I have no chance at Columbia! Please tell me I have no shot

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello everyone, so as a current senior I am knee deep in the college application process and I have finally finalized my college list!
It stands at:
Boston college(high match)
Boston university(match)
Northeastern(reach)
NYU(reach)
Fordham(match)
university of San Diego(low match)
University of San Francisco(safety)
Chapman(low match)

I was originally going to apply to Columbia but I realized that my ACT scores are not even close to being in their range(30 Composite). I have a solid GPA and decent extra curriculars(check out my past thread for more details). But I am well aware that I have little to no shot of getting in. I am not wanting to waste 70 dollars on a school I will get rejected from and I should take that time focusing on schools I have a better shot of getting into (like Boston college it is my dream school). There are quite a bit of supplements for Columbia and I believe I should take the time and focus on other schools suplements.
However my mom is quite mad at me for taking Columbia off my list, she yelled at me saying I should still try and you never know. I replaced Columbia with USD because I wanted to add another match school on my list but she was not very happy, please tell me how I can talk to her. She will not listen to me when I say that I want to have a more solid college list with matches as opposed to reaches. So please help me! Tell me how low my chances are of getting into Columbia and how i shouldn’t even bother please!!

The main reason she’s mad is because I added another California school to my list, I live in CA but she hates it here so she wants me to be on the east coast. I do love the east coast and really love every school I am applying to but she absolutely hates that I’m looking at school in CA. It perfectly reasonable that I’m looking at school in my HOME state and also have a solid five colleges on the east coast to appease her.

2

If you label Northeastern as reach, Columbia is by far out of the question. But, if she’s paying for the app, I’d just go through the motions and submit whatever you can come up with AFTER finishing the rest of your apps just to make your mother happy.

3

@anxiousenior1 yes northeastern is a reach their ACT range is 30-33 so I’m in the bottom 25 percent.

4

I’d like to add that I’m taking the ACT in December so I need to focus on that as well.

5

Put the Columbia app on the backburner and just focus on everything else. It’s not worth working so hard on the app when the chances of getting in are slim, but it’s also not worth creating an argument by flat out removing it from your list.

6

Remember, it’s not just your stats that determine at the holistics. You have to know these schools well enough to both know they really are right for you/your interests and to identify the other factors adcoms will be looking at, what those schools value. Includes your ECs (and what they represent about you and your choices) and how you present yourself in the app and supps. As for Columbia, it’s nice to think of some wild card admission, but you have to look at the four year experience, whether you are prepared and can truly thrive.

And make sue you can afford the colleges, run NPCs.