<p>Objective:• SAT I (breakdown):780 reading 780 writing 800 math
• ACT: 34
• SAT II: 800 biology 800 world history 790 chemistry
• Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.88
• Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): unranked
• AP (place score in parenthesis): 5 EHAP 5 WHAP 5 HGAP
• IB (place score in parenthesis):
• Senior Year Course Load: standard courses
• Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): science fair, did intel this year
Subjective:• Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
• Job/Work Experience: research
• Volunteer/Community service: hospital, church, … around 150-200 hrs
• Summer Activities: camp, travel
• Essays: ok
• Teacher Recommendation: ok
• Counselor Rec: meh
• Additional Rec: ok
• Interview:
Other• State (if domestic applicant): Florida
• Country (if international applicant):
• School Type: Independent/Private
• Ethnicity: Asian
• Gender: Male
• Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None
Reflection• Strengths: Idk
• Weaknesses: Idk
• Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: didn’t stand out that much, Asian male perhaps
• Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
General Comments: Good Luck!!</p>
<p>“2. Diversity provides concrete educational benefits. Imagine if you had gone through your whole high school surrounded by people only of your own race. Think of how limited your understanding of the world would be. Your only exposure to these groups would be in cases of community service or when stopping by the supermarket, solidifying trends of self-segregation, apathy to racial issues, and incapacity to interact with other cultures.”</p>
<p>I couldn’t agree more with this statement. Personally, I’d never want to attend a school filled with any one type of person and that includes ethnicity, religion, political persuasion, economic and geographical diversity, etc.</p>
<p>By living and working together, we will better understand and learn from each other. That is the only hope for the future of this country we share. Even just participating in this thread helped me see things from different perspectives - and that’s always a good thing.</p>
<p>Congratulations to all those accepted and for those who were not, you will be fine. It may seem like the end of the world now, but your talent and ambition will serve you well no matter where you end up. Good luck!</p>
<p>SpaceDuck, what assumptions did the researchers make that invalidates their findings? What are the other significant factors would provide a “fuller” picture? You are criticizing this study while offering no specific evidence as to why the study was flawed.</p>
<p>All they are concluding is that given similar grades, legacy status, and athletic recruitment status, Asians must score higher on the SAT than other racial groups for an equal odds of admission to a top college. The authors did not make any value judgments based on this finding, nor did they say that students from disadvantaged backgrounds do not deserve a “boost” in admissions- they just stated what they found.</p>
<p>Please don’t dismiss data because they run contrary to your worldview.</p>
<p>It is truly beautiful how passionate you guys are for your views. I must say this has been an interesting thread, and most of the points are valid. Generally, I agreed with HateSMUS/vivian, but near the end, Phil’s views became appealing as well. </p>
<p>Since I was rejected, of course I am a little sad, because I worked hard and spent time to get at this point. However, I realize that Columbia may just not be for me. I happen to believe in predestination, and even otherwise, maybe the admissions officers could tell I wouldn’t fit in at the school (contrary to the claim of some students that “everyone fits in” :P).</p>
<p>As an Asian (Pakistani) applicant, I do feel that I was compared to applicants of my race. I won’t bother posting my stats here because you can find my thread, but although they were low, I know that I did well for my situation. I dislike the assumption that the “Asian experience” is monolithic – my parents were involved in my academic and school related life very little. My mother gave me a good basis in education until second grade, but I was all on my own after that. I thank my mother and my father for giving me some sort of opportunity by coming to America (my mother and I immigrated here when I was 2 and my father had been here since the late '80s), but the reality is that my success is from my own hard work. </p>
<p>Okay, sorry guys. I know I’ve digressed much but I suppose I just wanted to vent a little and give my opinions. However, I am at ease with my rejection from Columbia. I can accept that it wasn’t to be. I also know that I don’t “deserve” anything. Good luck to everyone: in your personal goals as well as inner happiness, satisfaction, and peace. </p>
<p>to all those pple who are arguing that Affirmative Action doesn’t give URM’s any sort of advantage in admissions (@SPacechicken), let me just say that</p>
<p>if we had switched ethnicities (I be black, and you Asian), you would not have gotten in…</p>
<p>The comments I’ve read in the last few pages of this thread are so unbelievably hurtful. Wow. Regardless of where you stand on this argument, both Asians applicants and African Americans applicants are young people, so to demean accomplishments on both sides of the spectrum is pretty shameful, regardless of whatever point you are trying to prove (I’m an LD debater through and through so I myself love proving points.)</p>
<p>Best advice to my African American posters out there, rejected/waitlisted/accepted at any top school: work HARD to prove to everyone that you can handle the rigor, and take full advantage of every opportunity given. Make that school proud to have accepted you…GRADUATE!</p>
<p>Best advice to my Asian American or Caucasian posters rejected/waitlisted/accepted: KEEP working hard. The odds in the career world after college will be in your favor. (Quote me on it) Make the best of the opportunities anywhere you land. Don’t let Columbia or HYPSM dictate your success in life, because it lies solely in your hands.</p>
<p>So I’m still black, supposedly I’m supposed to benefit from AA, I had the test scores, grades, ECs, and passion for Columbia and I STILL got a rejection letter. The people on this thread incessantly trying to find something to blame rejection on need to realize that AA alone is not to blame. No one will ever know why they were rejected or why they were accepted, leave it at that. Don’t get catty and make ignorant comments that I only make YOU look stupid. I’d expect more out of people who, on paper have some semblance of intelligence, but on this thread, apparently do not. And the insinuations that my skin color has been some kind of setback are EXTREMELY annoying btw. Just let it go. It’s the environment that people are in that determines their success more than their skin color. I’d encourage all of you to read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell if you need something better to do with your time than have an obnoxious conversation about AA on CC.</p>
<p>Well said… I believe in predestination too maybe because I’m from Bangladesh. I was always told that when one door closes a better one will open soon after. There is no reason to be discouraged, I too got rejected. Just think about it this way: we have come a long way to be upset now and maybe Columbia just doesn’t deserve us.</p>
<p>@cllsnr – I too think it’s arrogant to blame rejection solely based on race, but I don’t think most people here implied that. I also agree that environment determines success far more than some arbitrarily chosen skin hue.</p>
<p>Objective: SAT I (breakdown): 2310 (Math: 800, CR: 740, Grammar: 770) (Superscore)
ACT: 35 (single sitting)
SAT II: Math II: 800, US History: 750
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.93 (4.74 weighted)
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 7 of about 750
AP (place score in parenthesis): Calculus AB(5), APUSH(4), AP Human Geography(4), AP Psychology(4), AP Euro (3)
IB (place score in parenthesis): Mathematics SL(6), Chemistry SL(5)
Senior Year Course Load: (Our school typically has periods 2,3,4. Periods 1 and 5 are before and after school).
1st Period: Student Government.
2nd Period: AP Statistics rotating with AP Environmental Science
3rd Period: IB English HL rotating with IB History HL
4th Period: IB Psychology HL rotating with IB Chinese
5th Period: IB Theory of Knowledge
Independent Study: IB Dance
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Commended Student, AP Scholar w/Distinction, American Legion Boy’s State Delegate for my School, HOBY Delegate for my school and for World Leadership Congress
Subjective: Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): ASB (our school calls it ASG or student government)(President). Golf Team (Captain for 2 years). Member of various clubs at our school. Biggest leadership is as President of my school of 3000 kids.G
Job/Work Experience: Intern for Julia Brownley Campaign for the 26th Congressional District of California. Freelance tutor in mathematics and chemistry for 20$ an hour. Have multiple clients
Volunteer/Community service: Organizer of “Bounty Bags” for Many Meals of Camarillo. We feed about 80-90 families a week by giving them grocery bags donated by local grocery stores. Volunteer Usher for local community arts plaza. Little League Golf Coach (coach of the year, but that’s irrelevant). A lot of volunteer service through HOBY (I became involved with Alex’s Lemonade Stand, Project Linus, multiple cancer research groups, etc)
Summer Activities: Summer Interning for Congressional Campaign, Golf teacher for junior students ages 7-12, volunteer for junior golf tournaments.
Essays: I believe my essays each went through about 12-15 drafts. My personal statement was about Alexander Hamilton(a historical figure that affected my life). I wrote about how he influenced my political views and leadership style. Short commonapp essay was on golf. The essay on the item from my list of interests was on an astrophysics lecture by Neil deGrasse Tyson that I watched via YouTube. Appeal to Columbia was really unique and personal and specific on individual parts of the school and curriculum and life in New York. The “Why Major” essay for me was about why I am interested in Political Science and Public Policy.
Teacher Recommendation: I think my teacher recs were what sold my application. I became close with a few of my teachers, and they wrote fantastic recs. They let me read a few of them and they were literally about how I changed their life.
Counselor Rec: Might have sealed the deal. My counselor is retiring this year after 40 years of counseling. She typically has 150 new students in her alphabet list every year. (with the math, she has counseled about 6,000 students in her life). She said in her letter of rec that I was in her top 5 students of all time.
Additional Rec: I had my ASG Advisor write me a supplemental letter of rec, and my golf coach (outside of high school) write a supplemental letter of rec as well. They each described my leadership style and whatnot.
Interview: None. I was really upset about this.
Other:
State (if domestic applicant): California
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Large public school of about 3,000 kids. But it’s a great school, especially because it has a full IB program.
Ethnicity: Caucasian (1/16th native american, but I couldn’t prove it, so on my application I am white).
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: n/a
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): No huge hooks.
Reflection
Strengths: Leadership at school and in community. Interest and involvement in politics and community service. LETTERS OF REC.
Weaknesses: I had no real hooks that I thought would make me “stand out”.
Why you think you were accepted: I was dynamic and had strengths in many areas. Well rounded.
Where else were you accepted: I never sent in any other applications. I was planning on sending them if I did not get in, but Columbia was THE school in my eyes.
General Comments: Hope this helps those who are waiting on the other ED and EA apps. Also hope this helps Columbia applicants for Class of 2018!</p>
<p>Stop blaming AA because you were denied from Columbia. During the ED round approx. 200 recruited athletes, 200 legacies, the other 200 slots are open. These slots are filled by white, asian, hispanic, and african american students. It is not hard to find super qualified minorities to fill the approximately 75 slots. Stop being bitter your anger is unattractive and misdirected.</p>
<p>I disagree @Philo. I refuse to believe that my brown skin implies something other than the roots of my heritage. Excuse me if I misinterpreted your comment, but judging from your previous statements on this thread, I think I understand what you’re trying to say</p>
<p>I struggle to see anything worth understanding. Regardless of race or background the optimist usually is the winner. If you know how to be knocked down and get back up success is always within your reach. Regurgitated ideology is great for academia but worthless for real life.</p>