<p>The rest of the College Confidential forum looks at half-legitimate, half-fabricated “chance me” threads to decide whether or not they’re at par, but these people haven’t been accepted, deferred, or denied (yet). You, on the other hand, have had a response. You are now, as judged by the admissions committee, deemed worthy of entrance to Columbia University. You have nothing to lose, and you’re in a position to set the tone for this prestigious university (in the City of New York), and help others who hold the aforementioned lies dear to their hearts. Now its time to put you in the spotlight.</p>
<p>If and only if you have been accepted to Columbia University, then share your statistics (don’t skew them, you already got in to one of the best). Course load? Grades? Scores? Extracurriculars? Share the experience. Beam with pride. You know you’re smiling.</p>
<p>You can find the complete post about all of my info in the columbia ED 2017 results thread, but I for one did not have a perfect transcript. I don’t think I was even in the top 5% of my class and I got in sooo</p>
<p>I got in 2017 ED and my transcript is taking the hardest classes possible. The teachers here are all really reasonable and so far, I have yet to fail an AP exam. 
One teacher’s pass rate is about 80% and another is 70% so I think their methods work hahaha. I think over the four years, I took 10 AP Courses, 2 honors, and 6 “accelerated” courses (a step up from regular but below honors). I got mostly A’s, but there are a couple B’s. I think my GPA ended up being 4.35 weighted 3.96 unweighted and I ranked around 20/650. </p>
<p>My ECs were more modest. I founded my school’s Gay-Straight Alliance, and was an active member in the Drama club and Mock Trial. Nothing else, really. I think this might have helped since a lot of people get really involved their senior year, but these were pretty long-standing activities for me. </p>
<p>My SATs were also modest but still in line with my GPA: 2170 overall, 770 Math II and 750 Spanish w/ Listening. </p>
<p>I think I was on the “bubble,” compared to some other admits. I think what pushed me over the top were my recommendations (which I am guessing were pretty glowing) and essays (which I thought were unique and well-written).</p>
<p>Actual transcript is less impressive than the average Columbia accept but I’d like to post it for that reason exactly. Sometimes it seems like you need to take every AP class ever to get into Ivy Leagues–that’s probably true but it wasn’t for me.</p>
<p>I’m going to graduate with 7 AP courses (3 junior year, 4 senior; taking AP courses before junior year at my school is very rare) out of a total 20 offered or so and 7 Honors classes out of God knows how many–way more than 7, I can tell you that. As in, one of my friends, currently a junior, took 5 Honors courses her freshman year; I took 2. My UW GPA, which my school does not report but which I self-reported on the Common Application, was a 94.02 which means mostly As (some ludicrous A+s thrown in there, including my final grade for the year in AP Lit) although I got a straight-up B, my lowest grade throughout high school, in Honors Pre-Calculus as a semester grade, a B+ as my final grade in Honors History sophomore year, and one or two other worrying non-As interspersed throughout my freshman and sophomore years. I did have a nice upward trend-type thing going–not a single B on my junior year transcript, which also provided me with the “Top Scholar,” i.e. highest weighted GPA, award for that year–and got a 5 on my first three AP exams, though people seem to accomplish quadruple that with ease. I am ranked almost certainly in the top 3 out of a 71-person class (private school, one which happens not to report rank)–I might be valedictorian. I got a bunch of departmental awards in my sophomore and junior years which showed up on my transcript. I’d like to stress that there were a bunch of situations in which I took easier classes than were offered to me–I somehow got into Columbia without ever having to suffer through Honors Physics OR Chemistry (took the Regular classes instead), although I am taking AP Biology right now and it is awful.</p>
<p>Non-transcript-wise, my ECs were fairly strong–President of the school’s film club, Editor-in-Chief of the school newspaper, was keyboardist and songwriter for a professional band for a while, composed an original soundtrack for a high school play/occasional actor, host of a school radio show–and also sorta matched up perfectly with the rest of my application (reflected my interest in film, literature, music, etc.), my recommendations, a supplemental one of which was written by a professor at the Telluride Association Summer Program I attended, were probably very good, and my SATs (2300 combined; 800 English and 760 U.S. History) were at least in range. My essays were well-thought-out and I think evinced an actually deep knowledge of the school and what it has to offer. I think I did well on the interview. Also my dad went to business school there.</p>
<p>Normally I would think of myself as on the “bubble” as well but they named me a John Jay Scholar which they apparently only do with the best twenty or so of applicants each year.</p>