Chance Me Please!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

<p>Chance me please! I'm applying to the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.</p>

<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT: 800 Math, 800 Writing, 760 Reading
[</em>] SAT IIs: 800 Math II and Physics, 770 Chemistry and Chinese, 750 World History, 740 Bio E
[<em>] APs: *Macro and *Micro economics, World History, *Computer Science A, Statistics, Psychology, Calculus BC (and AB subset), Physics B, Biology, Chemistry (All 5s); English Language (4); US History (3); Environmental Science, Physics C, US Government, Human Geography, English Literature (taking this year); * indicates APs taken online
[</em>] GPA: 4.0 UW, 5.43 W (out of 6)
[<em>] Rank:2/749
[</em>] Other stats: National Merit Semifinalist (index: 232), National AP Scholar</p>

<p>[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] Essays: Good/Average
[</em>] ECs: School Math Team (all years of high school, de facto captain, placed multiple times at the national level, Vice President of school chapter of Mu Alpha Theta), Florida Math Team (called Florida Student Association of Mathematics, active since 11th grade, attended the international competitions PUMaC, HMMT, and ARML (team placed 2nd in B division at ARML), Vice President of Public Relations and Finance of the organization), Co-captain of school's science bowl team and academic team (Brain Brawl team won county championships and advanced to semifinals in states last year), Co-vice President of Science National Honor Society, Chess player since 2003 (Placed top 10 at Nationals in 9th grade, started a volunteer program at the local library to teach chess to elementary school kids) Member of NHS, EHS, and Rho Kappa (Social Studies Honor Society), attended Columbia HSP Session II this summer (took Corporate Valuation, and received one of the best rec letters given out).
[<em>] Teacher Recs: Very Good
[</em>] Counselor Rec: didn't read
[li] Hook (if any): Not sure</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[<em>] State or Country: Florida
[</em>] School Type: Public, around 3500 students
[<em>] Ethnicity: Chinese
[</em>] Gender: Male
[/ul]</p>

2

<p>Oh and I forgot to include that I qualified for AIME (American Invitational Mathematics Examination) last year.</p>

3

<p>Your scores are good and your ECs are focused on your major. That’s a great thing. However, when you get to this level of perfect scores and GPA as well as amazing ECs, adcoms go to essays to determine of you’re the right fit for the school. The fact that you said your essays were good/average scare me.</p>

4

<p>My commonapp essay was about one of my math competitions (states 2011 lol) in which I completely failed (100% my own fault, turns out I didn’t practice the whole year) and what I learned from it.</p>

<p>My literature essay was about The Count of Monte Cristo and how I apply the theme of revenge to live my everyday life (the best revenge is living well).</p>

<p>My Columbia essay contains the generic Ivy League/Columbia/New York City/Wall Street stuff, but I also talked about how during my summer there at the high school program, my friends and I discovered the best coffee in the world in a vending machine in Uris, the business school building. (I wrote about the coffee to add a perspective I doubt anyone else would have been able to talk about).</p>

<p>My engineering essay is about how in math, my favorite and best topic test was always applications, how engineering is the pinnacle of application, and how I want to use that to help make the world a better place.</p>

5

<p>The common app essay seems a little generic, and that’s supposed to be the most important. The engineering essay and the literature essay seem done, but you went a little too far with your Why Columbia essay. There are many ways to give a unique perspective without going as far as finding coffee in a vending machine (I’m sure that coffee is mass produced and distributed elsewhere, perhaps at other colleges).</p>

6

<p>Your stats are very good - I’d guess you have a 50%-50% chance (which is very good when the ED pool is at about 19%). Your ECs are pretty academic.</p>

7

<p>I agree with what has been said about your profile being “very academic.” That’s all excellent, your scores and grades are INCREDIBLE, and your ECs are super cool, as well. The biggest thing for you will be conveying a neat, interesting personality through your essays. If you did this, then your chances are very good. However, I feel that if Columbia doesn’t accept you, you’ll get into another fantastic engineering school at like Penn, Yale, MIT, or something. Columbia is picky, but we’ll see. Of course good luck to you for Thursday! I think you’ll at LEAST be deferred, but yeah, still better chances than most of the people I’ve seen on here.</p>

8

<p>Thanks for the feedback. Perhaps I should have asked CC before writing my essays :p</p>

9

<p>^ This is how I feel about pretty much all of my application. But that’s in the past now, just be optimistic :)</p>

10

<p>I’m trying to, but the closer it gets and the more I read on CC, the harder it gets</p>

11

<p>it’s getting closer. bump!</p>