<p>I am currently in High School & Columbia is my dream college I want to start planning out I want to do to get in, any suggestions?
All comments are appreciated!</p>
<p>Get awesome grades and test scores (2250+ SAT, 3.8-4.0 unweighted GPA), take the most challenging classes, participate in extracurricular activities you like (excel at them - take leadership roles, win awards, etc.), get great teacher recs., do internships if possible, demonstrate in your essays that you are not totally a robot and you are unique and that you are a likeable person</p>
<p>what grade are you currently in?</p>
<p>I feel like im a mediocre student, Im not the kid whos Gifted and Talented and gets amazing grades nor am I the kid who slacks off and doesn’t give a crap. Im right in the middle. I really care about my school work and spend a lot of time on it. My moms always telling me how there some people who are Gifted and Talented and some who work to get there. I wanna be the one to work to get there, I just dont know where to start. </p>
<p>Im going to be a freshman in High School next year</p>
<p>in my opinion, having a college junior and a hs senior, it is wayyyyy too early for you (as an 8th grader) to be thinking about colleges. My daughters’ lists, from spring of their junior year until applications were mailed, changed many times.</p>
<p>LOL - for that matter, both kids applied to some schools, and, by the time notices came on April 1st, the school no longer interested them at all! Lots of changes happen in each 4 month period for teenagers.</p>
<p>Enjoy hs. Do what you love. Do it well.
These are things you can control.</p>
<p>There are many who are G&T and are not accepted at Columbia
There are many who work hard and they are also not accepted at Columbia.</p>
<p>Getting accepted at a specific college is not something you can control.</p>
<p>Also, having a “dream school” is a set-up for disappointment. </p>
<p>Be sure to have several schools that are comfortable options for you - academically and financially. Sit down with your mom/parents and discuss finances (ie, how much can they afford to pay, if anything) so that you know your parameters.</p>
<p>haha lol you’ve got a point, but I wanna be prepared and I wanna make my high school years count, and Columbia seems like a place I would want to be at, If I set high goals then im going to want to work harder to achieve them then if I set not-so-high expectations and be satisfied with something lower.</p>
<p>Thanks for the comment!</p>
<p>at this rate it might be negative on ur health although the negatives out weigh the postivies. work hard and aim for a 4.0 UW with as many hnrs and ap classes you can take.
on top of that, join 3-4 clubs and run for top positiions for each of the clubs by sophomre year. run again during junior year. rack up as many community service hours and find various internships and such just keep working hard bro. u may want to start studying for the SAT by now and keep studying till junior year. take the PSAT in october/november and see how u do. </p>
<p>BUT say ur in senior year and u apply to columbia and get rejected, how sad will u be? u will be ****ed, angry and feel like trash i guess if u make such a high-end goal at such a young age. </p>
<p>getting into college isn’t that simple. it may sound alot easier on paper but it is really hard.</p>
<p>lol harsh but ok thanks lol</p>
<p>but that the reason i want to start early and prepare myself.</p>
<p>2200+ SAT score, Very High Ranking in your high school if you school ranks either #1 or #2 usually, Top 10% if you’re school doesn’t rank, incredibly good EC’s, amazing essays.</p>
<p>Even with all of that, it’s still a crapshoot. It’s harder to get into an Ivy League School these days than it is for Rosie O’ Donald to lose weight. What grade are you in btw?</p>
<p>Nothing special for Columbia now, but</p>
<p>READ, READ, READ. Every day. Newspapers, magazines, books of all kinds (including some from other eras). When you find a book you like, ask a teacher or librarian to recommend another that’s like it. When you find an unfamiliar word, look it up.</p>
<p>LEARN LATIN for 2 years if your school offers it. You’ll learn much about words and language.</p>
<p>LEARN HISTORY in the way that interests you most. Maybe through books or through art or music. Go to museums and concerts and plays. By osmosis, you’ll soak up lots of knowledge.</p>
<p>READ MORE. If you do end up at Columbia, you’ll have a heavy reading load. Get used to it.</p>
<p>LEARN TO WRITE CLEARLY AND CONCISELY. Your teachers can help with academic writing, but creative writing is another avenue to explore. Strong writing skills will be important for the rest of your life.</p>
<p>If you do these things for several years, you should do well on standardized tests without special prep classes. You’ll also stand out to college admissions committees.</p>
<p>If you want to know what your strongest competitors will be doing, check the websites for a few elite private schools. What’s on the summer reading list? What do the classes cover? You can do it, too, with help from teachers. They’re happy to help somebody who actually wants to learn (not just get into a particular college).</p>
<p>Nothing special for Columbia now, but</p>
<p>READ, READ, READ. Every day. Newspapers, magazines, books of all kinds (including some from other eras). When you find a book you like, ask a teacher or librarian to recommend another that’s like it. When you find an unfamiliar word, look it up.</p>
<p>LEARN LATIN for 2 years if your school offers it. You’ll learn much about words and language.</p>
<p>LEARN HISTORY in the way that interests you most. Maybe through books or through art or music. Go to museums and concerts and plays. By osmosis, you’ll soak up lots of knowledge.</p>
<p>READ MORE. If you do end up at Columbia, you’ll have a heavy reading load. Get used to it.</p>
<p>LEARN TO WRITE CLEARLY AND CONCISELY. Your teachers can help with academic writing, but creative writing is another avenue to explore. Strong writing skills will be important for the rest of your life.</p>
<p>If you do these things for several years, you should do well on standardized tests without special prep classes. You’ll also stand out to college admissions committees.</p>
<p>If you want to know what your strongest competitors will be doing, check the websites for a few elite private schools. What’s on the summer reading list? What do the classes cover? You can do it, too, with help from teachers. They’re happy to help somebody who actually wants to learn (not just get into a particular college).</p>
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<p>I second every single word of this advice. Columbia is a fabulous university in one of the most exciting cities in the world. But make no mistake: even if you do everything right, you cannot control whether you’ll be admitted to Columbia. And if you actually are a “mediocre” student, then the deck is stacked against you even more heavily. </p>
<p>For an eye-opening look at how bad the numbers really are for applicants to elite colleges, see this link: <a href=“http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/admissions-figures-04-04/[/url]”>http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/admissions-figures-04-04/</a>.</p>
<p>Do not set your heart on Columbia. Aspire to Columbia. That’s great. But do so realizing that you could very well shoot for Columbia and miss. And if that happens, you’ll be well prepared to make the most of your years at some other wonderful college or university.</p>
<p>Hahah that Rosie O’Donald joke was funnny!! haha guess it is a long shot!</p>
<p>and yeah I started taking latin guess that’s a start.and wordworker thank you for the list. and im not necessarily wanting to go to a particular college its the fact that Columbia seems really difficult to get into to and if I try to fill the requirements of getting in then it’ll raise my chances of getting into a good college, and my main goal is to just prepare myself.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your feedback(:</p>