Columbia ED chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello all!

If you could chance me, that would be great.

Unweighted GPA: 3.89
Weighted GPA: 4.19
Class Rank: Top 5% (I go to an extremely competitive school)
ACT: 33 (will retake)
SAT Subject Score predictions: 750 Bio 770 English 750 French

Ethnicity: Romanian (first generation, not a US citizen)

Junior Year:
AP/ IB French
Symphonic Band
Jazz Band
Pre-Calculus
IB Business HL Yr. 1
IB Biology HL Yr. 1
AP Chemistry
IB Language and Literature HL Yr. 1
IB Theory of Knowledge
IB CAS

Senior Year:
Symphonic Band
Jazz Band
IB Language and Lit. HL Yr. 2
IB Biology HL Yr. 2
IB Business HL Yr. 2
IB Theory of Knowledge
IB Math SL
IB CAS
Yearbook Journalism
IB Romanian Literature SL Self-Study

Post-Secondary Classes:
Advanced French and Introduction to Romanian

AP Scores:

APUSH: 5 French: 5 Bio: 4 (I’ve only taken French for 3 years and out of a class of 20 kids who were in their 7th year, I was the only one to get a 5)

Recs: 8-9/10 (from my English and French teachers)

EC: (note that I moved schools middle of sophomore year)
President + Founder of French Club (2 years)
President + Founder of Ukraine Fundraising Club (2 years)
Treasurer of Partners in Health (2 years)
International Movie Club (3 years)
Marching Band (4 years)
Jazz Band (2 years)
Pep Band (3 years)
National Honor Society (2 years)
Cum Luade Society (2 years)
Science Olympiad (3 years)
Literary Magazine (3 years)
Yearbook (1 year)

Job + Volunteering:

Work at Chipotle 25+ hours a week (8ish months)
Volunteer at a hospital 3 hours a week (total around 120 hours)
Volunteered in Spain this summer teaching English to Spaniards (360+ hours)
Volunteered in a bioinformatics lab (100+ hours)

Leadership:
Marching Band squad leader
Business Manager for the Yearbook
Editorial Director for my own literary magazine (readership of 100+ people)
President + founder of 2 clubs + treasurer of another

Possible Major(s): Linguistics + Businesses (idk, subject to change)

Thoughts?

Also looking at Georgetown, GW, Vassar, Dartmouth, and Duke

2

@Ovni12 -Since you’re taking IB Business, and don’t have the usual 6 subjects (not including TOK or CAS), are you enrolled in the IBCC?

If that’s the case, I wouldn’t be too optimistic. Colleges like Columbia, Georgetown, or Duke want students to take the most rigorous curriculum available, and the IBCC is seen by many as “IB lite.”

If you’re not taking the IBCC but another programme, your profile would make you an average applicant at these schools if you were applying from the US, but for international students the competition is just cutthroat-in general, whatever a school’s acceptance rate is for domestic applicants, the international rate will be about half that.

And SAT subject test scores really can’t be predicted. I’m assuming you’ve noted your scores on practice tests, but these scores tend to vary wildly-I personally had a 50-point difference between one of my practice tests and my actual score.

3

You seem like a competitive applicant for Columbia. If you are not applying for financial aid, your chances will be better since Columbia is a need-aware school for international applicants.

4

Hi,

@Falcon1 I’m not applying as an international applicant–I have permanent residency in the US so I will be applying for financial aid, but they should be need-blind towards me so I think I should be fine.

@NotVerySmart I am an IB diploma candidate (business, bio, Romanian, English, French, Math)–I have 4 HLs. I’m just taking two subjects in group 1–I’ll be getting a bilangual diploma :slight_smile:

Sorry, I probably should’ve clarified these things. Thank you both for answering!

Also, I had thought IB was looked at/considered the same as AP in terms of “hard curriculum”–is this not true?

5

@Ovni12 -Ok. I was a bit confused because you simply put “language and literature” rather than listing your three languages. Given what seemed like less than the usual 6 subjects, I figured you might be an IBCC kid.

The full IB is actually more rigorous than a typical AP course-it’s why a student can take 15 AP classes in high school but taking 15 IB courses is unthinkable. Colleges will look on it favorably. With that said, what will matter the most isn’t just the courses you’re taking, but also doing well in them.

6

@NotVerySmart Ok, that’s what I thought about IB (which is why I decided to do it in the first place). In my IB courses, the lowest grade I’ve gotten is an A- in Bio HL, so overall my grades are pretty decent.

But overall, what do you think my chances for getting into Columbia ED/ those other schools are? Do you think my GPA and ECs are good enough (also: I took pre-calculus pass fail junior year, do you think that will affect my chances?)?

7

@Ovni12 -I think what I said in my first post still applies. International admissions are difficult, but you’d be an average candidate. SAT II scores are difficult to predict, so until those are final it’s hard to say with certainty what your chances look like. Unfortunately, being an average candidate means that as an international your chances of acceptance are 3% or 4%-maybe as high as 10%, since you’re applying ED.

8

@NotVerySmart as I said, I’m not an international applicant (I have US permanent residency)…thanks though.

9

To be honest, Columbia is very randm with its admission decisions. For that reason, Columbia is probably a high match to reach