Chances!!!??

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

<p>Hi, just thought I'd get an evaluation of what you think my possible chances are! Thanks in advance for the input!</p>

<p>Academics:</p>

<p>GPA: 3.6 or 3.7
GPA 1st Quarter of this year: 4.3 and 4.4...so its gone up!
SAT: 2070 (720 cr, 710 w, 640 m)
Diploma: I am an IB Diploma Candidate (only 15% of students at my school are...and I'm taking 4 Higher Levels and 3 Standard Levels)
Selling Point in Courses? I am taking two foreign languages (french and spanish) both at the highest IB level.</p>

<p>Athletics:</p>

<p>Varsity Volleyball: 9, 10, 11, 12, Awarded All-Tournament, "Most Dominant Offensive Player"</p>

<p>Varsity Lacrosse: 9, 10</p>

<p>Travel Volleyball: 9, 10, 11, 12</p>

<p>USA Volleyball: USA High Performance Youth National Development Camp- Selected twice, USA Regional High Performance Team (CHRVA), which participated in the USA High Performance Championship against select US, Canadian, and Brazilian National Teams.</p>

<p>Travel Lacrosse: 9</p>

<p>Activities:</p>

<p>Model United Nations: 9, 10, 11, 12- was 1 of 3 awarded "Special Recognition" in a committee of 132 at the Genoa Model UN Conference in Genoa, Italy</p>

<p>Habitat for Humanity: Co-Founder 11, 12</p>

<p>Foreign Exchange: AIU High School Diplomats (Summer 2005), I was chosen to spend 10 days at Princeton University, taking part in a cultural exchange with Japanese students. </p>

<p>Service:</p>

<p>Tutor
D.C. Special Olympics Volunteer
Co-Chairman of the Tsunami Relief Project at my school which raised over $35,000.</p>

<p>Other Educational Experiences:
Brown Summer Program: mini-course in International Relations
Stanford University Education Program for Gifted Youth: English Course</p>

<p>Life Experiences: I lived overseas in Seoul, South Korea and have travelled to China, Japan, Italy, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Cambodia, and Thailand. </p>

<p>School Profile: My school is always ranked in Newsweek's "Most Challenging", and is second-best in the DC metro area. </p>

<p>I do have a few blemishes on my transcript (C's); however, I have a very strong course-load, and my volleyball takes up about 19 hrs of my week...that's without travel to several tournaments throughout the nation. I think my essays are interesting, and reflect my unique, rather diverse upbringing.</p>

<p>WHAT ARE MY CHANCES?</p>

2

<p>decent chances....</p>

3

<p>haha admission</p>

4

<p>less than decent chance.
SAT scores and GPA are unimpressive.</p>

5

<p>GPA is low...the fact that u have a 4.3-4.4 this term makes me assume that your school has weighted GPAs and i'm assuming ur 3.6-3.7 is weighted which is quite low. Also class rank or comparison to ur classmates? SATs r a bit low. Your course load is impressive but will not make up for the C's...using your activities as an excuse for bad grades is a huge no no...just dont do it...cause that just tells them that you will either get good grades or be involved in campus life and not both and there are many others who can juggle both really well. I'd say u have a sub par chance seeing as your weakest points are the most improtant.</p>

6

<p>wow u must be really tall haha. are u being recruited for volleyball? that would help, cuz it seems to be a big part of ur life</p>

7

<p>haha yeah i am...and i am not exacttttttly using my activities as an "excuse"; however, I travel 2 hours each way for vball practices...they take up about 6 hours of my nights...so i mean thats in addition to school-activities and taking perhaps the most difficult course-load of my classmates. I think that while I'm not using it as an excuse in my application, that a coach would definitely understnad the time I've invested to be where i am today...</p>

<p>also...</p>

<p>i've been accepted by U of Chicago...which is ranked on par with Columbia, I know for a fact that vball wasn't a factor (as the coach has no input there) and that they chose me for my accomplisments, not necessarily my grades. :)</p>

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<p>lol rankings mean nothing. columbia's acceptance rate is around 10%, where as UChicago's hovers around 20% i think</p>

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<p>hah i realize it doesn't...but ppl, while honest, were getting a bit pretentious with the comments...so i thought I'd do a little self-advocacy there!:)</p>

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<p>I wouldn't take the words of a user named "HARVARDman312" as representative of the Columbia board.</p>

<p>That said, the GPA and SATs really are the meat-and-potatoes here. I definitely like the national recognition in volleyball, the commitment there is noteworthy. The community service stuff is an excellent touch and appears fairly genuine.</p>

<p>And you're clearly taking a very rigorous courseload.</p>

<p>Give us a sense of where you are relative to your peers, grade-wise, and where people of similar GPAs tend to go to college from your school. I mean, if you go to Georgetown Day School, maybe a 3.7 is decent. I don't know.</p>

<p>Frankly, this could go either way depending on how the transcript and school profile broke down. The SATs don't help, though.</p>

11

<p>
[quote]
but ppl, while honest, were getting a bit pretentious with the comments

[/quote]
</p>

<p>i feel there is no need for me to respond to these if it isnt with brutal honesty and that is what you will get</p>

<p>
[quote]
I wouldn't take the words of a user named "HARVARDman312" as representative of the Columbia board.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>not to mention that i am a senior at columbia and have an IB diploma while harvardman is still in highschool....i realize he is pandering to what you want to hear but the truth hurts sometimes....nevertheless good luck with the college admissions process</p>

12

<p>Although I consider you to be a strong canditate your SAT score is rather low (especially the math component), I wouldn't stress too much over your GPA. What's done is done, but the SAT can still be resat :)</p>

<p>In any case, good luck!</p>

13

<p>
[quote]
I wouldn't take the words of a user named "HARVARDman312" as representative of the Columbia board.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>
[quote]
not to mention that i am a senior at columbia and have an IB diploma while harvardman is still in highschool....i realize he is pandering to what you want to hear but the truth hurts sometimes....nevertheless good luck with the college admissions process

[/quote]

I simply said that her commitment to volleyball would only help her in the application process. Denzera and shraf, read my previous posts and tell me when I even commented on her actual chances at acceptance. or better yet, tell me exactly HOW MUCH i said volleyball would help by. hmmmm? Shraf, your highness, does getting accepted into a college automatically give you complete knowledge of the application process? or did you just seek internships at the admissions office each year? maybe there was an IB course specifically designed to educate you about CC's acceptance trends?</p>

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<p>^^ There is no such course available in the IB.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
does getting accepted into a college automatically give you complete knowledge of the application process?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>by being a student at a certain college for years you get to meet alot of people and you tend to get an idea of their high school careers and you begin to see trends in columbia's acceptance policies...you also get an idea of those trends from you classmates in highschool.</p>

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<p>haha sorry to cause a mini-war!:) </p>

<p>um...yeah I realize that my SAT in math isnt outstanding...but like someone said earlier, what's done is done. Not to make excuses, but I rushed to a vball tourny in PA right after taking the SAT haha...yeah kinda sad!:) Umm..and also, I didn't mean to call anyone pretentious, because I have a few friends who are going to Columbia and i absolutely love them! And fyi, my service was completely genuine. Um...whoever said the thing about my school...it's the 2nd best high school in the dc met. area...and is always ranked at the top of newsweek's challenge index. Thus far, 3 of us have been accepted by top-10 universities (princeton, mit, and chicago)...btw we're all girls...and other students have been def. from schools such as stanford, harvard, dartmouth...so I'd say we're pretty good school-wise. I believe the courses I take are challenging relative to my peers, and frankly if I wasn't involved as deeply with sports and other activities, I would have much high grades, comparable to the students who simply focus on school and a few other school-related activities...traveling for vball is quite time-consuming, getting home from practices around 12 am...and then having to do hw, that's why admissions sometimes makes allowances for recruited athletes. And the person who HAS an IB diploma and is a Senior at Columbia...good for you, that's awesome...but the bit of arrogance is not only a turn-off personality-wise, but isn't a good way of presenting the student body of Columbia. People who are truly successful are those who are intelligent, and quiet about it!:) that's my bit...thanks for your input thus far though!!!:):)</p>

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<p>amen!!!!!!!!!</p>

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<p>Donald Trump; more successful than most of us will be, but more arrogant that any of us could be.</p>

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<p>Bill Gates...modest and most successful</p>

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<p>me...not modest and not successful :-)</p>