Princeton SCEA vs Columbia ED Chance me Please?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi,
I’m an asian female in NJ, going to be a senior, and interested in a science major, possibly biochemistry or neuroscience. I’m pretty well rounded? I do okay in school and I’m involved in a lot of community service and etc. cultural activities. A few (4~5?) people get into Columbia from my school each year, Princeton not so much (if this matters at all). I know I’ll get good recs because I have pretty healthy relationships with my counselor and teachers (chem and ap lang for rec).
My resume isn’t that great to be honest… but I’ve decided to try my luck at least? and I’ve heard early action/decision gives a slightly better chance so I’ve narrowed it down to either Princeton or Columbia. I cannot decide between the two though so I’m turning to you guys for adviceee and do I have any chance of getting into either?
Also if I decide to apply early to either of these, can I also apply to U Chicago Early Action or no?

GPA
Weighted: 4.34
unweighted GPA: 3.9

SAT I
2290
Math: 740, Reading: 760, Writing: 790 (Essay 10)

SAT II
Math Level 2 (750), Chemistry (800), Biology E (720), US History (660) (I don’t know whether I should send the bio and us history if I don’t have to?)

APs:
World History (4), APUSH (4), AP Chem (4), AP Lang (5), will be taking AP Lit, AB Calc, and AP Bio senior year

Honors/Awards
(lacking here)
National Merit Commended
National Spanish Exam (Gold)
School Highest Honors (GPA wise) 9, 10, 11, 12
photography chosen to be displayed at local art exhibition?

Extracurriculars
In & out of School:
Habitat for Humanity (Founder and President 10, 11, 12), Anime Manga Club (9, 10 treasurer, 11 secretary, 12 president), Debate Team (JV 9, 10 Varsity 11, 12), Chemistry Olympics team (11, 12 secretary), Winter and spring track and field (10, 11, 12?), Marching band (Colorguard 11, 12), we don’t have any honors society things in our school :? [don’t know if activities you don’t do anymore count] Key Club (9, 10), basketball (9)
Shadowed doctors at local hospital to watch surgeries etc., does costumes designing count as an extracurricular?, will be attending a Samsung mobile app academy in august

Jobs/ etc.
paid tutoring elementary and middle school kids
Interned at a small company in the marketing department, simply because I have some random interest in business

Volunteerwork
-150+ hours at local hospital since sophomore year summer and school years
-at a home for adults with developmental disabilities since sophomore year, most Saturdays
-teacher’s assistant at Korean church daycare on Sundays since sophomore year

Household income
~$50,000 (applying for FA)

Languages
Korean, English, some Spanish

High school type
General Public School

High school difficulty
Known as a tough school in my district

High school rank
around 300 students in my class, in top 10% definitely

Application essay quality
I started working on this with advising from a Columbia student in July, I think it’s not that bad

Anyways, that’s it for now. the struggle is real.
Thank you for any advice you can give me!

2

Unfortunately, with schools like that, the struggle is indeed real. As for your question about UChicago EA, you can apply there with Columbia ED as a backup (I think and if you were to get in to Columbia you would have to immediately withdraw the UChicago application; someone should confirm this), but I don’t think you could do Princeton SCEA and apply EA to the University of Chicago (someone should confirm this well). Your unweighted GPA is decent, but the 4.34 (which if I assume correctly is out of 5) that is quite low. I would try raising that up to at least a 4.5 to give you a competitive chance. Your SAT score is good, and I would send 2-3 out of your 4 subject tests (don’t send US History (it doesn’t add anything and might clutter your application and hurt you); it’s up to you if you want to send Bio (I probably would).) To be honest, though you may think that honors/awards are important, they aren’t as big of a deal as you think, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Your extracurriculars are okay, but you seem to lack solid roles in the ones that count the most (e.g. Debate), and some of them are mediocre (Key Club for example). Your work experience is okay I guess, but won’t be a deciding factor at all. Your volunteer work seems to be adequate, but won’t be a deciding factor, in my opinion, either. Class Rank is appropriate. I think you are making the right choice to try your luck, as it is in the end a crapshoot, but in my opinion it won’t be easy. I think Columbia ED might improve your chances a bit over Princeton EA, but I’m not entirely sure. All are high reaches in my opinion. Please chance me back! http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1796275-what-do-you-think-of-my-chances-are-at-these-universities.html#latest Good luck!

3

Thank you for the reply, @jarrett211 :slight_smile: