Pity parties are never much fun.
I totally understand your frustration. I personally happen to oppose affirmative action, and for that matter, I am quite grateful it is banned by constitutional amendment in my state (MI <-- and this amendment was held up in SCOTUS). But with that said, a hook and ECs can be very important in the college admissions process. Don’t be down, as many state universities are good schools (I know that my public state school is in the top 20 of all universities in the nation). Keep Working hard!
When I was in college, my pre-law advisor promised me a rec to Columbia Law School. It was his alma mater and the school usually took the one candidate he recommended each year. Then, the Bakke decision came out. Right at app submitting time, the prof told me that he was giving his recommendation to a minority female. She had lower grades, lower LSAT’s, etc. I applied anyway and was rejected. At the time, I was distraught. I didn’t go to graduation and I never spoke with the advisor again, even though he reached out to me a couple of times the first few years after I graduated. I went to another school that offered me a free ride. In my second year, I met my H and the rest is history.
My point is not that affirmative action stinks, it is that you will gain perspective about this rejection as time goes on and you make a life for yourself at another school. I only really ever think about Columbia when I see posts like yours.
Good luck to you.
Ugh that stinks. The good news is that clearly you are very smart and will do well anywhere you go. Also it is much easier to transfer to into a school than to apply as a senior in high school so keep that in mind if you still really want to go to Columbia.
Again, I am objecting to the assumption that it was specifically race / affirmative action that was why the OPs friend was accepted. We simply do not know that, and it is insulting to the student. A quarter of the admitted class at Columbia has SAT scores in that range: is the assumption that they are all minority students? I know - first hand - that simply isn’t true.
OP (and techmom99) your rejection was a decision about your applications, not the lower stats people who got places. It stings- doubly so for @techmom99 b/c the prof broke a promise- but it was entirely possible for Columbia to take both the OP and his friend, or techmom and the “minority female”. There was a whole cake, not just the one slice.
Oh please. His ECs are interesting, cohesive, and show a student who engaged with the wider world. And we are supposed to buy the idea that race was the defining factor? YOU chose your ECs. He chose his. Columbia found him a more interesting addition to the freshman class. Make the best of it. Bruni’s book should be required reading for you right now.
@collegemom3717
A 3.4 GPA and an 1810 (or equivalent to 1,290 new SAT) and you don’t think his race was a factor in his admission? Really? The 25th percentile is around 2,100 at Columbia and the average GPA is over a 4.0.
Let’s be realistic here. His EC’s are great, but the fact that he and the GC didn’t think he had a chance and his GPA and SAT score are extremely low for Columbia should provide ample circumstantial evidence of the AO’s decision.
Assuming the facts are correct. It is what it is.
According to College Data (ie, what Columbia reports, not student reported) the 25% is 1800 for Columbia, not 2100, and they do not report GPA averages or ranges. The average GPA is most unlikely to be “over” a 4.0- there are too many schools that do weighted GPAs, so a GPA is not possible. As for the student & GC not thinking he had a chance, I have had the same experience with GCs and my own collegekids- and they were wrong also.
Ample circumstantial evidence = assumptions & interpretation. The student could have many other elements that are not in evidence, such as extenuating circumstances or abilities not mentioned / known to the OP. Whatever combination of factors, the AOs decided that the student was a good addition to the class.
Making it about race is in effect putting somebody else down to make yourself feel better. Imo, not something you should do to anybody, much less somebody you call a “friend”,
First of all, all your endeavours in high school will result in something good. Studying is not only about getting into Ivies, it has way more profound effects than that. Try not to feel discouraged because you feel like you have wasted your time, they will pay off in the university.
Then I guess you have to think about whether you are discouraged because you didn’t get admitted by Columbia, or is it because your friend got in? Is Columbia your dream school or something really important to you? If it is, then get good grades in university, which I am sure you will, then get transferred. But if it’s simply because your friend got in, don’t be that ignorant to let your emotion blind you and lose a friend. Yes, you have good results, but he also has something that’s worthy of appreciation.
I guess what I’m trying to say is don’t just focus on the fact that your friend got in and u didn’t. Realise you still have plenty of opportunities to achieve whatever it is that you want to achieve.
The OP has not responded, and has a brand new CC account with a post count of 1. I would guess this is not a serious thread.
2 things:
1). If your only other choice is a crappy state U, then that was bad planning. With your stats you had many other choices that would have given you a “noncrappy” education and financial/merit if you needed that. I presume your choice of words was hyperbole, bc you seem like a fairly bright kid who would have understood the reality of the top 30 app pool.
2). Folks, let’s be real on both sides. Both are engaging in hyperbole. To say race was not a factor is ridiculous. To say race is the reason the friend got in is ridiculous. And by the way, OP did NOT say this is why the friend got in. I read the post and saw that aside as, “but he had a hook”. And yes, that hook is a factor. If that same kid was a white, wealthy suburban male, well, he’d need a hook too. Maybe a football player or senator’s son? The hook gets you a second look. Sadly, perfect scores get you barely a glance.
You’ll be fine. I was a bright kid who had no idea I could go to any top school for free. I did go to a regional state U bc it was free. I am now very successful. Grades and ECs fall away. The person you are and your experiences are what are important.
If you don’t want to go to crappy U, we can help you find a better school, even at this late date. If it is just venting, then give yourself a week of depression, and then stop and get on with it. No one cares about success. It teaches you nothing g and shows the world little about you. How you handle failure is another matter tho. What you learn from it is the key to life.
In my family, failure is not an option. Failing simply means one of 2 things: you are not finished yet, or the thing you’ve “tried” was not realistically achievable (i.e., Ivy or being an NBA or rock star, etc).
I do wish parents would stop pretending an applicant working for a Congressman or senator has engaged in some extraordinary EC. He hasn’t. Those high school internships are arranged by parents and given to either politically connected or wealthy donors. Always. I’m not criticising; I actually arranged one for my own child. And I had one myself as a student. And i worked in a congressional office giving them. But I don’t pretend it is anything more than a sign of parental privilege.
There are two things being discussed. It’s my belief that having a hook puts you into a smaller pool for selection. That makes it easier for certain things to stand out within that pool. To say the individuals URM status had no affect is probably naive. Had he not been a URM I predict that his ECs would not have been enough to sway Columbia to accept him. He simply would have been lost among the thousands of other applicants with excellent ECs. On the other hand his getting selected had zero bearing on the OP not being selected. Columbia is awash in great applications. Even if the OP had been a URM they likely have a number of high performing URMs. What is done is done. It won’t be changed. We can be happy for the individual who was accepted and hope he will be successful at Columbia. We can wish the OP the best and hope he lives up to what he has currently accomplished.
A “senator’s office in our state,” “an internship the summer after junior year in the senator’s office in D.C.” and “worked on a campaign” are no small potatoes. I’d be curious to know if this one wants a poli sci major or something similar. Many kids expressing an interest like that never get off their duffs, not even in the past election season, full of opportunities. It would help even a “a white, wealthy suburban male.”
Quite different than the old, “I founded a club!” or some of the other things that impress in the high school but don’t stand out to Ivy adcoms. Eg, “My Passions!”
I don’t get putting down the kid who did get in. But frankly, nor suggesting it was some hard luck tale, “extenuating circumstances,” seemingly, just because OP said this one is Black.
And so what if the GC was off? That lends no credence. He or she may be a usual, poorly informed type who thought it would all be about stats. Lol.
No surprise, there are many problems with the attitude of the OP and some of the replies in this thread. But I just wanted to comment on one thing. Some people think of “being black” as just another single aspect of someone’s application, just one little checkbox. The thing is, it almost always impacts their entire life up to this point – affecting their grades, their test scores, and most likely other things, like what ECs and how many they are involved in. Saying something like “my GPA and test scores were much better, but he’s black” reveals very simplistic and invidious reasoning. Yeah, race can be overused or misused in evaluating college applications, but in general I don’t see anything wrong with colleges using it in a holistic fashion.
Okay, now that you’ve expressed your feelings, maybe you can stop being angry at your friend. It’s great that he has a nice opportunity and it is not his fault that Columbia rejected you. Move on with your life. Learn to love the school to which you will be going. You can choose your attitude!
I will tell you a story that may be reassuring to you. My early action choice had been Princeton. My friend’s had been Brown. We both were deferred, then rejected. But she got into, and went to, Princeton. I went to Williams. By one week on Williams’ campus, I was so happy and never really thought about any other school.
Later that year, I visited my friend at Princeton. The school buildings were as pretty as ever from the outside. But as I experienced her life on campus, I kept comparing it to Williams in my mind and thinking Williams did this or that better. The key moment came when I was sitting on a toilet in the very large and very dirty bathroom… which she had had to type into a keypad to enter, a few floors down from her room, and where she did not even know all the girls who were using it… and looking down at a used sanitary napkin someone had thrown onto the floor in my stall. I thought about the clean bathroom at Williams I shared with only six other people, and how the seven of us had made it nice, buying a new shower curtain, a drying rack for our clothes, etc. Somehow, at that moment, the difference in bathrooms symbolized for me all the things I valued about the community feeling at my college. And I realized I was glad I was at Williams and not at Princeton.
Someday, may you be so happy at your school that you would never trade that experience for one at Columbia.
Remember, your attitude will shape your experience, too.
I question the authenticity of this post.
I suspect Fake News
Doesn’t matter anyway, OP hasn’t been back since they posted. Just shouting into the void at this point.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Closing thread. There seems nothing left to say, and since the OP has not returned, I’m calling this a hit-and-run posting