Stanford reject wants to go to Columbia. chance?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

<p>thanks guys.
-Korean Asian male from New york
-prospective french and bio major, competitive high school. </p>

<p>Stats:
GPA: 3.85 (unweighted), 4.18 (weighted)-a slight dip in junior year to be honest
Rank: top 7-10 percent about
SAT: 2330 (760 CR, 780 M, 790 WR w/ 10 essay) (taken it only once)
SAT II: Math II-800 Bio-E-760 Math1-730 US history -660 . Im gonna take french inn ajnuary, with most likely 750+
AP's: AP Lang - 4, AP US History-4 AP Bio-5 AP World History-5
Senior Courseload:Part. in Government, Intel prep Science Research Class, HS Orch., AP Lit, AP Calc BC, AP French, AP Physics B</p>

<p>EC's (will list awards pertaining in next section):
Church Youth Group-President-12th VP-11th and 10th Treasurer-9th , Worship Leader
Varsity Track and Field- 10,11,12 Captain-12th
HS Orchestra-9,10,11,12 Concertmaster-9,10
Mariachi Band-9,10,11,12 Soloist
Metropolitan Youth Orch-11th, Second violin
Community Service middle-high SChool orchestra-9,10,11 second chair
Research intern since 11th at SUNY
Peer Responder for English-11,12
Mathletes-9,10,11
School Youth Council Comm. Service-10,11,12 Secretary
Kendo-9th grade- MVP of tournament + First Place
Church quartet Leader for Choir
JV Football-9-10 Varsity-11 (Only asian, that was a lot of fun man)</p>

<p>Awards:
-Siemens Competition (Environmental Project) Semi-Finalist
-National French Competition-
-9th nationally 7th county (9th) 10th nationally 8th in county (10th) 9th Nationally 7th in country (11th)
-All State Alternate for Violin-11
-All-County Orchestra and ALL-Long Island selection for violin-10,11,12
-All-County for Discus in Track -10th
-National Merit Commended (i was two points away....)
-Rohm and Haas Science Fair- Merit Award (11th)
-Molloy College Fair -Merit Award (10th)
-Walt Whitman Class Anthology Honorable Mention- 11th Grade
-Korean Scholarship Recipient (12th)
-Summer Studies SCholarship -from school (11th)
-National Honor Society, TriM Music Honor Society, Math Honor Society, Science Honor Society
-French Honor Society-President
-AP Scholar with Honor</p>

<p>Job Exp.: None</p>

<p>Hooks: Hopefully siemens will be big, and Ive earned distinctions in many different aspects as a scholar, an athlete and a musician and leadership positions for each too</p>

<p>Summers- before 10th went on a mission trip to Dominican Republic for 10 days and took a french class
before 11th-sat class and football training camp
before 12th-DNA Microarray Class and Labwork for Neuroscience Institute of Research at SUNY</p>

<p>Crapshoot Reaches:
Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Brown</p>

<p>High to reasonable reach:
Cornell, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Duke</p>

<p>Safety: Binghampton, BC, BU</p>

<p>I just got rejected from Stanford EA. Was wondering if i had a chance at columbia
Does gpa count as much for other schools like yale, or are they more holistic? thnks</p>

2

<p>it is binghamton (i just figured you should know how to spell your safety school)</p>

3

<p>Definitely apply. I think you've got a shot. You've obviously challenged yourself, and have a huge diversity of EC's.</p>

<p>I don't know why Stanford rejected you--I would have thought that their adcom thought you spread yourself too thin--but given your awards and stuff, that's obviously not true. Crapshoot, I guess :(</p>

<p>Try focusing on an EC you're really passionate about and enjoy in your essay, and see how it goes. Good luck!</p>

4

<p>Your EC's are all over the place. From math to Orchestra and track. It seems as if you just simply wanted to fill your EC's and don't actually have any passion. Also you must take into consideration the fact you're an overrepresented minority (Asian). So I'd put you at 10%. But that's simply my opinion and you should apply nonetheless.</p>

5

<p>I think at high school it's feasible to look at those ECs and presume that the applicant's passion right now is figuring out what they want to do with their lives, which isn't such a bad thing.</p>

6

<p>"Your EC's are all over the place"</p>

<p>that's what I said initially, but he's got a ton of awards--which leads me to believe that he's put a lot of time and effort into all of them.</p>

7

<p>Stanford deferee here.</p>

<p>How the FAUCK did you get rejected??? it seems like you have crazy high chance for anywhere...</p>

8

<p>" think at high school it's feasible to look at those ECs and presume that the applicant's passion right now is figuring out what they want to do with their lives, which isn't such a bad thing."</p>

<p>yeah, but when you've got 20,000 applicants it's easier to assume the person's all over the place, not figuring stuff out :(</p>

9

<p>i think you have a great shot.</p>

10

<p>"I think at high school it's feasible to look at those ECs and presume that the applicant's passion right now is figuring out what they want to do with their lives, which isn't such a bad thing."</p>

<p>They have thousands of applicants that already have decided upon their passion.</p>

11

<p>hey guys thanks for the replies, but the thing is i did try to emphasize my passion for French foremost and research second.
my intended major is french and second biology
i won national rankings in the national french contest three years in a row from 9-11, only one in my school to do so. my main essay is about my passion for french and how its played a huge role in my life inside and outside the classroom. My teacher rec is from my french teacher who says im one of the best in his career and lauds me for almost a page and a half. im french honor society and french club president and in janurary im takign the sat 2 in french which will be prob. 750+. ive also used french to make a kid who moved from ivory coast feel at home, and now he is one of my best friends. I think (hope) ive shown my passion through my essay, tests, grades, recommendations, being honor society leader, national competition and on a humane level too.</p>

<p>For bio, i got 5 on ap bio, 760 on sat 2 and A's in class. Ive done breast cancer research in a lab for two years including a summer and will be sending my research paper to all my colleges which made me siemens competition semifinalist which is wihtout a doubt my greatest achievement in research.</p>

<p>i think i failed to represent myself well to stanford. However im actually thinking of revamping my essay to shwo both of these passions and how ive beenn able to use them to help people too. I used french to make someone who was shy and from a foregin country ravaged by war feel at home, and the reason i chose to research my topic of breast cancer is because it is highly prevalent in my community.</p>

<p>SO i was thinking of perhaps emphasizing that i do the things that i do cause they can help otehrs or is that too cliche? </p>

<p>but anyways yeah i do know the college game a bit and i did try to emphasize my passions through several key things, if that plays any factor. ANYWAS thatnks for the comments! wow 9 replies!</p>

12

<p>"i think i failed to represent myself well to stanford. However im actually thinking of revamping my essay to shwo both of these passions and how ive beenn able to use them to help people too"</p>

<p>It's ok, we all learn :). If it helps at all, I got deferred then rejected from Yale when I applied 4 years ago. I was digging through my old applications recently, and realised I presented myself wayyy better to Columbia (and H and P) than I did to Y. Interestingly enough, Columbia was the last application I sent in. I guess beating it to death helps.</p>

<p>And holy ****, you're an Asian guy who loves French?? Sacre bleu! That's pretty unique.</p>

<p>"SO i was thinking of perhaps emphasizing that i do the things that i do cause they can help otehrs or is that too cliche?"</p>

<p>Yes, a little bit. Unless your experince with Breast cancer research was actually unique--like you connected with a patient or something (shooting arrows in the dark here, not sure what you focus on). But I do like your idea to make a foreigner feel at home. Both your topics have a lot of potential, but the whole 'i want to help other people' is rather mundane. </p>

<p>Try and focus on how it made a difference to your life instead, without sounding too selfish if that makes any sense--did you introspect? Did you appreciate what you have/your luck? Don't try and derive homilies from your experiences, focus on how they changed you.</p>