<p>General Things
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: East Indian (international)
Country: India (but living in Singapore for 16 years)
Current Grade: Senior Year (in singapore, schools run from Jan-Dec)
Financial Aid: Not applying for any sort of FA</p>
<p>Grades
GPA: 3.8 out of 5.0
(RISING TREND -> Freshman: 2.5/5.0 Sophomore 3.5/5.0 Junior: 4.2/5.0 Senior: 4.79/5.0)
-Very tough international magnet school specializing in Math & Science</p>
<p>SAT Reasoning Test
SAT Critical Reading - 770
SAT Math - 800
SAT Writing 800
SAT Composite (M+CR) 1570
SAT Composite (M+CR+W) 2370</p>
<p>SAT Subject Tests
SAT Math Level 2 - 800
SAT Physics - 790
SAT Chemistry 780
SAT Biology M - 770</p>
<p>AP Tests
AP Calculus AB 5
AP Chemistry 5
AP Physics B 5
AP Biology 5
AP Calculus BC 5
AP Statistics 5</p>
<p>Extracurricular Activities
- Captain: Debate Team
- President: Creative Writing Circle
- Editor: School Yearbook
- Editor: School Newsletter (we don't publish too actively tho)
- Editor: Official Newsletter of Singapore Int'l Mathematics Competition
- Captain: Scrabble Team (placed 3rd nationally in 2007, several individual awards at national level too)
- Head Delegate: Model UN
- Tennis Team
- National Education Ambassador
- 300ish Community Service Hours
- Creative Arts Program (very selective program for writers and poets)
- Research on atomic spectroscopy
- Research on oxygen's behavior on palladium and applications in fuel cells
- Interned at a renowned museum of biodiversity research
- 2 Commendatory Awards @ Commonwealth Int'l Essay Writing Competition
- Gold (Drama) @ Singapore Youth Festival
- Best Delegate @ Singapore Model United Nations 2009</p>
<p>Although you do have some strong stats, you have a very low chance at Columbia. Here are several reasons why.
Obviously looking at your APs and SATs, your GPA doesn’t mean much but there are tons of people with such AP and SAT. Especially as international students, that has to be a given.
The problem is your EC. Everything is strong but not amazing. Research, community service are great but it doesn’t show much talent.
Your awards in MUN or drama are very nice bonus, but they’re not your main advantage.
In other words, you don’t have a strong “main strength”</p>
<p>actually my main strength is writing but you can’t really see it in the way i’ve presented it here. but my essay is going to be about it so i suppose that’ll make things clearer. </p>
<p>more importantly, how certain are you that my GPA “doesn’t mean much” given my APs/SATs?</p>
<p>srrinath, maruhan2 is trying to discourage you from applying, because s/he might be a class of 2014 prospect. The fact is, your profile is great, you do have a ton of ECs but you also have great leadership in them so it works well. Columbia will be more forgiving of your gpa because there is a rising trend, and your standardized scores are just top notch. If you apply RD i can see columbia rejecting or waitlisting you for fit reasons. If you apply ED, you are in top shape to get in. I’d say you actually have a good shot ED, and I don’t say that too often. I think Columbia would benefit from having someone as qualified, and you would benefit from coming here, just write good essays and try to show a passion for a few things you do so that there is a narrative to your high school career. feel free to pm me if you have any Qs.</p>
<p>btw, how do you know your senior year GPA? if that’s an estimate, it looks pretty steep. if you’ve achieved it, good stuff.</p>
<p>woah don’t assume things confidentialcoll.
I definite did not try to discourage</p>
<p>What I meant about GPA doesn’t mattering is that your GPA seems low, but since all schools have different standards and since your AP and SAT proves that you’re smart, your “low” GPA probably won’t be considered low.</p>
<p>And I assumed you were a science guy because 1. the research you did is not something that non-science student would do 2. your SAT and your APs are geared toward science 3. you’re Indian</p>
<p>But, if you are a humanities person, that’s a different story. Then I believe your MUN and writing awards will be a huge bonus. One thing I don’t get is why are all your APs and SATs geared toward science then?</p>
<p>@confidentialcoll: it’s my first semester GPA for senior year. i’m pretty sure it wont go down next semester; it’ll probably only go up. </p>
<p>@maruhan2: the research i did was somewhat require to graduate considering my school is a high school specialized in math and science. and once again, what i did in high school was largely math and science but my extra curriculars are the other way. don’t try to read too deep into my APs and SATs; those are the only APs offered at my school and the SATs are well…logical followups to those APs.</p>
<p>Your SATs will carry the day. Great shot.</p>