<p>half korean male</p>
<p>i have 2280 sAT (only took new one once, never took old one)
730 Cr
750 math
800 writing (80, 12/12)</p>
<p>SAT II's</p>
<p>math I-690 (obvious retake)
wh-720</p>
<p>3.3-3.4 GPA (school is extremely competetive tho, class avg. SAT a few yrs back was 1460, 100 percent go on to 4 yr college, no ranks, but somwhere around 50th percentile for me)</p>
<p>WHAP-5
waiting on english and french</p>
<p>Good EC's (i think),</p>
<p>2X Prep State placer in Varsity Wrestling-- planning on wrestling in college
3rd conference
Most Improved Award
participating on Team Texas National team this summer</p>
<p>presidential Gold Award comm. service (250+ hrs)</p>
<p>Also, my main hook..
Last summer, my name got on Research paper submitted to Clinical Cancer Therapy journal
This summer, working on nanotechnology project at Rice University, hoping to get a recommendation from Professor, who is like nobel laureate material..</p>
<p>entering siemens-westinghouse sci. competition</p>
<p>how do u think i look, should i apply ed?
if not, where else should i look?</p>
<p>Hi Pleasehelpme. You're in great shape for Columbia! You're scores are great and you're EC's are off the chart. I got in regular decision with fewer EC's and slightly lower scores. If I were you, I'd apply regular decision to Columbia but ED to a more competitive ivy league school like Princeton (my dream school!). Considering that I am a caucasian male from NY and still got accepted with a less impressive resume than yours, I'd say you have a great shot with regular decision Columbia and early decision Princeton, Harvard, UPENN, etc. I keep stressing Princeton because this elite university is known to be quite flexible with outstanding athletes, especially when they show strong academic potential as in your case. If I could go back in time, I would have applied ED to Princeton instead of Harvard (I got waitlisted). Even though my Columbia experience has been quite adventurous, I would prefer to be in a more beautiful, posh, and tranquil environment such as that of Princeton. I don't like the fact that Columbia is so close to Harlem and the excessive security force surrounding the parameters of Columbia makes me feel like I live in the Gaza Strip or Baghdad. Anyways, best of luck to you!</p>
<p>pleasehelpme, your GPA is kind of low, but everything else looks great. You definitely have a chance.
SkyLight, really? I have been seriously thinking about Princeton and Columbia for the past few weeks. I was 100% sure I would apply ED to Columbia (mostly because, I know this is dumb, it's in NYC, and I LOVE the city). Is it really that bad? How good are professors, students, etc.?</p>
<p>I go to Columbia as well, so I can give you my take. The comment about the Gaza strip/Baghdad was obviously intended as an exaggeration, but I think it gives you the wrong idea. There is not excessive security surrounding the campus. There is a guard in a booth at each of the main entrances, one of which is on Amsterdam, the other on Broadway. Other than that, you have to swipe in to get into the dorms/library. That's really all the security there is, and I don't think any more security is necessary. The campus is very safe. The whole Harlem aspect seems daunting, but people make it out to be much more than it is. In regard to your desire to apply to Columbia b/c it's in new york, that's not a dumb reason. Environment plays an important role in your college experience. The professors are obviously quite brilliant, although I've only completed one year at Columbia, so I haven't taken any of the more advanced/specialized courses yet (which is where you'd have access to the greater minds of the university). The students are also strong. I have been disappointed by the intelligence of some of my fellow students on a number of occasions, but I think that you would find this to be the case at any Ivy. Simply put, there are definitely ppl who aren't that smart. You don't know how they got in or what their deal is, so it's best to just leave at that. On the other hand, I have met lots of really brilliant ppl. Bottom line: it's an ivy league school, and you can safely assume that the students on the whole are going to be pretty smart. The good thing about Columbia is that ppl are usually intelligent as well as urbane. Personally, I prefer to be surrounded by smart kids who now how to deal w/things. Anyway, apply to Columbia early if you really like it. I don't think Princeton is "more competitive" than Columbia. It might have a slightly bigger name, but, hey, you can't really argue w/the fact that Columbia's acceptance rate was lower than Princeton's this year.</p>
<p>brostrad, thanks for the reply. From reading and comparing posts from Columbia and Princeton (especially chances), I got the impression that Columbia was one of the lower Ivies. However, I now understand that there aren't any "rules" for getting into these schools, and you have to look at everybody at a personal level to see how they made it in. I wouldn't trade the smart, dynamic environment of NYC for a "slightly bigger name". Thanks again!</p>
<p>yea cool...well said. it's good that you know what you want. i think, too, that the whole "lower ivies" business is pretty strange. honestly, i don't think you'll come across people who insist on that distinction except on this site. i don't argue that every ivy league school is equally "good," but the ppl on these boards seem to take rather insignificant distinctions and exaggerate them into these big differences. it's pretty dumb and doesn't really serve a useful purpose. as far as i'm concerned, if you're a strong student who loves new york city, there's no beating columbia.</p>