Please Chance me for Columbia, UChicago and Carnegie Mellon!!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

I may not go too much into detail for some of these because of privacy! I know its very long, but please bear with me :slight_smile:

Objective:

ACT (breakdown): 34 Superscore, 33 composite
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.62 out of 4 unweighted, 5.33 out of 6 weighted gpa (I know, abysmal - but I was hoping my ECs were focused enough in business/music to make up for that)

Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 20%
AP (place score in parentheses): APUSH (5), Chem (4), Spanish (4), language (4), Human geo (4), World History (4)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc AB, ap literature, ap gov/econ, health/speech, varsity choir, PE, ap physics 1
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): DECA international finalist

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses):
-Marketing Officer of my school’s DECA chapter
-Finalist of a very prestigious international Indian singing competition, which was aired across the world and is watched very widely by millions in India
-Co-founder of an organization in which those of us who competed in the Indian competition go around the nation to give benefit concerts and we have raised over 20000$ so far

  • Professional singer in a professional charity fundraising album with 10 Indian classical songs. I raised $6000+ for charity through this
    -Alto Section Leader of my school’s Choir: Varsity-Mixed Choir, we are set to perform at Carnegie Hall Spring 2018,1st chair at Area level, state music scholar, highest scores at state UIL
    -Secretary of the academy at my school (the academy is an application-based program that enriches selected students to become aware of global issues and lead the future)
    -Student at ___ Music Academy- I’ve been learning Indian singing here for over 6 years and have won many awards in local and internationally televised Indian singing competitions
    -Youth coordinator of __ org - this org is a volunteering service organization that is active across the globe. I volunteered for over 200 hours with this org and qualified to receive the gold pvsa award
    -member of the Mu Alpha Theta (math NHS)
    -member of Spanish NHS

Job/Work Experience:
(I sent these in an update of my senior year):
-I recently helped restart an IT consulting company called ___ and received a paid
internship. I run payrolls, take phone calls and do marketing work such as designing and
running their website ___ and creating flyers and business cards.

  • I recently started leading a major nationwide ___ community service project called _. The project is currently still in progress. I am working with professionals to lead a team and design a website, database, survey and other marketing tools to connect over 150 people, who donated to sponsor visually challenged children, to the children who are receiving
    these donations. (for more information on the sponsorship program go to     )

Volunteer/Community Service: 250+ hours, received the gold PVSA (president’s volunteer service award)
Summer Activities: in 9th grade summer I did the prestigious indian singing competition, in 10th grade summer i did the indian classical album, in 11th grade summer I took an AP econ course

Essays:
Commonapp: 9/10- wrote about what music meant to me personally and it was very unique
Columbia supplements: 9/10 (I talked about how exactly I wanted to use my singing talent by talking to professors and making fusion music and I also talked about my deepening interest in economics)
UChicago supplements: 9/10 (my UChicago diy topic one was SUPER unique, my why UChicago was also very apt)
Carnegie supplements: 8/10

Teacher Recommendations: idk
Counselor Rec: idk
Additional Rec: -
Interview: -
Other: I submitted a song from my Indian album to UChicago and Columbia as my music supplement

State (if domestic applicant):TX
Country (if international applicant):-
School Type: Public, competitive
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: F
Income Bracket: ~130k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): none

I think my ECs are really good, but I applied for an economics major. I feel like I would’ve had a much higher chance as a music major applicant, but I did say I wanted to do a music minor in ethnomusicology because of my exposure to western and Indian music styles and possibly create fusion music to perform and whatnot. I also demonstrated interest in the economics/business field with my senior update by showing I’m doing more to further in it. Do you think I have a considerable chance?

2

I would say CMU is most likely if you applied to their Dietrich College. As you know, CMU colleges have the final say on admits. So, at CMU, SCS (and certain specialties in Fine Arts which is really a conservatory) is most competitive and Dietrich (still very difficult to get in) is the least. Also, as you know, UChicago applicants all apply to the “College”, so no advantage or disadvantage results from the declared major. I believe Columbia applicants apply to engineering or the school of arts and sciences (or something like that). Don’t know what the advantages / disadvantages are there. But I think it’s about the same – among the most competitive in the Country.

Bottom line, you have a chance at all three, but it is best at Dietrich (CMU) in my opinion. And UChicago really looks to essays and recs for evidence of “fit” with the UChicago academic culture, so if you can make a strong impression in these areas, your chances could improve there.

Best of luck to you.

3

thank you! My dream school is Columbia though. I think my essays showed a good fit for Columbia; I talked about how I will be working with specific professors and such in the music and economics/business field to create an impact but I don’t know. I guess it all really comes down to luck. fingers crossed haha :slight_smile: