<p>hey. im in illinois and im applying to University of Illinois (fallback) and Northwestern (thats what im aiming for). but i was also planning on reaching for Columbia, but i dont know if im confident enough to apply to northwestern for regular decision and Columbia for early. i wonder if i should just forget about Columbia altogether and just apply to Northwestern on early decision and maximize my chances there. </p>
<p>to get an idea of where i stand, here are some stats:</p>
<p>ACT: 33
SAT: m: 750 v: 730 w: 700 total: 2180
SAT II: math iic: 790 us history: 710 literature: 690
GPA: 4.618/4.0, 8th place out of 600-something. took most possible ap/honors courses
AP Tests: Psych- 4, Euro- 3, Stats- 3, US History- 4, English Language- 4</p>
<p>Extracurriculars/community service: dont want to list everything, but basically its nothing super outstanding. lots of academic clubs i participated in, and lots of random community service. i dont play a sport or an instrument, which sucks, but i am definitely very much into creative writing...although i dont really have any credentials to prove it except the fact that i took a creative writing class at northwestern two summers ago. (The teacher for this class wrote an evaluation for everyone, and that evaluation was sent to the Northwestern admissions office to be stored on record. I read this evaluation and it was a very positive one)</p>
<p>soo, thats where i stand. obviously essays and recommendations will be a huge factor, but from just that much do you think i should bother with columbia, or just shoot for northwestern early decision and maybe think of some other colleges for me that wont be as much of a reach as columbia?</p>
<p>its showtime now, the pressures on. thanks a lot for all your help, CCers. :-)</p>
<p>I'd say Northwestern is a match, and being one, you should apply to Columbia early. Remember, don't apply to a school early unless you're sure its where you want to go.</p>
<p>where in illinois are you from? im from chicago...a buncha kids from my school went to u of i and a bunch to northwestern. they all love it. goodluck!</p>
<p>im from bartlett, its a small suburb like 45min west of chicago.</p>
<p>id like more opinions on this... i dont want to risk my chance of getting into northwestern by doing it in regular decision...should i really be that confident in northwestern? this is kinda scary, because if i do columbia on early decision and get rejected to both columbia and northwestern i will be upset for not applying to northwestern early! ahhhh!!!</p>
<p>I think the first thing is to figure out do you really like columbia better than northwestern. from your post I get the feeling that you really wish to attend northwestern, so what about columbia? either way I think you have a very good chance eding northwestern, and a fairly good one with RD too.</p>
<p>% admitted for those with 33-34 on ACT: 49.9%
% admitted for those with 700-740 on CR: 38.5%
% admitted for those with 750-700 on M: 46.7%
% admitted for valedictorians: 53.9%
% admitted for salutatorians: 51.3%
% admitted for other top 5%: 41.9%</p>
<p>Keep in mind:
1. it's not clear what's the % admitted for those with ACT 33 + 700-740 CR + 750-700 M + "other top 5%".
2. those % are for ED+RD; they would be higher for ED and lower for RD.</p>
<p>well i would definitely be very content with both northwestern or columbia--but overall i do like columbia more. i just dont know if its worth risking northwestern to apply to columbia on ED</p>
<p>As a current Columbian who applied ED last year and had a decision to make between Stanford and Columbia, I will tell you that it is difficult. Apply ED a) only if you are 100% committed to a school b) would go there over any other school and c) are in love with the school. What I personally found out about myself was that Columbia was better for me politically, academically, musically, socially and on every level than Stanford.</p>
<p>Apply ED to the school you want to go to more and don't limit your standards. Your scores and GPA are well above the averages. Do not limit yourself or play the odds game.</p>
<p>The essay is extremely important and as a creative writer, you can make a very convincing essay through a creative fashion. </p>
<p>I wish you the best of luck on your applications.</p>