<p>I still have “passionate advocacy” from both my high school counselor and my high school teacher recommendations. My extracurricular involvement has become substantially greater on top of my exceptional extracurricular involvement in high school (national debate champion, winner of an international science olympiad, NASA intern, etc). My test scores were already ideal when I applied as a high school student.</p>
<p>What really held me back was my high school grades. I received straight A’s except for my junior year, where my schoolwork suffered due to personal problems (which my guidance counselor wrote extensively about). However, I plan to take college courses this summer and fall (not enough to lose qualification as a freshman applicant) and prove to admissions that I can handle the academic rigor. I spent most of last year working/saving up money and traveling, which may not seem like a valuable use of time from an admissions perspective but something that I needed to do for myself.</p>
<p>@MrMom62 I understand the implications of “courtesy waitlisting”, but I felt differently due to the fact that Columbia kept me on their “extended” waitlist, which Columbia states is only for “extremely compelling applicants”. I know that it is usually almost impossible to reapply succesfully to a college that rejected you, but I thought that the extended waitlist status may have indicated otherwise.</p>