Chance ME please! ED Columbia (:

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia School of General Studies
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<p>Hi all! Thanks so much for reading this- It means a lot :) Please do give me some advice if you can on how I can improve my stats! I'm going to be a junior next year- I know it's early, but I really need some feedback. Thanks again!</p>

<p>GPA: around 98-99 unweighted, 109 weighted- 4.0?
PSAT: 199 (with not much prep...I will make this a 2250+ on SAT with extensive prep)</p>

<p>Class Rank: Top 5 in my grade
Courses:</p>

<p>Freshman:
Pre-AP World History, Chorus, English 9H, Science Research, Algebra 2 w/Trig, French H, Chemistry H
Sophmore:
AP World History (5), English 10H, Science Research, IB HL Math I, French H, IB Chem HL 1
(Expected) Junior:
IB HL History of the Americas, IB HL English, IB HL Math II, IB Chem HL 2, IB Bio HL I, IB SL French </p>

<p>Extra-Curricular Activities
1. Economics Club- founded in 9th grade; will be president for all 4 years
We participate in the FED Challenge...hope to win something (:
2. Model UN- won some awards--see award section- I'm an officer in the cabinet
3. Newspaper- Sophmore Year- Manager; Columnist of "Business Buzz"; Junior Year- News Editor and Manager
4. Girl Scouts-- been in for 10 years; Bronze and Silver Awards. Working towards Gold.
5. Volunteering at Hospital- 2 summers/years so far
6. Volunteering at Library- since 5th grade
7. Mathletes- only 10th grade so far...
8. Science Olympiad- same deal
9. Student Gov/Student Forum: 9th grade- Treasurer; 10th grade-Class Rep Student Forum
10. Soccer- kind of on and off but since elementary school
11. Piano- since elementary school</p>

<p>Work/Internship:
I'm doing an internship for science research in non-invasive cardiac imaging. My mentor is a Columbia grad (X2) and he's really well known in the cardiac imaging world.
I will probably be doing research next summer too. </p>

<p>Awards:
2nd Place at Regional Science Bowl Competition (Runner-Up to Nationals)- Grade 8
Verbal Commendation at Research Symposium- Grade 9
Scien. Resear. Student of the Year-Gr. 9, Top Research Student from Grades 9-11- Gr. 10 Model UN Honorable Mention- Grade 8, Best Position Paper- Grade 9
Presidential Service Award (Gold)– Grade 9
Top 10 at Regional Science Olympiad “Chem Lab”, 2013 Grade 10
Chemagination 2nd place- Grade 10
2nd place, 3rd place- Regional Science Competitions
Community Service Award & Senator's Commendation</p>

<p>If you chance me, I promise I will chance you too!! (I've read quite a few posts related to "Chance Me" before) Thank you all again! (:</p>

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<p>It sounds like you’re applying as a traditional student. Did you mean to post this for Columbia College or something?</p>

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<p>Hello
Im in science Olympiad too!!
Okay so far I would say your SATS and GPA are awesome and class courses. One thing though is a strong theme…
Like ex:
I want to do media and journalism so I published my 3 articles in the newspaper before. I did experimental design in all of the science Olympiad since 9th grade. I work at 2 hospitals but since that doesn’t fit my theme I made sure in one of my articles to mention a hospital experience. I give speeches at American cancer society so that fits my theme as well. My english professor from Oxford is writing my letter of recommendation (again strong theme) and my AP test is in english even though my classes don’t have AP.
Make sure your SATS2 are above 750+ and applying regular increases your chances if you have a professor. My counselor from Columbia University told me that if you apply early and put weight on a columbia grad then they might push you aside because in early decision and action they look for students that have no connections to give a fair chance. So that’s why im also applying to columbia regular decision bec. I don’t want to get pushed aside. Community service awards- skip them they aren’t special everyone gets then
BASICALLY from your extra activities I can’t tell your theme. Your doing research which is science based but model UN which is IR based and science Olympiad science based, newspaper (English based)
Science bowl (science based)
And one mistake tons of the applicants do is not have a good theme. Since the science awards seem too common (my friend has those too), I would highlight model UN the most.
Of course a huge factor is your essays. Be unique. Columbia counselor says eye grabbing essays she accepted were things like
“My mom was considering abotion once. So I would have been one less applicant out of the thousands applying to every college.” Stuff that’s unique about you. And </p>

<p>Grade 8 stuff doesn’t count I think otherwise I would have mentioned my presidential award</p>

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<p>Sorry my post got cut off :smiley:
Basically for the essays you need to be eye grabbing. Not the student that “I won awards and am amazing so accept me”
Columbia is HUGGEEE on diversity so one thing you should try playing up is a fact not many people know about you.
Do you love drawing
Do you sing
One girl got into princeton by writing about how much she likes meatloaf.
Also not as a downer but for columbia TONS and I mean TONS (over 97%) have perfect scores and GPAS and awards.
A senior in my school had:
100 average
2370 on SAT
800 on all 4 SAT 2
Researched under a professor at Princeton for 6 years
Had CANCER and fought it off
Mom had cancer and died from it
And had TONS of awards
He didnt get accepted into any Ivy League he applied to and got deferred at Princeton.
So what im saying is you have a great chance.
Also are u a citizen or Asian by any chance? Because I know a huge trend columbia is reaching for is the
“Im not born here but have great grades and am from like Kongo”
A huge majority of students applying out of the 30,000 maybe eh 15,000 at least I would say are Asian. In my sat class EVERYONE out of 150 students were applying to columbia and only 7 students weren’t Asian</p>

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<p>you’re posting in the forum for columbia university school of general studies - which is the school within columbia university geared towards students who’ve had a break of one year or more in their postsecondary education.</p>