Chance of acceptance?

vanillabeeny
Sat, 23 Jun 2007 11:34:01 +0000

I’m in pretty much the same boat as you, warhol. Except I really don’t know which school (college or SEAS) to apply to. I honestly like both equally, and I am equally interested in a Chemical Engineering major as I am a Chemistry major. SEAS takes a larger percent of applicants, and apparently more people off of the waitlist. Would someone who got in take a look at my sats and give their opinion on which they think I’d have a better chance at? Thanks. (Oh, and btw, I’m applying no matter what-- Columbia has always been my dream school, even if I have no chance of getting it. I just need to decide which school to apply to).

Stats:
SAT: math 760, reading 730, writing 710 (9 essay)
SAT II (which I’m retaking in October): math IIC 760, chem 680, french 640. I will definitely be bringing Chem up a lot.
GPA: 3.667 UW, 4.5 W
Rank: Doesn’t rank, but my counselor sends a letter saying that I’m in the “top 2% of the county”… out of my grade, probably 35/551
AP: Took the Calc BC, English Lit&Comp, Chem, and Physics E&M and probably passed (4 or 5) on the first three, but I’m very worried about physics…
IB: I’m in the IB program at my school, and my higher levels are Chemistry, Math, and History
National Merit Commended or SemiFinalist (don’t know yet)

Subjective:
My teachers like me, so I figure I’d get pretty good recommendations, and my counselor has known me for the past 3 years (I made sure to go into his office and talk to him often).

Location/Person:
State or Country: FL
School Type: Magnet Public, very competitive, one of the top IB Programs in the nation
Ethnicity: White, american parents, canadian grandparents
Gender: Female
Income: 150,000+
Hooks: NOT first in family to go, my sister is in college, my dad graduated from SUNY at Albany… so… pretty much I look terrible and boring

My problem is that I don’t have one of the “hooks” everyone talks about. I’ve been in Mu Alpha Theta (Math honors club) since 9th grade, I helped start a book club in 10th grade, french club 9th grade and french honor society in 11th (and this year), and I do backstage work for the Drama club since beginning of last year. But I’m not exactly the most popular person in school, and since I’m in a magnet school, everyone wants leadership positions for college, so I don’t really have any. What I’m hoping looks pretty good is my 400+ hours (about 8 to 16 hours a week during the summer, and school breaks) volunteering at the Veterans Affairs Hospital since before 9th grade, and my (when I graduate) six years of french. I’ve seen people get in with worse scores than mine, but better ECs, and I’ve seen people rejected or waitlisted with amazing scores but ECs similar to mine.

If I like SEAS and College equally, and I’m a math/science kid with not amazing scores, which one should I apply to? The 11% acceptance or the 25% acceptance but requiring an 800 math SAT score?