Decision: Accepted - CC
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2200 (CR 700, M 800, W 700)
ACT (breakdown): 35 (E 35, M 35, R, 35, S 35)
SAT II: None
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.93
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): School does not rank
AP (place score in parenthesis):
IB (place score in parenthesis): Predicted 42/45- HL History (6), HL English (6), HL Biology (7), Economics (6), Math (7), Japanese (7), Theory of Knowledge+Extended Essay (2)
Senior Year Course Load: IB HL History, English, Biology; IB SL Economics, Math, Japanese; Multi-Faith Religion, Theory of Knowledge
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): None
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Journalism (executive editor)
Speech- performed at Tedx (multiple speech leader)
Varsity debate
Varisty swimming-nationally ranked (captain)
House Captain
Girls Athletic Association (executive)
Job/Work Experience: Internship at New York State Senator’s office
Volunteer/Community service: Hands on Tokyo (Working with mentally disabled children, retirement home, etc), Adventurers (Making food for the homeless)
Summer Activities: Brown Pre-college Program (scholarship), Oxford University Kingdom Education Program (scholarship), Global Business Program, NYU classes
Essays (rating 1-10, details):
Common App: 9/10- I started brainstorming for this from before the summer, and I wrote about 10+ different ones before narrowing it down to 1
Supplement: 9/10- Made it really personal
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): I never read them, but the teachers I asked to write my recommendations know me very well.
Teacher Rec #1: He was my biology teacher and I’ve known him since I was in 7th grade. He’s known to write really good recommendation letters.
Teacher Rec #2: He is my history and theory of knowledge teacher. History is my strongest subject, and he said that the only thing he could do more is to beg the admissions office to accept me.
Counselor Rec: I was one of the few who did early decision, so he had time to work on it a lot.
Additional Rec: State senator. He represents the district that Columbia is in, and has done some things to help Columbia. I sent a legislative proposal that I wrote as additional material.
Interview: My interviewer said that the interview is normally 30-45 minutes, but we ended up talking for nearly 2 hours. He was super cool and the interview was so much fun!
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: No
Intended Major: Political Science
State (if domestic applicant):
Country (if international applicant): Japan
School Type: Private
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: Too much to qualify for financial aid
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None
Reflection
Strengths: ACT, essays
Weaknesses: Extracurriculars and honors- There aren’t many opportunities in Japan for high schoolers to join traditionally “impressive” activities, and to participate, let alone win, any big awards
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: I appealed to the spirit of Columbia in my supplements and my common app. Because it was the first university I applied to, all my essays fit together to mold an image of me that I wanted Columbia to see.
Where else were you accepted/deferred/rejected:
General Comments: It still feels like I’m dreaming!