ED Chances? :|

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

<p>My credentials aren't all that great, but I guess they're somewhat unique? </p>

<p>Background: I was born in the United States, but my family moved back to India when I was a baby. My first language was Hindi, followed by Punjabi, Urdu, Bengali and finally English. I was pretty fluent in English by the time I returned to the states when I was around 9 years old. I went to Catholic school (my family is Hindu/Buddhist..) in Queens, NY for a year or so until we settled down in Long Island, which is where I'm currently studying. </p>

<p>School Info: Pretty small (150 kids in my grade; not too many classes offered), Mostly Caucasian (I'm one of two minorities in my grade), Pretty wealthy</p>

<p>GPA: 3.95 (the killer -_-) School doesn't rank.
SAT: Math 780, CR 800, WR 730
SAT II: Math2 800, Chem (taken in 9th grade) 730
APs (10th-12th): Euro, Music Theory, Psych, Stats, US Hist, Bio, Calc BC, Chem, Spanish, Economics, Literature; would have taken Eng Lang/Comp and Comp Sci AB but scheduling in my school never really works out :P
Honors: AP Scholar w/ Distinction, National Merit Semifinalist, some math awards..
Teacher Recs: VERY strong (one's from a teacher who was diagnosed with breast cancer around the same time my mother was..we've been really close since, the other's from a teacher who has known me since 7th grade and has seen me "mature" haha xD)
Guidance Rec: ehh..I don't see my guidance counselor much, so I don't know what she will write =\ But it won't be anything bad?
Essay: Pretty good I guess; says a lot about me as a person</p>

<p>School Activities:
School Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, Pit Orchestra (I just play violin. Most I've achieved is a performace at Lincoln Centre last year)
Mathletes Captain
International Club President
Quizbowl Team Vice President
I'm an editor of this magazine for genocide awareness..
National Honour Society
Lots of student tutoring (usually every day for 40 minutes)
Varsity Crew (would have been captain, but I had an injury -_____-)</p>

<p>Outside Activities:
Music! - I've been playing sitar for a while now, and I'd say I'm pretty good. I've performed numerous times with world-renowned sitar players (I'm usually the only one under 40 at those shows >_O) and it's something I'd like to continue.; Piano - I used to give piano lessons, but lately I've just been playing for my own pleasure; Self-taught erhu (chinese instrument), guitar, and bass. I compose a little, but mostly Eastern music. </p>

<p>Dance: I do Bharatanatyam (classical Indian dance). I was ready to have what's known as an arrangetaram (kind of like a graduation?) but opted not to because of the cost. I still perform atleast 3 times a year, and umm..I got invited to dance at the Indian Embassy once. I'm also trained in ballet, but I stopped doing that a long time ago...</p>

<p>Languages: my favourite of hobbies! I love to learn languages..it's somewhat random I guess, but I spend many hours of my time teaching myself different languages. When I was in India, in addition to the languages my family spoke (see above?) I picked up Gujurati, Nepali, Tibetan, Tamil (I'm HORRIBLE at speaking though), and Malayalam. Over the past few years in America I've self-taught Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, and Latin. I'm pretty fluent (Speaking/Reading/Writing) in all of them. I'm going for Thai next xDD Oh, and do computer languages count? I can program in a few..</p>

<p>Volunteer: I'm a volunteer teacher at a Korean school. On weekdays I tutor newly immigrated kids mainly from Korea in English (I can communicate with them in both languages :D) There are also some students from Japan, China and India. On Saturdays I teach general math and English classes. It's about 26 hours per week total.
I also host fundraisers for St. Judes and Locks of Love every month or so. I've donated my hair twice now too (:</p>

<p>Summer: Volunteer work (as listed above), NYLF in Medicine, Experiment in International Living: Japan, Columbia SHSP: Computer Graphics Through Game Programming</p>

<p>Stuff that I didn't mention on the app: I hold a black belt in Karate; Umm, I know pi to a few hundred digits; I've been going to art school for about 6 years.</p>

<p>Career Plans: Haven't put much thought into it, but maybe some kind of doctor in the World Health Organization (My family used to live above/own a small hospital in India so I kinda saw stuff first hand?) I'm not really too sure about it though. I just want something with a global scope.. </p>

<p>So yeah, that's me in a nutshell (if a nutshell happens to be a rather lengthy forum post, that is). Thanks for reading, especially if you made it this far xD </p>

<p>What say then, have I a shot at getting accepted ED? =&lt;/p>

2

<p>My credentials aren't all that great</p>

<p>Yeah, the sub-par credentials are the first thing that jumped out at me.</p>

3

<p>Um... yes. I would say that you have a good chance. The sheer number of languages is impressive, but is rather hard to put on an application. Did you find a place to fit it? The same goes for the different instruments and the dance training. They sound great, but how did you manage to incorporate them into a standard Columbia Application? In terms of numbers though, I think you have a good shot.</p>

4

<p>Why do people post these things?</p>

5

<p>that must have taken a long time to type - did you mention endurance on your application too?</p>

6

<p>It seems almost unbelievable that you would even be asking about your chances, as I'm sure most would agree that you have a very strong chance of getting accepted ED!</p>

<p>As another poster noted, the number self-taught languages are really impressive... although a few are direct dialects of each other (not stand alone languages as mentioned), borrowing a very large portion of vocabularly from each other. It's so amazing, that it's almost implausible (being from North India and being exposed to Dravidian languages such as Tamil and Malayalam). </p>

<p>Bottom line: with your test scores and GPA, sitar background, and being able to speak 14 (!) languages (even if Urdu/Hindi, Tamil/Malayalam, Tibetan/Nepali are dialects of each other), I wouldn't worry about your chances :-)</p>

7

<p>Probably would have helped if you had taken some SAT subject tests in some of those languages, or at least the ones that are offered: Latin, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc. </p>

<p>If I were the admissions board, I would be VERY skeptical that you could honestly speak that many languages fluently. Having also learned a language on my own (Spanish), I know that it is not easy, and takes a lot of time, especially learning the many vocabulary words. Spanish is by far the easiest second language to learn living in the United States (due to the many TV shows broadcasted in it, large Hispanic population, and easy pronunciation rules), and it still took me a long time, despite the fact that language is my strongest suit. Of course, one could just say that I'm an idiot and you're brilliant, but I think anyone who has studied a second language extensively would share my skepticism.</p>

8

<p>Couldn't agree more with Godfatherbob... I alluded to my skepticism (albeit politely) in my previous post, but he articulated it better. It would have been a bit more believable if you took an SAT II test in one of the offered languages. Assuming you're able to convince the Adcoms, though, you'd most likely be accepted.</p>

9

<p>You're a shoe in. I agree with the others about the languages. Most will think you are lying. I speak 7 languages (english, hebrew, arabic, spanish, french, yiddish, german) and though that is a ton but wow you speak over 10! I can not read or write yiddish or arabic but you seem to be able to read/write in all those languages. That is extremely impressive!</p>

10

<p>What's the difference between Yiddish and Hebrew?</p>

11

<p>Hebrew is the language spoken in Israel and which is used in the Jewish religious texts (although it's slightly different from what's spoken nowadays). Yiddish is the language which formed in Eastern Europe which is basically a cross between German and Hebrew.</p>

12

<p>i think you have a good chance. just seems like your interests are everywhere, not really focused</p>

13

<p>Wow I took Latin for three years, and unless you have language skills out of this world, it is nearly impossible to self-teach. Not that I'm trying to be rude, but seriously, my teacher majored in it and still acknowledged that it is very difficult.</p>

14

<p>And just wondering, where do you find the time to take 12 AP classes and learn 14 languages in addition to being very involved in ECs? Does your day have 30 hours? I just don't see it as possible. I may be wrong...</p>

15

<p>"My credentials aren't all that great"
Fishing for compliments, are we?</p>

<p>"GPA: 3.95 (the killer -_-)"
Killer in what respect? You can't possibly be serious</p>

16

<p>
[quote]
"GPA: 3.95 (the killer -_-)"
Killer in what respect? You can't possibly be serious

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Well, if it's 3.9 W then it's not that great. With that many AP classes, a 3.9W will be at most a 3.3UW, which is sub-par.</p>