Posted about being accepted hours ago here, here’s my stats
Washington state comm college transfer, international student
College GPA: 3.95
HS GPA: 3.67
ACT: 33
TOEFL iBT: 117
Also sent in SAT II Subject tests, Physics: 710, Math II: 760, Literature: 640
Major: Computer science
Work experience: International student peer mentor, writing tutor
College ECs: Indonesian Student Organization, Sisterhood (women’s rights club), Phi Theta Kappa active member, international student orientation volunteer, volunteered for a local museum as their library admin, Sustained Dialogue club
Essays: In my CommonApp essay I mentioned about my interest in researching natural language processing using how my perception of the world/computers changed from being super binary to a field flourishing with complicated ways of thinking. For the major essay I wrote about this research class I signed up for during high school and how I worked on building a sensor aid for the blind using Arduino (I attached my extended abstract for that too). For Why Columbia I wrote about its core curriculum, activism opportunities, and NYC (and mentioned about poets of the Beat Generation). I go to a lot of concerts and I read lots of books; I mentioned a wide variety of stuff since I listen to a variety of music and read fiction, nonfiction, and creative nonfiction.
Recommendations: I got one from my English 101 instructor who recommended me from my job and one from my Physics instructor (we bonded over women in STEM and my passion for research). I also got one from my writing tutor boss. I’m pretty close to them, I guess!
Feel free if you have any questions! I am still shocked tbh wow…