Where to apply/Chance for Columbia ED

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Thanks in advance, and I will chance back.
I want to major in Math and Computer Science and I'm currently a bit unsure of where to apply.
Previously I was really gung-ho about MIT, but then I did a reality check and realized that I wouldn't ever be capable of earning Early Action admission to MIT. Therefore, I am 97% certain that I'll be applying to Columbia University in their early decision process, because it has a really strong math department.
My current picture of where I'll be applying
Early/rolling admission schools:
[ul]
[<em>]University of Pittsburgh
[</em>]Columbia University
[<em>]Massachusetts Institute of Technology
[</em>]University of Chicago
[/ul]</p>

<p>After reading my information, can you please categorize these schools into reach, match, and safety. Specificity would be appreciated (e.g. "high match", "low reach", etc.)
[ul]
[<em>]Columbia University (ED)
[</em>]Massachusetts Institute of Technology (EA)
[<em>]University of Chicago (EA)
[</em>]Harvard University
[<em>]Princeton University
[</em>]Cornell University
[<em>]Carnegie Mellon University (CMU adcoms love my school, so we enjoy like a 60% acceptance rate at CMU)
[</em>]Emory University
[<em>]University of California, Berkeley
[</em>]University of Pittsburgh (first roll, hopefully)
[li]Boston University[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>GPA
*UW 3.81
*W 4.55?</p>

<p>SAT I
[ul]
[<em>]R: 710
[</em>]M: 760
[<em>]W: 760
[</em>]Composite: 2230. I'm pretty disappointed but I'm retaking in October.
[/ul]</p>

<p>SAT II
[ul]
[<em>]Math IIC: 800
[</em>]World History: .....<em>whisper</em> 620
[li]Took US Hist. and Physics in June, but they were both questionable for me, so I won't put any estimations.[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>General Academic Info
My school has been ranked the best school in PA by test scores and it's definitely the best in western PA. It doesn't do class rank, and although it stopped giving deciles to colleges, I'm top 10%, though that won't show on the transcript.
My class has over 350 people with like 15% Asians and 12% Indians (included in Asians).
We also usually send 3-5 kids to the Ivies. This year we had 3 into Penn, 2 into Cornell, 1 Stanford, and 1 Brown. In the end, 1 is going to Penn, and another is going to Stanford but the rest of them are pretty much all going to Notre Dame.
I finished my IB MYP certificate last year and I'm currently on track to finish my IB Diploma. I did all Honors MYP classes freshman and sophomore years, and this year I'm taking:
[ul]
[<em>]IB English HL
[</em>]AP US History
[<em>]IB Math HL / AP Calc. BC (same actual class for both sets of students)
[</em>]IB Computer Science SL
[<em>]Theory of Knowledge (TOK)
[</em>]Journalism/Newspaper
[<em>]IB Physics HL
[</em>]IB Spanish HL
[/ul]</p>

<p>Personal
*Asian (Indian)
*Male
*Income bracket: Between $100,000 to $120,000
*Both parents went to graduate school.</p>

<p>EC's
Sports
[ul]
[<em>]JV Cross Country in 9th and 10th grade. Varsity next year.
[</em>]Varsity indoor track in 9th and 10th grade, did not letter. Had to stop running seriously indoor because of tendonitis, Osgood-Schlatters, and some Achilles' heel problems.
[<em>]Varsity outdoor track in 9th grade, did not letter.
[</em>]Ultimate Frisbee: Varsity 10th and 11th grades. Team got 3rd place in the state of Pennsylvania.
[/ul]</p>

<p>Speech and Debate
I'm president of my school's speech and debate team, and I was vice-president last year. I got third place in the state in Commentary speaking two years straight, I was invited to the Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions which I attended in 10th grade, and I was an octafinalist (top 48) at the Harvard National High School Invitational Forensics Tournament.
I also have qualified for NCFL Grand Nationals every year of high school.</p>

<p>Science and math activities
[ul]
[<em>]In 9th and 10th grades, I performed a total of 80 hours of research at the Pittsburgh Bacteriophage Institute of the University of Pittsburgh.
[</em>]In 9th grade and 11th grade, I received 1st place and Perfect Score at the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Sciences, at both Regional and State levels (which only 25 students get). In 11th grade I was also sponsored by some industrial engineering society called INFORMS and I won the Director's Award for Mathematics.
[<em>]In 9th grade, I got 2nd place in the Earth/Space/Environment category of the Pittsburgh Regional Science and Engineering Fair, and my work was sponsored by the Air and Space Management Association, Western PA chapter.
[</em>]I'm the president of the Science Club at school.
[<em>]I'm a member of the Western Pennsylvania American Regions Mathematics League (ARML) team.
[</em>]In 9th grade, I was the grade champion in the American Mathematics Contest (AMC).
[<em>]Member of the Senior Math League team with got 2nd in Western Pennsylvania.
[</em>]Top 5 scorer (in school) in the Pennsylvania Math League.
[<em>]In the Moody's Mega Math Challenge, my team was a national semifinalist (i.e. we made the first triage round).
[</em>]I was an apprentice with the Carnegie Science Center in affiliation with Carnegie Mellon University in Robotics.
[li]In NASA and MIT's ZeroRobotics Heliospheres competition, my school's team which I was a member of was a national finalist. Our code was used on the International Space Station.[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Non-science activities
[ul]
[<em>]Features editor for newspaper in 10th grade, news editor this year. I am competing with another guy for Editor in-Chief next year, but at this point I think he's going to get the spot.
[</em>]Running for NHS Treasurer, but I probably won't win.
[<em>]As a poet, I've been published twice (once in a school anthology and once in the Ralph Munn Creative Writing Anthology.
[</em>]I'm assistant treasurer in the Indian Youth Organization.
[<em>]Alternate member of the Academic WorldQuest team which made it to Nationals in DC.
[</em>]Member of the Hometown Hi-Q (quiz bowl) team.
[li]I am currently a Congressional Award Bronze Medalist; I hope to turn this into silver by October.[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Community service
[ul]
[<em>]I tutor a middle school standardized testing class every Sunday, for a total of roughly 60 hours.
[</em>]With the Indian Youth Organization, I've spent 25 hours this past year in community service activities.
[li]In the end of 9th grade, I founded a community service organization named the Zoom Foundation. We recycle lightly used wheelchairs, crutches, walkers, and other medical devices from our area and send them to other places. At the end of 10th grade, we gave 30+ devices to Haiti and Guatemala. We have some level of federal recognition at this point, and we are organizing a major race this year around Halloween weekend, which is projected to earn us $2000 more than the $1000 that we currently have raised.[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Summer Activities
[ul]
[<em>]In the summer before 9th grade, I attended a selective Animatronics program at Robert Morris University.
[</em>]In the summer before 10th grade, I attended the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Sciences summer workshops.
[<em>]In the summer before 11th grade, I went to Texas A&M University's Summer Mathematics Research Training (SMaRT) Camp which was pretty awesome. Though it has a 16% acceptance rate, it doesn't have much national recognition.
[</em>]For the summer before 12th grade, I will be an independent fellow at the Simons Summer Research Program in NY.
[/ul]</p>

<p>If you could evaluate my list of colleges and assess the feasibility of each, that would be awesome. Any suggestions for adding or removing colleges to/from the list would also be spectacular.</p>

<p>Give me a link and I promise to chance back!</p>

2

<p>First of all, a 2230 is literally about 15 questions shy of a perfect score. Adcoms should know that. Sure, definitely try to improve, but don’t be disappointed.</p>

<p>That said, Princeton and Harvard, I believe, require 3 SAT IIs. Get 720 or so+ on another two and your test scores are good.</p>

<p>ECs, obviously, are excellent.</p>

<p>GPA is good, try to keep improving it if you can.</p>

<p>The rest depends upon having exceptionally good essays and exceptionally good recommendations.</p>

<p>Columbia University (ED)- low-mid reach
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (EA)- they’re very sensitive with math scores, so as it stands, mid-high reach. if you get SAT I math up another 10-20 points (answer one more question right) probably about a mid reach
University of Chicago (EA) - low-mid reach
Harvard University- high reach, like for everyone else
Princeton University- high reach, like for everyone else
Cornell University- high match-mid reach, ivies are all difficult to say
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU adcoms love my school, so we enjoy like a 60% acceptance rate at CMU)- given that statistic and that you appear to be reasonably competitive within your high school, I’d say low mach-mid match
Emory University- mid match
University of California, Berkeley- high match
University of Pittsburgh (first roll, hopefully)- safety
Boston University- high safety-high match</p>

3

<p>Thanks imasophomore. Also, I got a 221 PSAT and I got the commended letter from my school’s guidance office, and they said that I’m being considered for semifinalist.</p>

4

<ul>
<li>Columbia University (ED) - low reach, good chance, maybe high match, just maybe

<ul>
<li>Massachusetts Institute of Technology (EA) - not happening</li>
<li>University of Chicago (EA) - low reach ish</li>
<li>Harvard University - not happening</li>
<li>Princeton University - not happening</li>
<li>Cornell University - low reach</li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon University (CMU adcoms love my school, so we enjoy like a 60% acceptance rate at CMU) - match </li>
<li>Emory University - high match</li>
<li>University of California, Berkeley - match, high match ish</li>
<li>University of Pittsburgh (first roll, hopefully) - no question here</li>
<li>Boston University - no question here</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>

<p>CHANCE BACK! <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1159533-yale-ea-chance.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1159533-yale-ea-chance.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

5

<p>sorry, not happening sounds too harsh, let’s go with high reach, especially with some good essays you have a chance, but if you’re applying ED to columbia, don’t worry about the other ones, you’ve got a good chance there</p>

6

<p>You have okay chances. I also think MIT and Princeton are high reaches for you but it’s possible. Have you made the AIME?</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Why pick Notre Dame over those schools? Also, if they would pick Notre Dame over those schools why would they even apply there?</p>

7

<p>If you are best in Western PA, how do you only send 5ish to Ivies. My school isn’t even that good and we send a good 13 kids every year to Ivies.</p>

8

<p>With the Notre Dame part, I don’t know why the kids tend to choose it. One of my friends got equal $$ at Cornell and Notre Dame, but chose Notre Dame because it had better weather and a nicer campus. Plus, my school is pretty heavily Catholic and very sports-centric, so that could play into ND’s advantage.
13 students being sent to Ivies annually is incredible. Unless you go to a top prep school (e.g. Phillips Exeter, Andover, Choate Rosemary, etc.) or an uber-selective public school (TJHSST, NCSSM, TAMS) you must have really good guidance counselors with connections.
I think that total, we got 4 students admitted to Penn, two into Cornell, one into MIT, and one into Brown (but she’s going to Penn), and one into Stanford. Of that total, only 4 are actually going to one of those schools. From my understanding, these numbers are pretty standard amongst the top public schools in PA.</p>

9

<p>Did you qualify for AIME ?</p>

10

<p>Not qualifying for AIME has been a huge disappointment for me throughout high school. Every year I get within 10 points, but for some reason I fail when it comes to the AMC.</p>

11

<p>I mean, gpa/SAT/class rank aren’t the strongest. SAT I & II should be retaken for higher scores. ECs are good, except academics are the primary criteria and a 3.81 is probably not good enough for Columbia (which i believe is tougher to get into than MIT for RD). Everything except HPMC should be low reaches/ matches/ safeties.</p>

12

<p>As an update, it turns out that my true reported GPA was 3.79, not 3.81.</p>

<p>I also got a superscored SAT of 2310 and was a Simons Summer Research Fellow at Stony Brook University. Most recently I was a Siemens Competition Regional Finalist and I got to go to MIT and meet admissions officers, so that was a defining experience.</p>

<p>I am now stuck on whether or not I should withdraw from Columbia (and take my chances with MIT) or not, but I am currently undecided.</p>

13

<p>MIT and Princeton tend to be a bit more numbers-driven, compared to Columbia & Harvard. Your updated stats/achievements will probably make you more competitive for MIT this time around (although that World History score…yikes!), so I would probably go ahead at withdraw if MIT truly is your first choice.</p>

<p>REALLY High reaches:
Princeton
Harvard</p>

<p>Mid-high reach:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (EA)
University of Chicago (EA)*
*predicting a deferral for UChicago unless essays were outstanding</p>

<p>Low reach:
Columbia
Cornell</p>

<p>In everywhere else…</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1229012-chance-aspiring-hypster.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1229012-chance-aspiring-hypster.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;