So to put it short, it’s my dream to go to Columbia and I want the best chances I can to get in, so I decided I will most likely apply ED. But I have recently found out that one of my other classmates is also applying, and she has much better grades than I do, and she is also the class president. I sit somewhere around the top 15-10% of my class with a 4.7 gpa and she has a perfect 5.0 and is tied with like 10ish others for 1st place. I feel like I’m a more diverse applicant than her and I’m also a URM and she is not, but grade-wise she is clearly much better since my low freshmen year grades wrecked my GPA just getting into high school. So basically is it still worth it for me to apply ED even if I’m going to be competing with someone who clearly has a much better gpa is in the top of the class, or would it do me more harm than good?
Don’t base your choices on what someone else does. With an acceptance rate of about 6% Columbia is a reach for virtually anyone, you and your classmate included.
Agreed, don’t worry about classmate. Soph and Junior grades will be more important than Freshman, as adcoms like to see upward trend. Is Columbia your best ED shot? Do you have a second choice for ED2? Even if you don’t plan ED2, you need to have a full range of schools, from reaches like Columbia to matches to safeties. Schools affordable with your EFC.
I am not sure about Columbia, but I know most of the schools I have visited say that they look at each application individually- they do not compare all the applicants applying from one high school, for example.
Yes my school does send students to ivies and ivy level schools every year, but usually only one per school. Last year we had two girls get into Harvard (neither chose to attend Harvard or any ivies), one for Yale, Columbia, Stanford, Berkeley, Duke, Johns Hopkins, UCLA, Rice and two for Georgetown and Cornell so my school is good in that regard since we are the best ranked school in our area, so sending students to schools like these is a yearly thing. And yes I am male, URM, and first generation to go to college and she is none of those (just for some extra info)
First question: Are you rich enough or poor enough to afford Columbia?
If not, then don’t bother.
Next, have you spent as much time thinking about your Match/Safety schools as you have about Columbia?
Because like others say, Columbia only has a 6% acceptance rate…so have a plan B if you don’t get in.
Have all your applications ready at the decision date.
You won’t regret applying…but have other colleges in mind as well.