<p>I am currently a Junior at Covina High interested in applying to Columbia. I have accumulated 200+ hours of volunteer service and held positions in 5 consistent clubs since freshman year. For the upcoming senior year, I have earned the following: Coeditor in Chief/News Editor of the newspaper, President of CSF, Vice Pres of Interact, Vice Pres of Alcyonians, and Secretary of Renaissance of ASB. I also am Girls State 1st Alternate and will be attending Pepperdine's YCS Seminar in June. I will be a camp counselor this summer also at Tom Sawyer Camps, earning about 150 more hours. National Merit Scholar as well. </p>
<p>Sports:
Tennis all 4 years, Varsity for 2. Captain of the team next year.
Soccer 2 years, captain this past season, voted most inspriring.
Track 3 years, won several medals from saturday meets.</p>
<p>AP TESTS:
AP EURO: 4
Waiting for AP Calc AB, AP Physics B, AP English Lang, AP US History.
SAT Score: 2150 on the first try in Oct 2007
Subject tests:
US History: 710
Literature: 660 (without studying, am taking it again in june)
Math Level 2: 660 (without studying, am taking it again in june)</p>
<p>Senior Year Schedule:
AP Calc BC
AP Biology
AP Econ/Gov
AP Lit</p>
<p>“Literature: 660 (without studying, am taking it again in june)
Math Level 2: 660 (without studying, am taking it again in june”</p>
<p>no one ever cares whether you studied for something or not, performance is all that matters.</p>
<p>Your scores seem fine, sat 2 could be a little higher, if you break 700s that’ll be good enough, a 660 is close to the global average for math. sat 1 is fine, it wouldn’t hurt to get a little higher, but it might not be worth the effort. 200-300 hours of community service isn’t exceptional, some people come in with 1000, more importantly though it matters what you’ve accomplished in those hours. The clubs and positions look good, they’re pretty solid, but nothing in particular blows me away. Nothing in your profile prevents you from getting in, but the profile doesn’t hit me as outstanding (‘columbia would be idiotic to reject you’ outstanding), you have a decent chance.</p>
<p>one more thing - what’s the GPA/rank?! how competitive is the school?</p>
<p>i guess they technically call it 6 on the transcript but in actuality, i am ranked 2 if you think about it. i am one B+ behind the others and have all As besides that.</p>
<p>No, you’re not. You’re technically 6. You’re 6 in actuality. You’re 6 when I think about it.</p>
<p>You run track, so let’s take track to help you think about it. In your race, if you run a 11.1s 100 and two other people in the race run the 100 in 11.0s, then you’ve came in third place. You’re not getting a silver medal by anybody’s count. Not in actuality, and not how anyone thinks about it.</p>
<p>I don’t know why but that made me laugh very hard. :)</p>
<p>My advice is that you shouldn’t try to overstate your stats, in your mind or on this board. Because what the adcom is going to see is the black-on-white, not the technicality that you’ve, accurately or not, build in your mind. Work with the concrete.</p>
<p>As for your stats, they’re impressive in my opinion. It’s a very competitive school so I know (believe me) that you’re expecting a ‘shoe-in’ assessment but I can’t say any more than this: Your stats will not keep you out of Columbia.</p>
<p>That should be enough to proceed with confidence and give it a serious shot.</p>
<p>thanks lionheaded. its not that i am in denial that my school ranks me 6th out of 336 but i just stated that so that there’s no confusion. saying 6th here gives the impression that i have horrible grades and therefore dropped from 1st to 6th but it is not true in that sense.</p>
<p>yeah absolutely, we never know who columbia will and will not take. i just hope i have a chance :)</p>
<p>“saying 6th here gives the impression that i have horrible grades”</p>
<p>nope, 6th is 6/336 top 2%, can’t be that bad.</p>
<p>“therefore dropped from 1st to 6th but it is not true in that sense.”</p>
<p>look, if 5 people can manage to get 4.0s and you weren’t able to, you deserve to be 6th. take the extreme example of schools rounding gpa to one decimal point. If 20 are at 4.0, and i’m at 3.9, i’m 21st at best, it could be worse, if there were 9 others at 3.9 and average rank was considered, i would have an average rank of 25th.</p>
<p>“you deserve to be 6th” sounds a bit offensive but i take it you’re just stating it the way it is. </p>
<p>i suppose your logic is correct. i guess i just dont like it (the whole ranking thing) because 2 of those 5 valedictorians are only there because they are in college prep classes.</p>
<p>“sounds a bit offensive but i take it you’re just stating it the way it is”</p>
<p>i also said: “6th is 6/336 top 2%, can’t be that bad.”</p>
<p>“i guess i just dont like it (the whole ranking thing) because 2 of those 5 valedictorians are only there because they are in college prep classes.”</p>
<p>i don’t see why coming 6th instead of 2nd is an issue, but it’s important to take disappointments in your stride, giving excuses will only hurt you when you explain your performance, in an application, interview, conversation or whatever. if you ever get an interview do not make excuses along the lines of putting down others or claiming disadvantage, it’ll just be seen as not being able to handle the truth/being bitter/being a sore loser. I’m not saying that you are, i’m just saying that the sentiment in your posts could hurt you.</p>
<p>If you ever do badly (and 6/336 isn’t bad by any measure), say that you temporarily lost focus and learnt from it, or focused (appropriately or mistakenly) on other things at the time. either way making it out to be your fault will help someone’s character judgement of you.</p>
<p>Not every person who is admitted to Columbia is outstanding.
There are more than plenty of people who aren’t at the top of their class, who don’t have unique/tons of extracurriculars.</p>
<p>In my personal opinion, you are competitive for admission.
However, it will be very important for you to raise your SAT I scores above 2200, if possible. You will want two exceptional SAT II scores, 750+. Lastly, and most importantly, you will want to begin writing a compelling, original, and attention-grabbing personal statement.</p>
<p>The last part is most important–your essays–since there are far too many qualified candidates for admission.</p>
<p>I think this person needs to get a reality check, and come to terms with the ACTUAL strength of their application…just an observation — you have a marginal shot at best…</p>
<p>yeah, I’m not seeing anything that jumps out at me as saying that you’re exceptional - from your profile. Aside from the GPA, that’s solid, although I don’t know how competitive your school would be considered. I’m sure you’re a wonderful girl and all, but to stand out, you’re going to need something special. Athletics looks promising - captain of 2 teams, serious commitments, etc. But you don’t get an A for effort, it’s not going to raise eyebrows unless you’ve had some real accomplishments in your sports.</p>
<p>In fairness, though, Cassie, I got in with way fewer EC’s, and I don’t think anything I did particularly stood out–well, except that I’d been published pretty extensively and I had strong SAT scores. My school didn’t rank, but if it did, I’d have been top 15%, maybe. However, I didn’t have nearly as many EC commitments as you do.</p>
<p>That said, I think what did it for me was the essay. Show them you’ve got a purpose and you should have a strong chance.</p>