Good enough for CC/SEAS?

Arsenal4vr · July 18, 2011, 12:29am

Chinese Male (living in HK)
Lived in London for 3 years
Not Applying for Financial Aid

Projected Cumulative GPA (Unweighted) 4.0/4.0

SATs: 2100-2300 (Depending on how much I prep, probably 2200+ if I invest time)

APs (All 5s):
Microeconomics
Macroeconomics
US Government and Politics
Comparative Government and Politics

Calculus BC
Statistics

Biology
Chemistry
Physics B

Chinese Language and Culture

Senior Year APs:
Physics C
Environmental Science
Psychology

Self Study: Multivariable Calculus

Should I self-study APES and AP Psychology and take AP World and AP Human Geo even though I may not get an A in AP World? Should I take AP English if I know I will not get an A or a 5 on the AP Exam?

ECs:
Math and Science Center (Leader - 2 Years)
TA

Sports:
Tennis (Recreational - Twice a week)

Music:
Piano (10 years…dropped Freshman year - Should I include this and just say 10 years?)
Violin (3 years…dropped Freshman year - Should i include this and just say 3 years?)

Service:
NHS
Cheshire Home - Elderly Home for the Disable (Hong Kong Hospital Authority) (Leader)
Z Club (Director - 2 Years)
UNICEF
Heifer (Leader - 1 Year)
Interim (One week long school service trips - incl. India and South Africa)
Teach Elementary School Students English (Bring a class of Freshman) (Leader - 4 years)

Job Experience:
Kumon Instructor (After I completed the program in Freshman year) of English and Mathematics - Twice a week for 3-4 hours each time

Internship:
Summer after Junior year

Awards:
COMAP High School Contest in Mathematical Modeling (National Outstanding)
Mathematics Department Award
Science Department Award
Bausch Lomb Award (Possibly - Partial Scholarship for Rochester University)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Award (“”)

AIME…75th Percentile

I think my ECs and awards are VERY weak for top colleges.

What are my chances to Columbia College and SEAS? ED? RD?
Where would I place percentile-wise amongst the students accepted to CC/SEAS?

Arsenal4vr · July 21, 2011, 5:22pm

I am considering applying ED to Columbia.

Would it be a waste of my ED? Do I have a reasonable chance of getting in?

I still have one more year to apply, what should I do to make my EC’s stand out more?

How much would qualifying for the USAMO help me? I think I am at a level where if I did some preparation work, my chances for USAMO would go up by a lot.

PrincetonDreams · July 24, 2011, 4:31pm

Assuming you achieve a 2250:

With ED to SEAS I think you have an amazing chance. ED at CC, chances are still good, but it could go either way. Will depend on how good of a fit you are for either school.

Arsenal4vr · July 24, 2011, 8:05pm

I think my courses are leaning more towards the SEAS side. I can definitely achieve a 2250 as long as I invest a bit of time and effort into my SAT. I am likely going to ED to SEAS, and then EA to UChicago and Caltech. Hopefully, I will get into Columbia because I like the college, its core and it also has the NYC factor as well!

So, would Columbia be a high match, low reach or reach? Or are colleges with low admission rates always reaches to almost everyone who applies?

Princeton is my top choice, but I think my chances of getting into Princeton are quite small…

Would USAMO help a lot? A little?

Thanks!

PrincetonDreams · July 24, 2011, 8:40pm

USAMO definitely helps quite a bit.

Assuming a 2300-2400 score:

<ul>
<li>Columbia SEAS ED: High Match</li>
<li>Columbia College ED: Reach</li>
<li>Columbia SEAS RD: Reach</li>
<li>Columbia College RD: High Reach (6.4% CC acceptance rate last year; second after Harvard’s).</li>
</ul>

I think if Princeton’s really your first choice, I think you should apply SCEA there. Try to maximize your chances at your first choice school.

EDIT: You being from Hong Kong definitely reduces your chances a lot because of the insane competition from there. That said, with your current stats and a high SAT score (2300+), you still have a very good chance at getting into a top-5 school.

Arsenal4vr · July 24, 2011, 9:08pm

I will definitely try to boost my SAT and try to prep to qualify USAMO. I can’t participate it in because I am not a US citizen and HKMO is only for Sophomores or younger. I am also a Canadian citizen. But, I am not sure if my school will be willing to administer the Canadian Math Olympiad.

I think if I have a significantly better chance at Columbia, I will go for that. Especially since I can ED and EA at the same time.

I’d go for Princeton if I had better chances, but looking at the Acceptances/Rejections to Princeton on the CC Forum, my stats are lower than a lot of people who get rejected.

PaxPax · July 31, 2011, 5:24am

I think you have a good chance at Columbia. You background is obviously strong in science so it makes perfect sense if you apply to seas—very good match. Columbia College is more suitable for liberal arts students, but there are also science majors at the college: pure math, physics, bio, chem, etc. If your goal is to dig into pure sciences, write that in application and you will have equal chances getting into the college or seas

Good luck.

Arsenal4vr · July 31, 2011, 8:28pm

Based on my classes and strengths, I think it is logical for me to apply for SEAS. But I was wondering, if the chances of getting into SEAS and CC were any different in my case (where I am a student leaning towards Math and Science). At the moment, I really like math and science, but I am not sure there are very many career opportunities available. On the other hand, if I could get into CC, I could explore humanities majors with more employment opportunities. I am not as strong in Humanities, but I also am really interested in it and SEAS provides mostly Humanities degrees.

How is Columbia SEAS in comparison to the engineering programs at Stanford, MIT, Caltech and Cornell?

What are some other match and reach colleges that I should apply to for regular decision if I don’t get into Columbia?

PaxPax · August 5, 2011, 3:49am

Columbia engineering is not ranked as high as Stanford, MIT, Caltech and Cornell. But some programs at columbia engineering are obviously better than those in Stanford, MIT, Caltech and Cornell, such as the financial engineering program at Columbia SEAS which one of the top three FE programs in the world.
But for undergrads, I dont think there is much difference in in terms of education quality among columbia seas, Stanford, MIT, Caltech and Cornell. Because at undergrad engineering level kids learn the same basics but for phd programs MIT and stanford are often better than similar programs at columbia. By the way, columbia ranks 16th among the best engineering schools (according to usnews)

Good enough for CC/SEAS?

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