<p>how important is it in your application that, for example, you play a sport, or you play an instrument? just wondering. thanks</p>
<p>You're not going to get in if you do nothing besides getting good grades and doing well on your SAT.</p>
<p>^^^^ thats not the nicest way to put it...but he/she is right...</p>
<p>Everyone who applies to Columbia has outsanding grades and SAT scores...as much of a cliche as it might be, the key to getting accepted is having something that will set you apart from all the other applicants...</p>
<p>"Everyone who applies to Columbia has outsanding grades and SAT scores" --> Not really. Plenty of applicants aren't very competitive but, for whatever reason, decide to apply to Columbia. Enough of the applicant pool does have outstanding scores/grades, however.</p>
<p>Is it theoretically possible to get into Columbia if you have mediocore grades, but show that you really want to go there? Probably not, right?</p>
<p>(It's not a rhetorical question...I am seriously wondering about this...)</p>
<p>How mediocre are the grades? It depends on everything else in your app. I think almost everyone who applies to Columbia really really wants to go there. It is a question of showing Columbia what you bring to the table, not telling them what they can do for you.</p>
<p>Well my GPA is a 3.95 weighted...I know that's REALLY weak...</p>
<p>I was really screwed over by a bunch of 89.3's that I got last year...In the second half of my junior year I broke my foot and was in a cast for two months and used a walking brace for another two months. Therefore, my grades for the second half of my junior year were pretty bad (a bunch of B's and A-'s)...this resulted in a bunch of borderline final grades...very annoying situation...</p>
<p>1500 SAT (2250 out of 2400)</p>
<p>I did genetic research at Rutgers University during my sophmore, junior, and senior years. I was chosen to do more research this past summer (30 kids from all of NJ were selected). I am the president of my school's research team, private violin lessons for the past five years, Natural Helpers for all of HS, Vice President of Auxilliary at local hospital for all of HS (we organize and run charity events to raise money for the hopital), the usual honors societies (NHS, MuAlpha Theta, Spanish Honors Society), elected to be a class council representative, Moderator for forums on my school's unofficial online newspaper (my friend made it)</p>
<p>My research advisor is writing one of my reccomendations, and the other recommendation is from my AP US History teacher...they're both going to be really strong</p>
<p>All together, I have taken 9 AP courses in High School (4 last year, 5 this year)...taking the most rigorous classes offered at my HS...</p>
<p>I know that I have almost no chance of being accepted...but I figure I'll just give it a try... </p>
<p>Any comments?</p>
<p>bump bump bump</p>
<p>How weak is that GPA? You did take tough classes, but do also you go to a HS with tough competition and/or grade deflation? I don't think you're below what Columbia is looking for, so you should have a decent shot.</p>
<p>Wow...thats really reassuring...I thought I was just wasting 60 dollars....</p>
<p>My school is very competitive, but we don't rank so I don't really know how I measure up to the other kids. I am definitely in the top ten percent, but I may be barely in or out of the top five percent. It's one of the top public schools in NJ.</p>
<p>The bad junior year grades are really because of the fact that I broke my foot, however I don't think any college would really take that into consideration. If anything, they would see it as a lame excuse to explain my bad grades.</p>
<p>As for grade deflation, I don't think my school does that. We just have the standard 86-90 B+, 90-92 A-, 92-98A, 98-100A+. I'm not sure if that's what you mean about grade deflation...but yea...</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply...</p>
<p>well grade deflation is more refering to how often does your teahchers give out As rather than grading standards. some schools can have a class average of 95 and over half of the class has A or A+ while in rare case it may have been an extremely capable class, normally we can say that class's grades is pretty inflated. while other schools have classes that have and average of 50 which means half of the class are failing.. we can pretty much say that class's grades are a deflated. so it has more to do with the percentage of people with 4.0+ gpa than the grading scale. (if no one in your school has 4.0 + wGPA then its pretty safe to say that your school has grade deflation)</p>
<p>I think the highest GPA in my school is a 4.3...and the highest possible GPA is a 4.9 (A+ in AP Class)...so I guess we're somewhere in the middle???</p>
<p>aVenger1751 , so you did research at Rutgers ? What was the program ? Was it the WSSP, cause I was there?</p>
<p>hahaha....yep...WSSP...</p>
<p>What high school are you from?</p>
<p>I'm from East Brunswick High School...I don't know if you remember me...</p>
<p>Avenger: I know that injuries are hard to deal with (was on crutches for a year once myself) but I wouldn't tell that to Columbia as an excuse for grades.</p>
<p>A kid my D went to HS with suffered from ulcerative colitis. He was out of school for more than a month several times, and even when in school, he was always on really serious drugs, was often in pain and discomfort, plus the emotional toll a disease like that takes.</p>
<p>He graduated #1 in the class, and refused to mention his condition in his applications.</p>
<p>Yeah...thats what I figured Garland...</p>
<p>Especially since I didn't have a SERIOUS injury...it would just be a really lame excuse....and therefore make me look simply desperate...</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice...</p>