Columbia ED 2014 Chance. Please!!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

<p>Chinese female, permanent resident
Fairly suburban competitive public school in CT
GPA (weighted): 4.28
No idea what the unweighted is
School does not rank, but definitely top 15 (not in top 10 though :( )
SAT: 2140 (CR 670, M 740, W 730, Essay 12) *will retake to ensure every section is 750+
SAT II: Chinese - 800 (native speaker), Chemistry - 790, Latin - 660 (I know...)</p>

<p>Essay should be good. I think I'm a pretty good writer. Recommendations will be excellent. </p>

<p>Schedule and Grades</p>

<p>Freshman Year
Honors English A-
History (no honors offered for freshman year) A+
Geometry Honors A
Biology Honors A
Latin (no honors offered) A
Concert Band A+
Foundation in Art A
Health A+
Phys. Ed P </p>

<p>Sophomore Year
Honors English A+
Honors Hisotry A+
Honors Algebra A
Honors Chemistry A
Honors Physics B
Latin II (no honors offered) A
Phys. Ed P</p>

<p>Junior Year
AP Lang & Comp B+
AP U.S. History A-
Honors Pre-Calculus A-
AP Stat B+
AP Chem B+
Honors Latin III A
Wind Ensemble A+
Phys Ed P
Health III A</p>

<p>Senior Year Schedule
AP Lit & Comp
AP Gov & Politics
AP Latin
AP Calc BC
AP Biology
Wind Ensemble
Psychology (no honors offered, elective)
Phys. Ed / Health
*independent study for Health II because didn't take it sophomore year and need to pass for graduation </p>

<p>My schedule is pretty much the most rigorous one to be found at my school, my grades however, are not THE top grade but it's up there...damn B's</p>

<p>AP Test Scores:
APUSH - 5
AP Chem - 4
AP Lang - 5
AP Stat - 5</p>

<p>Leadership
Biology Club - Founder, President (10, 11, 12)
Student Representative Council - Member (9, 10, 11), First Vice President (12)
Drama Club - House Manager (11, 12)
Class Office - Treasurer (9, 10)
*More leadership positions in Honor Societies</p>

<p>Honor Societies
Mu Alpha Theta (math) - 9, 10
National Honor Society - President (12)
National Latin Honor Society - Founder, President (12)
National Science Honor Society - 12
Tri-M Music Honor Society - Secretary (12)</p>

<p>Other Extracurricular Activities
Regional Youth Orchestra - Flautist in Principal orchestra (highest level), all four years of high school
Volunteering at Hospice Care, 10, 11, 12. 200+ hours
National Student Leadership Conference '08
Lab internship at Yale University for one month '09</p>

<p>Sports
Freshman Volleyball - 9
JV Volleyball - 10
Outdoor Track - 9</p>

<p>Awards & Honors
Headmaster's List every semester for academic achievement at school
AP Scholar with Honor
National Latin Exam 07 (I)- silver
National Latin Exam 08 (II)- gold
National Latin Exam 09 (III)- gold</p>

<p>And that should be it I believe! THANK YOUUUUUUU!!!!!!</p>

2

<p>Anyoneeeeee? Bumped</p>

3

<p>You definitely have a shot… but it is certainly a reach. Your SAT scores could be higher but they are good, (I know you plan to retake) and your schedule is pretty impressive. You’d be in shape with a better GPA. Unweighted, you have a 3.81 (you give yourself a 4 for an A or A+, a 3.7 for an A-, 3.3 for a B+, 3 for a B and so on). You will need to rock your essays if you want a shot at admission.</p>

<p>Good luck</p>

4

<p>you won awards on the National Latin Exam and only managed a 660 on the latin SAT? sort of diminishes the credibility of those achievements.</p>

<p>

two things. one, why are these all grade 12 only ECs? they won’t help your application since it seems like you’re just cramming ECs in your last year.
secondly, it seems a bit incredulous that you could maintain all these ECs unless you spent almost no time/effort on them individually.</p>

<p>I would just leave all of those off your application, as well as the “awards/honors” you listed. you only have room for 5 ECs on the Columbia app anyways, and those awards are pretty standard.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t worry about your grades since you can’t change them much at this point and they’re fine really. (wait, top 15% or top 15? big difference)</p>

<p>SAT could be higher but not a huge deal. SAT IIs however, are lacking. I would be inclined to discount SAT Chinese altogether since the exam is a joke, especially for native speakers. in other words, you need to raise your latin mark or score high in another subject</p>

<p>also lacks a distinct focus. what major(s) are you interested in? CC or SEAS? your ECs don’t seem to reflect a strong passion, except perhaps latin.</p>

<p>I do believe Columbia would be quite a bit of a reach. best of luck to you though.</p>

5

<p>Wow thanks so much for pointing those out. </p>

<p>Well they are grade 12 because they are honor societies, and the Latin one…I have been trying to start it but our Latin teacher is lazy and just promised to help me get it done for my Senior year haha; and the rest is the same. At our school it’s kinda the chapter rule to only admit students their senior year except for math; kinda sucks. But you do have a really good point.</p>

<p>Yeah I realize that I don’t have any good awards haha. Also the Latin test…Idk I was lke sick that day but of course that is no excuse. I think I’ll take Math II SAT II and hopefully I’ll be all set for SAT II’s! I wasn’t really going to send the Chinese one but people keep telling me how it proves you are bilangual blah blah blah…so what to do? </p>

<p>I’m applying for CC, and intended biology/medical science major. Actually a lot of those societies/clubs that I’m involved in do a lot of things with like energy conservation and such, especially the ones in which I am president but yeah I should probably specify that.</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

6

<p>Also I’m top 15 haha, so probably top 5% of the class? Cuz it’s approximately 300 people</p>

7

<p>hmm. well, again, you only have room for 5 ECs (unless you’re planning on attaching a resume, which is a controversial practice) so I probably would leave the honor societies off unless they truly mean a lot to you or you were abnormally dedicated to them.</p>

<p>funny, useless anecdote, feel free to skip to next paragraph. I was sick on the day I retook my SAT I, and I felt terrible about how I did since I was blowing my nose about every minute and my eyes were red and puffy. so I was pretty discouraged. then results came out and I did 100 points better than the first time. it was quite shocking. (and, more relevantly, I scored 620 on french SAT the first time and then scored 740 the second time, which I think helped my app more than it hurt it)</p>

<p>I took SAT chinese too just for kicks, but I had 4 other SAT IIs because I was insane like that. I mean, it’s good to have, and that was the exact reasoning my dad offered for me taking SAT chinese, but I would have 2 other solid SAT II scores to back it up (so send it anyways because it couldn’t hurt).</p>

<p>top 5% is quite good heh.</p>

8

<p>Hmm that is true haha. I did fight pretty hard for those office positions and of course I am absolutely dedicated to anything that I sign up for and I give 110% effort to everything that I do but yeah, I probably won’t have space anyway so I’ll fit in whatever :)</p>

<p>Haha yeah I’ve heard a couple stories like that. Unfortunatley I don’t function well with coughing and headaches and a running nose >.<
But it’s great to hear that it worked out for you so nicely!</p>

<p>Oh speaking of that. I have a question. I am applying to Columbia ED of course, so would the Nov SAT II be too late?</p>

9

<p>Hey ice, I read somewhere that Nov sat are just within the time frame for ED, but if that mail gets delayed even 2 days, ur outa luck. Better 2 take in Oct. unless they have online reporting.</p>

10

<p>Ahhhhhh grrr that’s really frustrating. I am taking the SAT in Oct…:(</p>

11

<p>BumpppppppppppPPPPPPpppppPPPPppppp</p>

12

<p>hold up, grade 12 has not even started so how do you know that you’ll be like the VP and what not. Furthermore, i don’t know how in the world are you going to retake both SAT 1 and 2 by the ED deadline (maybe apply regular decision) I heard the same thing about the biligual thing. China is becoming a world power so i don’t know if the language gains more weight in the admission process.</p>

13

<p>^the OP’s native language is Chinese. Usually taking a language SAT II that’s YOUR OWN native tongue is discouraged; it adds little to your file. (So what if you can speak your first language fluently?) It’s usually recommended to take a second-language SAT.</p>

14

<p>yeah but if she scores that high on SAT 1, it means her english is also on par with most english speaker. So it means she is truly bilingual. Though i would suggest try submitting the Latin score.</p>

15

<p>Shuai - the elections occur at the end of junior year so that’s why everyone knows haha</p>

<p>And yeahhh I think I might take Latin again and hopefully after two months of AP Latin I’ll be hopefully a little bit better?</p>

16

<p>Meh. Have to consider it a reach for now, i am afraid…
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/752133-i-will-officially-ban-use-word-chance-verb.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/752133-i-will-officially-ban-use-word-chance-verb.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

17

<p>how are you going to retake both SAT 1 and SAT 2 by ED? that’s my question</p>

18

<p>I probably can’t get the second SAT II in by ED…what to do? Can I add the score later if I’m deferred?</p>

19

<p>yes you can add if deferred.
search around a little if you can use Nov scores ED, but for some reason I recall that you might be able to pay a little more and rush them.</p>

<p>difficult to say whether I’d rather retake SAT I or II if I only had one chance. I guess SAT I and hope Columbia likes the SAT chinese (or doesn’t mind a lower SAT latin)</p>