<p>hey - I'm a columbia engineering student, and me and my friends are thinking about starting a new group where columbia students chat online with high school students about how to get into top schools. </p>
<p>Would something like this be helpful to high school students? Or can this not be done online? Or should we leave it up to the college counselor pros to tell students how to get in? </p>
<p>Just reply to the post - or you can email me at jek2141 at columbia.edu</p>
<p>Thanks for all of your help guys! Best of luck!</p>
<p>hey jeff - that kind of sounds like what collegeconfidential is.</p>
<p>i also think that unless you actually know how applications are read and what matters, you are no less of an expert than the thousands of folks that make stuff up on here or are ‘so-called’ independent counselors.</p>
<p>yea, that’s true. I guess I was thinking it would be a little bit more 1-on-1 help than this. like reading essays of students, helping them figure out what activities to pursue, answering specific SAT questions, etc. Would that be helpful? Or does this site already do that?</p>
<p>would you be interested in doing it for free? i’d say it would work well - i just think you need to put a warning that you guys are not experts. but a lot of students on here want someone to read their stuff and give them advice. if you could make a website that is free, easy to share information built into the system, i think it would be very desirable. college confidential sort of lives off the discussion board format which necessarily means it is not good at 1 to 1 counseling, and can be pretty anti-productive in some ways. this is not to say there is not a sharing of information/knowledge through private messaging, but private messaging is slightly cumbersome, and the anonymity of the system is less than inviting. so another site that is just geared toward 1 to 1 work would be welcome.</p>
<p>if you were charging for your services i’d personally have a problem with it.</p>
<p>yea - it would be free. We have to build a site for one of our programming classes, and thought this could help some hs students. Its not due until the end of the semester, and our prof told us to try to talk some students about it first.</p>
<p>also, if anyone has admissions questions in the meantime, I’m happy to help - just let me knwo.</p>
<p>Hey jeff, columbia engineering? wow
well…
can we start with
what’s ur stats?
or maybe share your essay with us so we can see how good of an essay we need for columbia to like us? </p>
<p>sure, i got a 770 in the math section, and 720 in the CR, and 740 in writing. I took it 2X.</p>
<p>I personally think the math is the easiest to improve on - as the questions get essentially repeated test to test. You just have to learn that type of question, and then the test just plugs in different numbers. Just make sure if you don’t know how to do a math question, you work at it til you totally understand it - bc you’ll see it again. </p>
<p>I’m honestly pretty embarrassed about my essay, and don’t know if I have it on hand (I’m a junior). But I wrote about a governor’s school class - its a pre-college program in pennsylvania - and how the teacher challenged me. </p>
<p>Also the last general advice I have - and I’m surprised no one does this - is to CALL the ADMISSIONS OFFICE with your question. I did this for Duke and Northwestern, and they answered basically all of my questions. Now I’m doing it for Columbia Law School, and they answered my question too (whether they care if I drop a class). Yea, they probably won’t tell you your chances of getting in - but they will tell you their thoughts on different decisions you are thinking about making.</p>