Columbia University Official Class of 2011 Early Decision Results

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
341

<p>Shraf -- You are just too funny! (Or, as you might write it, per your previous postings: "u r definately [sic] just too funny!")</p>

<p>I am glad to learn that I don't know what I'm talking about. That is useful, if disappointing, information. I shall obviously have to stop helping CC kids (and my own kids, nieces, and nephews) with SATs, essays, etc. (Damn! And I had hoped to get my third child into an Ivy League school, just like the first two. Well, will have to give up that dream, now that you have pronounced me clueless.)</p>

<p>I'm not clear on why my comments on class rank are "BS," as the comments are based on published data... But, I defer to your superior knowledge. After all, you are (awed gasp!) a senior at Columbia University. Of course in a thread titled "3.5 GPA," I did find this post #2, from October, authored by a fellow senior at Columbia University: "u would definately be at a major disadvantage most ppl have the grades and very strong everything else. Also, keep in mind that grades are the most important thing in your application everything else is secondary." (OOOPS!!!! So sorry for the slip! That wasn't posted by a different senior at Columbia University -- it was posted by YOU!)</p>

<p>I did scan your previous postings, and I can comfort myself with the pathetic knowledge that I did far better on the MCATs than you did... silly and unworthy worm that I am.</p>

<p>Guess I'll just fold up and die, now. I've been soundly smashed into place! I won't make any more "enterances" [sic] into this fray!</p>

<p>Is this pretentious enough for you? Did I prove your point for you? </p>

<p>stultum facit Fortuna quem perdere vult.</p>

342

<p>Oh, never mind... I should just have taken this sage advice about respecting non-high-school posters (of which I am one), and about just ignoring posts that "rub you the wrong way" :</p>

<p>QUOTE from post "Confused" : </p>

<p>"also people on this board can say whatever they want and the HS students should know their role and be nicer to the current students and alumni because without us on the board you have an ignorant discussion among highschool kids who dont know anything about columbia. If someone's tone or advice rubs you the wrong way...ignore it and move on..."</p>

<p>AUTHOR of the above quote: Shraf</p>

343

<p>Ahahaha, OWNED by piglette. I thought your opinion/advice was very well worded and helpful except this one part:</p>

<p>
[quote]
a single (yes, one SINGLE) grade of "C" will likely keep you out of Columbia.

[/quote]

That's a little too harsh, in my opinion. You could have had ONE C in an extremely hard AP class, but have had straight A's your entire high school career. On top of that, you also could have done something out of the ordinary or have some really great EC's. So...having just one C would probably be understood by admissions, wouldn't it? Not that I have a C, I've only had one B so far in a standard class (GASP) because of unusual circumstances. Saying that just one C is going to blow your college dream to pieces is pretty harsh. I'm sure there are people in Columbia who have gotten C's before...</p>

344

<p>Spiffy --</p>

<p>Okay, I was too strong in my wording about a single grade of "C." But a single "C" COULD be a "tip" factor keeping a student out of Columbia or another top Ivy. But I genuinely defer to you a bit on that point. Thanks!</p>

<p>-- Piglette</p>

345

<p>
[quote]
Your class rank is top 5%, but there are 19 people in your class who worked harder/did better than you.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>so you think everyone at columbia was top 5% of their class? ...thats funny
I know many people who were ranked in the top 10, even 20% of their class and do you really believe that your daughter's ranking of 3.6% was THAT much better than ummmm's ranking of 4.6%??? do you really think the adcom is sitting there with calculators and taking into account every little percentage?</p>

<p>
[quote]
In fact, if you're not an exceptional athlete or a URM, top 5% of your class is really the thin edge of the ice for admissions at the top Ivies

[/quote]
</p>

<p>the people i am talking about are neither</p>

<p>
[quote]
If your essay was mediocre, indifferent, or even outright bad, that is also an "outright reject" for Columbia.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>this is one of the few things that u said that i agree with...granted though, i did say that was the reason ummmm got rejected</p>

<p>
[quote]
Your SAT IIs are not quite top tier (very-high-second-tier, I would say).

[/quote]
</p>

<p>this is absolutely the most absurd thing by far..... ummm's SAT II's 770/790/740 while piglette's daughter had a mere 740/730/720 in easier subjects.....does that make your daughter state school quality then? I dont see what exactly you are basing what you said on or are you just trying to find as many ways to put people down as possible. If those scores aren't "top teir" what are exactly?</p>

<p>
[quote]
What about APs? Did you take any, if they were available (presumably so at a competitive HS)? What were the subjects and the scores?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>if you have a weighted gpa you most certainly took APs or something of the sort.....also scores dont matter, all that matter are your grades....AP scores are only used to place you and give you credit once you are at columbia (they tell you this, and it makes sense, since not everyone takes APs and not every school offers them, so they cant really use those scores as a basis for judgement....not to mention, how would you compare AP scores to IB scores or A levels?)</p>

<p>
[quote]
On the other hand, a single (yes, one SINGLE) grade of "C" will likely keep you out of Columbia. A grade of "D" means it is Game Over for the Ivies, let alone other good schools (e.g., Tufts, Colgate, Vanderbilt...)

[/quote]
</p>

<p>though this is true to some extent (of course you are being overly dramatic about it), it is not unheard of that someone gets in with a C or D....just talk to Denzera (if i remember correctly)</p>

<p>
[quote]
ceteris paribus

[/quote]
</p>

<p>...thats just pretentious....</p>

<p>
[quote]
"u r definately [sic] just too funny!"

[/quote]
</p>

<p>uber funny, yes, i dont spell very well....great, lets move on</p>

<p>
[quote]
"u would definately be at a major disadvantage most ppl have the grades and very strong everything else. Also, keep in mind that grades are the most important thing in your application everything else is secondary."

[/quote]
</p>

<p>i still stand by that and i dont see how that makes any difference. a 4.2 gpa with a class rank of 20 is very strong.....but in the thread you took that from the person had a 3.5 gpa....that is a tad low dont you think?</p>

<p><a href="OOOPS!!!!%20So%20sorry%20for%20the%20slip!%20That%20wasn't%20posted%20by%20a%20different%20senior%20at%20Columbia%20University%20--%20it%20was%20posted%20by%20YOU!">quote</a>

[/quote]
</p>

<p>ahahaha, tres witty.... :-/</p>

<p>
[quote]
I did scan your previous postings, and I can comfort myself with the pathetic knowledge that I did far better on the MCATs than you did... silly and unworthy worm that I am.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>....lol, its great that the parents are even more childish than the high school kids.....where should i mail your cookie.....(oh and i'm not too disappointed with my 90th percentile on the mcat, but thanks for pointing that out)</p>

<p>...also i'm sure you have better things to do than surf the board and find places where i have misspelled words.....and taking things out of context and pasting them here really doesnt help your argument.</p>

346

<p>Wow. What kind of a parent has time for all of that?</p>

347

<p>Um i wasnt trying to brag. What i meant was with her stats she may very well end up at a BETTER UNIVERSITY than Columbia (HYP MIT Stanford- Penn(?))... and I'M saying THIS as a Columbia person.</p>

348

<p>Jesus Christ, grow up. This thread is meant to congratulate the very exceptional people who managed to get into Columbia, and equally awesome people who were deferred or rejected. If you want to flame, open up your PM boxes. I think you both scared ummmmm away.</p>

349

<p>i just spent like 10 min writing a post and cc f u c ked it up. ugh it went something like this:</p>

<p>karot: agreed.</p>

<p>ummmm there was more about how you guys should stop bickering and i think all of your opinions have truth in them and i didn't really ask for a reason i got rejected in the first place, but i still really appreciate your responses...and you all are very smart and have good opinions but should put them to better use than to argue with eacho ther on a [nerdy] forum. damn i really wish my other post worked.</p>

<p>APs: 1 soph year, 3 jr year, 4 senior year along with many Honors courses
biolog: 5 us history : 4</p>

<p>oh and i added that i am not shocked (disappointed, yeah a bit) that i got rejected.. and i'm not all that discouraged b/c i would be extremely happy to get into one of the other 13 schools i applied to (of course 6 of them are 6/7/8 year med programs which are extremely difficult so i'm relying on the other 7). and yeah i changed up my essay a bit. thansk for the encouragement and constructive criticism.</p>

<p>i hate this thing now lol i had to type everything over so annoying</p>

350

<p>oh and i dont think i'll end up at a "better" university than columbia b/c i didn't apply to all the ivies. i (will apply to) to penn and applied to stanford, but i doubt i will get into those. which is ok, there are other schools for which i would still scream for joy at an acceptance letter: <strong>,,</strong>, and _, + any med program
ok truth is i havent visited any of them, which is why i'm trying to keep my options open ..but seriously i know i can adjust to anything. and all of the schools i applied to are good. including UCLA, which i think i can get into and i would be happy going to (ok, maybe i'd be upset that i got rejected from ALL the other schools..but still, UCLA is a good school). whatever, guys are hotter in california! lol..</p>

351

<p>i think some people have gotten addicted to this thing (chuckle)......that stinks :p go shopping or osmething!!
i swear im not thinking of anyone in particular. i would post this on other threads but i haven't left the columbia university zone. and ihope not to, its scary and messy out there..</p>

352

<p>ummm - sorry about your rejection, but as you say, there's a chance it's a blessing in disguise. Keep that confidence up, because you'll need it to get into another great school, as I'm sure you deserve.</p>

<p>shraf - it's possible to be factually right, and contextually wrong. Sure, you have a point, but you're ruining a thread and taking things personally. That said:</p>

<p>piglette, aside from Byerly, I haven't seen an adult who's more petty and condescending on this forum. Whatever you may believe about Shraf, or however smug you may feel about managing to post a flame without using profanity - because it was certainly a flame - you no doubt have no idea what you're talking about.</p>

<p>I offer myself as an example:

[quote]
But at a guess, I would have thought that you would NOT be accepted in the first round at Columbia. Your class rank is top 5%, but there are 19 people in your class who worked harder/did better than you. In fact, if you're not an exceptional athlete or a URM, top 5% of your class is really the thin edge of the ice for admissions at the top Ivies... A brittle edge that you hit only inches before you skate into a dark, wet, freezing hole of admissions oblivion.

[/quote]

As poetic as this attempts to be, I estimate I was - generously - perhaps at the 25th or 30th percentile in my HS class, perhaps lower. I am not an URM or an athlete, I did not go to a top prep school (just your basic public school, albeit a high-performing one), and I can think off the top of my head of half a dozen classmates who fit the same description.

[quote]
Another thought... By reason of what specific grades did you slide to 20th in your class? (Again, a very, very good rank -- but not for the Ivies.) Was it a couple of freshman and sophomore B+-es in difficult classes? If so, that's not great, but they could be overlooked. On the other hand, a single (yes, one SINGLE) grade of "C" will likely keep you out of Columbia. A grade of "D" means it is Game Over for the Ivies, let alone other good schools (e.g., Tufts, Colgate, Vanderbilt...)

[/quote]

I had several "C"s as my final grades... two I believe, soph year French and Biology. I'm not alone in that, either.</p>

<p>You also grossly overstate the importance of residency state, and minority status.</p>

<p>While we agree on the importance of the essay and demonstrated passion, I think your sense of entitlement and the need you clearly feel in your posts to grind down perfectly nice posters like Ummmm is very counterproductive. She chose to post her stats, unlike hundreds of others who may have gotten a rejection and just buggered off. Why pick on her? Seriously, as a parent with (hopefully) a life offline? Good lord.</p>

<p>-A semi-disgusted Denzera</p>

353

<p>hear! hear!</p>

354

<p>Ummmm, so you were looking at some combined programs? I really hope you applied to the one at USC. I also had about 5 combined BS/MD programs in my college application pool but those no longer matter :D.</p>

355

<p>I am a new user of College Confidential-- I'd just like to say thanks to everyone who's posted so far, it's really helped me to understand where I fit in the college admissions process.</p>

<p>Decision: Deferred (SEAS)</p>

<p>Stats:
SAT: 2190 (780/660CR/750W)
SAT IIs: 770 Math II, 650 Lit, 590 Chem (Ouch...At least I don't want to be a doctor).
GPA: 4.5 (Weighted), 3.7 (Unweighted)
Rank: 20/360</p>

<p>Essays: Extremely solid and creative. One essay had a spelling mistake, but I faxed in a new copy and Columbia implied that the original document would be overlooked.
Teacher Recs: One was amazing, the other just average. Also have a recommendation from the head of the PPE (Politics, Philosophy, Econ) Department at UPenn.
Counselor Rec: Probably generic.</p>

<p>Location/Person:
State or Country: PA
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: White
Religion: Jewish
Gender: Female
Legacy: No
Other Factors: AP Scholar, 4-Time Best Witness on Mock Trial Team, took two undergraduate courses at UPenn, DECA Winner. I have also been corresponding with the Dean Brian Paquette (Medical School), former Dean of Residential Life.
Hook: Probably my summer program, which really demonstrated direction in my application and my interest in Financial Engineering (the program at SEAS to which I applied).</p>

<p>General Comments:
I haven't met a person from the class of 2010 or earlier who applied to SEAS ED at Columbia, but, judging from the admission statistics, I was almost expecting the acceptance letter come December 7th. I'm still feeling a bit discouraged--I think my deferral was a result of my grades (not straight As by any stretch of the imagination, but very close in 11th grade). My courseload was/is considerably rigorous, but, since my high school uses block scheduling, more than 5 or 6 total APs (throughout high school) seems excessive, even to the top students in my class. I was also the only person from my school to apply ED to Columbia, so that was a factor. I am also a white female, and it seems (by looking at this message board) that most of the people accepted ED to SEAS are Asian. If anyone has information about deferred SEAS candidates getting accepted RD, please let me know!</p>

356

<p>yeah, i applied to the combined program at USC. out of all the programs i applied to, that one is my top choice. except i have no expectation wahtsoever of even getting an interview b/c its so hard.. but it'd be awesome if i did b/c i worked my A S S off on that application. its probaly the hardest/longest app i've done so far. </p>

<p>mandz: i don tmean to ignore your comment. sorry abou tthe deferral you'll definitely end up at a great school though.</p>

357

<p>Decision:dEFERRED</p>

<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT: 800M + 680CR =1480
[</em>] SAT IIs: 800 Math Level 2, 740 Chemistry
[<em>] GPA: 89
[</em>] Rank: school doesn't rank
[<em>] Other stats: National Merit semi-finalist, did research over summer. I took two APs in my sophomore in high school, started taking college courses in junior year, my tough courses explain the lower gpa.
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Essays: Wrote about how I've come from disliking to becoming fully integrated with the international student body at my school.
[<em>] Teacher Recs: Very Good, am the best student in both teachers classes
[</em>] Counselor Rec: Don't know
[<em>] Hook (if any): I took 2 courses at Columbia, one last year, one this year, received A's in both courses, one of which was graduate level math.
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[</em>] State or Country: New York
[<em>] School Type: Private
[</em>] Ethnicity: White
[<em>] Gender: Male
[/ul]Other Factors: Captain of varsity sports teams, math team, other good ECS
General Comments:
I can't believe i was </em>**ing deferred!</p>

358

<p>not to kick you while your down need800math, but this is why the "i'm taking super hard classes at columbia therefore I will be accepted" attitude isn't the greatest (as in one of the few other threads i read here)... good luck with RD</p>

359

<p>Hey - you guys might remember me as the semi-regular that used to lurk here and ask annoying questions agonizing between Princeton and Columbia, and then disappeared as soon as he sent out his Columbia app.</p>

<p>But anyway, here are my results:</p>

<p><b>ACCEPTED to CC (i forget the acronym, basically NOT engineering)</b></p>

<p>PERSONAL INFORMATION
Asian American, applying from Taipei American School - fairly prestigious private international school</p>

<p>GPA: 4.15 by my school's weighting (basically straight A's, a few scattered B's and B+'s)
Class Rank: 7/213
Courseload: Pretty much all the honors and APs I could possibly take.</p>

<p>SAT I: 2300
800 Verbal
750 Math
750 Writing</p>

<p>SAT II:
USH: 800
Math IIc: 800
Mandarin: 780</p>

<p>AP/IBs:
AP Biology - 5
AP USH - 5
AP Micro Econ - 5
AP Macro Econ - 5
IB Econ - 7</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
-School Newspaper, Editor in Chief (this one was a RIDICULOUS time commitment)
-Varsity Model United Nations, Secretary General
-Varsity Debate, Captain
-NHS Vice President
-Key Club Member
-popmatters.com CD reviewer - online job at a pretty big music criticism website, they send me CDs, i write reviews</p>

<p>Recommendations: Very strong - I know both teachers loved me and I got along well with them.</p>

<p>Essay: Strong - I felt it was written more clumsily than I wanted, but evidently it got the job done. I wrote about my iPod Nano and how I preferred a Nano because its limited size forced me to think about my music library and filter to what I really valued - and then I extended that idea to college, about selection really forcing you to think about your identity.</p>

<p>Extra Supplements: I sent a copy of my journalism staff's April Fool's issue (REALLY nice - we print it glossy-magazine style and everything) and a copy of my popmatters.com review.</p>

<p>Hook: I pretty much tried to sucker-punch their soft spot of what they think their students should be: coffee-shop intellectuals who are as comfortable discussing pop culture and indie rock as they are math equations and literature. I mean, not that I totally made that image up of myself, but I did try to emphasize it, especially with the popmatters.com and the iPod Nano essay.</p>

<p>I could've pushed the MUN/Journalism/Debate angle and done a very politicized essay about development economics - it's something i DO really care about, plus they love to push it to the forefront with Jeffrey Sachs and all - but I felt the other angle would be a little more unique.</p>

<p>Thanks to everyone for ALL the help and advice I got here. It was all invaluable.</p>

<p>Now my next question is....best housing choice =p?</p>

360

<p>Hi. I've been lurking for awhile. Thought I would burst onto the scene in blaze of glory, clutching shiny new acceptance to heart. </p>

<p>Spent a couple weeks crying, instead. Used up all the Kleenex, and bracing to post deferral. Thought maybe it was bad luck to lurk & not post pre-ED, so maybe will be good luck before RD to post?</p>

<p>So depressing</p>

<p>Decision: deferred</p>

<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>] SAT:710M,790CR,720W
[</em>] SAT IIs:800French,750USHistory,690Chem
[<em>] GPA:3.7ish UW - higher W
[</em>] Rank:23/459
[<em>] Other stats: BP 118/58
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Essays: Good, I think
[<em>] Teacher Recs: Really good, I think. One from newspaper advisor talked about how I took over as editor & improved paper until it "wasn't recognizable" (content, writing quality & huge increase in ad revenue)
[</em>] Counselor Rec: probably good
[<em>] Hook (if any): I wish!
[/ul]Location/Person:[ul]
[</em>] State or Country:Midwest
[<em>] School Type: public, medium-okay, not too many apply to top schools
[</em>] Ethnicity: white
[li] Gender: F[/li][/ul]Other Factors: Rural upbringing, church involvement, state-level spelling-bee competitor (wronk!scrchhh!wrank! super-nerd alert!), 4-H, sports but no captaincy (is that a word?), editor-in-chief of school newspaper</p>

<p>General Comments: Wrote essay about how annoying it is to run a newspaper when writers can't distinguish fact from opinion. The requisite quips about high-school life & stripping up copy at midnight. Tied it back to liberal arts education & the Core Curriculum. It was okay but maybe not memorable. Maybe came off as too snitty? Think for RD round I will emphasize the 4-H. (Got some really funny stuff to write 'bout them cows!)</p>