<p>I’m not surprised if I don’t really match up, but I am very interested in going to Columbia and would like some input.</p>
<p>GPA: 3.76W, 3.61UW
SAT: 2110: 740CR, 670M, 700W
Subject Tests: 700USH, 720Lit
AP Classes: Taken: APUSH (4), APELanguage/Comp (5), also Honors English 2
Currently Taking: APEnviromental Science, APGov, APELiterature/Comp, APStats
Awards: None
EC: Orchestra junior year. This year I am taking journalism, and am the opinions editor, which means overseeing about 7 people each issue, as well as many extra hours laying out and such. National Honor Society. German Honor Society. German Club. Since the summer after 8th grade, I have done about 800 hours worth of work on my parent’s 8 acre flower farm and nursery (where we live) and at the local farmer’s market where we do some of our business.</p>
<p>I am confident I will have a strong essay, as this is one of my biggest strengths academically.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, but your GPA is just too low, and there’s really no excuse for it seeing as you’ve only taken two AP classes to date, correct? Your SAT score is nothing special, either, and you don’t have any particularly compelling ECs. They’re going to judge you based upon the rigor of your classes, and I just really can’t see a 3.6 GPA cutting it unless you’re somehow at the top of your class. That being said, it’s always worth putting in an application, but I wouldn’t expect anything.</p>
<p>An applicant isn’t a GPA. I think that you work on your parents farm is unusual and interesting; give applying a shot. What are you interested in studying?</p>
<p>I’m sorry if I came off overly negative, it’s just that literally all of my objective stats were better last year, and I was rejected outright despite an obvious passion for the school. But subjective factors do count as well. I wasn’t trying to discourage, but merely brace this person for a possible (probable) rejection.</p>
<p>Yeah, I have never really cared much about my grades because I have never really had to try much. What’s dragging me down is science, I think out of Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, on semester grades, I have had one C, and the rest were B’s. Most of my other grades were A’s, with some B’s. I regret not working harder, as I know I could’ve had a 4.0 or higher, I just have never really been too inspired by most of my classes. I know I also don’t have many EC’s, I guess I am wondering how workable that farm thing is. I come from a rural area, my town’s population is something like 17,000. I have lived on the flower farm all my life, and have in some way helped out my entire life, only working a lot in high school. </p>
<p>My main thing that worries me about applying to college is that my GPA is not very good. People tell me I am intelligent, and, at the risk of sounding conceited, I feel like I, as a person, would probably be a good fit to many highly selective schools, but my parents have never put that kind of pressure on me to where I would have been prepped for such a school, and I have been raised to care more about other things. I want to get as good an education as I can, this is of utmost importance to me. If not Columbia, how high should I set my sights? Also, my class rank is something like 32/176. Kinda ****ty.</p>
<p>For a school like Columbia, a 3.6 and 2110 SAT won’t cut it. You have a slim chance, maybe about 10%, but your transcript simply isn’t good enough.</p>
<p>Aim a bit lower. You will definitely get into a school like SUNY Binghamton. But Columbia is beyond your reach. </p>
<p>However, Columbia could definitely be an option for you for Graduate school. Don’t give up on it completely.</p>
<p>Well besides Columbia and U of Chicago, I’m more interested in smaller LAC’s…I live on the west coast, if I’m to go all the way to the east coast, it has to be worth it. Can you reccomend any strong LAC’s on the east coast? I know my transcript isn’t very good, but I am confident my essay and reccomendations will carry strong weight. I know this won’t be enough to balance it out, but, I just want to say that. An issue, too, is that my parents can only pay about $2000 a year for college. A main reason for my perhaps unwarranted interest in high-profile colleges is the fact that, ironically enough, for a person who comes from a family with an income like that of mine, the better colleges are often much cheaper than those below them in reputation. I essentially need a school that can help me out financially while providing the educational opportunities to enable for me the fabled social mobility supposedly present in America.</p>
<p>I should have mentioned, some of the east coast LAC’s I am interested in are Bard and Ithaca…am I shooting too low? Would it be wise to be more ambitious? Regardless of what has been said, I will probably still apply to Columbia, or Chicago. I want to be the best I can be in college.</p>
<p>I completely understand your financial reasoning. It is twisted, but true, that the schools once seen as representing the upper echelons of privilege have the best financial aid programs in the country, so much so that everything else pales in comparison. Speaking practically, you have a good shot at Bard and I would assume an even better one at Ithaca, although honestly I know next to nothing about it. But generally speaking with LACs the subjective tends to become more important, so go for the uppermost tier if you want. Try Swarthmore, Amherst, Williams. By all means, go for Columbia and Chicago as well, but be careful not to let your self-worth get tied up in the process. I did that and thus made the college application process literally one of the most traumatic of my life. That’s all that I meant by “don’t expect anything”. I don’t doubt what you have to contribute, but most admissions officers will just look at you and see less-than-standard numbers. As long as you recognize that, however hard it may be to accept, you should be able to escape relatively unscathed.</p>