<p>@Stupefy, no it’s not a joke. If they don’t make threats like that, a lot of wavering people would back out and it’d ruin the whole ED process. The only way to back out is if the fin. aid isn’t enough.</p>
<p>Also, congrats to everyone who got accepted, good luck to those who got deferred, and to the people who got rejected - keep fighting, I promise it isn’t the end of the world yet. I’m surely going to get rejected by Yale on Tuesday, so I can mourn with you guys later. [Applying ED here =p]</p>
<p>[ size=+2][ color=green][ b]Decision: Accepted to Columbia College![ /b][ /color][ /size]</p>
<p>[ b]Objective:[ /b][ list]
[ *] SAT I (breakdown): M - 700, CR - 800, W - 780
[ *] ACT: 33
[ *] SAT II: Literature - 780, Spanish - 730, US History - 800, Biology E - 780
[ *] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.89
[ *] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 10%
[ *] AP (place score in parenthesis): Euro - 5, Biology - 5
[ /list][ b]Subjective:[ /b][ list]
[ *] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Theatre (6 major productions), Mock Trial, Peer Tutoring, Music Lessons
[ *] Volunteer/Community service: Internship at Atlanta Legal Aid society, Voter registration for Obama
[ *] Summer Activities: Columbia Summer Program in consitutional law, internship with image consulting firm, job at restaurant
[ *] Essays: Very good, personal statement about how I feel about the powerful connection between language and law
[ *] Teacher Recommendation: Didn’t read them, assume they were excellent
[ *] Counselor Rec: I imagine it was good
[ *] Additional Rec: Columbia summer program rec, rec from friend’s father who was Columbia law student
[ *] Interview: Great!
[ /list][ b]Other[ /b][ list]
[ *] Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
[ *] Intended Major: Linguistics/Art History
[ *] State (if domestic applicant): GA
[ *] School Type: Private
[ *] Ethnicity: White
[ *] Gender: M
[ *] Income Bracket: $120k or so
[ /list][ b]Reflection[ /b][ list]
[ *] Strengths: Test scores, essays
[ *] Weaknesses: Extracurriculars
[ *] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: My app was very focused on my intense interests in language and history, everything fit together to describe that
[ *] Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: University of Georgia, Tulane
[/list]</p>
<p>“Going to see if I can get across binding agreement and apply to Yale, Harvard, Princeton, UPenn, Brown, Sophie Davis, Dartmouth, Stanford, NYU, etc.”</p>
<p>You’ll likely be rejected everywhere by reneging; schools talk with each other.</p>
<p>“why columbia? read an accounting book by columbia professor. might not have believed it. a-holes”</p>
<p>With that attitude, it sounds like Columbia made the right decision.</p>
<p>Decision: Accepted to SEAS!</p>
<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): M - 800, CR - 730, W - 800
[</em>] ACT: None
[<em>] SAT II: Math 2 - 800, Physics - 800
[</em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 93%? (our school doesn’t use 4.0 gpa scale)
[<em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 20%
[</em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): Microecon(5), Macroecon(4), Physics B(5), Calc BC(5), Calc AB subscore(5), Psych(4), French(3), Art History(1… O.O)
[/ul]Subjective:[ list]
[<em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
[</em>] Volunteer/Community service:
[<em>] Summer Activities:
[</em>] Essays: Decent essay on a unique oral presentation in my english class (950 words… ._.)
[<em>] Teacher Recommendation: Fairly good i suppose…
[</em>] Counselor Rec: No clue
[<em>] Additional Rec:
[</em>] Interview: None
[/list]Other[ul]
[<em>] Applied for Financial Aid?: No
[</em>] Intended Major: Mechanical Engineering
[<em>] State (if domestic applicant):
[</em>] School Type: Private
[<em>] Ethnicity: Asian
[</em>] Gender: M
[<em>] Income Bracket: No idea…
[/ul]Reflection[list]
[</em>] Strengths: SATs, essay?
[<em>] Weaknesses: Extracurriculars, won’t bother writing them down… too few anyways…
[</em>] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Possibly my SAT scores? I also really wanted to go to Columbia and I think that showed in the application
[*] Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: None</p>
<p>Decision: Rejected</p>
<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): M - 760, CR - 740, W - 800 (2300, one sitting)
[</em>] ACT: N/A
[<em>] SAT II: Literature - 740, Math 2 - 780
[</em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): IDK. Waited is 4.33
[<em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): School doesn’t rank
[</em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Euro - 4, AP Bio - 4, AP Psych - 5, AP Physics - 5, AP Calc - 5, AP English Language - 5
[<em>] Senior Year Course Load: Advanced Honors Philosophy, Journalism, AP Studio Art, AP US History, Global Issues, Advanced Honors English, AP French Language, AP Comparative Gov
[</em>] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Semifinalist, AP Scholar with Distinction, President’s Volunteer Service Award: Bronze
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): GSA (President), Philosophy Club (Co-President), Newspaper (Associate Editor), Yoga (Teacher in Training, certified in May), Self Realization Fellowship, French Mini-Newspaper (Staff Writer), Work (Receptionist at yoga studio/assistant to the owner)
[</em>] Volunteer/Community service: Worked at orphanage in India sophomore year
[<em>] Summer Activities: Reading books, spiritual practice, art & writing
[</em>] Essays: Excellent, personal statement about what made me want to be a journalist
[<em>] Teacher Recommendation: Read one, it made me cry, assume the other was excellent as well
[</em>] Counselor Rec: Probably very good
[<em>] Additional Rec: N/A. Should’ve gotten one from work
[</em>] Interview: Seemed great. We talked about Freud a lot… in a good way.
[/ul]Other[ul]
[<em>] Applied for Financial Aid?: No
[</em>] Intended Major: Political Science
[<em>] State (if domestic applicant): CA
[</em>] School Type: Private
[<em>] Ethnicity: White
[</em>] Gender: F
[<em>] Income Bracket: fairly high?
[/ul]Reflection[ul]
[</em>] Strengths: Test scores, essay, recommendations
[<em>] Weaknesses: Extracirriculars? GPA?
[</em>] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Didn’t tie it all together?
Didn’t demonstrate fully why I want to do the things I want to do?
Sounded sort of bland in the Why Columbia/Most important extracirricular essays?
Could’ve made my extracirriculars sound better?
[*] Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Nowhere yet[/ul]</p>
<p>wow vossron wow. have some sympathy. im obv angry and need to get it out. and im just saying that they might not have believed what i said since ppl do lie and i can see why it might have seemed unbelieveable that i just HAPPENED to find an accounting book from a columbia prof. dont worry, ive learned alot from this application and im gonna apply it. ill see you in fall 2011 after i transfer in. im gonna work my butt of in my freshman year wherever i go.</p>
<p>Deferred to CC :(</p>
<p>Ethnicity: Asian Male
2350 Sat 800 Math II 770 Chemistry APCalcBC, Bio, Chem, US, World: all 5s. My school doesn’t rank and think the highest percent they reveal is 10% so I guess I’m top 10%.
Unweighted GPA: 96.
200+ Hours community service teaching tennis + neuroscience lab work</p>
<p>Possible Hooks: tennis and violin.</p>
<p>Hope they change their mind…</p>
<p>Decision: Accepted</p>
<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): didn’t take
[</em>] ACT: 35
[<em>] SAT II: Math 2 770, Physics 730, Literature 710
[</em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.9
[<em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 3%
[</em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): didn’t submit
[<em>] IB (place score in parenthesis):
[</em>] Senior Year Course Load: English Literature AP, Physics II AP, Modern Euro AP, Multivariable Calculus (College Level), French Literature (College Level)
[li] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Coco-Cola Scholarship Semifinalist, EWISP Scholarship, Lacrosse: All-Academic Amercican, All-State</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): 4-year varsity Lacrosse (Captain), 4-year choir member, 3-year show choir member, 3-year Acting company member, School Arts Board (President), Leads in 2-3 shows a year
[</em>] Job/Work Experience: Design intern and waitress in the summers
[<em>] Volunteer/Community service: (Founder and Director) of my own international non-profit Russian Soles, Inc. (<a href=“http://www.russiansoles.org%5B/url%5D”>www.russiansoles.org</a>), (Co-Chair) of student committee for school Habitat for Humanity project
[</em>] Summer Activities: working with my non-profit in Russia
[<em>] Essays: succeeded in the face of negativity and the challenges of starting an international non-profit
[</em>] Teacher Recommendation: english and french teacher - both AMAZING
[<em>] Counselor Rec: incredibly AMAZING
[</em>] Additional Rec: drama director - also AMAZING
[<em>] Interview: said the best he has seen in 25 years
[/ul]Other[ul]
[</em>] Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
[<em>] Intended Major: Russian and Linguistics or Physics
[</em>] State (if domestic applicant): Texas
[<em>] Country (if international applicant): USA
[</em>] School Type: Private
[<em>] Ethnicity: White
[</em>] Gender: Female
[<em>] Income Bracket: high
[</em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): lived in Russia for 8 years, speak three languages fluently, preferred walk-on for lacrosse, run my own non-profit
[<em>] Other: i have a published research paper about the Cold War, and i am teaching a three-week course in computational linguistics
[/ul]Reflection[ul]
[</em>] Strengths: ECs and community service and recs
[<em>] Weaknesses: …test scores?
[</em>] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Community service, international experience, transcipt, recommendations, athletics, REALLY strong essay (750 words) and “Why Columbia?”, sent a resume and a performing arts resume
[li] Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: didn’t apply anywhere else[/li][/ul]General Comments:
i am ecstatic to be going to Columbia! i cannot think of a better place for all of us! Congratulations Class of 2014! To all of those who didn’t get in, hang in there - something wonderful will happen for you as well!</p>
<p>^so impressive. really.</p>
<p>Hi guys, I’m currently a freshman in SEAS and would like to congratulate all of those who were accepted. I also would like to wish good luck to those who were deferred. I would like to say something to those who were rejected though. I know you are all very upset right now and probably couldn’t imagine this happening a few days ago and don’t know what to do next. From looking at some of the people that were rejected here I would just like to say that you are all great students and were great candidates for Columbia University. However it is a very competitive school and not every qualified person can be admitted unfortunately. In the next months do some soul searching and find other schools that fit your wants and needs, there are plenty of other great schools that would love to have you. I’m sure you’ll all be successful where ever you guys go.</p>
<p>Congratulations Sky, hope you can continue that program in New York! What did you write your Cold War paper on?</p>
<p>Decision: Accepted SEAS</p>
<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): Never Taken
[</em>] ACT: 33, 34 superscored
[<em>] SAT II: 790 Math IIc, 790 Chem
[</em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.83 (3.6 Freshman, 3.95 combined past two years)
[<em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 48/507 (hehe just eeked in that top 10%)
[</em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): Calc BC (5)
[<em>] IB (place score in parenthesis): Chem (6), Spanish (5)
[</em>] Senior Year Course Load: Full IB and extra certificate class, AP Stats
[<em>] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Select Soccer Team, Boy Scouts (SPL/Eagle), NHS (Senior Class Rep), Key Club (Community Service Committee Chair), Deca Business Club (started/ran student business), Environmental Club (founding member and Senator though didn’t have room to put in), Math Team, Competitive Sailing Team
[<em>] Job/Work Experience:
[</em>] Volunteer/Community service: Boy Scouts, Key Club, Freshman Student Tutor, Soccer Team Coach/Trainer and Camp Counselor, Boys and Girls Club Volunteer
[<em>] Summer Activities: Mu Alpha Theta National Math Competition, Financial Mathematics class at Mathfest taught by industry’s pioneers
[</em>] Essays: Talking about my passion for investing and math and how they combined into financial math
[<em>] Teacher Recommendation: One decent from math teacher, didn’t read other (assumed to be good)
[</em>] Counselor Rec: Good, helped explain GPA
[<em>] Additional Rec:
[</em>] Interview: Short (he came late and it only lasted about 35 mins), but got across all my passions. Seemed to somewhat connect with interviewer (a fellow asian IBer) but wasn’t really prepared for “What you would bring to Columbia”
[/ul]Other[ul]
[<em>] Applied for Financial Aid?: Very happy
[</em>] Intended Major: Financial Engineer
[<em>] State (if domestic applicant): WA
[</em>] Country (if international applicant):
[<em>] School Type: Public ~2000 students
[</em>] Ethnicity: Asian
[<em>] Gender: M
[</em>] Income Bracket: >100K
[<em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Middle Class ORM whose Parents both went to college…
[/ul]Reflection[ul]
[</em>] Strengths: EC’s, Unique Passion from Financial Math (met/talked with Columbia department head), demonstrated interest
[<em>] Weaknesses: GPA, Finished App with -1 minute to go (only to find out I technically had another 14 minutes) resulting in a completely bare “What did you do two summers ago” and a very rushed “Why Engineering” (as well as a very noticeable typo), Essay very technical
[</em>] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Conveyed unique passion by tying into as many aspects of the application as possible.<br>
[/ul]General Comments:
Congrats to NWDivisionChamps, who is also from my school. </p>
<p>Also, I strongly advise that future applicants try to build a relationship with their regional director as strongly as possible (for any school, not just Columbia). They will be the one reading your application first and then advocating for your acceptance in front of a committee (AFAIK this is the policy for almost all tier 1 schools). Try to meet them when they come for a regional event and be sure to demonstrate your interest (email them with questions about the school etc)</p>
<p>@ winjitsu: how did you contact your regional director? Or email him/her? I’m trying to find it on the coulmbia website…nowhere any emails are listed.</p>
<p>Decision: Accepted (SEAS)</p>
<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): 690 CR, 740 M, 670 W (2100)
[</em>] SAT II: 780 Math II, 700 Chem, 800 US His, 730 M-Bio
[<em>] Unweighted GPA: ~97.8
[</em>] Rank: 2/~197
[<em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): Chem (4), Lang&Comp (5), USH (5)
[</em>] Senior Year Course Load: 4 AP’s + 5 electives
[<em>] Major Awards: AP Scholar, Maine ARML Team, Honors Band, Southern Maine Athletic Association All-Academic XC Team
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[</em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Math Team (Captain, Science Bowl (Captain), University of Southern Maine Chemistry Club, Executive Board, Newspaper (graphics editor/layout), Key Club (President), Peer-to-Peer Tutoring (Student Director), Concert Band (Principal Clarinet), Musical Pit Band Orchestra, Lead in the Musical (“Footloose”, different year), Photography Club (Treasurer), Nordic Ski Team (Captain, 3 years), Sailing Team (Skipper), Soccer Team, Cross Country.
[<em>] Job/Work Experience: Summer job as sales associate at West Marine, Refereed Soccer Games during school year.
[</em>] Volunteer/Community service: 70 hours at the soup kitchen, 100 hours tutoring, 60 hours EQME/No on 1 Campaign 
, 10 hours coaching assistant to middle school Nordic ski team, 10 hours additional volunteering
[<em>] Essays: On Nordic skiing, related skiing to different sciences … I’d love to ask them what they thought of it
[</em>] Teacher Recommendations: Both privately told me they were some of the best they had written. Both also had a great record: Harvard, MIT, Princeton …
[<em>] Counselor Rec: she seemed pretty excited to write it
[</em>] Interview: Extremely relaxed, very favorable impression
[/ul]Other[ul]
[<em>] Applied for Financial Aid?: yeah, 32k of it
[</em>] Intended Major: Undecided engineer (interested in biomedical or chemical)
[<em>] State: MAINE!
[</em>] School Type: Impoverished public school, large Somalian population
[<em>] Ethnicity: European
[</em>] Gender: Male
[<em>] Income Bracket: 100-120k
[</em>] Hooks: My range of interests, being from Maine, altruism
[/ul]Reflection[ul]
[<em>] Strengths: GPA, extra-curriculars, volunteering<br>
[</em>] Weaknesses: SAT reasoning (or lack thereof)
[li] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Fortunately, I feel like I was a perfect “fit” for Columbia. I took notes on what they hinted were things they look for in applicants, and I based my application on that (without making it too obvious).[/li][/ul]General Comments: I was extremely surprised to see “Congratulations”. All last week I was counting myself out. Apparently SATs really aren’t everything. My advice to RD/future applicants is, make yourself unique! (or at least appear).</p>
<p>i guess i should do this.</p>
<p>Decision: Deferred CC</p>
<p>Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): NOPE
SAT II: 790 Math 2, 760 Lit, 760 US history
ACT: 31 (yikes)
Unweighted GPA: dunno…4.9ish (our school is based on a 5.0 scale)
Weighted GPA: 5.5
Rank: 6/483
AP (place score in parenthesis): US History (5), Lang (5), Microeconomics (4), Macroeconomics (4), World History (4)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Psych, AP Calc BC, AP Bio (double period), AP Lit…graduating early to spend a semester abroad teaching English
Major Awards: The Nation’s Writing Contest Winner, published in a late November edition, Published in TeenINK twice and voted Readers’ Choice for 2008, Semi-Finalist in New Millennium Writings Fall 2008 Contest for Poetry (an adult competition), 3rd in State for Illinois Economics Challenge, AP Scholar with Distinction?</p>
<p>Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
-Class Board (President)
-National Honor Society (Vice President)
-Literary Magazine (Prose Editor)
-School Newspaper (Guest Columnist, didn’t have room for the class in my schedule so I do it self-study)
-Interact
-Extensive creative writing portfolio, including a self-published poetry chapbook
-DJ/beat-making
-piano 15+ years, certified by Illinois Music Teachers’ Association, some awards bla bla</p>
<p>Job/Work Experience: Babysitting</p>
<p>Volunteer/Community service: Volunteer after-school tutor at elementary school, Volunteer work with Open Books LTD. in Chicago promoting literacy
Essays: Excellent
Teacher Recommendations: Should’ve been good
Counselor Rec: Should’ve been lengthy and striaghtforward, though I can’t speak for the quality of the writing
Interview: Good, it was on my birthday and he told me I was a good fit
Other: Concurrently taking a Creative Writing class at my local community college, have highest grade in the class
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: English
State: IL
School Type: Average public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: less than 60,000
Hooks: first generation</p>
<p>Reflection
Strengths: I framed my application to show an obsession with writing
Weaknesses: scores, mediocre GPA, mediocre everything
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I’m just unique enough for them to wanna hold on to me (I think my essays kept me in the running, plus little quirky things like my semester abroad and my unique family circumstances), but my scores and everything else are so mediocre they were like whatever.
General Comments: I’m grateful that I’m still in the running, and I’ll get in come April if it is the last thing I do! I literally don’t wanna go anywhere else. If anyone has any tips, I’d appreciate it.</p>
<p>I’d advise you to retake the ACT and bring up your grade or take the SAT. Even if you screw up the math, high critical reading and writing scores would go a long way toward strengthening your application and further convey the impression that you’re a writer.</p>
<p>thanks pwoods, i signed up to take the jan sat the minute i found i was deferred. do you think theyll get upset with me if i just keep sending them more and more stuff as i’m very tempted to do hahahahah.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/admissions/sites/admissions/files/webfm/counselor_newsletter.pdf[/url]”>http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/admissions/sites/admissions/files/webfm/counselor_newsletter.pdf</a></p>
<p>To find your regional admissions director.</p>
<p>@iris
Don’t send them anything yet. Hold off until you get your January scores back, then send them a letter detailing your new scores and any other accomplishments since November. Don’t send them a new letter every week!</p>