Chances, But Not Really!

<p>I APOLOGIZE FOR THE VERBAL DIARRHEA IN ADVANCE! =)</p>

<p>All right, now you could call this a chances thread, but I'm sure some people will tell me that it will be better to wait until I have a couple of more stats. However, I'm a junior and the pressure of college admissions being a mere 10-11 months away is starting to get to me, and it doesn't help coming to CC and seeing all the amazing applicants with 2400 and 4.0's.
Well, here it goes; a chances, thread, but not really (hence the title).
Now, please be honest, should I even apply? Is Columbia right for the type of student or person I am?</p>

<p>Location: Michigan
Ethnicity: Hispanic immigrant (Cuban)
Sex: Female
First generation college student, and I will be needing financial aid since my parents cannot afford to help me pay for college.</p>

<p>GPA (UW): 4.0 (This will, unfortunately, change to a 3.9, since FST is kicking my butt. I will keep it at a 3.9, though.)
GPA (W): 4.056
Rank: 1/491</p>

<p>I've taken the hardest courses available at my school, which by the way is very urban and inner city-like. We are considered by Johns Hopkins to be a drop out factory, which pretty much says it all. Because of this, I haven't had the best academic leadership in terms of counselors or teachers.</p>

<p>I'm registered to take the SAT and SAT II's in US History, World History, and Literature in 2008. ****** Now this is the root of my worries. I am feeling utterly hopeless about the SAT's. I've been taking practice tests, but my Verbal section is always less than stellar for Columbia's taste and let's not even talk about Math. Will this keep me out of Columbia? BTW, I know I can get 750 and more on the Subject Tests, but I'm not sure if my SAT I will even reach the 2000 mark. Also, I can't afford a tutor, so I'm basically self-studying the SAT's.******</p>

<p>APs:
10th
AP US History (5)</p>

<p>11th
AP Biology
AP American Gov.
AP Spanish (Self-study)
AP Psychology (Self-study)</p>

<p>12th
AP Stats
AP Environmental Science
AP Statistics
AP English
AP European History
AP Comparative Gov. (Self-study)</p>

<p>ECs:
Editor-in-Chief of high school newspaper
Academic Decathlon
Student Council (Will be in a leadership senior year)
Excellers (In the process of organizing a large event for diversity in our school, which will include a concert.)
- President
County Youth Commission
-Secretary
- Co-Chair of the Community Service Committee
- Chair of the Government Education Committee
NHS (Expecting a leadership position next year.)
4-H Peer Mentoring Program
-Mentor a youth one hour a week.
****** Right now, I'm in the process of starting a peer education program for middle schoolers and high schoolers with Michigan's 4-H. I'm also hoping to organize a book fair for my local city in order to raise money fro youth groups and youth charities. I'm still waiting for my proposition to get approved.
Now, I think that my "passion" is education and, in the future, I want to blend that with the arts and television. I've recently become interested in dancing and performing arts in general. I will be starting dance classes in the summer.</p>

<p>Community Service
192+ volunteer hours</p>

<ul>
<li>Volunteer at a local library
(May 2006 - December 2006)</li>
</ul>

<p>Work Experience:
Library Page at a local library; 10 hours/week.</p>

<p>Awards:
Honor Roll
Ventures Scholar
Sophomore of the Year (School Award)
Academic Decathlon 3rd place in Speech
Academic Decathlon 3rd place in Interview
Academic Decathlon Highest Team Scorer</p>

<p>Well... chance away!</p>

<p>You seem to me like a good candidate. You are clearly hard-working, and if you present yourself to Columbia the way you've presented yourself here, that should shine through. Two pieces of advice:</p>

<p>1) Just keep working at those SATs. I know that saying this doesn't make it any easier, but as a self-studier myself (in an area notorious for over-tutoring) I did find that practice paid off. The SAT is a mostly straightforward test, but they do try to trick you now and then...the more you keep working on the math and critical reading (and truly understand the errors you're making) the more you will learn what to watch out for on test day.</p>

<p>2) Once you've gotten feedback from this thread, try to stay the hell away from CC as much as possible. ;) I didn't start visiting until a couple of weeks before I got my decision from Columbia, and in that short space of time the board consumed my life and scared me ****less. I can't imagine the horror of living with CC for a whole year.</p>

<p>LOL! Thanks, NightOwl1082. However, I have been a part of CC since 8th grade, so I've pretty much seen it all. I'm just more scared now, since college admissions are so unbelievably close.</p>

<p>Any more advice?</p>

<p>um...you ARE the kind of person on CC who scares me ****less. lol</p>

<p>^ What?! Why?</p>

<p>Because you have a PERFECT resume.</p>

<p>You're everything a college would want: great GPA & ECs, tons of community service, you're an URM in a school that (probably) doesn't send a lot of kids to college.</p>

<p>Of course, it also depends on your SATs, LORs and essays, but I think you stand a very good chance.</p>

<p>haha shoo-in</p>

<p>Unless you write your essay on how paint dries and your teachers hate you and write a horrendous rec and you bomb the SATs (and I doubt any of those will happen), you have an amazing resume. Also, you're a hispanic immigrant.</p>

<p>O-Tree,</p>

<p>You seem to have the opposite problem (well, let's call it a focus area) from many of the people asking about themselves in Chances threads here. You're not the type with perfect stats but little depth or passion coming in to ask what they're lacking. You seem to have plenty of focus and passion and want to avoid the possibility that stats will get in the way of that.</p>

<p>Any advice I'd have for you would only be useful in a dialogue. So, please feel free to IM me (link under my name, if you have AIM). If you need someone to just tell you how cool you are, of course, you seem to have many willing volunteers around here. =)</p>

<p>Self-studying the SATs is very, very possible if you put the time in.</p>

<p>I was under the impression that most SAT test takers self-studied.... lol, tells me how naive I was.</p>

<p>I really don't think you should stress that much over the SATs. Yeah, they're important, but a university like Columbia considers things like the personal essay and ECs very importantly (I'd even say just as important, or more sometimes). From what I've read on CC, you're considered and low test taker if you get less than 1500/1600, but... that's bs. Really. I know students in my grade who got lower than that and got into ED MIT, CalTech, UPenn. And let's not pretend like you have something seriously lacking in your resume or something.</p>

<p>LOL, don't worry, paint drying doesn't really appeal to me. Yes, I think it's frustrating because I know I have great passion, but I'm not naive enough to think that SAT scores are not important in the Ivy League universities. I will try as hard as I can to score as high as I can. BTW, I decided to concentrate more on the ACT, since I think I can get a better score with that exam than on the SAT. I'm aiming for a 30, which I think I can get. Also, I was able to find an affordable tutor, so that should also help me.</p>

<p>Denzera, are you a Columbia student? Thanks for the all the great advice, everyone! I thought as soon as I posted this thread, people would start biting my head off. ;)</p>

<p>Nah, we're not resentful because you're not a competitor for class of '12 :D</p>

<p>^ True! LOL</p>

<p>OT - I'm not a current CU student, I graduated a year ago, although I've been posting here since I was a senior. I have friends who are still seniors though, so I'm on campus fairly regularly.</p>

<p>Dig a bit in the archives here, or read the threads linked in the Helpful Columbia Threads thread stickied to the top of this board, and you'll learn a lot about the major posters on this board.</p>