<p>I was going to apply to Yale but this last minute attraction to Columbia is driving me crazy!!</p>
<p>My goal is to work in investment banks like GoldmanSachs or sth... and you know... Columbia is in NY where I can enjoy all the great opportunities for internship or etc</p>
<p>But since it's ED not EA i'm worried that I might lose my chance of getting into better options like MIT or Harvard(just worried..) I know it's my call but just want to hear some advices or more infos about Columbia</p>
<p>oh, I'm an international student and will be applying to SEAS(financial engineering!!!)</p>
<p>these are my stats
*GPA: 4.1/4.3 top3% in a very competitive school(Yale and Columbia will both know)
*SAT1: scores comming out on thursday!! expect 2200+
*SAT2: chem, physics, math2c 800
*APs: chem, physicsB, physicsCMech, physicsCE&M, calBC, stats, microecon, macroecon 5
*toefl : 118
*essay: I have like 5 different essays :) I've been writing it since July but I haven't decide which one to send to Columbia. maybe I'll send 1~2 more as additional essay
*recs: read 1, haven't read 1/ the one I read was short... but quite to the point that I have qualities to become a scholar and the other one should be good... I hope
* hook: physics olympiad finalist, human righs activist(broadcasted to NorthKorea... kind of hard to explain but i'm sure it will good very good in my essay) </p>
<p>I was always a big fan of schools with great reputations(like HYP.. Columbia also has a good reputation but let's face it, not as much as HYPs) but it suddenly striked me that Columbia fits my dream of becoming an investment banker! anyone plz give me some advices...</p>
<p>hey i think you should apply to yale just because it is a better school. my brother applied to princeton ed and got deferred then got accepted in the spring along with yale and columbia seas (for financial engineering) and now he's at yale and loving it. yale will give you plenty of opportunities to work on wall street if you still want to in four years, along with other great opportunities as well, i don't think columbia offers AS many</p>
<p>I don't know, it sounds as if you wouldn't be happy with applying to Columbia ED, especially if you believe that you'll regret not knowing if you might have gotten into a better school. Did you think about Yale's SCEA? It's not binding like Columbia's ED, and you can always apply to SEAS with RD.</p>
<p>first of all, Columbia's financial engineering major is a gimmick...please don't be stupid enough to fall into that trap. The bottomline is that financial engineering should be exclusively a graduate degree. If you're not convinced that Columbia is the best school you can be accepted to then you shouldn't apply there ED.</p>
<p>I would say you have a great chance at any of these institutions, I know college admissions is never guaranteed but I cannot possibly see you getting rejected from even places like HYP!</p>
<p>So my suggestion would be not to bind yourself to any college early, whether this is Columbia or any other that only offers ED, because if you do, you won't have that privilege of choosing between MIT and Harvard just before the deposit deadline on May 1st. :)</p>
<p>"My goal is to work in investment banks like GoldmanSachs or sth"
It's...it's pretty much just Goldman Sachs now; there isn't really any "or sth" to speak of.</p>