<p>@livingdoll Have you seen the 100s of posts where it says interview assignments are random? The fact your classmate got one and you didn’t was just a coincidence. Don’t place anything negative to that person. It’s misplaced.</p>
<p>Interviewers CHOOSE the interviewees for Columbia. No need to get upset. </p>
<p>Oh boy… I felt the need to get this out here because as the hour approaches I get more and more nervous. I didn’t decide on applying early to Columbia until about two weeks before. In fact, I wasn’t considering any ivies or “midwest/west ivies” because I really didn’t think I was good enough at all. I wrote the essays the day of. Rewrote my Common App Essay the day of November 1st as well. As you can tell I am the worst time manager on the planet, but here I am. </p>
<p>ACT: 36C (36E 36M 36R 35S single sitting)
SAT II’s: None. It’s gonna be yet another reason why they will reject me.
UW GPA: 4.0
W GPA: 5.2
Percentile: Top 3%
PSAT: Commended
Course load: Basically the hardest I could’ve taken. School offers 15 AP’s, I will have taken 13 of them by graduation.</p>
<p>EC’s:
Science Olympiad (Captain 11,12): Put in hours and hours and hours. 1st at regionals, 4th at state. Sucks up a lot of my time. Anywhere from 10-30 hours a week.
Knowledge Bowl (Captain 11, 12)
Conflict Mediator (Executive Board 11, 12): This is actually an applied position at my school. out of 115 people, I was one of 9 to be accepted. I have a duty hour in my schedule where I am in the CM room. We do everything from help kids with mental illnesses, relationship problems, problems at home. I love what I do with Conflict Mediation, it’s so gratifying. My day can range anywhere from ordinary to preventing a suicide through a conversation with a student. We work a lot with administration when kids are at risk of expulsion or suspension and see if we can solve other problems that may cause them to act out.
Student Tutor (12): instead of a lunch hour, I tutor freshman. A lot of them are underprivileged kids who don’t have a very good life at home so they come in to the Homework Help room. I love my kids 
I also tutor as a job, but I didn’t include that on my app.
A couple of others things like Key Club, National Honor Society, Youth Frontier Leader, Link Crew Leader, I dance, etc. These are my main focuses though.</p>
<p>Work:
McD’s: Crew Trainer and McLeader (appointed by my managers to go represent the brand at community outreach programs etc.) 9mos</p>
<p>Summer:
UChicago Urbanism/Sociology course for 3 weeks. Loved it. Really made me want to pursue sociology. (Columbia has an amazing sociology department) </p>
<p>Recs/Essays/Interview:
1st Rec: Should be pretty good. From physics teacher and science olympiad supervisor. 8/10
2nd Rec: APHG teacher who helped me w/ my app for Uchicago’s summer program. 8/10
3rd Rec: My professor at Uchicago over the summer. 8/10
Counselor Rec: 300kids+ per counselor, probably pretty generic. 5/10
Common App: Eh. Found a typo lol. Of course. I’m an idiot. 7/10 It was about my experience with psoriasis and how that caused me to be able to function within environments of conflict and discomfort.
Columbia Why Us: Awful. 3/10
Columbia Why major: Less awful. But awful. 4/10
Also I found an error in my EC essay haha. Sigh.
Interview: Absolutely awesome 10/10. We had many similar interests and I expressed my interest in Columbia much better through my interview than in my essays. I was much better prepared.</p>
<p>My essays, my extracurriculars, and my lack of SAT II’s are gonna kill me and I know that. Columbia doesn’t except subpar students, and I know that. Very likely I will end up somewhere else and I’m okay with that. I do love Columbia though. Would love it if you could chance me. I’m an extremely self-deprecating, pessimistic person when it comes to things such as this. Don’t get your hopes up and you won’t be disappointed, right? Interesting how all four years can be summarized in a single comment on CC.</p>
<p>Everyone else on here seems super passionate and well prepared though. I think you guys all have a really great shot.</p>
<p>@annazfli What school are you applying to and for what major? Also what is your race and gender? These factors are all pretty important in deciding whether or not you are going to get in. However, I do think you have a strong shot just based on your stats.</p>
<p>Thanks @flareblitz13 good point</p>
<p>Gender: Female
Race: Asian (of course hahaha)
State: Minnesota
Income Bracket: don’t qualify for F/A
Applying to CC</p>
<p>@annazfli I’d say you still have a very strong shot, as Columbia is one of the ivies with the largest percentage of Asians. Your scores alone would put put you in the top 25% of admits, and probably the top 95% of applicants, so there is a fair chance that you might just be admitted based on those alone, even if you said your essays were not great.</p>
<p>@annazfli what’s your major</p>
<p>Less than 24 hours. What. how. idk what to do/how to feel/whether or not im gonna just implode.</p>
<p>Less than 24 hours. What. how. idk what to do/how to feel/whether or not im gonna just implode.</p>
<p>@ilovethecity Sociology… I can just feel my parents cringing as I type that</p>
<p>@annazfli You should major in whatever you want to major in. Do what makes you happy. I’m doing French even though my mother is displeased. </p>
<p>Do you think it increases my chances of getting in, even a little, if I’m Mexican/Cuban? I feel that I’m not an impressive candidate and I’m trying to cling to every little piece of hope I have… </p>
<p>@LtDani yes URM’s definitely have improved chances.</p>
<p>After lurking on this post for awhile, I’ve decided to share my very boring and standard stats to make some of you feel better about your chances for getting in tomorrow! I’m not really expecting anything, so I won’t be crushed by a rejection. Well, here goes nothing:</p>
<p>SAT: 2240 (780 Reading, 690 Math, 770 Writing)
SAT II: Bio E 710, Chem 770
GPA: 98.4 W (92.8 UW?)
Rank: 3/220 (I just know this, the school doesn’t actually rank)
APs: Human Geo (5) World (5) Chem (4) USH (5) Physics B (3) [below senior ones]
Senior Schedule: AP Econ (Micro and Macro), AP Bio, AP Calc AB, AP English Lit, AP Spanish, Theology Honors
Course Rigor: As many AP classes as were possible, all others were honors
Commended PSAT</p>
<p>ECs:
Academic Team (10,11,12) - captain, won a few tournaments (I’m actually going to find out during one tomorrow)
Squash Club (9) - the squash club itself got destroyed during Hurricane Sandy, so the club doesn’t exist anymore
Spanish Club (10,11,12)
Spanish Honor Society (10,11,12)
SAAD(11,12)</p>
<p>Service:
VBS for 4 years
80 hours tutoring for the son of a Hispanic single-mother
Odd hours at a few different places</p>
<p>Employment: Worked at a beach club for the summer, soccer ref</p>
<p>Teacher Recs: no clue, they’re probably decent
Conselor Rec: met about 5 times with her, it’ll probably be ok
Essays: Common App Solid (talked about 5 yr old brother), Supplements seemed strong, best of all essays I’ve written for colleges yet, especially Why Columbia
Interview: Kind of odd, I didn’t think it went badly, but I was only asked 3 questions (if even?)</p>
<p>Other:
State: NJ
School: Private (Catholic) - very competitive for top 10% of students
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: a little under $200,000
Hook: nope</p>
<p>Pros: nothing really outstanding lol (essays and GPA maybe?)
Cons: Math SAT, DEFINITELY my ECs, they’re really weak</p>
<p>@annazfli I’m pretty sure Columbia requires you to take 2 SAT Subject tests</p>
<p>@shankar334 Nope, that’s only if you submit the SAT. SAT 2s are not required for those who submit the ACT with Writing. </p>
<p>The SAT Subject tests aren’t required if you took ACT with Writing! </p>
<p>Oh wow I feel stupid haha. </p>
<p>No worries :-)</p>
<p>But it’s a plus if you took ACT w/ Writing AND take two SAT IIs</p>