Is Columbia ED the right choice?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi, I'm a junior now that is thinking about applying to Columbia early. What are my chances of getting in and is it the best choice out of these schools I am planning to apply to:</p>

<p>HYPSM, UPenn, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell, Brown, Duke, WUSTL, NYU, UNC, UVA, UChicago, NW, JHU, Vanderbilt, UMich, Rice, CMU, Tufts</p>

<p>Location: New Jersey. I attend the #1 public high school in NJ that sends about 30-40 kids to ivies/top schools each year.
Grade: Junior
Male
Race: Middle Eastern/Austrian</p>

<p>SAT 1: 2190 first time, retaking
ACT: will take
SAT 2: Bio 780, will take US, Chem, and Math II
GPA (Out of 4.0): Unweighted: 4.0 Weighted: 4.41
Rank: Top 5%, 1-3/350</p>

<p>AP:
Soph: Only 2 offered
AP Bio (5)
AP Euro (5)</p>

<p>Junior:
APUSH
AP French
APGOPO
AP Chem</p>

<p>Senior: Projected Schedule
AP Econ
AP Physics
AP Lang
AP Psych
AP Calc BC</p>

<p>Major Awards: Merck State Science Day- 2nd in the State in Biology, UPenn Book Award, New Jersey Science League and Chemistry Olympiad Participant, Bausch and Lomb Honorary Science Award</p>

<p>Extracurriculars: Model UN (Secretary), Debate, Soccer Varsity (JV Captain), Track, Panthera Club (Founder), Entrepreneurship Club (Founder), Model Think Tank (Founder), tutor biology and math, tutor innercity kids for the SATs</p>

<p>Volunteer: 100+ hours at hospital, 100+ hours at local doctor's office, tutoring</p>

<p>Summer: 20+ hours internship at doctor's office, Job, Trumpet</p>

<p>Feedback is kindly appreciated. Thank you!</p>

2

<p>If you can get your SAT to 2250, Columbia is worth a shot. With present scores I’d try Vandy or Tufts ED.</p>

3

<p>The difference between a 2190 and a 2250 is minimal… I have no idea why the above poster is recommending that you should bring it up to 2250 in order to apply to Columbia ED.</p>

<p>A 2190 is around top 98% whereas a 2250 is around top 99%. I highly doubt a 1% score difference will make or a break an applicant. Not only that a 2200 is 99%, so in all reality the difference is extremely marginal and likely not at all relevant.</p>

<p>To answer your question, yes you have a shot at Columbia ED. If you really want to go there, then there’s no reason you shouldn’t apply ED.</p>

4

<p>^ Completely correct regarding SAT scores.</p>

5

<p>Waverly used that mark because it is the 75%ile for Columbia. Columbia is more opaque than other Ivies in that it does not publish its common data set so the admissions criteria and weights are relatively unknown.</p>

6

<p>I say go for it. Just make sure you make it clear you are a fit for Columbia by doing the supplement! At one of the infosessions columbia claimed that ED admit rate was ~40%. I think you have pretty good chances</p>

<p>Oh yea, and make sure you absolutely want to go there. It’s the only real reason to apply early decision</p>

7

<p>Thanks for the advice! Yea ive always wanted to go there before any other college. Im hoping to raise my sat score the next time i take them. Besides sats, is there any other part of my resume i should improve?</p>

8

<p>bump bump bump</p>

9

<p>If you are asking, you probably do not have a clear first choice, in which case it is inappropriate to apply anywhere ED.</p>

<p>As far as admissions opacity at Columbia goes, is it a university where admissions selectivity varies based on division (College, SEAS, General Studies, Barnard), so gauging the selectivity by 75% percentiles of the entire university may be misleading if the student happens to apply to a popular division with higher selectivity?</p>

10

<p>i want to apply there early especially because of its science department and closeness to home. its just that i want to get in somewhere early and I wanted to know if my chances of getting into Columbia are decent enough to justify applying there early</p>

11

<p>Is Columbia your clear first choice? If not, ED is inappropriate.</p>

<p>Even so, you should consider having some true safeties in your list. Rutgers and Stony Brook may be candidates.</p>

12

<p>yea i didnt put any safeties on that list but i have some under consideration. and it is absolutely my first choice</p>

13

<p>If it is your absolute first choice, and you would not need to compare financial aid offers with those of other schools, then go ahead an apply ED if you have a reasonable chance (but a reasonable chance at a super-selective school is still low).</p>

<p>Your first post did not make that clear – you asked “is it the best choice …”.</p>

14

<p>NYU2013, look at the common data sets for schools at Columbia’s level of selectivity. Chances of being admitted go up a lot between sub 2200 and 2250 and continue to go up significantly beyond that. And keep in mind that 50% of the class is hooked and can have lower stats. An unhooked applicant wants to be at or over the 75th percentile for a decent shot.</p>

15

<p>Yes, but it’s around a 1% difference. If the applicant isn’t going to get in on a 2190, I very VERY highly doubt a 60 point score improvement would get them in. Scoring a 99% versus a 98% is not that large of a difference – I would think that the letters of recommendation, overall class record and essays matter more than a one percentile score difference.</p>

16

<p>A 60 point SAT difference may be a 1% difference in percentile rank nationally, but a much larger difference in percentile rank at a super-selective school.</p>

17

<p>so is my only problem right now sat/act? if there is anything else i can improve please let me know</p>

18

<p>Given your top class rank (1 to 3 in class at an Ivy feeder school, I would go for ED at Columbia. The ED application is not due until early November, which means you can take the SAT twice (in June and October) before the application deadline. A first time score of 2190 is quite good (a kid in DC area was written up in Post last fall for getting a 2400 and said on his first try he was just slightly over 2100). It is highly likely with super scoring that you will get another 50 to 100 points. If you do not, then you can reconsider your options, but for now I would plan to apply ED at Columbia.</p>

19

<p>Yea im hoping the second time around ill get the score i want. But as i asked earlier, if i was to raise my sat score would i have a legitimate chance at most of the schools listed?</p>

20

<p>ACT may be another way to try to raise the test score, since some students do better on the ACT than SAT.</p>

<p>Of course, subjective holistic factors like essays also get used and inject some unpredictability and opaqueness into the process.</p>