Chance this poor Asian kid

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): did not take
ACT (breakdown): 35C (36E 35M 35R 33S) one sitting
SAT II: Math II (800), Bio-E (620)- I’ll have to retake this in the fall lol
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.9
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 10ish
AP (place score in parenthesis):
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: 2 AP classes and some honors classes
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Hopefully National merit semi-finalist but my PSAT score is really cutting it close

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):Skills USA (Secretary), Future Business Leaders of America FBLA (Treasurer then VP), Chess Club (Founder then President), National Honors Society NHS (Historian), Book Club (Officer), Debate Club (Founder and President), Creative Writers Club, Drama Club
Job/Work Experience: I work part-time, around 20 hours per week helping my dad in his business.
Volunteer/Community service: around 300 hours a year helping my church.
Summer Activities: Missionary to Nicaragua to build houses and a church. Summer of sophomore year.
Boys State and Boys Nation. Summer of junior year.
FBLA Nationals convention. Summer of junior year.
Essays (rating 1-10, details): Not written yet
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): Not written yet

Teacher Rec #1:
Teacher Rec #2:
Counselor Rec:
Additional Rec:
Interview:

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Political Science
State (if domestic applicant): Arizona
Country (if international applicant): USA
School Type: Large Public
Ethnicity: Korean
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: around 40k-ish
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First generation, low income

Reflection
So what I was really scared of was coming off as the typical Asian high school student. I will be approaching humanities, but I’ve always leaned towards STEM my whole life. I do want to help people when I grow up, and I hope that by taking an active role in politics and by pursuing a political science degree, I can do that in the future.
So what do you guys think? How do I look as an applicant to Columbia?

2

You’re grades and ECs seem good but you haven’t really distinguished yourself from what will be a huge pool of similarly “qualified” applicants - work on creating or devlopping some kind of a hook which will leave them wanting to know more. Good luck!

3

Are you applying engineering ? If yes then you do look a bit stereotypical.

4

“poor Asian kid” – you get an award for false humility.

5

i’m pretty sure he meant “poor” because his income bracket is less than 40k…

6

Yikes! My bad. Plz accept my apologies, OP

7

Excellent stats, low income, and from Arizona means you should be a very attractive candidate.

8

It’s completely fine, no worries!!

9

I don’t see any obvious weaknesses…