well as a few AP Computer Science textbooks I picked up from my local library. I’m not claiming to be a proficient coder in any way, of course. For the program’s purposes, I predominantly garnered interest in coding and taught the basics of HTML and Java. While I’d love to take an actual coding course, I don’t have the financial means to pursue it and my school does not offer AP Computer Science.

@rsiken That’s excellent. Then I suggest you to write the main common app essay about your self learning experience that inspired you to share your learnings to younger girls

Since your intended major is neuroscience, your psych ec and you want to apply Brown RD, I would guess you are thinking about Brown’s PLME. If so, maybe you want to do some hospital volunteering.

And talking about EA and RD, don’t EA to your top choice, you want to work, work, and work on your top choice to the last minute, but you also need a good backup from EA so that you can concentrate on your top choice in RD. My DD applied EA to her 3rd choice and she got the whole winter break working on her other 2 choices.

^ ED provides a significant advantage in terms of admissions chances. if Columbia is the top choice for OP, it would be silly not to take advantage of the ED boost.