@skieurope yeah i understand that, i was just confused as to why they didn’t add a timezone to those letters to let those applicants figure out whether or not Dec 14 is even the date that they will receive it (because it might differ due to their location)
@mooseyellow I’m definitely applying to Barnard if I get deferred/rejected. My friend goes there and she LOVES it.
my financial aid document portal thingy went away too…
we can add princeton to Wednesday, alot of my friends just got an email today saying that’s when they will be getting their decisions. btw, i just joined. really stressed out about these decisions.
@birjudhaduk Same. Everyone is nervous but at this point all of our decisions are made and it’s just a matter of waiting for Columbia to release them. I’m having a hard time taking my own advice but for now, we just gotta forget about it and wait until the 14th or whenever they decide to release them.
That’s so weird to think about. Just the fact that somewhere in New York there is a person who knows if you are into Columbia or not is crazy to me.
@slytherinballet I’m glad to hear that your friend likes it… I’m still on the fence about Barnard. I don’t actually know anyone who goes to Barnard (or Columbia for that matter) so it’s nice hearing that actual people like it (if that makes sense).
I agree with @katewithak about not being able to love Barnard. I visited earlier this year when I was in NYC and I wasn’t feeling it. An admissions officer came to my school this fall which is the only reason that I’m probably applying.
I’ll probably warm up to it though, especially if I’m rejected ED 
@RoarLions Bruh, you are literally set. If I had to choose, I’d say u will get accepted, no questions asked. Everyone seems to place excessive importance on the sat or act and this really isn’t necessary. Your GPA will by far outweigh your act score. A single test you took in 4 hours on a certain Saturday is nothing compared to an overview of everything you have done concerning academics throughout your high school career. They aren’t looking for perfect students. They are looking for well-rounded ones, and you have more than just proven that you are one of them.
@NateCoul23 I’ve been trying exactly that for the past week but I find myself checking anything and everything Columbia related at least 3 times a day
@birjudhaduk just something small i wanted to point out –– ivy league colleges are definitely looking for specialized students over most well-rounded ones; this isn’t because having many interests is bad, but because they’re looking to form a well-rounded class by accumulating a ton of individuals who are specialized in a specific field (if that makes sense)
@birjudhaduk also, youre right that colleges dont want perfect students, but each college wants to maintain its relative “prestige” by typically choosing candidates who are within their range. its absolutely possible to get in without being in the range (happens all the time), but it’s a little misleading to say the SAT and ACT are just tests. these tests level the playing field so you can be compared to other students because some schools are harder and some are easier. i would definitely take a 3.7 GPA with a 36 because that probably means his school is pretty challenging. GPA doesn’t always tell the whole story
@1984ad true, makes sense. I guess I never really looked at it that way. where are you from
Anyone up for a quick chance me to decrease and/or increase my anxiety?
Demographics: White, high family income, private school. LGBT but semi-closeted so it doesn’t mean much, touched on it in application briefly.
Intended Major: Computer Science in Columbia College (+ Physics/PoliSci major)
Schools: Columbia ED (Hooks: won MIT AI competition with team of Columbia freshmen, relationships with several professors, legacy through mother, father is a mentor for their graduate program), also "Stan"ford, Harvard, UC Hicago, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, UC Berkeley, NYU
Academics:
- School: Competitive boarding/day prep school, 600 students, reputation for liberal arts, 10+ people to top 20s each year
- UW GPA: 3.84-3.9 depending on first quarter senior grades, school doesn’t weight so this is largely an estimate
- Rank: unranked but counselor hinted top 5/123. Since unweighted, I might be the top student accounting for course difficulty
- APs: Chem (Soph, 4), World History (Soph, 4), Macro/Micro (5, Jr), APUSH (5, Jr), AP Comp Sci A (5, Jr), AP Biology (5, Jr), AP English Lang (5, Jr) | AP Physics C Mech/E&M (Sr), AP English Lit (Sr), AP Euro (Sr), AP Calculus BC (Sr)
- ACT: 35
- SAT II: Math 2 790
Extracurriculars (Strongest Point):
- Co-Captain Vex Robotics Team 3 years, won highest individual team award at nationals, helped build new program and train members, wrote all code and wrote design notebook, 7+ state awards
- MUN Co-President (Sr), Secretary (Jr) 4 years, first non-senior club officer in club history, largest club on campus, top 25 program in the country according to BestDelegate.com, won 3 individual awards, coached mentees to 10 awards
- Internships 3 years, interned in multiple NYC Tech companies building cluster computing systems, warehouse logistics system, worked on a data science team, only high school intern all years
- Student Researcher 2 years, did novel computational biology research with professor, pre-pub manuscript
- Computer Science Projects 4 years, top 10/1000 teams MIT Battlecode AI competition, won hackathons, design physics sims
- Captain Math Modeling 4 years, 13-120 hour applied math competitions, Nat Finalist/Finalist in several, first freshman team in school history to place
- Co-Founder/Co-Captain Debate Team 3 years, started debate program, got funding, won local tournaments, finalist at several national tournaments
- National Director of Technology for youth civic engagement org 1 year, largest student-run org in US
- Co-Captain History Bowl, 2 years, founded team, top 25 at nationals our first year, won 3 NYS tournaments
Letters of Rec:
- Counselor and I are bros, hang out with him and his kids all the time, said my letter wrote itself
- AP English teacher. Had strong relationship with me, emphasizes non-STEM side of me, she’s a published writer with very good letters in the past
- AP Bio teacher. Like a second mother to me, her letter made me cry
- Head of the School, she and I are really close and she loves me. Have fundraised for the school extensively
Essays:
- Common App: wrote about being the worst person in MUN but finding a role through being a mentor, very honest about my failures (8/10)
- Supplements: Labored hard for Columbia. Why Columbia essay talked about the people I’ve met there and what they mean to me. Talked about Physics professor who inspired me. Study topic essay talked about my passion for Artificial Intelligence and gave metaphor as to how it works (9/10)
Honors:
Renseselear Medal for STEM achievement (School)
Cum Laude (School honor society, top 6 students in grade)
Oberlin Book Award for Highest Academic Standing in English (School)
National AP Scholar
@LtntHawkeye Let’s just say seeing this has just increased my anxiety by at least 100 times. That should answer your question.
@LtntHawkeye i think you have a good shot, and im sure everyone else here would agree, but i’d rather not have this thread turn into a bunch of chance-mes because it’ll just make everyone more stressed out. lots of people would love to chance you if you posted in either in the chancing section of CC or in the general columbia section
@birjudhaduk i’m from NY (not the city)
agreed about the chancing thing
honestly, at this point, the only “chance me” that matters is the one by the admissions officers that you’ll see next week
@mooseyellow haha i agree! it’s crazy that our decisions have been made at this point. like, someone sat down, read our essays, learned about our lives, and then made a decision. it’s mind boggling to know that the decision is just sitting somewhere on some files and servers in Morningside Heights, waiting for next week.
it’s like Schrodingers application––both accepted and rejected :))
Yeah please no more chancing! No need to flex your resume when it’s already been decided, everyone here seems incredibly qualified and at this point, it’s really a game of luck. So be confident in yall’s accolades and accomplishments, to even ED to Columbia shows you are all outstanding students. It’s out of our hands now, so let it be.
just finished watching mother!, I highly recommend it if you’re looking for something to get your mind off of decision day…