Columbia Chances for a lazy kid

Colleges & Universities Columbia University
1

<p>incredibly lazy caucasian junior from Midwest</p>

<p>school uses blocking, and no the school isn’t difficult. I’m incredibly lazy.</p>

<p>GPA 9-11: 3.68W(awful weighing system: 4.333 for an A in an AP)
GPA 10-11: 3.938W(again, lol)
Freshmen:3.196UW(no AP, 1 Honor)</p>

<p>Sophomore:3.791(no AP, no Honor)[1Ap and 1 Honor was offered]</p>

<p>Junior: most AP anyone took
English 3: A/A-
*Pre AP Physics B: A/A
*AP US History: B+/B/A-
*Pre AP Calc AB: A/A
*AP Biology: A/A
*AP Statistics: A/A
Speech III: A
Spanish: A/A</p>

<p>*:Weighed course, A=4.333 A-=4.0 B+=3.667, etc</p>

<p>Class Rank: at the moment, probably top 12%. I’ll hopefully get to the 10% after the first semester of senior year(based off of an assumption that I won’t be lazy…)</p>

<p>ACT: 34
SAT: 2300
SAT II: 790US, 770 Biology, 800 Math IIC
PSAT 220</p>

<p>AP Tests: At least a 4 on Bio and US(only took those)</p>

<p>ECs:
*Speech and Debate 3 Years LD Debate, nats qualifier
*Medical Club 3 Years
*AIME (like it means anything, right?)
*Stanford Debate Camp - Advanced Seminar
*Attending JSA Georgetown Session - Advanced program
[If I like JSA, I’ll probably start a JSA chapter at my school…]
*NHS 3 years
*Internship at a local Law firm</p>

<p>My ECs reflect interest in politics, while my grades reflect interest in math & science… @_@</p>

<p>Should I even bother with Columbia?</p>

2

<p>Write a good essay and get good recommendations, and you’ll have as a good a chance as anyone.</p>

3

<p>“*Internship at a local Law firm”</p>

<p>What are your duties? How did you get this job? Is it paid? This is what I am trying to get my hands on, but its very difficult where I live (smaller town).</p>

4

<p>Check your PMs…/can I have chances? =)</p>

5

<p>chances are good, and they will be even better if you can raise your gpa/rank a little bit.</p>

6

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<p>Why would you want to? You’ll just be doing the most mind-numbing clerical work.</p>

7

<p>You can bother but you probably wont get in.</p>

8

<p>“Why would you want to? You’ll just be doing the most mind-numbing clerical work.”</p>

<p>Hows wiping down tables for mind numbing? Thats what I’ll be back doing if I can’t figure something wiithin the next month or so. I’m interested in being involved with law, and I realize that MY job could be boring, but the experience will give me a chance to be around lawyers in a daily, realistic environment. That way if I do want to go in that direction, it will be for all of the right reasons, not for some idealistic fantasies composed of John Grisham/A Few Good Men courtroom drama.</p>

9

<p>yea, i agree… u gotta start somewhere…rarely does one start at the top making a difference right away…u gotta be the ■■■■■■ before you get to make others your biatches.</p>

10

<p>You could become a prostitute.</p>

11

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<p>You won’t be around lawyers in a “daily, realistic environment.” You’ll be working for someone who does mind-numbing clerical work (a paralegal or records clerk perhaps) doing all the sh**work they don’t want to do. You likely won’t be associating with any lawyers or getting a chance to see what kind of work they do.</p>

<p>Wiping tables would probably be less mind-numbing. And the customers won’t treat you badly.</p>

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<p>This is total BS. You don’t have to be the 18 year old ■■■■■■ getting sh** on in the records room at a law firm to become some high-powered attorney. You become a high-powered attorney by getting into a good law school, doing well, etc., none of which involves that sort of starting somewhere.</p>

<p>Unless he has some marketable skill/talent, he’ll likely have to get a crappy job for now. He should find one that he could tolerate, and he ought to know what he’d be getting into.</p>

12

<p>Can you leverage your debate experience? It seems reasonably impressive.</p>

<p>Parental economics situation?</p>

<p>Your GPA is low, but your SATI/II is obviously very good. You’ve got a legitimate chance.</p>

13

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<p>well to get into a good law school (or good grad school in any field) you need to have relevant experience and a job like OP’s can get his foot in the door for future oppertunities by making some connections…i mean come on noone has any marketable skills in HS…i think its a good start and at least some exposure (however minimal) to the field he is interrested in</p>

14

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<p>No you don’t, particularly for law school. And, as I explained above, he’s not going to make good connections doing the sh**work at the bottom of the barrel.</p>

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<p>Plenty do – computer/IT skills, tutoring, writing/editing, etc. </p>

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<p>The point is that likely won’t give him any exposure to anything more than what he’d get at any other non-law mind-numbing clerical job.</p>

15

<p>Wonderful derailing. heh… any chances?</p>

16

<p>I’ll have a 3.75 by the time I apply to Columbia(projected)
My rank should then be in the top 10%. Assuming I write good essays and have good recommendations, do I have a good chance? Oh, and if I’m undecided on whether or not I want to do engineering(My grades are stronger toward sciences, but my ECs and real interests are toward politics and CC… which would I have a stronger advantage at?)</p>

17

<p>none of us are experts on the intricacies of columbia admissions, but i would hope that columbia would weight GPA over test scores, considering that you’ve worked four years on your GPA and you just took a test one day of your life and might’ve had a good day. assuming that’s correct, i would say that you have a lot of work to do to get yourself into schools like columbia. remember that you’re competing against students who have the same test scores but also have the 4.0 GPA. as for your engineering question, if you are truely interested in politics, than you should apply to CC. it’s just as competitive to get into SEAS, so you shouldn’t apply there just because you think you might have a better chance. if you’re leaning towards politics, don’t narrow your choices. or look for a school that doesn’t have a separate engineering school, just an engineering major. that way you have time to decide if engineering is for you.</p>

18

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<p>They’re both important. Standardized tests are important because they’re, um, standardized. It gives context to the GPA, which is a product of grade inflation/declation, gradegrubbing / cheating that goes on at high schools, etc.</p>