And do my athletics give me an edge over other Asian applicants? I probably will not be recruited but I am definitely Varsity material
How are you in Columbia SHP? You are a freshman and the exam hasn’t even been given yet. Also, most freshman don’t get in. Being a double legacy at Columbia won’t help you at Harvard. Being Indian is generally considered an over-represented minority at most top schools so not a hook as you were hoping. Playing tennis will not differentiate you from Asians or anybody because unless you are recruitable, top schools don’t really pay that much attention to your athletics.
As long as you are assuming a perfect score and being an Intel semifinalist, why don’t you assume yourself into Harvard and not waste time with this chance thread?
@qpqpqp - I’m pretty sure that getting an associates degree as a result of taking dual enrollment classes while in high school will in no way disqualify the OP from applying as a freshman.
@iambrutus - By most measures, you appear to be on the right track. Don’t get fixated on any one college, as admissions decisions at this level are unpredictable. Trying too hard to be the student you think these schools want rather than pursuing what you are passionate about is liable to backfire. Looking back at my daughter’s high school graduating class, the top students all got into excellent schools, but the individual admissions decisions for these students were sometimes surprising.
GPA: US News ranks your school #6 in NY, #43 in the nation, not #6 in the nation. Still, it’s obviously a great school. Your GPA will be evaluated relative to others at your school, not relative to other schools that may or may not have easier grading scales. Based on your transcript, top colleges will have no trouble determining how strong a student you are.
PSAT/SAT scores: you will likely score much higher when you take them again in 11th and 12th grade, and will likely be “in the zone” for the top Ivies. Consider taking the ACT too- it might be a better fit for you.
Coursework: make sure you take the most challenging courses available to you, but when you have time, take “fun” classes. Film production sounds great! Don’t worry about your weighted GPA as long as you are taking challenging classes. Do work hard to keep your unweighted GPA as close to 4.0 as possible.
Legacy status: being a double legacy should help your chances at Columbia if you are a qualified applicant. You’re only considered a Harvard legacy if one of your parents attended Harvard College as an undergraduate. Unless your aunt and uncle have donated many millions to Harvard, it’s unlikely to help your chances.
Athletics: unless you are a recruited athletic or are world class in one of your sports, they are likely to be seen as normal ECs - which means they will help you but they won’t open any doors.
Is it really true that a perfect SAT Score and an Intel semifinalist can pretty much guarantee admission anywhere?
Are you serious? Of course NOT. It doesn’t guarantee you anything.
You’re a freshman? Don’t worry about colleges just yet. My advice would be to do what you love, and everything will follow. If you do things just for college, you’re not living life to the fullest. Plus colleges see right through that.
Study hard. Do what you love. Enjoy life.
If you do those three things, then you’ll get in to the college of your dreams, I promise.
No. @iambrutus, look at people like silverturtle… 2400 but got turned down at tons of schools. No single stat makes you a shoe in at schools. Your PSAT score is lower than your 7th grade SAT score and it’s very unlikely that you’re going to go from 180s to 2400 even in three years. Everything on your app is assumed… you’re just gonna walk in and find a princeton professor and do research? you’re going to take tons of courses at school, research, run track, take 2 after school college classes, volunteer, and do other ECs? That’s not going to work…
You’re doing okay, there’s no need to have us chance stats that are absolutely fake.
@iambrutus
No.
Here’s the thing I’m telling you now that you’ve simply been ignoring (since this has all been mentioned in some form before). Stop worrying about whether or not something is “good enough for admissions”. Focus on actually doing things and not just saying you will. “Assume perfect SAT Scores”? Why? They’re not necessary for admission into top universities, first of all, and you can’t just assume that you will specifically get a 2400 when all you’ve done is taken the PSAT and gotten a score considerably far from that.
You set goals to work toward achieving them, not to act and assume like you’ve already achieved them.
Besides that, let’s address your hooks.
Double legacy from Columbia means increased chances as a hook at Columbia. Not Harvard. Columbia.
Doing research with tenured professors is not a hook.
An Associates Degree is not a hook.
Unless your aunt and uncle are donating millions, it’s not really a hook either.
Independent research and the math team stuff - all not hooks.
Being Indian, as you were told, is definitely NOT a hook.
As for Intel Semifinalist, once again, you cannot just assume that you’ve achieved it. It’s like assuming that you’re not competing with anyone else in a competition. Do the work first, win the award, and then come back and say “Intel Semifinalist”.
Your sport will be looked at as a regular extracurricular. Plenty of Asians also participate in sports - it doesn’t give you a leg up or down if you’re not good enough to be recruited by these Division I schools.
Bottom line: Do what you say you’re going to first. Come back when you’re a junior or senior and have actually accomplished things. These is fine as a to-do list and as goals to achieve throughout your high school career. However, your chances, enigmatic as they inherently are, will remain even more obscure without actual achievements under your belt. Focus on what you want to do and strive to accomplish it; don’t just assume that everything can fall into place just because you say it will.
Wow, that elicited a lot of strong responses. I was just referring to Falcon1. I actually asked how I could demonstrate leadership in addition to my qualifications.
MandarinSin I actually am quite offended by your statement…why would I post fake stats? This is an anonymous site and there really is no point in doing something like that…
@iambrutus , you’re asking people to chance if you get those stats… it’d be like me posting “if i have a 37 on the ACT and a 12 GPA will I get in?(JSYK muh GPA is actually 2.1 and my ACT is 12 but im sure ill get that by senior year).” The stats aren’t tied to any person and aren’t really useful at all.
I was being facetious. Only something like .04% get a perfect score on the SAT 1 and you assume it for yourself (I guess along with 80O’s in your subject tests). Btw, only 25-30% of perfect scorers get accepted to Harvard so you’ll need to assume yourself a bunch of other things besides that and Intel to get in.
AP world typically is a senior class, so yes, very good (unless at your school it’s just an amped up version of Freshman World History and students don’t take the AP test or take it but do badly, which would be expected. If you can score a 4 or 5 as a freshman, that’d be excellent).
Taking Russian is rare but it’ll be more important to keep it all 4 years. In addition, there isn’t a Russian AP or SAT test so you’ll have to take an external exam to certify your level.
Geometry as a freshman is typical for all Top 50-75 universities or LACs, it only means completing precalculus as a junior and having the opportunity of taking calculus senior year. Keep in mind that 2/3 students admitted to Top10 universities have taken calculus, and those who didn’t either had double language at a high level (ie., 1 at AP level and one at level4, or two at Ap level…) or a very good reason (their school doesn’t offer calculus and no community college nearby does/exists.) Many who want to go into stem fields, if they can (ie., who live near a decent community college or a random university and have dual enrollment/PSEO programs), will ty to “accelerate”. Some will thus start college having taken math beyond calculus, often calculus 2, 3, linear algebra, etc. A mix of AP and dual enrollment credits is advised if possible.
TV production is a nice elective to have but unless you do something with it, it’s neither good nor bad.
Choose electives that interest you, not because you think they’ll impress colleges. Colleges really hate that.
You need to have: 1 class of each - English, Math, Foreign Language, History, Science every year, OR if your last year you don’t have that, you need to “double” up with something. Reaching A level in 4 of these is a good idea, in all 5 better, and more than 5 is great. ( More than 8 and the benefits taper off - the “everything but the kitchen sink approach” to AP choice isn’t the right one. If you’re passionate about a subject, take it at the community college level and accelerate yourself while taking other classes at the AP level.)
Then, for the 1-3 classes remaining, choose classes you really like. Showing that you learn because you love some subjects would be essential. It doesn’t matter if it’s home economics, shop, musical theater, ceramics. It’ll show you in another light.
I’ll try to answer your questions.
“Also, which one of my hooks are the most attractive?”
Well, really, you only have one hook, which is legacy to Columbia. Unless you invest huge amounts of time in track and tennis and become a recruited athlete, you have no other hooks and your sports aren’t very good ECs.
“I am not part of any clubs, so will my extracurriculars suffice?”
Yes. The myth that you need to be part of clubs to get into good schools is false. You just need to show that you’re passionate about something and invested in it outside of school. Clubs are useful because they’re an easy way to do that (sponsored by the school) and are usually less costly than pursuing an activity by yourself. Also, colleges really want students that can contribute to their community in a meaningful way–colleges will want you to join their clubs. If you can find one or two clubs that interest you, it can only help, but as long as you’re active outside of school it’s okay. However, I can’t help but notice that you seem to have a lot of free time (?) Because since Math Team happens during your lunch break, you’re practically only doing sports after school. Maybe in your sophomore year, look into more things to do after classes.
All in all though, there is no way to judge your ECs because it’s just freshman year…
“I understand that I need to demonstrate character and leadership in addition to bear qualifications.”
The first part of this is very important; the next part not so much. Character is really key in the sense that you want as much as possible to convey a sense of your personality, of your passions, of “who you are”, to the admissions officers. They don’t want to admit numbers on a paper, they want to admit people who look like real people even on paper (if that makes sense). You don’t need to show leadership to do that, although they do like it. Maybe you could captain one of your sports teams later?
" Do you think that someone like me would basically be guaranteed admission applying ED to Columbia as a double legacy or should I take my chances by applying to Harvard/Yale/Princeton?"
Absolutely not. No one is “basically” guaranteed admission to ANY top college. Even if you had cured cancer, worked with Stephen Hawking on creating wormholes to alien planets, were a URM and a triple legacy with a perfect GPA, you wouldn’t be guaranteed admission to any HYPSM-caliber school.
Of course, just like the fictional above student, you have a solid chance.
However, a lot of things make me doubt how competitive an applicant you’ll be. First, your SAT score has actually regressed, from a 1950 to a 186 PSAT (and the PSAT is easier). You are an over-recruited minority. If you’re not a recruited athlete, sports are a poor EC. Your freshman UW GPA is a 3.8, and if your high school is #6 in the state I assume it’s pretty rigorous; so I’m worried that you won’t be able to handle classes later on, especially since 3.8 is basically the threshold for Ivy admissions (of course its a soft one, people have gotten in with less, but they usually have some hook/EC). You’re also top 35% in your class? That’s pretty bad for Ivies… most people whose schools rank are valedictorians or at least in the top decile. If you’re projected top 20% in senior year, I’m afraid that’s not going to cut it. I’m also worried that admissions will stereotype you as the Indian kid who has perfect SAT scores, is into Math and Engineering and did the ISEF. I have a feeling that there will be other people whose applications will look like yours in the Columbia admissions office and that you won’t be able to stand out.
Finally, I’m worried because you asked if you should apply to Harvard, Yale and Princeton if Columbia wasn’t a sure thing. Have you visited HYP? They’re all quite different schools. You’re just a freshman. You should be focusing on enjoying high school, getting your GPA up, getting your SAT score up by hundreds of points and looking into better extracurriculars, NOT asking us to chance you for HYP. Also, don’t fixate on Ivies. I don’t think someone who’s happy at Columbia would be as happy at Princeton, and vice-versa. Start visiting colleges in a little while, start thinking about what kind of place you want to go. Geographical location? Intended major? Liberal Arts? etc… Don’t look at schools that in all probability, just by using basic mathematics, you won’t get into. Instead, look at safeties and schools where you know you would be a good fit.
You CAN have a good chance at Columbia if you raise all of your scores, actually do the ECs you’re talking about (since most of them are just plans for later on) and just focus on high school instead of joining College Confidential as a freshman.
Actually TV prod. was a required class 
It is over now because it was a 1 term class…I will be taking robotics now.
I have visited Yale and Harvard recently
^ I mean Yale and Princeton
Quite helpful advice Merlion. Actually 15-20% of my graduating class gets into Ivies or relative schools (like MIT) similar to the 25% at Stuvysent.
Just to clarify my ECs, I currently am part of Math Team. As far as independent research goes, I am --Currently-- doing research in Aeryodynamics and I plan on doing research in machine learning. This “independent” research is affiliated with my school and I will be doing it with one of my classmates. I have actually secured a professor that I will work under, but I will keep that anonymous. As for collge courses, I have enrolled in one college course over the summer. I also plan on enrolling in “leadership” or “academic” style classes, like Columbia SHP.
Say I become a recruited athlete…would that significantly increase my chances? And if you, by how much do you think?
One more simple question; do you need to submit your AMC scores?