What are my chances for Columbia ED?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

Decided to make a post as a ““therapeutic”” exercise since I’m grinding my teeth waiting for notification day.

Demographics: White, high family income, private school. LGBT but semi-closeted so it doesn’t mean much, touched on it in application briefly.

Intended Major: Computer Science in Columbia College (+ Physics/PoliSci major)

Schools: Columbia ED (Hooks: won MIT AI competition with team of Columbia freshmen, relationships with several professors, legacy through mother, father is a mentor for their graduate program), also "Stan"ford, Harvard, UC Hicago, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, UC Berkeley, NYU

Academics:

  • School: Competitive boarding/day prep school, 600 students, reputation for liberal arts, 10+ people to top 20s each year
  • UW GPA: 3.84-3.9 depending on first quarter senior grades, school doesn’t weight so this is largely an estimate
  • Rank: unranked but counselor hinted top 5/123. Since unweighted, I might be the top student accounting for course difficulty
  • APs: Chem (Soph, 4), World History (Soph, 4), Macro/Micro (5, Jr), APUSH (5, Jr), AP Comp Sci A (5, Jr), AP Biology (5, Jr), AP English Lang (5, Jr) | AP Physics C Mech/E&M (Sr), AP English Lit (Sr), AP Euro (Sr), AP Calculus BC (Sr)
  • ACT: 35
  • SAT II: Math 2 790

Extracurriculars (Strongest Point):

  • Co-Captain Vex Robotics Team 3 years, won highest individual team award at nationals, helped build new program and train members, wrote all code and wrote design notebook, 7+ state awards
  • MUN Co-President (Sr), Secretary (Jr) 4 years, first non-senior club officer in club history, largest club on campus, top 25 program in the country according to BestDelegate.com, won 3 individual awards, coached mentees to 10 awards
  • Internships 3 years, interned in multiple NYC Tech companies building cluster computing systems, warehouse logistics system, worked on a data science team, only high school intern all years
  • Student Researcher 2 years, did novel computational biology research with professor, pre-pub manuscript
  • Computer Science Projects 4 years, top 10/1000 teams MIT Battlecode AI competition, won hackathons, design physics sims
  • Captain Math Modeling 4 years, 13-120 hour applied math competitions, Nat Finalist/Finalist in several, first freshman team in school history to place
  • Co-Founder/Co-Captain Debate Team 3 years, started debate program, got funding, won local tournaments, finalist at several national tournaments
  • National Director of Technology for youth civic engagement org 1 year, largest student-run org in US
  • Co-Captain History Bowl, 2 years, founded team, top 25 at nationals our first year, won 3 NYS tournaments

Letters of Rec:

  • Counselor and I are bros, hang out with him and his kids all the time, said my letter wrote itself
  • AP English teacher. Had strong relationship with me, emphasizes non-STEM side of me, she’s a published writer with very good letters in the past
  • AP Bio teacher. Like a second mother to me, her letter made me cry
  • Head of the School, she and I are really close and she loves me. Have fundraised for the school extensively

Essays:

  • Common App: wrote about being the worst person in MUN but finding a role through being a mentor, very honest about my failures (8/10)
  • Supplements: Labored hard for Columbia. Why Columbia essay talked about the people I’ve met there and what they mean to me. Talked about Physics professor who inspired me. Study topic essay talked about my passion for Artificial Intelligence and gave metaphor as to how it works (9/10)

Honors:
Renseselear Medal for STEM achievement (School)
Cum Laude (School honor society, top 6 students in grade)
Oberlin Book Award for Highest Academic Standing in English (School)
National AP Scholar

Questions:
How do I stop thinking about this? What should I do for my interview?

2

As you said, your extracurriculars are definitely your strongest point, although your grades are standardized testing is strong as well. Although no one is a definite for any of the school you are applying at, you are definitely competitive at all of them and I would NYU is a pretty safe bet. Also, if these are the only schools you are applying to, I would definitely suggest adding some safeties. Like I said, Columbia rejects the vast majority of its applicants, but you have an extremely strong transcript so you definitely have a good chance.

Once you submit your application, try not to worry about it too much. It is out of your hands now and you did the best you possibly could. I know this is cliche, but try to remember that the college you go to does not define you in any way. Many people go to mediocre colleges and are extremely successful and by your transcript, it seems as if you have the motivation so I would not worry too much. Try to think about this when you get stressed out, but it is okay to be a little nervous, I am the same way. I know what you’re going through (I applied ED to Columbia too this year) and, although I am kinda being a hypocrite) try not to stress out too much. What is meant to happen will happen.

For your interview, remember it is usually done by alumni. I know it is optional so don’t worry if you are not offered one. But if you are, definitely take the opportunity. Try to know as much as you can about Columbia but don’t just spit back information. Also, make sure you know your application well so that you can answer questions about it. Again, I am in the same boat as you and am just guessing about what questions they could ask. However, I have heard that unless you epically screw up the interview, it will not be that detrimental. Also, since the interviewers ARE alumni, they usually are pretty lenient and try to help you. But then again, this is just what I have heard and I could be wrong.

So, anyway, good luck on your application! Hopefully, we both get accepted and we see each other next year.

If you can, could you chance me for ED Columbia on my latest post? Thanks!

3

I’d say you definitely have a shot, legacy could be a huge advantage net but you have a reasonable chance and great stats but it could go anyway, chance me back please. I’m also I’m in the stressful position of waiting for results.

4

Thanks a lot for all the help.