help

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

<p>I might want to attend Columbia, and will apply RD next year. However, I have a complicated situation, and I hope the admissions officers will understand this. I have been living through child abuse for a decade, having a fatally ill father, and a mother suffering from a mental illness who has been through a pyschiatric ward twice, and maybe going on her third, plus having restrictions on the amount of time given for school work on the computer, so there have been many limitations for me throughout my life. I also want to stress in my essay that in my father's family, there have only been four college graduates in the entire family ever, including 3rd cousins ect, therefore going to college and becomming a college graduate is a very important thing for me. As these are very difficult circumstances to have to have put up with throughout my life, I hope that Columbia will understand this. Below, are some of my stats:</p>

<p>Gender: F</p>

<p>State: MA</p>

<p>Ethnicity: African American</p>

<p>GPA (unweighted)-3.4 </p>

<p>GPA (Weighted)- 4.17</p>

<p>SAT: Reading, 800
Math: 760
Writing: 800</p>

<p>Extra Curricular Activites: </p>

<p>9th, 10th, 11th, (and 12th for next year) member and violinst of the school orchestra
Copy editor of the school newspaper 10th grade
President and creator of my of high school STAND chapter (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur) 11th grade, and will continue till I graduate
Member of Tri-M Music Honor society- 11th grade, (and continue next year)</p>

<p>Interests in Volunteering: </p>

<p>One of the things that I am most passionate about is increasing the literacy rate for lower-income children across the nation. I am really passionate about volunteering, and am considering entering the Ameri-corps after college graduation for a year. I had tried to volunteer at non-profit organizations that were geared towards my interest in education and literacy, especially catering towards helping lower-income children in inner-cities. It is important for me to help these children, especially since I have a parent that grew up in a very low-income inner-city Boston neighborhood, and came out of the Boston public school system. I also still have family that live in poorer areas in inner-city boston, so it is close to my heart to help many of these disadvantaged children throughout the country.</p>

<p>Volunteer Work: (450 hours and counting)</p>

<p>Registration Coordinator for First Book, a non-profit organization based in D.C, which helps distribute free or reduced-priced books to lower income children across the nation. As a registration coordinator I had reached out to many different Title 1 schools, and after school programs that serve over 80% of low income children. To date, I have helped over 25 schools and after school programs including Washington D.C, New York City, and around the inner-city Boston area in Massachusetts, recieve free or reduced priced books. </p>

<p>Volunteer at an elementary school after-school program in my hometown, (11th grade and continue on in 12th grade)</p>

<p>Volunteer for Student Solutions, a non-profit organization based in North Carolina, which helps increase the literacy rate in children across America by providing literary and eduacational resources to schools in need. As a volunteer, I helped create databases of schools across the country that Student Solutions would reach out to to provide educational resources and materials to.</p>

<p>Volunteer for Nanubai, a non-profit organization based in India, which helps keep women and children in schools and India, and also helps increase the literacy rate among them. </p>

<p>Awards/Achievements:</p>

<p>Winner of First Book Registration Coordinator Challange</p>

<p>Presidents Volunteer Service Award- Gold</p>

<p>Congressional Award- Bronze Certificate</p>

<p>Congressional Award- Silver Certificate</p>

<p>Congressional Award- Gold Certificate </p>

<p>*The only problem is that I go to a really competitve high school where most people do well,( I have a class of about 360) I'm probably not going to be in the top ten percent of my class, bt maybe the top quarter, I'm not sure yet. Do you think I still might have a chance? </p>

<p>*I am also about to start my own non-profit organization called "Change for Changing Lives" that helps benefit low-income children in inner city schools and will raise money to help provide educational resources.</p>

<p>*Does it also help that my school is not diverse at all, and I'm one of the only African Americans at my school? Do colleges pay attention to that?</p>

2

<p>bump…10Char</p>

3

<p>You’ll be fine. Don’t worry.</p>

4

<p>thanks 10Char</p>

5

<p>Wow… Your stats look great, even without all that stuff. If I were you I would write your main essay on your experiences at home, try to find a day or situation that that gives an overall idea of your home life and maybe end with something like, through the years of all this I learned … (better language of course) and show how you’ve grown. Never make it “my life sucked.” regardless of how amazing you are, it will look bad if you write an essay asking for pity. If I were you I would explain the family-college situation in the supplement and leave it out of your essays. </p>

<p>I doubt Columbia will care about the diversity of your school, just Columbia’s. But being a minority will help. What do you plan to major in? Sometimes that helps, women in sciences for example. If you can, talk to your councilor and see if they would be willing to explain that your lower grades/rank are because of your home life. It will seem more credible than if you wrote it as a supplemental. Of course, if they won’t, defiantly include it in the supplement.</p>

<p>Did either of your parents go to college? Because if they didn’t you would be first generation…</p>

<p>Honestly, very few people can claim to have great chances, but I’d say your one of them…
Your a minority, possible first generation, abusive family, strong SAT, your unweighted gpa is not great, but your weighted might be taken into account.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

6

<p>@Traveler2be Thanks… I might plan on double majoring in sociology and perhaps doing the 5 year public policy program. After doing my volunteer work with First Book, I’ve noticed how much education reform in inner city schools matters to me, and I might want to do something with that in the future. Perhaps become a social entrepenuer and create a large scale non-profit. As for if my parents went to college, my mother went and graduated from Emerson, and my father went to college but did not graduate due to financial reasons (none of the boys in his entire family including cousins ever graduated from college). Only about 3 or four people in the family, all girls including extended family with 2nd and 3rd cousins ever graduated from college on his side.</p>

7

<p>bump 10char</p>