What are my chances of getting into Columbia and Stanford?Answered
I have a 4.0 GOA (4.76 weighted), 1570 SAT. I go to the best public school in my state, so am relatively affluent. My peers are also pretty competitive. I am a legacy at Columbia through my grandfather and am queer (ace)
I also:
-did a tier 1C summer program
-spoke at a national conference twice
-am founder and editor-in-chief of a school journal
-have held two separate research assistant positions and spoken at an American Chemical Society conference
-run three clubs, one of which has had speakers from Cornell university, the NIH, and JPL
-ran a week-long mentorship program with BARDA
-have been volunteering with a community service organization for years and now work directly with the head of the program to find contacts for her
-ride horses and compete in local shows
I also have some other minor extracurriculars that are not prestigious, but that I enjoy
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2 answers
Hi @bleh
You have a good chance at either school with your grades, test scores, and ECs. Columbia only considers either parent as a legacy if they graduated from Columbia College or the College of Engineering. Your grandfather being an alumnus would not help you qualify as an ALDC applicant.
At Columbia, it will come down to the quality of your main essay and supplemental essays, and recommendations/interview. At Stanford, your essays, interview, and IV (intellectual vitality) rating will factor in your acceptance.
In general Ivies have more Private Day and Boarding admits due to the 250-year-old symbiotic relationship between themselves and feeder schools. There are about 8x as many public HSs as private HSs in the US. But many Ivys have a 60/40 split between publics and privates so there is a disproportionate preference toward privates who also have more ALDC applicants. Stanford, being on the West Coast and newer than the youngest Ivy, never had the feeder culture to tap into. So it's the opposite, about 2/3rds of Stanford admits come from public HSs. And the types of Privates sending students to Stanford are the Seatle Prep schools, SF Prep schools, and Cate, Thatcher, and Harvard/Westlake in CA plus the very best recruited athletes coming out of NE Boarding schools since Stanford wants the best FB, swimmers, lacrosse, VB sailing, fencing players as well.
Good luck.
I honestly think you have a brilliant chance of getting into these schools. You have a lot of leadership and a desire to expand your academic curiosity. You being queer also makes you an underrepresented minority, and you being legacy makes it that much easier to get Columbia. However, there may be a lot of people that have leadership and do similar things to you. So, your essays need to be amazing-use descriptive language, show your growth, and be unique. Show in your supplemental essays why you want to attend these schools, and why you and the schools are a match. Other than that, brilliant job so far.
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Thank you so much for your response and for clarifying my legacy status at Columbia. I will definitely work to show my intellectual vitality and strength of character in my essays.