Help me out for Earlz Decish!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

<p>Sup guys!! Can ya rate me for Columbz ED??</p>

<p>I'm a white boy from Maryland</p>

<p>ACT: 34</p>

<p>SATII:
Biology: 760
World History: 710
Math IIC: 750
Should i even report these scores because I took the ACT? It's a debate for me because the 710 isnt that good, but would it look worse if I didnt report any SAT IIs at all?</p>

<p>APs:
US Government (5); Biology (5); Human Geography (5); Psychology (5); Chemistry (5); Environmental Science (5); Calc AB (5); English Lang (5); World History (5)</p>

<p>9 Fives = National AP Scholar!</p>

<p>GPA:
4.0 unweighted
4.86 weighted
Class Rank: 1 in a class of over 330</p>

<p>Misc.
I got the Maryland Princeton Book Award and the Maryland Distinguished Scholar Award, am a member of 3 Honors Societies, got 4 student of the month Awards, went to Harvard Model Congress for the past two years, took a Chinese course at a local college for 8 college credits, and went to the National Student Leadership Conference in Medicine and Healthcare at UC Berkeley.</p>

<p>Extracurricularzz:
* Founder and President of the Junior Statesmen of America; awarded National Chapter of the Month
* President of Student Advisory Committee
* Vice President of Future Business Leaders of America
* State Officer of Maryland FBLA
* Vice President of Best Buddies
* Vice President of Maryland Technology Honors Society
* President of Cure Club
* Officer on County-Wide Student Council
* Member of NHS
* Supporting role in school play
* I did a lot of community service things, such as volunteering at the Red Cross, the Special Olympics, the Maryland Food Bank, my county's general hospital, and other various things
* I did 2 research internships (1 on stem cells, 1 on transplantology)</p>

<p>My essay will be about me being gay, so it should be kind of meaningful</p>

<p>I'm getting a lot of really good recs:
1 from guidance counselor, of course, who really likes me
1 from another guidance counselor to whom I somehow grew closer than I did to my own gudiance counselor
1 from my biology teacher who LOVES me
1 from my mom, who was my teacher but who has a different last name than me so it won't be obvious that she's my mom
1 from my Calculus and Differential Equations teacher who is a genius from MIT (he was a part of the group that the movie 21 was based on)</p>

<p>^I'll probably end up sending in only a handful of these but these are my options</p>

<p>Can I get in??</p>

2

<p>It sounds like you have a chance, I don't really know I'm a Junior. Anyway though, there's some things I think I should let you know. You need to report the subject tests, they are a requirement, and anyhow a 710 isn't great but it probly won't hurt you much at all. Also, I wouldn't get a rec. from my mom if I were you. It doesn't matter what her name is, they will still know its your mom because her name will be on some form somewhere, and if you don't disclose who she is it will seem very disingenuous considering the obvious advantage it gives you.</p>

3

<p>No one can tell you if you'll get in, but here's some free advice: your mom should not be writing one of your letters (her name will be elsewhere on the application), you will not have the space to list all of these ECs--so pick the ones that really mean something to you, and Columbia has seen plenty of essays about being gay, so if you go with that topic, make sure it says something unique about you.</p>

4

<p>make sure you don't r1tee likezz dizzzzz on your essays.</p>

5

<p>"Part of the Movie 21 was based on" BS. lmao, and who gets a rec. from their mom? lol.</p>

6

<p>hey thanks everyone!
so here's what's up:
my mom wrote my two brothers' recommendation and it worked out just fine; for some reason we're considered independents as far as the child support is concerned, sooo she isn't reported elsewhere in the application</p>

<p>and it's true that about my math teacher! he broke Las Vegas and made literally millions of dollars. He also has four government patents, including one on a robotic arm to do open heart surgery
but he's a republican =(</p>

7

<p>There's a place on the application to list your mother's name unrelated to a financial aid application, so unless you're trying to look like a motherless child, her name would go there.</p>

8

<p>maybe he sprang full-grown from the head of his father, you know, like Athena.</p>

<p>Anyway,
(1) I find it hilarious that a gay guy applying to college who writes (online anyway) like a 13-year-old girl chose the user handle "Oprah!". This cracks me up. The exclamation point just slays me.</p>

<p>(2) Admission committees usually could not care less how impressive a recommender is, or their background. They care principally (and almost exclusively) about how much they can say about YOU, how well they know YOU, and so on. No admissions officer is going to sit there and think "oh wow, this teacher doesn't really know Clyde all that well, and is saying lots of pro-forma stuff about him, but damn if he isn't one rich and smart guy who took vegas for millions - i'll have to give this extra weight!". That doesn't happen. Pick people who know you the best and will want to take the most time to put as much work into the rec as possible. The message is king, the messenger is nearly irrelevant.</p>

<p>(3) ...except when it's your mom. that's just bad form, man. i've seen a lot of squirrely crap around here but you're the first one that's tried to pull that off. Why not just have your best friend write it for you? Why not just write one yourself with a fake name and submit it? Why not just forge a transcript like that Yale kid? Seriously, draw an ethical line somewhere, you're killing me here.</p>

9

<p>"and it's true that about my math teacher! he broke Las Vegas and made literally millions of dollars. He also has four government patents, including one on a robotic arm to do open heart surgery
but he's a republican =(" </p>

<p>Oprah!: I love you. Seriously. Marry me. I also love your math teacher. Can you introduce us?</p>

<p>"(3) ...except when it's your mom. that's just bad form, man. i've seen a lot of squirrely crap around here but you're the first one that's tried to pull that off. Why not just have your best friend write it for you? Why not just write one yourself with a fake name and submit it? Why not just forge a transcript like that Yale kid? Seriously, draw an ethical line somewhere, you're killing me here."</p>

<p>Yeahhhh don't get your mom to write the rec if it worked for your brothers, great, but in the best case it'll be massively hit or miss: I don't htink it's worth the risk. I like Denz's suggestion: get a best friend to write it. Or even someone on this forum!</p>

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<p>Oprah!~</p>

<p>(1) ily <3</p>

<p>(2) (If you're still planning to do it...) I agree with the posters above that you shouldn't get your mom to write the rec. I mean, you could get her to write it but acknowledge that she's your mom; that'd be fine. Just, trying to play it off like she's not your mom seems underhanded/dishonest. :\ Considering that you're amazing, I'm sure you have teachers who would write you glowing letters of rec and whom you wouldn't have to lie about.</p>

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<p>well you only need 2 techers' recs, so you'll still have enough w/o your mom's.... really bad idea</p>

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<p>for the chancing thing: also depends on how highly your school ranks among all high schools in US, whether you're doing Columbia College or Fu Foundation, and other things. So far so good though!</p>