Hi all, this is actually my first post on cc even though I frequently come on here, as I just made my account. I was wondering what my chances were to colleges such as Yale and Columbia, both of whom admit students from my high school intermittently. I’m currently a junior, and as I’m from an IB school and full IB I’m aware that my grades will waiver but as of now it is a 4.0. My rank, as of now, is 16/294 (yikes). I have taken the world history Subject Sat II and received a 780, and I plan to take the Biology E/M and Math 2 since MIT requires them (lol). I am vice president of my school’s robotics team, was JV captain of my school history bowl team and we’ve been to nationals twice so far, and I volunteer at my city’s historical society as part of a collaboration where I am one of 6 cataloguers in a local museum. I also won three medals at a Science Olympiad regional event but dropped it this year because I forgot to go the first meeting lol. I also founded a film society at my school to raise awareness of film history and cinematography in general :). I also do clubs that work to volunteer in science-based facilities. Outside of school, I do various programs/take classes at institutions like at Fordham Law and the New York Historical Society, and participate in at research Columbia Medical Center’s labs. I feel like I’m still lacking (I have yet to win the teenage equivalent of a nobel peace prize) but I’d like some feedback on what my chances are so far, even though it is kind of early. Thanks
Oh yes, I also got a 5 on the AP History exam and that’s the only AP course my school offered for the first two years…I’m thinking of applying early and I know that junior year is early too but I just want to be prepared, everything is such a crapshoot nowadays.
As a newbie poster to College Confidential, welcome!
FWIW: Yale and Columbia are almost at opposite ends of educational philosophy. Most students who would be happy at Yale would be absolutely miserable at Columbia and vice-versa, so my initial thought is you are chasing prestige rather than fit – and you haven’t clearly looked in depth at what either school offers.
Columbia prides itself on it’s core-curriculum, which gives every student from the 1930’s to present the same commonality of courses. For some students though, it’s very much like high school – you MUST, MUST MUST take these specific courses during your freshman and sophomore years – there is no deviation and very little room for electives (at least during your 1st and 2nd year in college): http://www.college.columbia.edu/core/
Contemporary Civilization
Literature Humanities
University Writing
Art Humanities
Music Humanities
Frontiers of Science
Yale’s Liberal Arts requirements are met by selecting courses from a broad range of electives that include writing, quantitative reasoning, foreign language, humanities and arts, sciences and social sciences. Unlike Columbia, Yale does not dictate which courses a student must take; each student gets to pick and choose from a basket of possibilities: http://yalecollege.yale.edu/academics/academic-requirements/distributional-requirements-chart
As you haven’t done your due diligence, my guess is that Columbia would be a better fit for you as you, as you seem to be the type of student that needs to be told what to do and how high to jump.
First off, thank you for replying, and I’ll admit I wasn’t aware that Yale and Columbia students were at such opposite ends of the spectrum. I am familiar with both curricula, and as a New Yorker Columbia has prestige equal to Yale and if anything is more convenient due to its proximity- that, and so many people. I know are aiming for it. It’s also really beautiful area and I’ve only heard good things about the Core. I have visited Yale and I really fell in love with the campus and people, and one of the reasons I began considering it is because of the Liberal Arts curriculum that’s so much less restrictive than Columbia’s. While the core classes at Columbia are no doubt interesting, I really appreciate the freedom Yale offers so I could take Astronomy one Semester and Art the next and they both count towards the requirements. I have spent some time looking at both colleges and am leaning toward Yale just because of that, but again Columbia is right here in New York and the couple times I visited I really loved it as well. That being said, I find it really interesting that I seem the kind of person whose hand needs to be held, but then I doubt I’d be a fit at either university.
@kayane I think as a HS junior you can be excused for not having known every possible thing about Yale and Columbia before posting a question. Having visited both schools is a good start. That said, it sounds to me like you have about as good a chance as any other applicant, which is hard to quantify since their acceptance rates are so low. You did not mention your SAT I or ACT scores, but I’m assuming they will be in the ballpark of other comparable applicants.
I’m a New Yorker too (in fact I live very close to Columbia University) and I agree the prestige factor between Columbia and Yale is about equal. However, you need to STOP focusing on prestige. What do you want to study? Does Columbia have the best professors in your area of interest? Does Yale? Does Columbia have the better overall program for your interests? Or does Yale? Or does another university? For example, the less prestigious NYU offers a better undergraduate program in film, acting and business than either Columbia or Yale. So you really need to focus MORE on what each college offers rather than the prestige factor. Heck, Harvard and Stanford have more prestige than either Yale or Columbia, but those schools may not be the best “fit” for you. To wit: My daughter was admitted to Georgetown, Northwestern, Wesleyan and Harvard. She chose Harvard because of the prestige, however it was an awful fit. She would have been much happier at Northwestern or Georgetown but when she was 18 no amount of pleading could get her to ignore the more prestigious name. The end result: she attended Harvard and had the worst 4 years of her life; she will never return for a reunion and couldn’t wait to graduate and leave the school behind. Be forewarned!
And for the ones who don’t think so, they are just wrong.
@gibby is absolutely right in saying that prestige should not be the first thing to consider. Full disclosure, I have no horse in this game; I applied to neither Columbia nor Yale, but each was eliminated for very different reasons. Which school is best for you really depends upon you, and what you interests and future plans are.
As for chances, really nobody can accurately chance you, especially without test scores. But you seem to be on a solid track. Good luck.
For the prestige thing, I just mean to say that I view both equally so that’s not what is making me choose one over the other… and I have family who actually went to NYU for Film Studies, so it is definitely a college I’m applying to and admire. Thank you, by the way, I feel slightly better because on paper I don’t have a lot of EC’s. I’ll be taking the SAT in June, and hopefully the ACT too, and as Yale has the higher median score I’ll be trying to go for above that. As for Harvard and Stanford, I agree, I’m kind of iffy about applying to those schools because even if I manage to get in I wouldn’t really fit there. I’ve been looking at the programs I’m interested in, and while Columbia does offer the dual Ba/BS degree, that would take a year longer when Yale offers more flexible programs (to my knowledge).
