Early D Chances - And How To Hook My App

Colleges & Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

<p>hey guys.</p>

<p>you might remember me as the dude who was agonizing over columbia and princeton. well, i've settled on columbia...now i just have to early my way in.</p>

<p>here's my stats:</p>

<p>i go to a pretty prestigious private international school. we regularly land about 10 out of 200 students in the Ivy League (or its equivalent in terms of prestige) each year.</p>

<p>my stats are:</p>

<p>Weighted GPA: 4.14 (honors/AP/IB being +0.5 in our school)
Class Rank: 7th out of 213
Courses Difficulty: Basically all the honors I could've possibly taken.</p>

<p>SAT I: 2300
Verbal: 800
Math: 750
Writing: 750
Essay: 11</p>

<p>SAT II:
Math iic: 800
US History: 800</p>

<p>Taking Mandarin in November.</p>

<p>APs:
Econ Micro 5
Econ Macro 5
US History 5
Biology 5</p>

<p>IBs:
Econ 7</p>

<p>EC's:
-Journalism, four years, Newspaper editor my senior year (the time commitment to this one is incredible...i regularly stay till like 10:00 on weekdays to do layout and crap.)
-Varsity MUN, four years, Committee Chair junior year, Secretary-General senior year
-Varsity Debate, three years, travelling team Captain junior and senior year
-NHS, three years, Vice President senior year
-Student Government, three years
-Popmatters.com, a music reviews website...i write CD reviews for them. it's not a paying job though.</p>

<p>I figure my stats are pretty high, and my EC's are pretty strong as well. But I also know that there's no such thing as an admissions lock at this level of universities, and I kind of feel like i NEED to get in early...because I've been slacking senior year and I think my grades have drastically dropped to around straight-B's level, and I can't let colleges see that. Plus I just want to get the hell into this school.</p>

<p>I just have a few worries:
-I only have two years of a foreign language in high school - i dropped Mandarin in junior year. However, I have one year's worth of credit from MS, giving me about three credits. Should that be OK for colleges or will they hold that against me?</p>

<p>-Where do I focus my app? I'm considering writing an essay about my music library and its importance to me (because honestly that IS where I find the biggest source of my identity) and maybe emphasizing the music reviewer angle a little bit, but I was wondering if they might find that iffy because I don't talk about my intellectual/academic self that much in the process. Maybe I should focus on MUN or journalism instead, since that's been a huge part of my lifestyle as well?</p>

<p>-and from my stats alone...what would you guys say, realistically, my chances are?</p>

2

<p>stick to what you're passionate about. they have music majors here at columbia.</p>

3

<p>yeah...but pop/rock music majors?</p>

<p>and considering i'm applying with a stated preference of polisci-econ major, will it look a little iffy if i write my app around my own personal obsession that seems to only have a tangential relation, if any, to my academic interests at the college?</p>

4

<p>ur missing one major point here...that if u do write about academics then u r actually putting urself at a massive disadvantage and it shows that u r completely one sided....anyone could write about how they learned so much from ECs that are very typical (debate, school paper, MUN...not like u'v prob ever even been to the real UN lol) ....that stuff is boring and cliche...esp with stats like yours you need to show that you have an ounce of personality at least....colleges, esp good ones HATE ppl who seem closed minded or unwilling to explore new avenues....who cares if you checked off econ/poli sci on ur app...more than half of sophmores declare a major other than the one they put down on the app.</p>

5

<p>well, i actually do want to do polisci-econ. i'm pretty passionate about development economics in general and a lot of the reason i want to go to columbia is they seem to emphasize that passion too (sachs, earth institue, etc.)</p>

<p>and yeah i realize that the essay is supposed to show you're an interesting person beyond the academics. i'm just wondering...if i write passionately about music and all that, will that passion impress the admissions officers, or will they just end up wondering "how the hell does this have anything to do with your choice of Columbia?"</p>

6

<p>look, the way you make yourself stand out is by showing legitimate, deep-seated passion in something - preferably something intellectual. They're really nonjudgmental. I knew a guy who was a collectible card game champion. the point is driving for excellence and not being satisfied with mere competence.</p>

<p>your stated academic interests in the college are not really a deciding point. just because you're curious - and you can show curiosity in a lot of ways - doesn't mean that you don't have compelling evidence, from the past, of your intellectual interest in other things.</p>

<p>so no, there's no pop/rock music majors, but one of my good friends basically ran most of the music scene during our time here at columbia - probably set up 200 different concerts and music events - and now she's chief assistant to the head of a major music group (I think it's either warner or sony, not sure). they're not anti-you... trust me.</p>

7

<p>look, the way you make yourself stand out is by showing legitimate, deep-seated passion in something - preferably something intellectual. They're really nonjudgmental. I knew a guy who was a collectible card game champion. the point is driving for excellence and not being satisfied with mere competence.</p>

<p>your stated academic interests in the college are not really a deciding point. just because you're curious - and you can show curiosity in a lot of ways - doesn't mean that you don't have compelling evidence, from the past, of your intellectual interest in other things.</p>

<p>so no, there's no pop/rock music majors, but one of my good friends basically ran most of the music scene during our time here at columbia - probably set up 200 different concerts and music events - and now she's chief assistant to the head of a major music group (I think it's either warner or sony, not sure). they're not anti-you... trust me.</p>