<p>dont know if were still doing stats but here goes
everything is probably sub-par for Columbia but its worth a shot!</p>
<p>Objective:
• SAT I (breakdown): 2160 (800 CR, 720 M, 640 W) (One sitting)
• ACT: NA
• SAT II: 770 Math-II, 790 Spanish, 760 bio M, 760 chem
• GPA: 6.33\7 Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): NA
• AP (place score in parenthesis): NA
• IB (place score in parenthesis): Don’t know yet
• Senior Year Course Load: Biology HL, Chemistry HL, Math HL, English A1 SL, History SL, Spanish A2 SL
• Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Commended, National Hispanic Scholar
Subjective:
• Extracurriculars: Founder and President of Latino Culture organization at school. Tutored neighbor who worked at the Argentinian Embassy, Soccer (JV) + Track (V) + Cross Country (V) over 4 years, Science Symposium, Presenter at Global Issues Network Conference in DC, Editor of an online student journalism website, Section Editor for the school Newspaper (News and Features – biggest section), Original Research in Biology (will present at symposium in the winter). 80+ hours of volunteering at local university hospital.
• Job/Work Experience: Tutoring and babysitting.<br>
• Volunteer/Community service: Lots of volunteer work at hospitals.<br>
• Summer Activities: Volunteer Work and Research.
• Essays: I thought they were pretty good. I showed them how much I understood Columbia and wanted to go there as well as highlighting my life and multiculturalism.<br>
• Teacher Recommendation: I think they were pretty good but I haven’t read them. I got 3 instead of 2.
• Counselor Rec: I didn’t get a chance to read them but the Columbia rep said they always do an amazing job at my school.<br>
• Additional Rec: From the Journalism teacher who has known me since 8th grade.
• Interview: It went really good its was about 45 minutes and the interviewer said I was clearly capable of going to Columbia.
Other
• Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
• Intended Major: Biology or Anthropology (or both?)
• State (if domestic applicant): MD
• Country (if international applicant): NA
• School Type: Private, Independent
• Ethnicity: Hispanic (Peru + Spain)
• Gender: Male
• Income Bracket: Middle Upper
Hooks: URM, Original Research, Lived outside of US (developing country)</p>
<p>@ceviche, your overall application is very impressive. Columbia seems to love URMs; I don’t see you getting rejected. Deferred at least, probably accepted. Good job on your accomplishments.</p>
<p>Hey guys,
Do you think that Columbia sending you information about your financial aid forms is a good sign? I mean do you think they would go through the hassle of dealing with everyone’s financial aid forms who they were planning on rejecting or do you think they are only going to look at the financial aid forms of those who are probably going to be accepted or deferred?</p>
<p>I have not been able to actually access my financial aid account,e ven though i got an email last night confirming that they received all of my materials.</p>
<p>@brandnew3773: If you’ve got a likely letter, than even if the financial aid letter helps (which I doubt), it wouldn’t matter for you - you’re in.</p>
<p>"At the moment i’m freaking out though. I submitted the CSS profile but somehow missed that we had to send the 2010 income tax returns…i only remember reading to send the 2011 when our family got around to it in the winter. Do you think this will put me at a disadvantage is they see i didn’t send it? Was there anything else beside that that i had to send? "</p>
<p>Bigapple3: No worries. The admissions decisions are made independently of the FA decisions. All you have to do is get your parents 2010 Income Tax Returns and fax them to the FA Office. Make sure you put your last name and your Columbia ID # on each page. The FA office has a cover sheet on their web page you can use.</p>
<p>I just talked to my college counselor today, and she said columbia will release decisions on december 8th at 5PM EST. Don’t know where she got this info as I didn’t have that much time to talk but I will confirm tomorrow</p>
<p>Hey guys my question is similar to the one from Brandnew3773</p>
<p>Do you think they take the time to notify you of your missing financial aid forms unless you will be admitted or deferred? I received a personal email from someone saying that they were reviewing my file earlier that day and noticed that I had some financial aid documents missing. She must have reviewed my file in depth because she attached the noncustodial parent waiver for my father and gave me the emergency fax number so that my forms could get there quicker. She said she would personally update my file. I sent my 21 pages of documents the next day and three hours later the woman emailed me and said that she had reviewed my files and was reading my info. She asked me for additional info about my father (even though we attached 3 additional documents) She asked the about last time I had heard or seen my father/noncustodial parent and to talk about the nature of our relationship?? She said sorry for asking such personal questions, but that they were important to have in my file?</p>
<p>Why would they go so far as to ask me specific questions about my noncustodial parent although I told them on the CSS profile that he would not contribute anything. </p>
<p>Would they only be this strenuous if I had a chance at getting in? I don’t want to read too much into this and get excited :/</p>
<p>@Sherriclue…
I don’t think it means anything considering the financial aid office and the admissions office are run by completely different staff… Columbia fin. aid is just doing a thorough job by creating a package for every applicant if s/he ends up actually getting in.</p>
<p>Personally, I think that they would only go that in depth if you were a candidate they were seriously considering granting admission to. @nondairycreamer, Yes they are run by two different staffs but that doesn’t mean that the admissions committee couldn’t just pass the FA info of the applicants whom they are accepting to the financial aid committee to begin working on getting everything situated for them. I don’t think it makes sense economically for Columbia to pay a staff of people to review financial aid forms of applicants that aren’t going to be accepted. The more I think about it the more I think that they would only go through the hassle of setting up financial aid packages for those students who are likely to gain admittance.</p>
<p>I’m an international (Canada eh) and I got my FA email last night. I tried logging in but it didn’t work. </p>
<p>alas…</p>
<p>words can’t describe how nervous I am for the 8th. Does anybody else go through really optimistic periods when you think “Yeah! Columbia will take me! I have a great chance” and more frequent periods of “I’m going to get rejected wahhh :’(” </p>
<p>@nebbalish and @ceviche, I am so with you. When I think about reading my admission decision letter or opening the link to my decision, I hope the first sentence doesn’t contain any hint to the final word. I say this because I feel like before reading my name or anything else on the page, my eyes will automatically gravitate to the word “congratulations” or “regret”. It’s kind of like when opening the page to an SAT or ACT score. What’s on the webpage is on the webpage forever. It won’t change if my hand covers it or not, but an entire letter devoted to conveying one word seems disheartening for those rejected and misleading to all. Like, there are three words that matter. Why format and mask a mass email as a personal letter?</p>
<p>As I reread that message, I sense the absurdity and anxiety connoted in those words. But, as Polonius said about Hamlet, there’s a method to his madness. Is there not?</p>