<p>Hello everyone. It's almost time for me to head into my senior year, but right now I'm wrestling with college - I need to figure out where I'm applying and how (ED vs. RD). Columbia is in my top 2 along with UPenn, so I was hoping if you could help me with where I stand with Columbia and a couple of other schools (I asked this on Penn's board a little while back). Here's my stats.</p>
<p>State: IL
Sex: Male
Ethnicity: Black/African-American
Intended Study: History & Economics</p>
<p>ACT: 34
SAT II - US History: 790
SAT II - Literature: 670 (should retake?)
SAT II - Math L2: 660 (should retake?)</p>
<p>GPA (u): 3.78
GPA (w): 4.50
Class Rank: 10/1,026
High School Type: Competitive Public</p>
<p>Extra-Curriculars:
Youth & Government 10-12
(Chapter President, Illinois Secretary of State)
Face-to-Face Minority Mentors 11-12
(Junior Mentor, Senior Mentor)
Business Professionals of America 10-12
(Nationals - Advanced Accounting, State - variety of competition)
Student Council 9-12 (class representative)
Spanish Honors Society 11-12
Volunteering - Tutoring, Hessed House for transitional families, Nursing Home about 200 hours
Private Tutoring
Basketball Intramurals 10-12
Junior Statesmen of America Summer Program - Georgetown 2006</p>
<p>If you need anymore info from me just ask. Below I have a some selective schools. Another person did a small reply section where each person listed a response of in, maybe in, rejected for each school. If any of you could do the same that would be great. And for the schools that are a "no" or "maybe" tell me what I could do to improve my chances. Thanks for any help you give!</p>
<p>Here are the schools:
Columbia
Penn
Harvard
Stanford
Cornell
Northwestern
Georgetown
Emory
Rice
Vanderbilt</p>
<p>I'd definitely retake either the math or the lit, (maybe both since Harvard needs 3 sat IIs). your academics are quite strong. I think your weakness is your EC record. They're many of them, a reasonable range also, but I feel they lack achievement on paper. I'd try to get more recognition in some of them before you apply. as for chances here's my take:</p>
<p>columbia: decent chance, in the grey area, they like people like you (i.e. into minority mentoring, tutoring, volunteering and goverment related stuff), at the same time it'll be tough because econ and history are strong at columbia and attract top applicants.
penn: similar to above
harvard: less likely than Col and penn to admit, small chance i'd say
stanford: maybe
cornell: good chance
NW: good chance
georgetown: don't know too much, but i think you have a very good chance here, although not sure about that for econ/history.
emory rice and vandy: know very little about these schools, can't help you here.</p>
<p>I was planning to retake both subject tests in October after getting back into school. That would get me back into the swing of things and the Calculus will definitely help on the math. Regarding ECs, what do you mean by gaining more recognition? I see this so often on these types of threads, but it's not always clear what one should do for MORE recognition.</p>
<p>Note - At Georgetown I would be applying at the School of Foreign Service, if that helps with anyone's advice.</p>
<p>more recognition, is basically getting more awards in tournaments and state/national level competitions, showing that you have achieved excellence in those activities. another way to gain more recognition is to lead activities, manage projects, run large events. it is necessary to distinguish oneself as a leader or pioneer in something. Having a good set of activities and being involved is important, but it is also important to show that you are better than other people in them, or the best at something. sounds very cut throat and competitive, but that's college admissions, at many of these places you need admissions offices to realize why they should favor you over 9-10 other qualified applicants. As for your current EC record, it's good, perhaps the way you explained it doesn't do it justice. and i am not sure about a few things like is class representative the highest position achievable, is there like a class president, or higher positions. Or how big is business professionals of America, and did you partake in a national level advanced accounting competition or what does it take to be nationals etc.</p>
<p>Class representative is not the highest position available. We have class officers as well, but I lost both times I ran (at my school it's more a popularity contest - but this vary's by school). I am well respected by my peers though. My school gives out varsity letters and JV letters for programs like these for attendance and dedication and other things voted by our supervisors. I've received these every year. Youth & Government is sort of like a mock government, so positions are elected. I was voted Secretary of State by students in the program across the entire state after campaigning at the regional and state level. It is just like the real thing, with a lot of public speaking involved. I was a committee chair the same year, and won an award the previous year. BPA is all about business area comeptitions, so I have been a national competitor for Advanced Accounting and a State Competitor for various competitions every year. To qualify for Nationals, you must place at state, to qualify for state, you must place in regionals etc. There are leadership positions available, at the lower levels, but the national offices and stuff are already taken. Just some more background. </p>
<p>The problem is that you only have so much space to communicate this stuff on an application. What is the best way to make sure they see not only my activities but achievement as well. Should I just list everything?</p>
<p>attach a pithy resume to the app, don't fluff it, make it stats heavy, describe positions and clubs only where necessary and impacting. if you can't attach one on the app or email it to them, send it by physical mail, if that doesn't work call them up and ask them how you can send a supplementary document. if you have an interview take a resume along and give it to the interviewer. This is not a common practice i think, so maybe give it to him/her at the end and say it's only for their reference if they need.</p>
<p>in the resume basically include what the club does, dates of involvement, maybe number of hours per week if it a volunteer thing or where the time is an important factor in showing commitment, and level of achievement or leadership. in competitions: 2nd place<silver medalist<2nd/300 participants. add details that accentuate the activity. </p>
<p>"prepared X number of hours per week and placed 3rd out of Y people, with extensive public speaking, and campaigning across Z districts" > "excelled at youth & government, which highlighted my problem solving and rhetoric skills". My example may be completely not applicable to your activities, but hopefully you get my point of not seeming to BS it, and adding precise (hopefully eye-opening) detail instead. it's a tight rope - you need to demonstrate that you're awesome without saying it, or worse gloating about it - leaning towards objectivity is the best strategy. - good luck</p>