<p>It seems like many times, one of the biggest deciding factors for a school like Columbia is ECs and awards.</p>
<p>My ECs and awards are rather mediocre -- President of a couple of school organizations, an editor for my school's paper, a volunteer coach for a youth football league.
In terms of awards, the only prizes I've won outside of my school setting are a few county and state -wide math distinctions, and National Merit.</p>
<p>In addition, my academic stats are just about where everyone else's are -- 97%/A+ average, top 5% of class, 2300 SAT, (kind of low SAT IIs though, average is only ~700), etc.</p>
<p>So I guess my question is...</p>
<p>Are stellar ECs and awards vital for acceptance to Columbia?</p>
<p>Or is it possible for someone like me (I intend on applying ED) to be accepted, by maybe showing some additional personality in the essays?</p>
<p>And what kinds of high school awards and distinctions have all of you Columbia acceptees obtained, to paint me a clearer picture.</p>
<p>it's very possible...not everyone gets the major awards and ECs (there aren't enough to go around)...ED will definitely help. 5% is great depending on the difficult of your school, but Columbia rejects a lot of valedictorians. Remember that.</p>
<p>What do you think makes those ECs less than stellar? I hardly think mine were any more spectacular. You have several top positions and are well-rounded...the notion one needs to be founding African hospitals to even be considered for Ivy League admission is apocryphal.</p>
<p>so here were my stats, they'll probably help you calm down and stop freaking out so much:</p>
<p>4.2/4.5w GPA
HS didnt rank
1350 SATs
700,730,740 SAT IIs
ECs: JV Basketball, Varsity Volleyball (captain), Sport's editor of the paper, production manager of some mag at school, TA, member of a couple organizations (no leadership position), religious youth group, sunday school teacher
Awards: absolutely NONE</p>
<p>.....SEAS Class of '07</p>
<p>(i just realized that this is the first time i've actually posted my "stats" here)</p>
<p>....the whole point was the fact that i didnt have any of those silly awards......</p>
<p>SEAS is way too much work if you dont want to be an engineer and the community and competitiveness is terrible....i'll keep it at that till i graduate.</p>
<p>
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SEAS is way too much work if you dont want to be an engineer and the community and competitiveness is terrible...
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</p>
<p>It really isn't way too much work.</p>
<p>Nobody forced you to do biomedical engineering -- maybe you should have went to a state school so you could earn a 4.0 by majoring in anthropology and taking the minimum pre-med requirements. Everyone knows engineering isn't cushy, an engineering education will give you many benefits (knowledge/skills, thinking ability, problem-solving, etc.) whether or not you choose to ultimately become an engineer.</p>
<p>Other than a few annoying pre-meds, I found the community to be nothing but cooperative and uncompetitive. Maybe you just need to venture out and get away from the annoying pre-meds. And, even among pre-meds, more are good people than back-stabbers. Columbia isn't a cut-throat place.</p>
<p>It can be, but in more subtle ways than one would expect. I often hear people trying to one-up one another with tales of how much work they have for a given night/weekend. And these are just humanities majors, not engineers!</p>
<p>Still, no one discusses grades (unless most people in the class feel unjustly screwed) and more people work together than against one another, particularly in the sciences in which this is more possible. I'm not really sure this describes an environment any less "cutthroat" than that of other schools, though. Are Harvard students burning each others' papers or stealing others' laptops? It's really hard to gauge, at most colleges, where one stands academically vs. most others, and so most "competitive" behavior is more internally than externally driven.</p>
<p>There's a clear difference between an environment with 1) a bunch of smart kids who naturally want to do well and 2) a bunch of cut-throat types who are stressful, uncooperative, back-stabbers, etc. Harvard and Columbia (and most of the Ivies) are clearly in the former category. There are plenty of schools that are in the latter category.</p>