Sincere request for Columbia alum or students only: ED Chances

Colleges & Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

<p>This is aimed at mostly the people that have been or are at Columbia now, not prospective students (I've had way too many differing opinions from others to get any credible answers). Early decision. You'll see some really prolific and scattered ECs but i would really appreciate if you could find a way for me to express how much they all really mean to me and the effort I've put into them when I fill out the app. </p>

<p>COLUMBIA COLLEGE</p>

<p>Asian (Taiwanese American) male, no legacy, no athletic commitment to college. competing against another student in my class with multiple sibling legacy at Columbia but going to SEAS</p>

<p>Freshman</p>

<p>Honors English 9
Honors Science 9
Honors Biology
Honors World Studies
Honors Geometry
Spanish II
Business/Management Introduction
Health</p>

<p>Sophomore</p>

<p>Sophomore
Honors English 10
Honors Algebra II
Honors Chemistry
AP American History
Science Research I and II
Honors Spanish III
Journalism design and Writing</p>

<p>Junior</p>

<p>Honors American Literature
Honors PreCalc
AP Psychology
AP Chemistry
Honors Spanish IV
Journalism II
Sciences Research III</p>

<p>Senior </p>

<p>Honors Physics
AP Literature and Composition
AP Government
AP Spanish
AP Calculus
Science Research IV
Journalism (Ed in Chief)</p>

<p>Gender: M
College Class Year: 2012
High School: Public
High School Type: sends some grads to top schools</p>

<p>Academics:</p>

<p>GPA - Unweighted: 4.60
GPA - Weighted: Our school doesn't do this
Class Rank: 5
Class Size: 336</p>

<p>Scores:
Superscored SAT (two sittings)
SAT I Math: 720
SAT I Critical Reading: 720
SAT I Writing: 710
SAT II U.S. History: 780
SAT II: Math IIC (Pending)</p>

<p>AP:
US History- 5, Psychology- 5, Chemistry- 3 (ouch?)</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>Significant Extracurriculars: Debate, Speech, Mock Trial, School newspaper, scientific research, Class Government, Student senate (school government), Science Olympiad, Spanish Club, Piano (12 yrs, I quit this year...no more time), NHS</p>

<p>Leadership positions: Editor in Chief of newspaper, President of Freshman class, Senate positions: Treasurer (Soph), President elect (Jr.), President (Sr.), Vice President of Spanish Club, Finance Committee Chairperson for Dance for a Chance, Treasurer of NHS</p>

<p>Athletics: Tennis (Varsity Junior year)</p>

<p>Volunteer/Service Work: Volunteer Club...various community work, nothing extraordinary.
Children's Hospital Philanthropy Council, for another hospital I pushed patients in rehab in wheelchairs, hall monitor on an off period at school
Taiwanese American Foundation- counselor for junior high program, weeklong conference to promote leadership, ethics, communication, and identity for young Taiwanese Americans (this is my passion in community work)</p>

<p>Honors and Awards: qualified for National debate championships last year, quarterfinalist in impromptu speaking at states, semifinalist in debate at states (among these a hodgepodge of other debate awards at individual tourneys)I am NFL qualifier for debates, not TOC. Our team has no funding for that sadly.</p>

<p>Mock Trial- I've won about 6-7 Outstanding Attorney awards in Regionals..yet to win it at states. Our team was semifinalists in Ohio state tourney last year.</p>

<p>My article on video game addiction for the newspaper won a city media day award.</p>

<p>National Merit Semifinalist.</p>

<p>I won Superior ratings at State Science Day (thats the highest mark). The US army also sponsored the Ohio Junior Science Sympoium (statewide) and I won 2nd alternate for my research on an environmental analysis of my school. Also won 1st place in the poster category as a sophomore for work on deicing material.</p>

<p>Under my lead, as treasurer, I organized the most profitable senate auction in my school's 30+ yr history (over 1200 dollars)</p>

<p>Summer: Attended U of Iowa debate camp and U of Michigan debate camp. I worked in Taiwan this summer for an internship at a candy corporation (produced some training videos for them). explored multiple aspects of business..selling at counter, working in office doing intern stuff..etc.</p>

<p>People at other parts of Confidential have told me my ECs are scattered and show little dedication. I assure you now that I put 100% into these activities and I've made significant changes in our senate in the way it deals with the student body (actually creating senate LEADERS, not a static organization that repeatedly does the same things every year) and also to finally introduce the newspaper into local grocery stores and senior citizen homes to generate interest in the community's high school.</p>

<p>I want to connect my scientific work on environmental sustainability as a good reason for me to go to Columbia. They have a sustainable development class that greatly interests me and I've begun to really love this type of research (I may want to build a career out of it).</p>

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<p>Well are much more forensics/poli-sci heavy than anything else so I'm not sure where the lack of dedication is coming from.</p>

<p>I'm confused by your Unweighted GPA. Usually, unweighted equates to a 4.0 scale. Even if your school awarded 4.33 for A+, that still doesn't explain a 4.6.
But, I'm just going to assume that it's not something terribly low and just peg it at a 3.8 for now.</p>

<p>You're in the range of successful applicants in terms of test scores, and I think that your ECs have some ability to voice your interests and passions. </p>

<p>You also know why Columbia is interesting to you. This will help you answer the why columbia question.</p>

<p>Now that we've got all that out of the way, we can focus on the personal essay. The essay is where you bring all aspects of your application together; it's the real sales pitch to the admissions committee. That said, each essay is (or should be) a unique bit of the app that helps you stand out as a person. That said, there's no single formula that pounds out a great admissions essay. </p>

<p>Generally though, your work tends to be of higher caliber if you genuinely care about the stuff that you're writing. I think the first key step for me was just identifying one thing that I would want to write about, something that might not have been so obvious by just looking at the rest of my app.</p>

3

<p>karot,
my school does GPA with 5.0 for an honors course/AP course 94%. 87%to 93.9% is an A which is 4.0. So that's where you get that from. From time to time I've gotten A's before, never Bs. For perspective, kids with 4.5 and up usually end up in good schools.</p>

<p>Would you mind if I PMed an essay idea to you? I believe what I want to write about is my strongest suit but I might overestimate the uniqueness of what I have to say. Maybe after dealing with other Columbians you can give me perspective on my idea.</p>

4

<p>Of course.</p>

5

<p>Columbia2002..your feedback? it often makes me pessimistic but it keeps things realistic!</p>

6

<p>bump. sorry, had to do it..</p>