<p>What do I need to be in Columbia. Fill in the blanks. It'll be fun:</p>
<p>SAT:
SAT II:
ACT:
GPA:
Class Rank:</p>
<p>Awards:
ECs:
Legacy:Y/N
AP Courses Taken:
Grades on AP Exams:
Sports: Y/N</p>
<p>What Im really looking for are the people who are already in Columbia and what they had accomplished to get in to the school. Thanks!</p>
<p>It's been said and said again- there is no forumla for getting into Columbia, or for any school of that matter. This kind of makes me laugh.</p>
<p>I will just give u a few rough numbers of the bare minimums but of course cimsondreams is right, there is no formula.</p>
<p>SAT: Math and Verbal only: >~1250
SAT II: Writing; >650 ....for SEAS: Math IIC: >650
ACT: No clue
GPA: u shouldnt be too far from perfect.... at least 3.8/4.0
Class Rank: if your school does rank, u should be at least in the top 15%</p>
<p>Awards: not required
ECs: do what interrests you but be sure to take leadership positions
Legacy: it helps if its parents.... but if u get in because of it (i.e. u wouldnt have gotten in on qualifications alone) then ppl will despise u
AP Courses Taken: as many as possible
Grades on AP Exams: mostly 5s
Sports: couldnt hurt....if you arent really athletic though i'm sure u can find other ECs to make up for it</p>
<p>The sports thing is what gets me. I do varsity swimming (4 years when I graduate) but I'm not amazing at it... and I feel like I should be spending my time elsewhere.</p>
<p>just doing a sport shows that you are well rounded....
its not like you have to write on your application: Varsity Swimming (but I sucked at it) ....noone has to know that on ur application. Plus, the time committment that is required for sports makes ur accademic achievements more impressive. The last thing that a college wants to see is a 4.0 average and zero activities....anyone can get a 4.0 if they study 24/7 and do nothing else.</p>
<p>Something I found insightful:
[quote=Ben Jones, MIT admissions officer]
But the reality is that when you have 10,500+ applications for ~1000 spots and 70% of the pool has great numbers, your pool is going to have plenty of kids who have the passion and the match and the scores/grades/AP's. So we admit those kids - what other choice do we have?</p>
<p>But then (understandably) you guys say "Look! You need X, Y, and Z to get into MIT!" To clarify, we don't require those things; many of our admits just happen to have them. And, I might add, for the right reasons...</p>
<p>...So when a parent says to me, "Why does HYPSM put so much emphasis on AP's?" I reply "Why do you put so much emphasis on HYPSM?" When a parent says "My kid's value as a person/student shouldn't be measured by how many AP's he/she has taken" I say "...and your kid's value as a person/student shouldn't be measured by whether or not he/she goes to HYPSM." I could go on and on.
[/quote]