Chance me please! :)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

<p>SAT I (breakdown): 2300 (720 CR, 780 Math, 800 Writing)</p>

<p>SAT II: 750 Math 1, 730 U.S History (too low?)</p>

<p>Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0</p>

<p>Weighted GPA: 6.367 (from IB/AP classes)</p>

<p>Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 1 % of class of 700 students</p>

<p>AP (place score in parenthesis): AP World History (5), AP Macroeconomics (5), AP Government (4), AP English Language (4), AP European History (4), AP U.S History (5), AP English Literature (4), AP Calculus AB (5).</p>

<p>IB (place score in parenthesis): IB Mathematics (6 out of 7), taking HL History, HL English, HL Spanish, and HL Chemistry this year.</p>

<p>Senior Year Course Load: 5 IB classes, 1 AP class, 1 Dual Enrollment class.</p>

<p>Awards: Top 20 Teams in the Nation Eurochallenge Competition, AP Scholar with Distinction, Passed an Amendment in my local district requiring all county calendars to include Diwali (the Indian New Year), Silver Knight Nominee: Mathematics Category (more details below), Chatham University Book Award, Boston Invitational MUN Outstanding Delegate 2011, FIMUN Best Delegate 2010, FIMUN Best Delegate 2011, Global Classrooms MUN Honorable Mention 2011, 1st Place Economics District 26 FBLA, Principal’s Honor Roll (lol).</p>

<p>Extracurriculars: Model UN Secretary Grades 11-12, Eurochallenge Competitor, President of Junior Statesmen of America Club 11-12, Vice President of FBLA Club 11-12, Master of Ceremonies for Sindhi Association of Florida Grades 10-11(community group), Children’s Diwali Ball Dance Participant Grades 2-9, Aftercare Program and Tutoring at local Elementary school Grades 9-11, Mu Alpha Theta Club Member, National Honor Society Member Grades 11-12, Piano player Grades 9-10.</p>

<p>Job/Work Experience: Internship with Economics professor.</p>

<p>Volunteer/Community service: (2 major projects, few minor) First-Student Ambassador and Board Member for an orphanage that I’ve worked with for the past 4 years (Grades 9-12), Organized Massive Drive (70+ boxes of items to send) for orphanage, Organize local fundraisers, took a Service Trip to the orphanage where I designed a floor plan for building extension and went into tribal zones to find more kids. Second- Founder of Mathematicians in the Making Math Camp Grades 11-12 for underprivileged children in my local community who cannot afford personal tutors and are struggling through their math classes, received Silver Knight Nomination for it. (Minor Volunteer at local hospital Grades 10-11, Thanksgiving and Christmas Toy Drives with local shelter, Autism Walks and Relay for Life.</p>

<p>Summer Activities: Columbia University 3-week Summer Program Grade 9, Georgetown University 2-week Summer Program Grade 10, Wharton Business School’s Leadership in the Business World Summer Program Grade 11, Organizing and conducting Math Camp (see above), Interning with Economics professor.</p>

<p>Leisure Activities: Scrapbooking, painting, reading, etc.</p>

<p>Essays: Common App was strong in my opinion and did include a bit of humor (hired a personal college counselor who read through it to make sure it was good), attached a Resume in the Additional Documents section, took a LOT of time on the supplement and gave it all that I got. The questions were uniquely answered and I tried to include various aspects of my interest/personality :)</p>

<p>Teacher Recommendation: Both were amazing: one from math teacher, another from history teacher. Very personalized.</p>

<p>Counselor Rec: Go to a large public high school, so it wasn’t very personalized but still done well.</p>

<p>Additional Rec: From the Director of the orphanage I serve as a board member of. Definitely the best rec when compared to the teacher and counselor recs.</p>

<p>State (if domestic applicant): Florida</p>

<p>School Type: Large Public</p>

<p>Ethnicity: Indian</p>

<p>Gender: Female</p>

<p>Income Bracket: >300k</p>

<p>Strengths: SAT/GPA/Rank/Aps (I think I’m pretty good for the most part when it comes down to numbers), Volunteer activities (especially Service Trip perhaps?), Public Speaking activities, Summer activities.</p>

<p>Weaknesses: SAT II scores aren’t that high, not many national awards, lack of extensive work experience, ethnicity (not in my control lol).</p>

<p>Please let me know what you think! I'm open to constructive criticism, so feel free to be entirely honest! Any suggestions are also welcome! (Sorry if I posted this in the wrong page)</p>

<p>Thanks for your time! :)</p>

2

<p>What do you mean by “constructive criticism”? What are you going to do with the critique we give you?
Sorry, I dont mean to be rude, but your resume looks amazing. And your so called “weaknesses” are not actually weak. You have a strong chance to get in, I would be surprised if you got rejected.
My advice? Polish anything you need to do (essay or something) and get over it.
(My pet peeves are strong applicants who think they need to be chanced.)</p>

3

<p>First: narrow down the ECs that are most important to you. Pick the things that you a) had concrete leadership roles in and/or b) really cared about/fit into your interests. I would shy away from including anything that you participated in primarily before high school. Remember that you’re going to have to be able to describe only a couple of these things in relatively small amounts of space, even when including a resume (which I believe they ask that you not do).</p>

<p>Second: don’t worry about your scores too much. It’s basically too late to change them significantly at this point. 700+ is apparently the target for most SAT IIs anyways.</p>

<p>Third: I don’t know too much about those summer programs you listed, but I would not necessarily count them as a strength. I’m not an admissions officer, but what they say to me is that you’re just taking advantage of having the means to attend, considering the price tag. Your internship with the economics professor, assuming it was more than just making copies, sounds much more interesting.</p>

<p>You’re a strong candidate based on academics, but so’s everyone applying, for the most part. Distinguish yourself from the pack in any way you can. Good luck.</p>

4

<p>To FutureDoctor12, I don’t know what I consider myself because I’ve had horrendous luck (heard back from 2) with college acceptances so far (to say the very least lol) and I’ve been pretty upset about it :frowning: I know that I’ve done all that I possibly could, and I just felt that there was something missing lol. I will surely polish up those essays and I hope it makes the difference. </p>

<p>To neiro6, I definitely agree with all your points and did focus mainly on two things: my public speaking and my involvement with the orphanage (most emphasis on this). I felt that they both distinguished me. Numerically, all applicants are strong, but I think the ECs are what make or break you. I just feel that ethnicity might hurt me, as they say its hard to be Asian in the college process lol! Thanks for the input :)</p>

5

<p>Dont doubt yourself. College admissions are a crapshoot. Just leave it to luck and forget about it. Just trust you did your best and be done with it.
Good luck sir.</p>