<p>Yeah, I know it’s going to be a crazy miracle if I got into Columbia. I wasn’t thinking about attending a school near D.C., but it’s actually not a bad idea. NYU has pretty crap financial aid, so I’m thinking no to that now. I’m not doing a medical career, so I don’t have to worry about graduate school just now. Maybe later down the road, but my main goal for college is to get into a good one that won’t bog me down in debt when I graduate. I’m pretty sure that’s most everyone’s goals, though. :)</p>
<p>Well GW and American are very expensive as well, but you may end up able to get merit aid there, if your scores end up high enough.</p>
<p>You should definitely aim to finish with a GPA higher than 3.5 no matter what, though. Many schools that award automatic scholarships have 3.5 GPAs as a benchmark.</p>
<p>This is how it works in my opinion</p>
<p>College Essays>SAT/SAT 2 scores>GPA (a decent gpa around a 90+ average)> EC’s> Recc’s</p>
<p>If I pull my GPA up next year (and I really feel like I’m going to force myself), I should be okay. As dumb as I may sound here, I’ve actually been praised on my essays, creative and non-creative alike. If essays are as important as you believe they are, I may actually have a wee little chance. Like a tiny sliver of hope.</p>
<p>I doubt it.</p>
<p>What did you get on your SAT?</p>
<p>What about teacher recommendations? do teachers like you?</p>
<p>What about your ECs?</p>
<p>You’ve already messed up your GPA pretty bad. And one college essay wont make the college completely change their minds. It might help you though.</p>
<p>Sophomore speaking. No SAT’s yet, and I was hoping to start hitting those EC’s hard in the next two years. I really couldn’t do too much these past two years because of lack of transportation. I will be receiving my license in September, so I’ll be able to do all the EC’s that I’ve been planning on (volunteering is a big one for me).</p>
<p>My teachers are all very fond of me now, and I just have a history of getting along pretty well with my instructors, even the ones I despise.</p>
<p>I am a minority, but more and more Hispanics are becoming prevalent in colleges, so I’m not sure how much that will help.</p>
<p>Oh, I didn’t realize you’re a sophomore. I’m taking the SAT this June (so that I can see how much I need to improve by next June so that I can later apply EA). I think the best thing for you to do right now is improve your math grade ASAP. You still have finals. Then, junior year, which is the most important year of high school, you take several advanced courses (AP, IB, Honors, etc) and do good in them (94+). You should also start joining several clubs. Or, in fact, create your own club on something you’re passionate about (I bet that would look better), but at the same time join other clubs. You should also think about joining some sport (maybe it turn out you’re REALLY good at soccer and you could become an athletic recruit or something). Think about taking the SAT sometime during Fall. Now, how much FA would you need when you apply. Cause if you don’t need any, you should think about applying ED, so you can show them that you REALLY want to go to that school. And if you do need FA, try applying EA instead 
Now, the Cs you got this year are going to affect your GPA pretty badly, but you still have a month and all of junior year to become a PERFECT student. And I mean PERFECT. You should aim at an average higher than 95%. Show Columbia that you CAN improve. Colleges always like to see improvement (well, usually, when someone’s GPA drops, they ask why, so you better have a damn good excuse – like your grandma died, or you were in an accident where both of your legs where paralyzed, ect). And, being hispanic may no longer help you that much. I mean, 25 years ago there were probably only 2 hispanics at Columbia, but now the entire Columbia population is made up of 7% hispanics. And as for your essays, I sure hope you’re a good writer. You better make them SOB when they read your essay, or laugh their a**es off depending on what you write about.</p>
<p>Anyways, GOOD LUCK :)</p>
<p>I think the essay’s are the most important. A good essay can push your app. all the way through.</p>
<p>I got flat out rejected from most of my top choices as a freshman applicant.
I applied to Dartmouth and Columbia as a transfer; I was waitlisted and accepted. The only thing I changed is my essay. I maintained everything else.
And if it adds to my theory, my acceptance letter had a personal note from the admissions director complimenting my essay :)</p>
<p>Just my $.02</p>
<p>Well, maybe your essay just really sucked the first time around, and they couldn’t really accept you with a sucky essay… :)</p>
<p>Haha, true. I mean they weren’t outstanding, but they were good.
I guess I’ll never know.</p>
<p>Ok, this might offend some people, but others who are willing to accept reality with me will agree that you have a better shot than a lot of ppl do at getting into Columbia. Fact of the matter is, you’re Hispanic. It’s a huge advantage in the college application process. I would bet the $50k a year that Georgetown is giving me that if I checked the Hispanic box on my college applications and had a spanish name, I would’ve gotten into every college I applied to. My app was very competitive but with the acceptance rates for top colleges as they are, I didn’t get in. (Probably because I had no stellar EC’s.) I am not just saying this because I am bitter or anything, but you can go through the decision threads for all of the top 25 schools and you will see that a URM got in with stats and scores that none of the non-URMs got in with. </p>
<p>With that being said, I do not want to discredit your intelligence or your motivation. You’re a rising junior in HS and you’re already preparing for the college application process (something that I didn’t even give a thought to till my senior year). You’ve done pretty well on your PSAT’s and people usually tend to do better on the actual thing. As long as your prepare for it, you should get a good SAT score. Also, you are doing pretty well in your classes, even if the math grades are bad. You have two years to bring up your GPA, so don’t fret. Just work hard to improve and maintain your grades like you said you would. And of course, participate in some extracurriculars that really interests you. Don’t just do a whole bunch of community service for no reason. Do it if helping others is something you like to do. </p>
<p>And of course, when it comes time to apply to Columbia (and other colleges) write a good essay, it doesn’t have to be great. If you do most of these things, I would be SHOCKED to see you rejected in two years from now. I think these people will agree with me that being a URM with even moderately competitive stats is a great advantage. GOOD LUCK :D</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say being URM is a HUGE advantage in the college admissions process…only a slight one. Yes URMs got in with scores that non-URMs did not get in with but there are also non-URMs who got in with lower scores than other non-URMs who were rejected. There are non-URMs who got 2400 and other superb scores who were rejected to ivies over less academically stellar non-URMSs who were accepted. The college app process is NOT just about scores…your ECs, recs, essays do make a big difference. I don’t think that if you were hispanic you would have necessarily gotten into every college you applied to.(This is just an example, but im URM and i didnt get into Yale with 2280 superscore(780 M, 740 CR, 760 W) and four subject tests(790 770 740 660) and a 4.0 GPA, I believe my essays and recs were decent. I by no means think that my stats are extremely superb, especially when compared to the stats of others on this blog. In any case by my calculations, a given year at columbia has like 30% URM ([Admission</a> Statistics | Columbia University Office of Undergraduate Admissions](<a href=“http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/admissions/applications/stats.php]Admission”>http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/admissions/applications/stats.php)), (and CU is basically the most diverse ivy)so that means the other 70% are non-URM…i am of the opinion that most of the 30% are deserving, and were not taken over a non-URM…just because they are URM. I will concede that being URM does give you a slight advantage. But hey being a recruited athlete or writing an out of this world essay do too(I dont think the advantage is as much for URM though…and yes these are things that you work for vs being born a URM…but seriously some people are just naturally good at sports or writing pulitzer deserving essays…not anybodys fault that they have this natural advantage over us average beings). Also if you are coming from one of the top represented states at a particular university, i think you are likely to face much more competition than say a state where much less people apply. Hence your stats may be higher than someone from one of those states.
Well anyways i’ve rambled on for quite a bit. Im wasn’t offended by your post at all, i just felt like making my point, though im not sure its that coherent or convincing! :)</p>
<p>I think I have to agree with lizzy, or at least disagree with madhukar92. Obviously, if the average standardized test score for your ethnicity is lower than the average for another ethnicity, then you’re going to benefit, since standardized test scores are evaluated in the context of the applicant’s ethnic and family background. But it’s a logical leap to go from “Hispanics have some advantage in the admissions process compared to whites” to “if I checked the “Hispanic” box and had a Spanish name, I would have gotten into all the schools I was denied from.” Even if you’re not bitter, you certainly sound like it, since you’re making completely unfounded defensive generalizations.</p>
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<p>hahahaha</p>
<p>Sorry. But anyways, just work hard and apply. You’re only a sophomore, so there’s plenty of time for you to either redeem your two C’s or **** it up worse. All you can do is your best and then roll the dice–there’s nothing to lose if you’re rejected.</p>
<p>Okay, maybe being a URM isn’t a HUGE advantage. Sorry if I said it like that. But you have to admit that it does impact one’s chances significantly.
Lizzy you do make good sense, and I agree with you haha. And I’m glad I didn’t offend you </p>
<p>pwoods, why in the world would I be bitter if I’m going to Georgetown 
, which was arguably my top choice when I was applying? You need to relax. I was just letting OP know my opinion, and what I’ve gathered from my personal experience. Two of my friends are half-Hispanic, not even full, and they got into UChicago and UPenn (where I was waitlisted and rejected respectively) and they both have scores much less than mine. I know admissions aren’t solely based on scores, but they didn’t have stellar EC’s either. And I believe my essays was better or on par with theirs because I entered my commonapp essay into the state essay writing contest and won 5th place. And my waitlist letter from UChicago came with a personal note from the adcom telling me that my essays were “innovative” and one of them was “one of the best” she read this year. You could argue that I still wouldn’t know how well my friends wrote their essays since I didn’t read them, but I do know that one of them wrote all her essays for her 10 college apps consecutively on Dec 31st and Jan 1st, without sleeping. Her essays could not have been THAT great. Also, I saw on the Columbia decisions thread that many (but admittedly not all) URM applicants with applications less competitive than mine were accepted, whereas I was rejected. Once again, you can argue that I can’t know how good their essays were through their post in the decisions thread, but like I said, my essay was pretty damn good (my Columbia essay was my commonapp essay). So, therefore pwoods, I have come to the conclusion that if I were Hispanic, I would’ve gotten into those schools that I was rejected from. It is obviously not a fact and it can never be proven, and it is only a CONCLUSION that I have arrived at through LOGICAL reasoning. It also does not even matter. Hopefully, you can see where I am coming from, instead of being a condescending arse.</p>