chances for ed at columbia?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>uw 3.92 GPA
30 ACT [30 English, 32 Math, 28 science & reading].
Notable classes taken:
Adv. Lang 10&11
APUSH
AP Physics B
AP Econ
AP Gov & Pol.
Pre-Calc (1 year advanced in curriculum)
Adv. Biology</p>

<p>Haven't taken SAT II's yet -- October 10</p>

<p>4 years of spanish</p>

<p>this year notable classes:
AP Chem
AP Lang
AP Calc
AP Psych</p>

<p>Class rank=32, Class size 587, top 6%,</p>

<p>Public schools, rarely sends grads to top schools</p>

<p>Music:
Orchestra (violin) 3 years (made it to state once)
Piano -- lessons for 11 years
Guitar (5 years) , Bass Guitar (3), and Drum player(2) ( self taught )</p>

<p>Sports:
Cross country and track (3 years each, will be 4). Cross country captain for 2008.
Member and captain of first-ever public high school swim team (1 year)</p>

<p>Other:
Student Council: Junior class president, Sophomore VP, Freshmen VP.
Link Crew (helps freshmen)
Science team (1 year)
Math team (4 years)
nhs 2 years</p>

<p>Service hours: 68</p>

<p>Volunteered for Obama Campaign</p>

<p>Job: two summers of life guarding</p>

<p>White male</p>

<p>pretty good essay... you can pm if you want to read it. About my best friend's suicide in my freshmen year and how it affected me, how i changed, how i am better off now than before</p>

2

<p>You’ll need to get that ACT up to really have a chance.</p>

3

<p>why? it’s in their mid-fifty range? and do they not look at the application holistically? i mean all this " you need a really high ACT *<strong><em>" is really *</em></strong>ing me off.</p>

4

<p>Your chances are unfortunately not good.</p>

<p>They take a holistic look, but if the stats are not there the look ends pretty quickly. A 30 ACT is not competitive for an unhooked candidate. I would raise the score and apply RD because chances are you’d be rejected rather than deferred ED, and that would end all chances.</p>

<p>I’d have to add that coming from a school that sends few to top colleges, all ivies would expect you to rank much higher as well. If you are from an underrepresented state and are low income or first generation, it would help.</p>

<p>The 50th percentile stats must be looked at with the understanding that 40% plus of the class has a hook, and those students can get in with below median stats. The 60% without a hook must bring up the stats, and are mostly going to be at or above the 75th percentile in everything.</p>

5

<p>Ah I understand. thank you.</p>

6

<p>bump sorry …</p>

7

<p>Hmom has got it completely right…but to clarify, what can be considered a hook? obviously first generation, or URM is a big one, but what about things like all state athlete, or in my case, in professional operas? could these be considered hooks as well? By the numbers, you have the stats to get into columbia, but as harvard said 90% or so of the rejected applicants to Harvard were perfectly qualified to be at Harvard, the ones that were accepted had something special that really blew the adcoms away.</p>

8

<p>Hook=recruited athlete, legacy, URM, development, staff, child of powerful/connected.</p>

<p>The things like first gen, siblings at school and low income are tip factors.</p>

<p>As for special talents, they can be a considerable factor if the college determines they are extraordinary and/or something the school wants/needs.</p>

9

<p>so 40% of people who are accepted are either a URM, recruited athlete, a legacy, or child of someone powerful/connected? Wow that makes me fell bad about anyones chances who doesn’t have a hook:(.</p>

10

<p>hmom5:</p>

<p>What states are considered underrepresented to most ivies? (I’m from MN)</p>

<p>Also, I am not sure if this question can really have a straight forward answer to it, but, if I am from an underrepresented state(MN), have a fairly low income divorced parent($45,000)-although my other parent makes around $80,000 but does no contribute, and will be the first one in my family to attend college, will these three things put me close to the level of a URM or will my stats still have to be way better than a URM(I am a white male) Thanks.</p>

11

<p>Your stats will still have to be way better. You will not be considered low income because of your father’s salary, even if he does not want to contribute. MN is nowhere near as good as Alaska, NM or SD, but nowhere near as bad as NY. MA and CA.</p>

12

<p>Could a possible hook be my best friend’s suicide? I wrote the essay about that… i think it’s a pretty major event, but I’m not sure it would constitute much based on what you’ve stated.</p>

13

<p>No…and honestly, hopefully you somehow found a way to make clear what you have to offer a campus through that essay and it’s not another ‘my personal tragedy’ essay.</p>

14

<p>would you care to read it?</p>