Backstory is that I went on a misson trip and I met a girl there. We ended up falling in love and all that jazz… But it turns out we’re teenagers, and love doesn’t work out at this age! Sadly, we have parted ways. She goes to college in New York, and so me being this terribly lovesick guy, I researched NY colleges and fell in love with Columbia.
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): did not take
ACT (breakdown): 35C (36E 35M 35R 33S) one sitting
SAT II: Math II (800), Bio-E (620) - I’ll retake this and aim for a 700+.
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.9
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 6/550
AP (place score in parenthesis): I got some 4’s, some 3’s. Nothing noteworthy so I won’t send them in.
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: 2 AP classes and some honors classes
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): NM commended, but I’m not sure about NM semi-finalist. My index is very close to my state’s predicted cutoff.
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Skills USA (Secretary)
Future Business Leaders of America FBLA (Treasurer then VP)
Chess Club (Founder then President)
National Honors Society NHS (Historian)
Book Club (Head Researcher),
Debate Club (Founder and President),
Creative Writers Club
Drama Club
Job/Work Experience: I work part-time, around 20 hours per week helping my dad in his business.
Volunteer/Community service: Around 300 hours a year helping my church. Went on various mission trips. I tutor music to beginners because it’s fun to teach.
Summer Activities: Missionary to Nicaragua to build houses and a church. Summer of sophomore year.
Boys State
Boys Nation (I’m really blessed to be able to attend this!!! Thank you American Legion!)
FBLA Nationals convention. Summer of junior year.
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: I certainly will, or I’ll be bankrupt.
Intended Major: Political Science
State (if domestic applicant): Arizona
Country (if international applicant): USA
School Type: Large Public
Ethnicity: Korean
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: around 40k-ish
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First generation, low income
Reflection
So what I was really scared of was coming off as the typical Asian high school student. I will be approaching humanities, but I’ve always leaned towards STEM my whole life. I do want to help people when I grow up, and I hope that by taking an active role in politics and by pursuing a political science degree, I can do that in the future.
So what do you guys think? How do I look as an applicant to Columbia?