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is SEAS admission considerably easier than another schools? Should I consider Columbia to be a reach?

I wanna go into ME or EE, also considering Cornell, Duke, Northwestern, Hopkins.

760M, 760V
790 IIc, 790 US, 780 writing, 770 chem
Most rigorous curriculum: all honros and AP
Junior year: Calc AB-5, US history-5
Senior: Ap gov, calc BC, Lit, Stat, bio

good ECs, lots of focus on music
Can get good recs, and good essays (i guess?)

By Glory (Glory) on Saturday, August 07, 2004 - 10:36 pm: Edit

hmmm..post more info....but i'm thinking its probably more of a match...

"lots of focus on music..." yet u wanna do engineering?

gluck to youuuu. you definitely meet the criteria with ur boardscores, what's ur rank/Gpa. etc?

By Vancat (Vancat) on Saturday, August 07, 2004 - 11:33 pm: Edit

GPA: 4.5 weightd, 3.9 unweighted

All the music stuff i do is stuff like regional, state orchestras, that kind of ish. I've been studying privately for 10 years on both piano and clarinet, so i've always been involved in a lot of competitions, recitals, adudications, etc...

Also have "sciency" ECs. I do an "internship" with a UPenn PhD: I just use help her compose biological pathways and databases, nothing much.
Volunteer at the Medical Center and Library.

So SEAS is an easier admit than the other schools in Columbia?

By Ivyman1 (Ivyman1) on Saturday, August 07, 2004 - 11:59 pm: Edit

By the statistics and percentages yes. In reality no. In fact the avg scores for SEAS acceptees is slightly higher than the college.

But your scores are just fine - you have a better chance than most - your in the "top pile" as the AdCom likes to say - in other words you meet the grade for your academic abilities, now you just have to impress them with the rest of the stuff.
(Funny you have the EXACT same SATII scores as I had in the same subjects)

By Glevit (Glevit) on Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - 02:43 pm: Edit

As Ivyman said, SEAS in NOT easier to get into than CC. If you look at the 2008 admittied stats (http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/admissions/faq/applying.php)
you'll see that:
CC has an SAT mid 50% range of 1370-1520 and 89% from top 10% of HS class
SEAS has an SAT mid 50% range of 1430-1530 and 93% from top 10% of HS class

I got in with a 1550, but a 3.3 GPA. However, I took BC calc soph year, and took two years of math classes at Princeton afterwards.
I think in general the admissions are less based on straight numbers..

By Rmallipudi (Rmallipudi) on Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - 08:30 pm: Edit

hey glevit, what were your stats. i mean a 1550 is great...but 3.3 gpa? that's like a b-/b average...what else did you do? EC's? what was your essay?

By Edmoney (Edmoney) on Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - 08:51 pm: Edit

i got in with a 950 and three expulsions