ED for Columbia University

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>South Korean girl from rural region in Canada
Immigrated from South Korea in grade 7</p>

<p>Stats:
GPA: 4.0 -lenient scale throughout 4 years
ACT: did not take them yet but projecting 33 or 34 (from practice test 32)
SAT 2: will take three in November- Korean with listening, Math 1 and Biology E Confident Korean and Math 1should be 780+</p>

<p>Ranking: School does not rank but I should be in top 10% for sure
Class size: 500</p>

<p>Course load: hardest possible though school only offer 2 AP- AP cal AB (recent) and AP French I took calculus in grade 11 when it was not offered</p>

<p>Come from a difficult background
Family income less than 22K
Work at the local library throughout 4 years 25hr/week
Work as tutor for science and math 3hr/week
Experienced major illness and was hospitalized for two and a half months (in second semester) preventing me from graduating this year
Live with my mother's side of relative
First generation college</p>

<p>ECs
In School
1. School Band -section leader 9,10,11,12 (flute)
2. student council - charity coordinator 11,12
3. Helping hands- Vice pres 9,10,11,12</p>

<p>Out of school
1.Christian Band - flute and drum - 9,10,11,12
2. Church missionary trip to Cambodia and Kyrgyzstan (summer) -11,12
3. Walk and run athon (fundraising for cancer research) -10,11,12</p>

<p>Attended University of Toronto Enrichment Program for Pharmaceutical sciences and tissue engineering program</p>

<p>Able to speak Korean, English and Japanese fluently</p>

<p>Intended to major in Regional studies - Africa or Religion</p>

<p>Recommendations from two teachers will be amazing
One from my previous Japanese teacher who is the vice principal at another institution but we are still close ( got 97% in his class)
One from my bio teacher who taught me 2 years but known me for 3
She knows my circumstances and will write me a great one
Counselor Rec should be great (he taught me in grade 10 for career course) </p>

<p>Essay - deals with my inner strength while overcoming illness (lymphoma)
started to work on it already, will be good by the time of submission</p>

<p>Have no connection with any faculty or with any body from Columbia
But I love Columbia so much and will definitely reflect that in one of the response</p>

<p>I really want to know what is my chance in getting into Columbia U</p>

<p>No one in my school went to US colleges in past several years
From a very uninformed school
Will appreciate any input from honest individuals</p>

2

<p>Bump Bump Bump!</p>

3

<p>As an international student, your chances of admission are much lower than those of domestic applicants (although Columbia MIGHT be one of the schools that reads Canada and Mexico with the US.) Your financial aid is also severely diminished at most institutions.</p>

<p>Because your GPA is lenient and your school very rarely sends kids to top US schools, I really have no way of judging your chances without the concrete SAT score.</p>

<p>But it's probably a reach. How big of a reach depends on how your scores turn out and the actual quality of your recs and essays.</p>

<p>Best of luck.</p>

4

<p>yes Columbia is one of them and I should be part of their need-blind policy. And thanks for your insight. I really appreciate it. Hopefully mid -December result will tell how much of a reach it was. Once again thank you ses.</p>

5

<p>i could be totally wrong, but don't most colleges not even consider the MathI subject test as part of their SAT II requirements? I personally would just go with MathII.</p>

6

<p>Oh really? I didn't know that. Can anybody confirm this? If this is true, then definitely I will go for Math2. Is it much harder though? BTW thanks for you input nygirl786.</p>

7

<p>columbia:reach
take math II</p>

8

<p>If you're applying to the college and not Fu school, Math I is fine. I took Math I. However, if you're taking calculus sr. year or have already taken it, you might as well take math 2.</p>

9

<p>math 1 is equivalent to SATI math... which is not exactly impressive. math 2 only goes up to pre-calc and has a lot of trig/alg 2 as well. if you're applying to a school like columbia, you need to take math 2</p>

10

<p>Again, only taking Math I is not going to prevent you from being admitted. Honestly.</p>

11

<p>I found math 2 to be much easier than math 1, but I guess it's which math class you have taken recently.</p>

12

<p>But i'm assuming that the OP might end up applying to more colleges (even though I hope you do make it to Columbia! :) ) If so, then maybe she is better off with taking Math II. That's just my two cents.</p>

13

<p>Thanks for everyone's input. So does that mean by taking math 2, my chance of admission will go up?</p>