chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

<p>Interested in my chances for Columbia RD (prospective film studies and american studies double major).</p>

<p>Me = female/white/virginia/good public HS/very low-income.</p>

<p><em>STATS</em>
gpa: 3.9 uw, 4.7 w
rank: 10/413
sat1: 2120, 740-700-680
sat2: 760 math iic, (lit+ush in october)</p>

<h2>APs: Physics, Calc AB, US History, US Govt, Lit, Stats, Bio -OR- Chem, Euro -OR- Art History</h2>

<p><em>COURSEWORK</em>
ENGLISH: english 9 honors, english 10 honors, english 11 honors, ap lit, (college) screenwriting</p>

<p>SOCIAL STUDIES: world hist 1 honors, world hist 2 honors, ap us history, ap us govt, ap euro or ap art hist (depending on schedule), colonial america (through havard extension school)</p>

<p>MATH: alg 1 honors, geometry honors, alg 2/trig honors, math analysis honors, ap calc ab, ap statistics</p>

<p>SCIENCE: bio honors, chem honors, ap physics, ap chem or bio (depending on schedule)</p>

<p>LANGUAGE: spanish 1, spanish 2 honors, spanish 3 honors</p>

<h2>OTHER: (college) film studies; (college) directing; western cultural humanities; theatre production 1, 2 & 3; honors theatre 4; business/marketing; comp. programming c++; comp. programming java; phys ed.</h2>

<p><em>EC's (as listed on common app)</em></p>

<p>Theatre [10,11,12] {15 hrs/wk 40 wks/yr}
- Historian (11th), Officer (12th)
- ITS (honor society) member
- student director for school play (12th)
- stage manager for school play (11th)
- TA for theatre class
- intern for Harvard Summer Theatre (2004)</p>

<p>Film [9,10,11,12] {5 hrs/wk 45 wks/yr}
- President/Founder of Student Film Society (12th)
- production assistant/intern for various feature films
- screenwriter (for what its worth...)
- volunteer for Richmond Moving-Image Co-op</p>

<p>Figure Skating [9,10,11,12] {4 hrs/wk 40 wks/yr}
- certified judge
- performer in annual ice show
- member of production team
- volunteer for LearnToSkate program</p>

<p>Rowing [9,10,11,12] {4 hrs/wk 20 wks/yr}
- club Vice President (11th)
- Varsity Captain (12th)
- it was a only "club sport" at my school through my junior year, but i rowed on the varsity team all 4 yrs</p>

<p>In-School Volunteering [10,11,12] {2+ hrs/wk 10 wks/yr}
- through NHS and Beta Club</p>

<p>Business [9,10,11,12] {2 hrs/wk 10 wks/yr}
- intern for the business dept of The Crimson (Harvard newspaper) (2004)
- owner/designer of large website (since 2000)
- member of FBLA</p>

<h2>Violinist for 13 years.</h2>

<p><em>Awards/Honors</em> (nothing special)
-School Distinguished Honor Roll (2002-2005), National Honor Roll (2004-2005), National Merit Commended, AP Scholar, Junior Marshal
-2005 Scholastic Art & Writing, Regional Honorable Mention
-2004 VHSL One-Act Play Festival (school submission): district champion, 3rd in region
-2005 VHSL One-Act Play Festival (school submission): district champion, regional champion, 4th in state
-Best Stage Manager (school award)</p>

<h2>-waiting to hear back on 2 bigger awards...</h2>

<p><em>Summer Programs</em>
Harvard SSP 2004 (received grant to attend)</p>

<h2>USC Summer Seminars 2005 (received scholarship)</h2>

<p>*Personal essay topic - about how when my dad became suddenly ill (he has been sick for 5 yrs now) and i had to stop skating competitively, i became driven by writing and art, and learned how to overcome financial constriants and other limits to achieve my goals</p>

<h2>*Rec's should be great.</h2>

<p>I know Ivies are always reaches, but I wanna know if I have a fighting chance.</p>

2

<p>Sure you have a fighting chance. I wouldn;t rule the ivies out anyway. Columbia would be a reach though.</p>

3

<p>thanks.</p>

<p>can anyone else give me input?
like how competitive I am (or am not)? percentages?</p>

4

<p>I think you can give a shot but you need a better SAT score</p>

5

<p>Your SAT scores are definitely in the ballpark for Columbia, albeit the lower end of the ballpark; the rest of your application should more than make up for that though. I think you have a great shot. Good luck.</p>

6

<p>Does your school have more than 400 students in each grade?
So you mean you have 1600 people in your school?
That's a lot!!</p>

7

<p>yeah actually we have about 1850 kids total... but there's a lot of schools out there with much more.</p>

8

<p>Is your income below the poverty line? Special circumstances like a disadvantaged/deprived upbringing and still doing reasonably well in HS have all the earmarks of a "this candidate would have flourished even more in an enriched environment" type of admit. Yeah, I think 1600-2000 students is about average for a public school population. Plenty of students go to enormous schools.</p>

9

<p>blah1111 we would be below the poverty line, but i think colleges count social security as a part of your total income...which puts us over, i think... so i don't know...</p>

10

<p>Well, what I'm trying to say is you didn't have access to nearly the same resources that middle/upper class students did, and you still managed the commendable feat of doing well in high school, regardless of whether you were a little above or a little below the poverty line. That's something colleges do consider if you let them know about it eloquently (it makes for an excellent paragraph or two in an application essay).</p>

11

<p>ok thanks blah1111. I am actually trying to do that w/ my essay right now... don't know how well will it end up (I'm only half way done).</p>

<p>perhaps I should also mention something about it in the "additional information" section?</p>

<p>also, does Columbia discourage supplemental rec's and EC resumes? it seems like they do, from what i' ve been seeing in the admissions section... it's just that i'd really like to send a supplemental rec from my theatre teacher (he knows me VERY well).</p>

12

<p>ok i'm bumping this for a little more advice on what i need to work on.</p>

<p>AND
i just updated my senior schedule so it looks like this:
AP Lit
AP Calc BC (changed from AP Stats)
AP Chem (AP Bio was full)
AP Euro
AP Spanish Language*
Colonial America - 4 college credits
Art History (Honors, no AP class)
Theatre IV
Theatre Production III</p>

<p>*I didn't take Spanish in junior year but I am picking it up again with AP Spanish Lang in my 2nd semester (will be self-studying first semester)... is that gap between Spanish III in 10th and AP Spanish in 12th going to look sketchy? i just didn't have room last year...</p>