Chance me, please!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

<p>I live on Long Island, and so every single person in the top 10 of my class is applying to Columbia. I want to know if I have a legitimate chance before I become a conformist though:</p>

<p>BACKGROUND:
Male, live in NY, born in South Asia, moved to U.S. when almost three yrs old, English was my third language, household income is around 85,000 so about 55,000 net, I have two older siblings, both of whom went to college. Father is a pharmacist. Mother is a housekeeper.</p>

<p>STATS:
GPA: 103 weighted, 95 unweighted (weighting system: honors = +10, AP = +12)
Class Rank: 6/300
SAT Reasoning Test: M: 710 Cr: 670 W: 670 Total: 2050/2400 and 1380/1600
AP: Last year I took 3 APs, and got two 4s and one 3. This year I am taking 5 AP classes (6 if you count economics as macro and micro as separate since tests are separate) + engineering research class + phys ed + a graduation requirement class.
SAT II: Phys: 800 MathIIC: 800 Literature: 700
Essays: Good, meaning not super because I am not an extremely creative writer and I rarely use SAT words, but good in the sense that I feel I successfully expressed my personality
Letters of Recommendation: One of them was really good, and the other two were average good.</p>

<p>AWARDS/EXTRACURRICULARS/WORK EXPERIENCE:
--AP Scholar
--Varsity Tennis Team: 3yrs (I made counties once)
--Varsity Excellence Award (received twice)
--Two-time scholar athlete
--Distinguished High Honor Roll student
--Mathletes: 4yrs (county champion last year, captain this year)
--Science Olympiads: 2yrs, ever since it was offered (I entered all the physics and chemistry competitions)
--SWEEP (an environmental club): 2yrs
--Key Club: 20 hrs community service
--School Radio: 2yrs (journalist)
--Have been working hard at a convenient store 30hrs/week for 3yrs. I have been sales manager for 1.5 years. This is big for me since it took up a lot of my time on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
--Even though I am an atheist, I have been helping every year, for five years, to help set up the food and dining preparations during the four weekend community feasts in the month of Ramadan. My counselor told me this is community service. So it took at least 3hrs/day<em>2days</em>4weekends<em>4yrs(high school yrs)=96 hours.
--I volunteered to tutor two students, on math and chemistry during junior year, after school every day, 1 hr each session, for 32 weeks. So 1</em>5<em>32 = 160 hours.
--I gave tennis lessons to a couple of persons at my tennis club during sophomore year, once a week, three hours a week, for six months. So 3</em>4*6= 72 hours. Afterwards, she became my girlfriend, which indeed was the ultimate payoff!</p>

<p>RESEARCH EXPERIENCE:
--I have completed original research on two projects, one involving chemistry at a state university, the other involving a bit of physics, environmental science, and biology—mixed—at a prominent national lab. I will be sending my abstracts for both research projects. Neither project was published, but I am entering the second one into ISEF. All this research stuff is perhaps my biggest “hook.”</p>

<p>MISCALLENOUS:
--I have been privately tutored for Arabic twice a week, for about 2 years now.
--I speak four languages fluently: Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, English; I know there are some conflicts about whether Urdu and/or Punjabi are languages or dialects, it’s acknowledged.
--I have taken part in civil protests against the war in Iraq as well as against the Patriot Act for twice a month, for two years.
--I trained at an international tennis academy in Texas for 1 month. (But please note, I do NOT wish to play college tennis)
--I regularly play tennis at a local club
--I love to play chess with my friends; I tried to create an official club, but my school’s board failed to pass it in time to make it official this year.
--My favorite album is War by U2
--As subtly mentioned above, I am taking an engineering research class. This year is the first year ever that my school is offering it, and it is very unique. I doubt many other schools have it, so this may catch a second glimpse.</p>

<p>PERSONAL QUALITIES:
--Mathematically and scientifically inclined
--Extremely politically active (I’m somewhere between liberal and libertarian)
--Very outgoing, I love my closest friends with all my heart, and I like most everyone else (except for the cocky jocks, for they are so annoying).
--Theologically open-minded
--I like to get personal with small groups of people, rather than lead a huge pack, as evident in my tutoring and tennis-lessons providing.</p>

<p>ACADEMIC INTERESTS:
--Economics
--Philosophy
--Mathematics
--Physics</p>

2

<p>^not a bad profile, nothing special whatsoever though, i think it'll be a tough sell to the ad coms, but if you come off as interesting enough, and they see some great personal qualities and future potential they might take you. The problem is your background and experiences are not uncommon, and nothing in your profile makes you stand out from the rest. good luck.</p>

3

<p>10 yrs. ago studying arabic would've been a hook. but just like flying lessons, now its just a kinda cool thing...</p>

<p>better than average though</p>

4

<p>I understand, thank you both for your help.</p>

<p>More opinions welcomed.</p>

5

<p>Stat-wise you are fine.. It now depends on what Columbia wants from their applicants nowadays. They care about your personality, what kind of person you are. You have some fairly unique and special things, such as speaking thos languages, and the engineering class. However, the majority of what you do really isnt special at all. Key Club, Mathlete, Science Team, Tutoring etc . are just typical things people do. </p>

<p>I can't say your chances, but i definately won't be surprised if you get in.</p>

6

<p>Hi Da_Elite,</p>

<p>Thank you for sharing your opinion. I am incredibly (and pleasantly) surprised that you said stat-wise I'm fine. Because I thought that the SAT Reasoning score would hurt me a lot; I mean I know it wouldn't close the doors on me completely, but I thought that it would make it so that I would have to be either willing to join college athletics or have above & beyond EC's to get accepted. Again, I appreciate your posting.</p>

7

<p>your stats are great! :)</p>

<p>just curious, (not to be offensive...i know you are a smart kid b/c of the good AP and SAT scores), but what school do you go to? their weighting system is huge...it added 8 points to your grade! (at my school, AP are only +5 lol...lucky you!)</p>

8

<p>Don't worry, you're not being offensive. I just can't tell you since I'm worried that if I tell you, other people from my school may be able to identify me, and I think there are tons of people from my school that are on this forum. But what's strange is that a lot of the other schools around my area (Long Island, and that's all I'm sayin!) have more or less the same weighting system. Some schools even have a higher weighting system; like this one school nearby has a AP weighting of +16, and an honors weighting of +12. </p>

<p>I think that the colleges look at the unweighted GPA anyways, and so nobody really has a disadvantage/advantage. </p>

<p>But you REALLY think I'm good enough for Columbia? I always thought Columbia was a HUGE reach. Last year nine highly ranked students applied there from my school, and only 1 was accepted.</p>