Official Columbia University 2016 RD Results

jayL23
Mon, 09 Apr 2012 15:43:44 +0000

Decision: Accepted (likely) - CC

Objective:[ul]
[] SAT I (breakdown): superscore 2340 (800 M, 800 CR, 740 WR). single sitting 2280 (800 M, 800 CR, 680 WR)
[] ACT:
[] SAT II:
[] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.94
[] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 3% (in my opinion, top 20% in the magnet program I am in)
[] AP (place score in parenthesis): Biology (5), Statistics (5), Calc BC (5), Comp Sci (5), US Govt (5), Eng Lang&Comp (4), Music Thy (5), Psychology (5)
[] IB (place score in parenthesis):
[] Senior Year Course Load: Multi-var Calc, AP Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, Optics, Honors English, PE. Basketball
[] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Intel STS Semifinalist, National Merit Finalist, Published in National High School Science Journal, Exploravision Honorable Mention, National AP Scholar, USABO Semifinalist
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Science National Honors Society (Founder & President), Church Youth Group (Officer), Envirothon Team (Captain), State Youth Orchestra (1st Violin), Piano (12 years), Chinese School (Senior Class Representative)
[] Job/Work Experience: Volunteer Internship at NIH, Summer Internship at Georgetown
[] Volunteer/Community service: Recognized by local Arts & Humanities Council for volunteer work at local state orchestra. Volunteer for marketing team for a music label that fuses christian themes with blues and hip-hop.
[] Summer Activities: Research Internship
[] Essays: Favorite class - Mathematical Logic class that was piloted in its first year. Other essays were pretty generic regarding an interest in biological research and why I was interested in Columbia.
[] Teacher Recommendation: : I assume they were both very general, the teachers I ask usually get a lot of requests, so I know they don’t have time to write anything super specific for me
[] Counselor Rec: not even written by my counselor - she was out on maternity leave.
[] Additional Rec: research mentor sent in a rec (probably pretty solid)
[] Interview: went well.

[/ul]Other[ul]
[] State (if domestic applicant): MD
[] Country (if international applicant):
[] School Type: Public Magnet
[] Ethnicity: Asian
[] Gender: Male
[] Income Bracket: ~$100,000
[li] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): [/li]
[/ul]Reflection[ul]
[] Strengths: Strong scores, interest in research shown by essays and ECs.
[] Weaknesses: anti-asian hook, not much leadership
[] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Worked hard on essays, and only chose to apply schools that I knew I would have a good shot at.
[] Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Accepted: Stanford, UChicago, Duke, BME at Johns Hopkins, UC Berkeley
Rejected: MIT
Waitlisted: Dartmouth

[/ul]General Comments: Surprised I got a likely, especially because they never confirmed my application update on getting Intel STS Semifinalist (I sent it to the wrong email address I think).
For future applicants, , it’s never too late to get involved in school clubs or even to start one yourself. I started my club in my senior year (even though I was later than others who got involved earlier in high school, I worked hard to really encourage what I thought was important - research and scientific inquiry. Now my club has weekly research presentations by our own members and it’s become a lot of fun to see it grow.)
Work hard, and start early on your essays. For younger high school kids out there, don’t spend your high school years chasing after the perfect student image in terms of leadership, diversity of EC’s. Do what you’re passionate about and it will pay off.