I am currently a junior at Brooklyn Technical High school and I will be applying for early admission at NYU. Right Now I have an overall transcript gpa of 95.15. I got 2050 on the SAT. Furthermore, I have taken rigorous courses that were offered at my school(AP world, Trig Honors, AP USH, AP CS, AP Physics 1 more to come next year). I am doing two computer science courses this year Web Development and AP Principles of Computer Science. I also have skills in DNA Isolation, Pipetting, Gel Electrophoresis, Working with centrifuges, PCR with various primers, DNA sequencing, Programming with HTML, CSS, JS, SNAP!, and Python. Using my Biology skills I competed in the Urban Barcode project however didn’t win it. Moreover, I did an internship my summer before junior year at Stevens Institute of Technology on Computer science relating. The summer before my senior year I will also be interning at LIU school for Pharmacy with a Professor doing work on Molecular Biology and Structural work. I was also on the wrestling team for about a year and I quit recently. I also am part of the National Honor Society In my school for about a year now. So with what I have right now what are my chances of getting Into Columbia Early Decision? Compared to your application and how you guys got in what are my chances?
To be honest, no one can really tell whether or not you’ll get in. But you’re certainly more qualified than I am and I got a likely letter, so I mean, you can definitely get in. At this point it’s just a matter of having good essays and really being able to show off your passions and talents on the application. It’s also largely a matter of luck really.
Also, I’m not sure what you mean by applying for early admission at NYU. Both schools are early decision which means you can only apply to one early (unless you’re applying to NYU ED2 in case you get deferred/ rejected from Columbia. That would be fine).
I got into Columbia regular decision, but I hope this still helps. I would say I had a greater breadth of activities (arts, academic competitions, programs abroad, research), but I don’t think that’s necessarily what helped me get into Columbia. Based on my communication with Columbia after getting a likely letter, I realized they were most interested in the activity I was most committed to, which was ballet. I think this is good news for you, since your activities seem to have more depth than breadth. I think your commitment to biology and computer science will really help you, especially if you play it up in your essays. Is it possible you could take your summer internship to the next level and publish your own research? That would stand out to Columbia. Could you design an app (maybe one related to biology, to really tie it all together)? That would help too.
One thing you need to do for sure is bring up your SAT or try the ACT. This is just conjecture, so take it with a grain of salt, but I think you need at least 2250 on the SAT or 34 on the ACT to have a really solid chance at Columbia without a hook. (If it matters to you I broke 2300.) As for your subject tests, take the ones you’ll do best at. For some, breaking 700 is solid, but for others, like Math II, so many kids get 800s that you need to score higher for it to look good. (For me, I barely broke 700 in French but got in the high 700s in U.S. history.) If it’s at all possible, you should take subject tests related to what you’re interested in (like one of the Biology subject tests, for example).
I know how frustrated I was to hear this last year and at the beginning of this year, but there is absolutely no way to predict whether you’ll get into a certain school. Keep your heart open to other options and good luck!!! Hope to see you at Columbia in 2 years.
thanks a lot for the advice I will definitely take the SAT again to increase my score and I have a plan to take Math level 2 and physics soon.
Yah I would apply to either Columbia ED or NYU ED it depends on what I get on my next SAT.
I got into Columbia 2020 RD. I had many more extracurriculars and leadership positions than you list. That being said, my ACT was only a 29. In the end, I would suggest staying true to the activities you’re passionate about and making sure that that passion comes through in your essays. Once you have the scores (which is more than I had!) and the ECs to be competitive, admission really is a crapshoot.