Military "Brat"- Can I get into Columbia?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

Here’s a little history:
I was born in Germany and attended German public schools I lived in Germany until I was about eleven years old. My mom and Dad decided to move to the state’s. At the time I thought it would be the best thing ever. When I was in Grundschule (Elementary School) all my friends would ever talk about was Hollywood. At the time I thought all of the U.S. was Hollywood. lol.
Anyways, prior to moving to the U.S. I barley spoke any english (because both by Mom and Dad spoke German to me) just enough to get by. I moved to the U.S. and had to basically teach myself english, with a little help from my dad ( English wasn’t his first language either, but he tried helping me). I remember the first day at my Elementary school, we were supposed to introduce ourselves…I planned this ahead by using google translate and memorizing what I was going to say- GOOGLE TRANSLATE DID NOT HELP :)))))) Eventually I learned the language and began fitting in after 7th Grade.

First Language- German
Second Language- English
Third Language- Spanish (just a little bit)
Fourth Language- French (what I’m learning in school)
Fifth Language- Trying to teach myself Arabic from the Egyptian viewpoint

  1. Moved to the U.S. (Cali) 6th and 7th Grade
  2. Moved to North Carolina (8th and 9th Grade)
  3. Moved to South Korea (10th Grade)
  4. Moved to Ohio (11th Grade)
  5. Moving back to Germany (12th Grade- Military School)

Clubs:
BETA Club
Yearbook Club
DECA Club
Harvard Model Congress Club
FBLA
NHS
STILES Club- (A club where student’s teach a foreign language at elementary school)- Leader of the German Class
Student Council- Member, Secretary, Vice President
Track and Field Freshman Year
Volleyball and Softball- Sophomore Year
Key Club

LOVE PLAYING PIANO
Enjoy reading poetry
Writing in my journal
Volunteering

My classes:
Freshman Year: Honors Earth and Environmental Science, Honors Geometry, French II, Reg, English, Honors World History
Sophomore Year: AP World History, Honors English, Reg: Algebra II, Biology (The only honor’s that school offered was AP World and English)- French was not offered
Junior Year: Honors French III, AP Language and Comp., AP Biology, AP Government and Politics, AP Econ, IB Math SL
Senior Year: Courses will depend on the school

ACT Score : 31

Being a military child is definitely challenging, but I could not be more proud of by father serving for his country.

I tried challenging myself as much as I could. Is there a chance I’ll get into Columbia?

2

Sounds like you have had a fascinating life thus far and you certainly have every right to be proud of your father and his service to our country. You should be proud of your own achievements as well.

Columbia has an acceptance rate of a ridiculously low 6% which means the school has to turn down many highly qualified applicants. Your ACT is low for Columbia and you did not mention your GPA in the post. So from what I can see Columbia woudl be a longshot for you. Give it a shot by all means, but nobody can count on being accepted…

Here is a pretty recent class profile so you can decide for yourself where you stand.
https://undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu/classprofile/2019

3

Fellow military brat here. Bring up that ACT.

4

Regarding happy1’s comment: Columbia is a longshot for everyone. I think that your story is pretty interesting and if Columbia rejects you, I highly doubt it will be because of your ACT score (though if you want, you could take the ACT again) unless you performed abysmally in one specific section of the ACT. Assuming your grades are good, you have just as much of a chance as anyone so don’t sweat it.