<p>It's clearly too late for me to ED to Columbia (also I EA'ed to Yale) but I am wondering.. can this mate from Virginia get into Columbia RD? I will set this up in the format of the Results thread to make it easier for you guys. If you could give me a specific percentage, that would be better/more convenient. Thanks in advance chaps!</p>
<p>Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2360 SAT I single sitting
SAT II: 750 literature /740 biology SAT 2's (taking lit in jan hoping for 800)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): ~3.8/3.9
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): currently top 1.5% of ~1000 class, probably will go down
AP (place score in parenthesis): 5 5 5 5 5 3 4
Senior Year Course Load: all AP's except for yearbook and band (for art credit haha)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): two national awards for service (one was a big deal, other wasn't really), silver medal on French National Exam, NMSF, AP Scholar with Distinction
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Yearbook (editor in chief), political service club (founder), community service club (president), band (saxophone player), Young Democrats (treasurer), French National Honor Society
Job/Work Experience: summer job working for governor's office
Volunteer/Community service: see service clubs
Summer Activities: one prestigious summer program (leaving out specifics for anonymity)
Essays: i'm currently trying to decide which one to use for this one.. one's about a personal topic that matters a lot to me and another is about how an experience of mine shaped my personality. which should i use for columbia's comapp?
Teacher Recommendation: one great, one probably complimentary but nothing stellar
Counselor Rec: good, she and i are pretty close friends
Interview: does Columbia have interviews? if so, i think i would do okay - not great, but definitely not bad.
Other
State (if domestic applicant): VA
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: very competitive in VA
Ethnicity: white
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: applying for FinAid
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):
Reflection
Strengths: SAT 1, EC's (?), recs maybe
Weaknesses: SAT 2's, maybe essays in comparison to some of the applicants from my school, rank</p>
<p>Its honestly a crapshoot… the thing about ivy leagues especially columbia is that they are very ambiguous but I can honestly say you are a great candidate for the running… columbia is a solid low match to match… good luck! I would highly recommend applying to University of virginia if I were you! </p>
<p>Your grades and scores are very good. The extracurriculars are fine, nothing special. I think it will come down to (as the majority of admissions decisions at Ivies do) your essays. If the personal one says something about you and why you do what you do, I’d go with that over the more generic one. Good luck!</p>
<p>I agree with most people here, Columbia RD is a match for you. Your SAT score is probably your greatest asset, as well as your essays if you write them well. I would advise you to write about the thing that “matters alot” to you, as long as it’s really unique and spells out alot of your good qualities. In my English class the other day we did an assignment where each person in our class read and graded about 7 of each others’ personal statements in a row. Be careful not to sound even a little bit cliche, I found myself yawning in spite of myself at every essay written about a cancer story. Cliche looks REALLY bad. Just keep that in mind, and I’m sure you’ll get into Columbia.
Good luck!</p>
<p>what if my essays are like mediocre? they definitely aren’t bad but i don’t know if they’re “stellar”… will that put me in a really bad position or could my stats pull my through?</p>