HELP HELP Columbia hopeful!!!!!!! Chance Me!!!!!!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Pakistani/ Iranian/ Indian
Prospective Major: Business</p>

<p>GPA UNWEIGHTED: 3.7 ( All honors except two sciences)</p>

<p>Took three AP Examinations; European: 4 US History: 4 English: 4 </p>

<p>Took three SAT II's; US History: 720 Spanish with Listening: 720 Math 2: 750</p>

<p>SAT I Scores:
Mathematics: 760
Critical Reading: 700
Writing: 750</p>

<p>Rank: Top 25% ( Stupid school does not weight :((()</p>

<p>ACTIVITIES:</p>

<p>Co-Founded SIHC ( Students for Improving Health Care)- Donated over 10,000 dollars of cash checks to Whitney Young Community Center which insures the uninsured, and about 1000 dollars worth of general home supplies.</p>

<p>Student Government VP- Go to NY Student Council, raise donations, do a myriad of school events.......... </p>

<p>President Of Medical Club- Donated over 1600 dollars to Operation Smile, ( 4 surgeries) </p>

<p>Co-President of Free the Children. Donated over 3500 dollars to operations in Ghana and in other parts of Africa. </p>

<p>NHS Tutor of two children in Mathematics. </p>

<p>Varsity Wrestler for two years out of three. Placed in many regional tournaments. I do a lot of service to the younger wrestling populations at their tournaments, and help out many challenged wrestlers during the summer. Journeymen wrestling club.</p>

<p>Member of the Track and Field Team- 4 years </p>

<p>Member of a Select Soccer Team- 8 years</p>

<p>Two three week courses at Brown University. 8th grade, 9th grade going to 10th. All involving sciences of the human brain. </p>

<p>Work Experience at my father's office in the EPA. I worked at J CREW in the mall for Junior Year, 5 hours a day for whole summer.</p>

<p>Volunteered for My local Mosque for about 4/5 years, maybe 100 hours</p>

<p>Volunteered at hospital for 100 hours at ICU. </p>

<p>YMCA Community Service Award And many many state awards for service.....</p>

<p>many wrestling awards.................</p>

<p>School Awards.....</p>

<p>and many awards and scholarships applied for...............</p>

<p>Great Interview, social skills are my best asset
Good Essay
Legacy at NYU, two of my cousins graduated, also one went to Columbia for business to graduate. ( must count for something)</p>

<p>I am a very dedicated individual, and I have spent my sophmore summer to junior year entirely dedicated to improving my SAT, and then I finished the year off with my SAT's and SAT I. I have a strong work ethic, and believe that it has pulled me through most of my dificulties. I grew up with very humble beginnings, and believe that is one of the reasons I have a strong will. My essays and recommendations were very good. My recommendation was a math teacher who believed I was the hardest working student that he has ever dealt with. I love to wrestle most likely because of my persian backround, I speak two other languages besides English. </p>

<p>Here are my top five choices for colleges: </p>

<p>Brown University
Columbia University- Early Decision
NYU- Early Action
RPI
Cornell</p>

<p>Please chance me.......and what can I do to improve this summer! Tell me anything that I need to do to improve, I know that my SAT's are done for, but I am hoping for good responses. And please tell me what colleges I will get accepted to from the list. Thank you very much!</p>

2

<p>Columbia University- Early Decision - reach
NYU- Early Action - match
RPI -not familiar
Cornell - reach</p>

3

<p>Hmm I thought it wouldn’t be too much of a reach for Columbia, because the only real thing holding me down is my GPA and class rank, I don’t think it is too much of a reach with ED, and partial legacy.</p>

4

<ol>
<li><p>NYU has Early Decision, not Early Action.</p></li>
<li><p>Only parents count as legacies at NYU, not cousins.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Good luck.</p>

5

<p>columbia is a reach for you. the thing is you aren’t in the top 10% of your graduating class, which is very bad for an ORM. You are probably in in NYU.</p>

6

<p>What is ORM? I still don’t understand, my cousins have told me that I was a perfect candidate. I mean come on Cornell didn’t sound too hard before. I would say work experience and EC’s of mine are excellent, maybe SAT. I have a summer to improve, what can I do really? NYU is still my second choice so I’m happy.</p>

7

<p>I think ORM means over-represented minority. (Might be completely wrong) There are high numbers of Asians and South Asians in those colleges.</p>

<p>A top 25% GPA is harsh. I’ve never heard of anyone outside of 5% get into an Ivy, but I’ve heard of top 25%ers getting into Stanford for other reasons (usually athletics or incredible uniqueness).</p>

<p>I think NYU might even be a safety for you though. It’s very strong besides your GPA (which is the same problem I have). Our scores are similar as well.</p>

<p>Your ECs aren’t mindblowing, but they could be. Go into detail on a few, rather than listing a bunch, it may change our minds. </p>

<p>I’d say you have a ~30-40% chance at Columbia ED. It’s a tough school. With that GPA, NYU is a much safer bet. Cornell is a reach as well. Your scores are good. Brown is a reach as well.</p>

<p>It is a crap shoot. With good luck, you could get into all of them legitimately. It is completely relative to what the officers look for in your app.</p>

8

<p>Thanks so much jptoor, in all honesty I had to make my resume, which I am working on this summer, down from three and a quarter pages to 2. So I picked all of the most important stuff that I had done freshmen to start of senior year. This isn’t my whole resume, this is only a page and a quarter, if you type it into microsoft word ( Although I used specialty resume services that do it for you, in their office.) This is a bad version let’s say, of what it really looks like. I still have like 11 awards for community service, wrestling, school, and Mosque. What would make my EC’s look better, like mind blowing? I already work at J Crew full time, so I guess some work experience is good. I am doing early decision Columbia, so I have a wayyyy better chance. 30-40 is still a lot better than average I would say. Oh what about a summer program there? I still have all summer to do something…</p>

9

<p>Bump…</p>

10

<p>Work experience isn’t mind blowing. Lots of people work. Lots of people get good scores. Lots of people have good GPAs. You want to differentiate yourself from the masses.</p>

<p>Right now, I am working with a local clinical research group, and writing a proposal to the NIMH (NIH for Mental health) for a research grant. My name is going to be under the authorship. Not many other people will have proposed their own research trial, so I hope that will distinguish my individuality. Basically, try to do something you haven’t heard of anyone else doing, or something that is extremely rare as a student, such as writing for your local paper.</p>

11

<p>Are those your SAT or PSAT scores? Nevertheless, they are on the lower-end of the accepted Columbia and Brown scores.</p>

<p>Your rank and GPA are way too low for those schools and your EC’s aren’t tailored to what you want to study (which is substantially important), which you mentioned is business.</p>

<p>You can only ED at one school, and if you ED at NYU, you’ll probably get in and i’m positive you’ll get into RPI. As for Cornell, it’s debatable, but you sure have a chance. Unfortunately, you might not be as lucky with Columbia and Brown.</p>

12

<p>These are some really nice choices! I’m sorry to say, however, that your rank is extremely low, weighted or not, for some of the schools your applying to. The fact that your asian decreases your chances of getting into them even more ( I feel your pain). Your standardized test scores are alright (nothing a summer’s worth of studying can’t fix) but during what remains of summer vacation, try to work on your essays and make them very distinguishable. Most selective colleges these days aren’t looking for well-rounded people. They are looking for unique individuals with amazing talents. </p>

<p>I’m 101% sure you’ll make it into RPI. NYU is a 65% if you really work at it. </p>

<p>Your service and extra curriculars do not relate to business very much unless your interested in being a pharmaceutical representative (something I plan to pursue) or something similar. If that is what your interested in, write it in your application! Admissions officers need to see a connection between your high school activites and your prospective major.</p>

<p>P.S. Are you sure you don’t want to go into health care?!? You seem really interested in the field…</p>

<p>This summer would also be a good time to think about why you want to get into these ivy leagues… Is it just for the label? In the long run, your better off going to a college like Union, paying way less tuition, being a big fish in a little pond, and not having to pay off loans for the rest of your life- but it’s ultimately your choice. </p>

<p>So, here’s your summer to-do list:

  1. Re-think your major
  2. Think about the benefits of going to a smaller school
  3. Study for your standardized tests (no more than 3 hours a day )
  4. Start drafting your essays and think of ways to make them unique
  5. Relax a little so you wear yourself out…go to J-Crew and buy yourself a nice pair of slacks = )</p>
13

<p>Brown University - reach
Columbia University- Early Decision -low reach
NYU- Early Action - match
RPI - your in, I live very close to this one and its not all that hard to get in especially with high sats
Cornell - low reach</p>

14

<p>Hey! I got some really good news, my cousin is doing his PhD at Columbia to eventually teach at the college ( soooo maybe that’s better for moi?). And I called my school for my rank, and they made a huge mistake with all of the ranks because they mixed people up( Everyone knew it). So I found out that I am actually going on around top 13%, ranked 64/500 instead of 25% whewwww, that was a bad one. So I have a new list, and to HockeyIsAhmazing, I wrote my essay on Wrestling and the not-so generic lessons I learned, being one of the only middle-easterners in my Section and putting myself intentionally outside of my comfort zone. My whole family is in finance, I just had some very good opportunities with medical clubs that were on the brink of failure, so I joined and became President as early as Sophmore year, and my father, who went to Stern pushed me towards Finance, unlike most south asian parents stereotypically pushing towards medicine. Alright here is my new and improved school list made from Business Week top undergrad B-schools:</p>

<p>UPenn(Wharton)
University of Virginia(Mcintire)
Notre Dame(Mendoza)
Boston College(Carroll)
Cornell University
Rensselaer Polytechnic Insitute(Lally)
Top Choice: NYU (Stern!!!)
Brown University
Union
Harvard on the Hudson…HVCC!!!</p>

15

<p>Bump…</p>

16

<p>bump bump…</p>

17

<p>Is there any way to get your counselors to tell colleges that they don’t account weighted courses into class rank? Because someone who took easy classes could be the Valedictorian of your school? Sounds messed up.</p>

<p>I don’t know too much about business schools, but I know that Wharton UPenn is like the best business school ever, and nearly impossible to get into. But of course, I’d give it a shot. I think you have pretty good chances for NYU Stern.</p>

18

<p>Haha, good point about south Asians and medicine (however that doesn’t mean that a lot of Asians aren’t going into business nowadays) … Your essay sounds really interesting! </p>

<p>If you’re really interested in UPenn, you may want to apply for their summer program :
<a href=“http://undergrad.wharton.upenn.edu/precollege/lead/[/url]”>http://undergrad.wharton.upenn.edu/precollege/lead/&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>… I know someone who really enjoyed it and it would probably look good on an application.</p>

19

<p>Having a cousin there really means nothing for you. It’s only legacy if it’s your parents or grandparents…</p>

<p>Cousins mean essentially zilch. Rely on your own work rather than connections…</p>

20

<p>“I love to wrestle most likely because of my persian backround” LoL, this made me think of 300.</p>

<p>Anyhow, a lot of your ecs are “I donated this amount of money to blank,” so I’m thinking your ecs might be weaker than you think. Their looking for someone who can lead a group of volunteers and devote their time to projects, not just cash. I do have a lot of respect for anyone who has volunteered that much in an ICU–I could never handle that. Your essay sounds a bit obvious (usually sports aren’t the best to write about.) Maybe you should consider trying to tie your essay to what you want to major in?</p>

<p>Chances:
UPenn(Wharton): High Reach–this is the top business program in the country
University of Virginia: Match/Safety
Notre Dame: Match if you’re Catholic
Boston College: Match, again, if you’re Catholic
Cornell: Reach–another extremely competitive business school
NYU: Match
Brown University: Low Reach</p>

<p>I’m not familiar with the other programs mentioned, so I didn’t just guess. I think your ecs don’t match your major… unless you’re into hospital managing. You might want to think about things you’ve done that are business related and write an essay about that to ensure the admit people see why you love business. Maybe when you were ten, you had your first garage sale and loved managing the cash box and helping the customers, and ever since then, you knew you had to major in business… I don’t know. In any case, good luck in the application process!</p>