<p>I'm in a bit of a situation. I've realized that I forgot to really include any details about my school's ranking system in my app. </p>
<p>I have a 3.9 unweighted, but my rank is 45th out of 400-something (also unweighted). This is because we have tons of '4.0' students who don't take any honors/AP classes, and get A's in cooking, health, lifetime sports, etc. </p>
<p>But now that I think about it, my counselor never really explained this, or really included ANY relevant info about our school's grade distribution in his statement (our school profile sheet sucks and doesn't contain any details either). This is my fault for just realizing this. The truth is, with a weighted system I would probably be in the top 5 students of my class. </p>
<p>All that the admissions officer has to go off of is my numerical unweighted rank. Which is not even in the top 10%.</p>
<p>Is it too late to call up the office and explain this? Should I get my counselor to fax a statement ASAP? My counselor is loathe to do stuff like this, as he considers applicants to top schools 'overachievers' and rolls his eyes when we make requests like these. </p>
<p>Today is Nov 28, and the earliest the Office of Undergraduate Admissions will be open is the 1st. What should I do?</p>
<p>well, i would recommend shooting them an email or calling their office…that seems like the safest bet. counter question for you. i sent in way too much supplementary stuff (resume, two supplementary letters) and am very afraid that this extra stuff will make annoy them very much. you think it’s okay to contact them and say ignore this stuff?</p>
<p>by the way, your counselor sounds like an a-hole lol</p>
<p>For your situation I’d say just leave it the way it is. Contacting them <em>again</em> to say “Oh, yeah, just, er, don’t look at the extra stuff,” when they already have it, might just be bugging them even more. I wouldn’t worry too much; lots of people get in with extra stuff.</p>
<p>Yeah, my counselor isn’t the best. Instead of praising Ivy league applicants for working hard and aiming high, he considers us stuck-up or something. I said something once like “So yeah, if you could fill out the subjective ratings for me on the school profile, you know, just like those check boxes that rate my personal qualities, that’d be great.” He responded by giving me a cold stare and saying sarcastically, “yeah, I know what ‘subjective’ means, you don’t have to explain it to me.” I was thinking, whoa there buddy, didn’t even mean it that way… someone’s got a bit of a chip on their shoulder.</p>
<p>But I digress. I’m kinda worried that decisions have already been made by this point and that my application might be in a pile other than the, you know, good one. Would it hold any water if I basically emailed them myself and said ‘here’s the deal w/ school’s ranking system, call them at xxx-xxx-xxxx for further questions?’</p>
<p>First of all, I don’t think all decisions have been made. I haven’t even received a confirmation email saying that my application has been processed so I’m assuming they still have a few apps to go through (hopefully nothing bad happened with my app . </p>
<p>Second of all, I would still send an email. Apologize for the tardniess of the explanation, but explain that the situation only recently came to light. Your school’s mishaps should not cost you admissions to Columbia. If, god forbid, your app is in the bad pile, nothing worse can happen and the best case scenario is they review your app. If your app is in the good pile, then they’ll probably be like, wow this kid is even better than we though. If they haven’t looked at your app, then hopefully they put a sticky note on your app explaining the clarification. I would also include your school’s contact information, as you suggested. This is my humble opinion so if you want further insight, wait for more CCers to post or ask a teacher or someone else who’s had lots of exposure to the college admissions process. Good luck!</p>
<p>thebeef – I think that if it’s clear that your school only does unweighted ranking, then the ranking system works like that, I highly doubt that your school is the only one in the country to rank that way. As long as your school sent them a profile or something with your transcript telling them that they only do unweighted ranking, you’re fine. If not, which, considering your counselor, is entirely possible, I’d also go with the email.</p>
<p>half-japanese – I didn’t get an email or the Columbia ID to check whether everything is there or not, so I just called them and they told me immediately that I had already sent everything in, I would recommend doing this.</p>
your regional admissions rep already knows everything about your school
you aren’t the first person from your school to apply to columbia
(most importantly) you would sound like a whiny little brat…first of all anything having to do with grades or your school shouldn’t come from you, it comes from an appropriate official at your school…second your application is about you, not about anyone else so you should shy away from talking about others in your school and comparing yourself to them because it would just show that you’re a pompous a-hole. Also, you’re in no position to devalue others’ achievements like that!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>i know i ripped you a new one in your thread about this but basically the only thing you can do now is kick yourself and learn from your mistake…don’t tell what to read and what not to read…they’re big kids and can decide what they want to look at on their own</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>that could be because they don’t send out such things…as spazzity said you can check online but they are horrible at updating it</p>
<p>my guess would be that they have quite a few decisions by now since there are only two weeks left before acceptances go out</p>
<p>Shraf – would the regional rep really know thebeef’s school that well, considering that thebeef’s school seems to not be the type that sends kids to Ivies each year, especially given the nature of thebeef’s counselor?</p>
<p>Not trying to pick a fight, just genuinely curious :)</p>
<p>spazzity - that is basically my concern. The last time a grad from my HS went to Columbia was in the mid-90s. My school is not famous or well-known at all for sending people to Ivies.</p>
<p>I’m afraid that an officer might look at the low rank and simply not know how to place me in the context of the student body. The officer doesn’t have much to go off of - they don’t know whether my school is just competitive, practices grade inflation, or what. </p>
<p>But shraf, you do have some valid points. I absolutely do not want to sound like I’m devaluing others’ achievements, and that was not my intention of course. But since you bring up this point, do you think I should ask my counselor to fax/email them? As I said, he’s not fond of doing this stuff, but when push comes to shove he’ll still probably do a decent job.</p>
<p>it actually sounds like thebeef’s school has a pretty good program and has decently competitive applicants applying to ivies every year. if you notice he/she said they’d be in the top 5 if rankings were based on weighted grades so those other four people are probably also applying to ivies. basically though its the regional rep’s job to get to know the schools in their region. its unfortunate that his/her counselor doesn’t have a good rapport with the regional columbia rep because that is important in making you stand out as an applicant but that doesn’t mean that the rep doesn’t know about your school.</p>
<p>Shraf- post lag, read my above post. We do have a few Ivy applicants but very few acceptees. When I met my regional admissions officer at a session a few months back he asked me where I went to school. I was like, “_____” and he gave me a blank look… :p</p>
<p>if you’re sure he didn’t mention it at all then go ahead and ask. but he might have said something like “thebeef takes the hardest curriculum at the school which few others venture to take” …and that would be explanation enough of your low ranking. </p>
<p>I think one of the most understated things in college admissions is the relationship between your counselor and your regional rep. i’m sure the fact that my college counselor could simply pick up the phone and call the regional rep directly whenever i had a concern, was on a first name basis with him, and was all hugs and kisses with him when he came to my school helped give my application that little extra boost it needed. I’m not saying this to discourage you…there’s nothing you can do about it…but its just the reality of how things are in life. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>applying and going are two very different things…i’m sure people apply every year…the fact that they’re not successful is a different story (and could have as much to do with how colleges view your HS or your counselor’s attitude as it does with the caliber of applicants)</p>
<p>What’s considered too much information? Like I sent an art supplement (including a self designed + translated published magazine), a science abstract, and an extra rec from my research professor. Did I send too much stuff??</p>
<p>So is it too late to send extra stuff? Cause I attached my ap score report as additional info, but recently found out that we’re supposed to send it directly through the test agency. I’m an idiot – I’ll admit that.</p>
. </p>