HS junior, slightly low grades / chance me Columbia / Ivy equivalent / Cambridge [WY resident, 3.81, 1490, enviromental science, political science, biological anthropology, pre-law]

Chance Me / Match Me!
,
1

background

white male, us citizen.
wyoming
public university, will also be enrolled in local undergraduate courses at public university
direct legacy brown (parent for undergraduate) indirect for columbia (parent for graduate)

intended major
environmental science
political science
(I think I wanna do conservation law, my ecs fit well with it)
for Cambridge I’m applying for biological anthropology in the archaeology department with a similar career aim

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
3.81 (this is low due to extremely poor grades freshman year combined with some pass fail grades due to mental health issues during covid, sophomore and junior year I will have had 3.92s respectively) unw 4.27?? on 5.0 weighted will have to see how this semester calculates out
we don’t do class rank
SAT 1490 first attempt retaking over the summer

course rigor 11 APs, two dual enrollment, one or two undecided undergraduate courses at local university
(scored)
AP World (5)
(pending)
APUSH
AP Environmental Science
AP Psych
AP Spanish Lang
AP Stats
AP Calc BC
AP Physics
AP Micro
AP Gov
AP Lit

I’m not sure which awards I’m going to list so I’ll include what I have in my EC section

  1. Debate: Freshman year on
    first in the history of my state to qualify for the TOC in any debate event (PF)
    team captain 3 years
    all state freshman year
    national qualifier pf junior year
    highest ranked in public forum in my state
    excellence in debate award from my school awarded to one student each year on the team sophomore year (my partner won it this year)
    judged middle school debates and provided written feedback on how to improve

  2. Competitive chess sophomore year on
    uscf 1565 as of now (it will go up I swear)
    state championship qualifier by being in the top 2 in the state grand prix out of like 100+ people who competed
    (very potentially founder of the chess team at my school hasnt happened yet.

  3. Founder of the Sunrise movement at my school Junior year on
    its like environmental activism and trying to get the green new deal for schools into legislature at the district level as well as fighting for eco friendly reforms in the schools, involves organising meetings, getting petition signatories, working with district education heads to discuss reforms, fundraising, etc.

  4. Research intern for environmental science at Columbia (summer junior year)

  5. Varsity tennis freshman on

  6. founder president model un junior on

  7. senior class vp

  8. Rotary club 4 years
    freshman member, sophomore, member, junior year secretary, senior year (tbd)

  9. Key club member junior on
    11 member 12 communications coordinater

  10. Part time jobs year round since summer of sophomore year host, sushi prep, sushi chef, (tbd)

I think that’s it there might be more, + whatever I do senior year.

Essay (tbd) it will be at least a 7/10 tho cuz I write pretty well

LoR 1 (8.5/10) this teacher (apes, and bio) and I have a close personal relationship and I really appreciate him. he believes in me and has wrote me a really good letter of rec before; only caveat is that he is aware of my organizational shortcomings and has been on me to fix them for years

LoR 2 (tbd) I have some teachers who I’m pretty close with and who I think would write me pretty good letters

TLDR how do my stats stack up, should I even bother applying to top colleges, where can I reasonably expect to go, and do any admissions officers have advice on how to present my application?

Thanks!!!

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idk if its important to note but do I identify as bisexual as well for demographics

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So you’re going to be a transfer applicant?

Doesn’t make a difference to your college apps.

What’s your budget? How much can your family comfortably afford to pay each year?

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sorry public high schooler taking college classes

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OP: What is “conservation law” ?

Do you mean “environmental law” ?

Wyoming residency will help for geographical diversity.

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As with other high school students, you would benefit from researching a broad range of colleges. Based on your majors of interest, these sites may be helpful:

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I wouldn’t worry about the SAT.

Your GPA will hurt. Wyoming will help.

There is a wide variety of Ivys. So not all are the same in size, environment etc.

Columbia doesn’t appear to discern between grad and undergrad for legacy.

These are reaches. What are your targets and safeties.

If you’ve struggled with mental health issues, hopefully those are under control but you’ll want to ensure you don’t overdo it stress wise - ie a hardcore school.

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What other colleges are you considering beside the Ivies, and Cambridge…

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By all means apply to some elite colleges and give those applications your all. But these universities typically have single digit acceptance rates so you need to develop a well-rounded application list. It is easy to rattle off the big name colleges you’d like to apply to - but please spend the time and energy to find match and safety schools that you would be excited to attend. There are so many great colleges out there!

FWIW Being bisexual is a non-factor in terms of admissions.

@tsbna44 I believe Columbia College (the undergraduate school) and the engineering school are all that count as legacy. The OP should research this further.

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Ok. What their webpage says (faqs page 1) so I thought it broad. But OP can ask and this is not a reason to apply (vs wanting to go which is):

We are always pleased to receive applications from students whose family members have graduated from Columbia. When an applicant is extremely competitive and compares favorably with other similarly talented candidates, being the child of a Columbia University graduate (from any Columbia University school or college) may be a slight advantage in the admission process. This advantage may especially apply for “legacy” candidates, who are the children of Columbia College or Columbia Engineering graduates.

https://undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu/faqview

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Yes…that is what I saw the last time i looked. Columbia College is the undergraduate school of Columbia University and that and the engineering school get the biggest legacy boost. Of course the university is happy to get applications from other alumni kids as well. It seems that the OP should not expect a big legacy boost if a parent went to grad school at Columbia. Again, the OP can research further but the legacy at Brown may be more helpful.

13

If the UK is under consideration, how about Canada? The Canadian U’s do not consider freshman grades, which would be a big advantage for you. U of Toronto, UBC, McGill… all top-tier schools where your stats, excluding 9th grade, would position you well.

US schools that exclude 9th grade from the GPA include the U of California system (but super expensive OOS), Emory, and (I have heard but not verified) CMU.

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thank you for the response; I do not by any means expect to get into any of the schools which I have listed prior, and the majority of the schools I’m looking at fall closer to the target range. I made this post more so curious as to how my application would stack up against other students applying to these colleges, and where I could reasonably expect to get in outside of my top schools for example.

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yes certainly to canada, I plan on applying to mcgill at the very least this fall! In terms of the UCs, I plan on applying to several as well

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UCL, UVA (amsterdam), McGill, Cal Poly, BC, UMiami, GW, St. Johns, Wesleyan, New School, NYU, berkeley, ucla, irvine, ucsd, georgetown, rice, vassar, university of copenhagen, ut austin, UW, and then some wue schools.

obviously a variety of different levels of competitiveness and I still am not sure which of these I’m actually applying to, but some of those are my more realistic prospects

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This feels like a weak application for Cambridge, especially if the junior year APs are the first four or five pending ones. There’s no English Language AP, the SAT is too low (repeatedly taking it is a negative as you have to declare all scores) and the GPA doesn’t help. Maybe with all 5s this year and all predicted 5s next year you might have a chance, but unless you really want to go to the UK and are applying to more than just Cambridge I would question if it’s worth it. Also note that Oxford is more willing to admit Americans than Cambridge.

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A high school student taking college courses while in high school is normally considered a frosh applicant for applying to start college immediately after high school. It is students who take college courses after leaving high school who are likely to be considered transfer applicants.

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It said ‘any’ - that’s why I thought it was more broad, maybe including graduate.

Frankly they probably like it less pinpointed. Schools can use whatever they want in reality …to choose someone.

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Which ones - besides other WUE - are more realistic in your opinion ?

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Please note that the reply questioning whether or not the OP intends to apply as a transfer student was based on an inaccuracy in the original post. This has since been rectified.