What can I do to strengthen my profile?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

Hello,

I am an American currently in my Junior year (High school class of 2017) , who has been living outside the US for the past 7 years. I am currently living in my 4th country that is outside the US. Over the course of these past 7 years I have been attending private international schools. Now I am a junior in Hong Kong, and have a current GPA of 3.5. I know it seems bad, but its higher than my schools average (its EXTREMELY academically competitive) I currently have an New SAT score of 1400 (as of my first test), but I am aiming to push it over 1500. Ive been trying really hard to keep my grades up, as I have been constantly switching back and forth from AP and IB schools–so curriculums differ.

I think I have the potential of writing a really interesting personal essay as I am a second generation third culture kid. I want to pursue a major in political science and am exclusively looking at schools in the New England + New York region. What are my chances of getting in to an Ivy? I am taking 9 APs by the time I graduate, all of them rigorous (APUSH, APWorld, APGov, APCompGov, APStats, APMicroEcon, AP MacroEcon, AP Lang&Comp, APLit)

GPA: 3.5 (high for my school)

SAT: greater than or equal to 1400 (new SAT)

ECs: moving around a lot has made it hard to keep my ECs consistent and take on leadership roles

MUN for 4 years (leadership roles too)
Cross Country 1 year
Board member+founder of online school newspaper 3 years
Reporter for school newspaper 3 years
Student Ambassador 1 year
Debate Team 1 year
School Medic Team
Humanities Tutor
Monologue Competition Winner
Regular participant in charity runs
Honor roll student 2 years
Treasurer of Interact Club 1 year
Habitat for humanity 1 year
Soup kitchen volunteer+coordinator 1.5 years
UNICEF member
Elected speaker at various IB events
Former Intern at BBC
Former Intern at Viet Nam News Agency
…

2

Damn it’s impressive that you pulled all that off given your constant moving around, this is a really cool profile. Clearly your story of constantly moving and having to carry your passions and ideas with you from environment to environment would make a great essay. I could imagine some great stuff written about how moving around has made it difficult to maintain leadership roles, and how you’ve had to assert yourself in different environments to “make it” so to speak - I’d imagine that would be a cool way to tie together your background, your personal story and your role in various activities, while also painting yourself as a passionate and driven individual in a unique way.

Re: GPA, I would understand it being high for your school, but I don’t know what the admissions office’s policy is. Also worth noting that I’m not that experienced in college-essay-writing - I got into Columbia, but I was only working with my own EC’s and stories, etc., which are pretty dissimilar from yours. But, in my opinion, you’ve got some really compelling things to say, so good luck and hope to see you on campus at some point!