Do you guys know if it makes a difference whether you submit your SAT or ACT in the eyes of the admissions officers? I submitted my ACT but it seems as if everyone else did SAT
I am a giant ball of anxiety right now.
@alpha525 I’m not sure my school only does weighted GPA.
@soph1112 I’m wondering the same thing!
Also, I was looking through old threads and my application and people are saying that it’s bad if you wrote about the core in the Why Columbia essay… and that’s exactly what I did
@alpha525 Isn’t it A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, and add it up, then divide by amount of courses taken? At least that’s what I think it is, I’ve never tried calculating it since my GPA is displayed on the transcript.
@soph1112 Both are about equal in popularity, don’t worry!
@cl938803 I tried to look for GPA ranges for students admitted but collegedata.com says that it’s not reported. Parchment.com has average GPA (not 25%-75% range) as 3.7, strangely enough. Supposedly the average ACT is 26 and the average SAT is 1874, which I don’t believe. (https://www.parchment.com/u/college/319-Columbia-University-in-the-City-of-New-York/profile)
@graceann It’s because that’s what everyone does. It’s just hard to differentiate with that.
@graceann If that is true, I’m curious as to why that is? I feel like that would impress admissions officers because it is very Columbia specific?
@graceann And if that IS a bad thing, I’m wondering what they’re looking for in that particular essay?
@dr0wning If you look closely enough, those stats are from people that are interested in the school, not necessarily accepted or attending…So
@graceann Writing about the core at all, or making the entire essay about it? I did write about the core but I wrote about plenty of other things… I remember in the Fiske guide the summary detailed the five main attractions of Columbia so I made sure to talk about all of them, and the core was one.
@alpha525 What else did you write about?
@soph1112 I think some elite schools have Core programs.
@dr0wning Maybe it was for the people who were accepted and reported their stats on Parchment.com? I highly doubt thats true but it is super encouraging lololol
@TrazCapDEV Wow, I didn’t notice that! No wonder the stats are lower. Still, I couldn’t find anything. If collegedata.com says that average GPA isn’t reported, I guess it really isn’t.
@dr0wning what were the other four aspects? and I’m assuming it was writing all about the core
@cl938803 If admissions officers are so concerned with a diverse and well-rounded class, I’d like to suggest submitting me. ya know, because you don’t have any average students…
lmao but if that’s true, they probably have amazing ECs. CC makes me feel so average, tbh.
@dr0wning I think about this all the time. Like, if I were to get into an Ivy, I wouldn’t be the “smart kid” anymore. Now I live in a small farming town in Arizona and my school has never had anyone go to any Ivy. So if I went to some place like Columbia, it would be weird for me because with all of the other students I would only be average. Very weird to think about
@dr0wning collegedata.com does have self-reported stats. For the class of 2019, the average was 3.86 and 2127. But surprisingly enough, rejected students actually had better stats lol… Those that were rejected had an average of 3.93 and 2140
@graceann Keep in mind that these five main attractions are according to the students the Fiske guide asked. Judging from what my essay says, it seems to be: NYC, core, diversity of student body, resources/research, and ? I can’t really tell what the last one is because I’m not sure if I wrote it specifically about my major, lol. I can PM it to you? Can I even do that, lmao
I just re-read my essays and I feel as if they’re super mediocre