looney

I am now a senior in Beijing, and i was on an exchange program to a private school in D.C., here are my academic stats:
SAT1 - 2330 ; Math -800; CR- 750; Writing - 780
SAT2 - MATH2 - 800; Physcis - 800; Chem - 800
GPA : my current school in Beijing does not do GPA, but i am top 5% of my class.
while i was an exchange student in D.C. for a year, i got 3.86 (unweighted) - probably the highest GPA in my class.

The exchange program offered a full scholarship (it's very selective) to one of the top private schools in America. i, at age 16, lived with three host families and lived in a foreign country for a year.

back in china, i was elected class president.

i brought the idea of 'yearbook' to china, and became the editor of the yearbook of my class.

i am also an avid writer and i am the chief editor of a school paper and magazine. i was elected the president of young writers' association.

i founded a "cultural club", where we introduce different cultures and invite speakers for assemblies.

i founded a workshop where all my classmates can exchange information on colleges both in and out of china. and we invite people every other week to give us info on business, medicine, law and etc. just to give everyone an idea what people do in those fields and help my classmates to actually decide what they are looking for in colleges.

Epaminondas

You are obviously talented academically. But admissions--especially admissions from your part of the world--is highly, highly selective. I would not be surprised if you were waitlisted or denied.

Your extracurriculars, while impressive, are run-of-the-mill for me. Nothing jumps out at me or grabs my attention. You need that kind of an application to get accepted from China. Obviously write a very personal and convincing essay.

Another question: are you requesting financial aid? That is very important for internationals.

looney

no i am not applying for financial aid.
according to columbia, then i will be in the same pool with applicants from the states.

confidentialcoll

^no, you still will not be. Columbia takes a handful of kids maybe ~10-15 from the whole of China each year. With international students, if you come from a well represented country say India, China, Hong Kong, Singapore then it is more difficult to get in, if you come from a country without anyone say Sierra Leone, Oman, Kazakhstan (I'm just guessing) then it'll be easier than normal. So you are at a disadvantage as epam said. Applying for FA would increase this disadvantage a little bit but not by much more.

confidentialcoll

looney, I forgot to add, I think your profile is quite impressive and that despite any disadvantages you have a good chance at Columbia. the initiative you have shown is a big plus and being elected class president might be a big deal if you go to a competitive school. Overall, if you write good essays, I think you should make it.

looney

thanks, that's very helpful information, but sad that they only take 10-15 kids from China.
but what if i am applying to Fu Foundation, the engineering school, does that make it easier or harder?
and will applying ED help?

CrookedI

Fu has a higher admissions rate, but the applicant pool is more self selective than that of the college so interpret that as you will.

Applying ED might offer a marginal benefit.

Epaminondas

^but the ED pool is more self-selecting (like what you said about SEAS). I think they've shown on the Yale forum that for those with low SATs applying SCEA actually hurts their chances.

confidentialcoll

^well seca is not the same as ed. ED definitely helps your chances, there's no way that there are three times the proportion of qualified applicants in the ed pool than in the regular pool. ED, lowers acceptance rate, lowers yeild, and guarantees columbia of a student. the Ed pool has people deeply interested in going to columbia, desire != qualification

isobell

i agree that it's harder, since u r applying from china, but i suppose your statics stand out.
but u'll need something "shiny" for your EC. i mean, they are quite impressive right now, but there's nothing that can grab my eye and make me say "WOW".

Epaminondas

^ That's a little too critical. Very few achievements and ECs are capable of having that WOW factor.
Keep in mind that the amount of schoolwork in China doesn't leave much time for extracurriculars. I think what the OP has done deserves commendation.

isobell

^i agree. having the WOW factor is not necessarily winning the Nobel prize, it's like making a difference in your community or in your personal life.
i would say write GREAT essays, use great details, then i think the OP will be in.

zephyravatar

I agree partially with Epaminondas, but I will add that international schools in China are quite similar to schools in North America. this means while schoolwork might be more intense, it is probably not to the extent that you might think.

not bad though. tough competition but at least you're competitive.

isobell

^i don't think the OP goes to an international school. at least she or he haven;t mentioned anything like that.
school work is generally pretty intense in china - much more compared to most schools in America.

zephyravatar

OP went on an exchange program to a private school in the US
OP has great english.
these two facts strongly suggest international school (public schools simply don't have the funds to give good english education or so many non-academic ECs). I cannot say that I am sure, but it is a reasonable assumption

yes, schoolwork is quite intense. but as you probably know, admissions rate for China is quite low. and the "workload" argument can't be that convincing, workloads vary greatly in the US too.

of course, both my points don't really comment on the real question, which is whether the OP is competitive or not, and he/she is.