<p>if anyone could give me an idea about the following stats as far as barnard is concerned, i would really appreciate it. thanks</p>
<p>gpa: 3.7
sat: 680 cr; 710 w; 550 m
sat 2: 750 japanese; 610 french</p>
<p>AP’s: english, european history (scores not yet available, but no 5’s i’m sure) and psych, english lit, french during senior yr.</p>
<p>ec’s: mostly work (15-20 hrs/wk): and community service
awards: college book award (prestigious); english award (less prestigious)</p>
<p>bi-cultural background: japanese mother/american father; went to japanese weekend school as a child and was tutored in japanese until age 13; spend most summers in japan (at least a month) and will be studying japanese in tokyo this summer.</p>
<p>intangible: dad is a columbia college alum (does this even matter to barnard?)</p>
<p>Your record looks very acceptable and is in the middle of the matriculated class except for the Math SAT. Fortunately that is the easiest to improve. The math section tests some concepts that you haven't thought about in perhaps years. To get ready for the test I would buy a book of practice tests. Don't time them at first. You're looking to see what kind of mistakes you are prone to make because of the passage of time. Then look up Xiggi's method for actually taking the test. Only then do you work on timed tests. An additional caveat, my daughters always got higher scores on the actual SAT than they did on the practice tests. Perhaps the people making the practice tests don't want to paint too rosy a picture, so don't grade the practice test as a whole but look at the individual questions to see where you are prone to make silly mistakes.</p>
<p>Yes, the Japanese is good. Barnard likes unusual characteristics. I think that the alum status from Columbia is definitely a plus. Barnard and Columbia are essentially administratively the same. Your degree from Barnard is a Columbia degree. Yes, get up your math scores but, as importantly, do more unique and interesting things. Get something published, write letters to the editor of a good paper, create an after school program, do more with your Japanese. Try to do a cross cultural thing while in Japan.They are interested in creativity and uniqueness. Also, essays are probably very important.</p>