I lost all confidence :(

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I am an Asian male from Massachusetts near Boston, and I applied early decision to Columbia University. Was flat out rejected. Now I’m thinking I totally overestimated myself. Was also deferred from UChicago early action.
According to my school’s database, I have a higher GPA and SAT than anyone who has ever even applied to Columbia early decision - this rejection, while in hindsight shouldn’t be surprising, totally caught me off guard.

My dilemma: I was seriously debating doing Early Decision II to Swarthmore because I just want to get into a good college at this point and Swarthmore is a great school that has what I like. But my parents are telling me that I’m being too over-reactionary and that I should just apply regular to a bunch of top schools. But ED II does improve my chances at Swarthmore so idk… What would CC do?

Just so you know: I’m applying regular decision to - Dartmouth, Duke, Harvard, Georgetown (Business), Cornell, Northwestern, Williams, Amherst, Brown, University of Michigan (shooting for Ross pre-admit), UPenn CAS, Vandy, and some other matches that I won’t bother listing. Do you think I can get into at least one of these?

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2370 (800 CR, 800 Math, 770 Writing)
ACT (breakdown): Did not submit
SAT II: 800 Math II; 800 US History; 720 Chemistry
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): does not rank (but I believe I am in the running for valedictorian out of 300 students)
AP (place score in parenthesis): 5 APUSH, 5 Macroecon, 5 Stats, 4 Calc BC (5 Calc AB Subscore), 3 Computer Science A
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: All AP and one required course (foods); counselor indicated in rec that I took “most-rigorous” course load
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):

-top 10 in DECA (competitions about business) internationally in my series
-international test and role-play awards for DECA
-State-level Piano Audition Honors 6 Years in a row
-Piano Award for a private music club that is state-wide: 1st place (probably the best single award)
-International Piano Audition: 1st Place Award, 2nd place another year (not as great as it sounds but still pretty good)
-Performed in Lincoln Center and Carnegie as part of winner recitals

Minor Awards:
-National Honor Society
-AP Scholar With Distinction
-Yale Book Award
-Community Service Award for technology program (will explain later)

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
-Community Service (I created a program that has spread across my county; I give private lessons about basic technology and computers to underprivileged children; I run all operations and manage about 5 other tutors; won a community service award from school)
-JV Baseball (9,10) - however, this was not put in my application
-Volunteering Club (9, 10, 11, 12) - head of project
-Spanish Club (10 ,11, 12) President
-School Newspaper Business Staff (10, 11, 12) - Head of Business Staff
-Stock Market Club (10, 11, 12) - President
-DECA Business competitions(11, 12) - States finalist, States Test award, States 1st place overall, Internationals Test Award, Internationals Role-play Award, International Top 10

Volunteer/Community service: my technology program for underprivileged children (see above)

Summer Activities: Massachusetts Boys State delegate (a civics/government week-long program that you must be selected by the school for. Delegates elect gov officials and learn about how government works. I was elected/appointed to many positions, including one of the “Big Five” positions of the executive branch)

Essays (rating 1-10, details): I will try to remain objective

CommonApp - 10 (my college counselor said my essay was the best he’s read, and he has a great record of sending kids to ivies and other similar institutions; highly personal; he was very shocked I didn’t get deferred from Columbia)
Supplements: I am rushing them at this point, but Dartmouth, Duke, Amherst, Harvard & Vandy are all complete and I’m proud of them. I believe that they were better than Columbia’s

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): I waived my FERPA so i didn’t get a chance to read, but I can provide details

I think my recs from one teacher and my GC are very good, not so sure about the third rec from my second teacher.

Other
I included a separate essay in the Additional Info for Columbia…was I not supposed to do that?
I go to an urban public school that gets kids into good schools early round, and not so much so during the regular round. Idk if this makes a difference

Applied for Financial Aid?: No
Intended Major: Economics, Public Policy, or Sociology
State (if domestic applicant): Massachusetts
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Public, Urban
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: M
Income Bracket: don’t know
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): none

2

I think the problem is many overestimate the important of GPA and SAT scores and fail to recognize how competitive it is, especially as an asian applicant. I do believe you have a good chance at the schools you plan on applying to as you do have impressive ec’s and superb stats. It doesn’t hurt to apply (unless money is an issue)

3

The Ivies are a crap shoot for just about everyone, so you should not start questioning yourself when one school rejects you. You are a strong candidate at all the schools you list. I would listen to your parents and wait for the RD acceptances to roll in.

4

You have a robust CV, so the focus should sincerely be turned to your essays and short answers. I think you definitely should not have included a separate essay in the Additional Info section for Columbia. That section is meant for explaining any extraneous circumstances that could not be explained in any other section (e.g. you received a poor grade in one class due to family issues, your EC are spare because you work part-time to support your family, etc.), and including another essay in the section only serves to annoy admissions officers in reading another essay.

I would say is take a deep breath and think about what you want to do. Do you want to apply EDII to Swarthmore because it is the ideal college for you, or are you panicking to get into a school because of one rejection from Columbia? If it’s the former, go ahead and apply EDII; otherwise, I would consider applying regular decision to the colleges you want to consider. Personally, I’d go with the latter option and apply RD.

Remember that GPA, SAT, rank, and EC aren’t everything in your application, and as a result you should adjust your expectations accordingly. It’s hard to get into the Ivies, so don’t feel discouraged if you get a rejection.

5

Sorry to hear about that. Most of the schools you listed are fixated on race. And being a piano playing Asian with high numbers puts you into the admission fight at a big disadvantage (compared to others with the same stats). It’s like subtracting 100 or 200 points from your SAT score. That’s the enlightened society we live in today. (If you were a favored minority with your stats and ECs you’d get into all 8 Ivies, IMO, and be in the NY Times and other national news).

But you’ll get into several of the schools on your list RD, I think.

Congratulations on your accomplishments, and good luck!

6

Do you have an actual safety? I didn’t see one on the list. If you don’t know your income range, are your parents prepared to be full pay anyplace? If not, have you run the net price calculators for all your schools?

I agree that your resume is a fairly typical Asian male resume and you have the typical list of colleges as well – it is hard to stand out. I can’t really understand why your supplements have to be rushed – did you really think you had great odds of getting into Columbia or UChicago, given their low admission rates? My guess is you will get into a few of the schools on your list. But you need a true safety just in case – everyone does. I would stick with the RD round.

7

Oh, and don’t put a supplemental essay in additional info. That is not what it is for. They ask for the essays they want.

8

I agree with the idea of having a safety. Perhaps UMass Amherst?

Get rid of the essay in the additional info section. That might have annoyed the officers as that section is only used for explaining extenuating circumstances.

Did your counselor look at your supplements?

9

I find it hard to believe that a college would reject someone for putting extraneous material in the additional information section.

10

Sorry for asking a question branching off of this, but would writing a semi-essay (about 3 paragraphs) in my additional information regards to my extenuating circumstances be OK in this situation? And to OP, I honestly think that the additional info essay is what played a big factor into your rejection. Think about it, with your stats and ECs, you’d atleast have to be deferred, not rejected (unless your essays were bad, but yours is most likely the opposite).

11

@ayyyyyyy, you really have no idea what contributed to the OP’s rejection. Tons of highly qualified candidates get rejected from Columbia – I think it is ridiculous for anyone to be confident, except maybe a recruited athlete with the OP’s stats. And you should start your own thread about additional info.

OP, additional info is for things like extra awards and ECs you couldn’t fit on the lists, MOOCs (used to not be a space for those anywhere else, not sure if it has changed), maybe explanations like school changes or odd course sequencing at your HS. A student with extenuating circumstances that adversely affected grades would ideally get their GC to address it in their rec, but it impossible to use additional info for it (but it is hard to do without sounding like you are making excuses). Colleges don’t want supplemental essays in that space.

12

First of all, I think it’s fine to include another essay in the “additional info” section - I personally know of a few students who did this and were accepted into their ED schools, including my own kid. I wouldn’t make it another 650 word essay though, but rather something shorter that talks about something you were unable to cover anywhere else in the application, if there is something like that.

Secondly, I think you can get into Swat with your stats by applying RD. It is true that being Asian is a handicap, unfortunately, and an Asian who is into music and played at Carnegie Hall is the stereotype - so in order to crack that Ivy code, you may have to find some way to distinguish yourself further, perhaps de-emphasizing the music and focusing on something else. (If you wrote your essay about music, don’t do it.) Also, make sure you not only talk about why School X is right for you, but what you will bring to School X.

So my vote is for Swat RD (revisit the essays) and RD to some safeties as well, along with the other schools you mentioned. What are your match and safety schools right now?

13

I wrote about the volunteer program I created in the additional info section…it was titled "details about " because it was a program I made by myself, but it was kind of a story about how the program grew so I understand why that might tick some readers off; I’ll remove it. Note: I did include this program as an activity on my Common App EC list. I also already got into a safety school (business school too) and my counselor says I’ll most likely get into the honors program and might get a full ride; should’ve mentioned this. But my parents worked extra hard recently and we thankfully currently won’t have any financial barriers in our way (at the same time, I feel like all their hard work would be for naught if I don’t get into an institution I like, to add to my pressure). Also @intparent what is a MOOC? Merry Christmas to everyone by the way.

14

@8bagels @intparent @GossamerWings
I also think it’s important to point out that I didn’t write a single essay or anything about piano. I listed it as my 4th most important activity and sent in a supplement and had my list of awards in the additional info, but that was it. My common app is about a personal experience that I’d rather not talk about online, but all 3 of my supplements were economics related; I think this might’ve been a mistake, as I probably wasted spots to talk about other things about me.

15

Honestly, I feel as though many of the schools you applied to are extremely competitive, with tons of superb applicants, just like you. For some privates, your race could also play a factor. However, as you are applying to so many schools, I am 99% sure you will get into a few, as that is generally what luck permits. Try not to stress and please enjoy your holidays! :slight_smile:

16

I find it hard to believe that no one with a perfect SAT and 4.0 have ever applied EA to Columbia before. That does not sound right.

17

MOOC = Massive Open Online Course. My D2 took a couple, and when she filled out apps a couple of years ago there was no place to list them. They are generally not for high school or college credit.

18

Chill :slight_smile:

19

@nw2this I didn’t include my weighted GPA, which is one of the highest ever in my school’s history according to my school’s database. But yeah, most people from my school shoot for HYP with my stats, so I thought I’d take the “safer” route by doing Columbia (and the fact that I really liked the school and it was my first choice back then). Biiig mistake.

20

I’m quite surprised you weren’t at least deferred from Columbia. I’m sure you’ll get into a top 20 college; you’re quite competitive. Just apply to a bunch of top schools regular decision and I think things will work out well for you.