<p>I finally decided to stop lurking this site and finally sign myself up. That being said, I would really appreciate if you gave me your honest opinions on my chances of getting admitted to Columbia (even though I'm only a junior). </p>
<p>•White female
•Junior at a fairly competitive private Catholic school in Western New York</p>
<p>GPA unweighted: 3.7 (freshman year really brought mine down, but I'm doing well this year and hope to have it up to at least a 3.8 by the end of the semester)
Rank: my school doesn't rank but I would definitely be within the top 10%
SAT: 1410/2150 (730 CR, 680 M, 740 W) -retaking
ACT: 32 (also retaking because I accidentally skipped 2 pages of math...so I can absolutely do better)
PSAT: commended merit scholar, although I forget my actual score
SAT II: I'm signed up for three in June, and pretty confident that my scores will be decent. </p>
<p>AP Courses:
10- World History (5)
11- US History, Chemistry, Language and Composition
12 (already registered for courses)- Biology, Calculus AB, Government, Literature and Composition</p>
<p>All of my other courses are honors/accelerated (I'm taking senior French and honors precalc this year). Since my school is pretty small, the only other AP class offered that I am not taking is Physics. </p>
<p>Extracurricular Activities, etc. (I intend to participate in these as a senior as well):
•I have been playing soccer for 12 years and have played travel soccer on top level teams for about ten years. I'm currently on a A division travel team. 9th and 10th grades- JV soccer (Captain), 11th- Varsity
•Varsity Lacrosse
•JV Badminton (9th), Varsity 10th and 11th (first singles, served as captain and won award at championships)
•Mock Trial 10th and 11th grades- I have served as both a witness and an attorney and our team always advances very far in the competition.
•NHS
•other less important clubs like International Club, Ski Club, Political Union, etc. that I am not as involved in and probably wouldn't mention.
•I also participate in many service activities- I have a leadership role in my school's Cooking For a Cause club, in which we make food to donate to charity events and soup kitchens. I also am a member of my town's Youth Engaged in Service program and over the summer, taught English and computer skills to refugees at the Refugee Resettlement Program in my city.
•I have past work experience as well, but I don't know how relevant this information is.
•This summer, I also am hopefully working as a Congressional Page in D.C., but am not positive yet as the application process has been very vague and every office I have contacted isn't sure about the process...</p>
<p>Recommendations/Essays:
Since I'm only a junior, I obviously haven't written any essays yet, but I'd like to think of myself as a good writer and somewhat interesting person, so hopefully they'll be really good :)
I have already asked a couple teachers for recommendations though...
AP Lang and Comp teacher- She is also my Mock Trial coach/advisor and moderator of the English Scholars club I have been involved in since freshman year. She is also an amazing writer, which is another plus.
APUSH teacher- She is my favorite teacher and History is my favorite/strongest class. I also want to go into law and major in political science, so her recommendation is really relevant to my interests. She also is an alum of Columbia College and Columbia Law (and her father is a professor at Teachers College) so I'm hoping this connection could help me ever so slightly, haha. </p>
<p>That's basically it! I probably sound extremely boring but that's why essays are important to show that applicants are more than numbers on a sheet of paper :)
I would love if you gave me your honest opinion regarding my chances of getting into Columbia College (and I would be willing to chance you back)! Thanks.</p>