MichaelR,
Columbia
B.A.
Midwestern kid who loves molecular biology and electronic dance music. Let me help you edit your essays!
Features Included
11
Essays
19
Schools
14
Scores
28
Advice
5
ECs
1
Sports
Background
Hometown
New Albany, Ohio
GenderMale
EthnicityWhite Non-Hispanic
AdmissionRegular Decision
Class of2020
First Gen College StudentNo
English First Language
Yes
Other Language(s) Spoken
Spanish
Results, Essays, and Advice
Accepted
Waitlisted or Withdrew
Denied
-
Tap/click a school logo above to view essays and advice specific to that school.
Columbia University (New York, NY)
Applied for a B.A.
Accepted and Enrolled Legacy: NoSchool Specific Essays
Personal Statement654 WordsChallenged a belief, Development of personal values, Extracurricular passion, Failure experience, Interest in med/sci/math, Interest in tech/engineeringPalms, Passes, and PCR They say the only rule of magic is to never tell the audience the secret of the trick. But Wu never cared about rules. "There," he says, his eyes holding a roguish glint, "is that your card?" Disbelief is supposedly a mental state. Yet for me it manifests physically. Shivers trace the slope of my shoulders, up my neck, to my cheeks. The room is suddenly warm, and I can feel my face flushing. My reality...Read more...Supplemental Essay: Strong beliefs/principles383 WordsDartmouth Essay: The timer buzzes insistently, signaling my turn to speak. What can I say? Silence. Nothing. "Do you need more prep-time?" drawls the judge, who is perched coolly on the desk across from me. Finally, I let my voice fill the silence. "Judge, my opponents — they — you — they're arguing that — um —" I'm incoherent. I stop, consumed by the failure of the moment. As a dedicated news junkie, I had initially imagined debate to be a contest of raw volume....Read more...Supplemental Essay: “Why us” school essay299 WordsColumbia Essay: I want to devote my life to solving problems. At Columbia, I see a community uniquely committed to the challenge. I love Columbia's dedication to undergraduate research. I hope to find my spot among the 400 research positions reserved just for undergraduates. I would love to engage in research in a SURF program to pursue a deeper understanding of biology. In particular, I hope to work with the researchers at the Department of Systems Biology. The Department's High-Throughput Molecular...Read more...Supplemental Essay: Unique question posed by school94 WordsFavorite Films, Shows, and Musical Artists: Films Mad Max: Fury Road; Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens; Inside Out; The Theory of Everything Live Concerts The Glass Animals, Matt and Kim, Bear Hands, Civil Twilight, Cake Shows The Great War, The Late Show, The Daily Show Musical Artists Chance the Rapper, Childish Gambino, Tame Impala, Grouplove, ODESZA, Rizzle Kicks, Mura Masa, Vicetone, Thomas Hayden, Big Gigantic, PHANTOGRAM, Duke Dumont, Klangkarussell, Electric Mantis, Point Point, Nora En Pure, Bondax, Mark...Read more...Supplemental Essay: Unique question posed by school92 WordsMost Commonly Read Sources: Newspapers/News Sources The New York Times, NPR, The Guardian, BBC, The Washington Post, Reuters, PBS, Bloomberg News, The Atlantic, CNN, The Economist Websites Reddit (http://www.reddit.com/); StumbleUpon (http://www.stumbleupon.com); Quora (http://www.quora.com/); The Onion (http://www.theonion.com/); Medium (http://www.medium.com/); Marginal Revolution (http://www.marginalrevolution.com/); A List Apart (http://www.alistapart.com/); Ars Technica (http://www.arstechnica.com/) Magazines/Journals Wired, Scientific American, New Scientist,...Read more...Supplemental Essay: Unique question posed by school46 WordsFavorite Books: Foundation and Earth, Isaac Asimov; Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond; Collapse, Jared Diamond; Genome, Matt Ridley; The Martian, Andy Weir; Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman; The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken KeseyRead more...Supplemental Essay: Unique question posed by school119 WordsAssigned Reading in the Past Year: Short Stories "The Gilded Six-Bits," Zora Neale Hurston; "How John Boscoe Outsung the Devil," Arthur P. Davis; "Exodus," James Baldwin; "The Goophered Grapevine," Charles Waddell Chesnutt; "Truant," Claude McKay; "The City of Refuge," Rudolph Fisher; "The Lynching of Jube Benson," Paul Lawrence Dunbar Anthologies A Century of the Best African American Short Stories, edited by John Henrik Clarke; The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry, edited by Arnold Rampersad Books What Was African American Literature?,...Read more...Supplemental Essay: Unique question posed by school306 WordsWhat draws you to the fields you listed? Entering kindergarten, I insisted (to my parents' great amusement) on donning a white lab coat as often as possible. At the time, of course, I had difficulty articulating exactly why, at five years old, I was certain that I wanted to be a neurosurgeon. Today, though I'm less precisely sure of that career choice, I still find biology fascinating. I'm rapt by its mysteries, its complexities; its harrowing diseases, its triumphs of...Read more...Supplemental Essay: “Why us” school essay625 WordsCornell Essay: I've spent much of my time in high school at the lab bench. Initially, my experience was driven entirely by intense curiosity. Something as complex as liver cancer cell signaling naturally pulls me in. It's an incredible challenge. I feel obligated to continue probing, searching, fighting for a deeper answer. Yet week after week, as I worked the cancer cells in my hands, I began to feel an intuition for the awful potential of these tiny enigmas. Cancer...Read more...Supplemental Essay: Unique question posed by school375 WordsUC Berkeley: When I was younger, my parents read a book to me every night. We cycled through the bookshelf every couple of weeks, but we always returned to the books with the yellow covers, now warped by repeated use: Curious George. The plot of each book is mostly identical. George is an unruly, lovable monkey who grows curious, does something mischievous, and gets in trouble. Yet, somehow, he usually emerges a hero. In "Curious George Goes to the Hospital,"...Read more...School Specific Advice
How important school spirit is around athletics at my school48 WordsThere is not a huge culture of athletics at Columbia. For example, when the...Read more...How I would describe the wider community surrounding campus96 WordsThe community around Columbia's undergraduate campus is called Morningside. It's a nice neighborhood, with adequate eateries and bars. However, you don't eat at a restaurant in the neighborhood...Read more...How I would rate the career center or my advisor110 WordsI had many advisors while at Columbia, and I didn't feel that they were necessarily the strongest advising team. However, they were responsive and helped me when I needed to add or...Read more...My schedule on a typical weekday208 WordsI'll wake up and get a bagel from Milano Market; then, I'll answer some emails for a bit on my computer (this is if I'm even awake, since I avoid morning classes). I might go back to sleep, or I might head to the engineering library to print some documents for class, such as a study guide or slide deck....Read more...How I would rate the diversity of the student body59 WordsColumbia's student body is extremely diverse; it's definitely among the most diverse student bodies out there. People have...Read more...The academic rigor of a typical course load or in my major127 WordsI majored in Computer Science, and designed a custom Elective Track, Computational Biology, which merged the machine learning-related courses from the Computer Science major with the coursework of the Biotechnology Master's program. Advanced Programming, one of the core...Read more...What are opportunities unique to my school161 WordsIt's a common trope that Columbia is in New York, but it really cannot be underestimated. It allows you to get on a 1 train and find yourself at any of the myriad startups downtown. This means that you can work for a high tech company without traveling...Read more...What I’d change about my school if I were student body president68 WordsVisibility/accessibility of the upper administration to the students. The President (and his office) are great at fundraising, but they...Read more...The stress level and competitiveness of a typical student at my school76 WordsIt really depends on the major. Pre-med students have a reputation for being competitive, but honestly this is not the impression that I've...Read more...My extracurricular activities in college, and why I chose them132 WordsI was involved with a few financial investment-related organizations, but eventually spent most of my time involved with the entrepreneurship group. I chose the latter because the people who most aligned with my values (even if not my...Read more...More Essays
These essays haven't been tagged by school. Click school logos above to see tagged essays.
Supplemental Essay Other21 WordsI submitted a research supplement (just an abstract) to Columbia, with an explanation of what my role was in the project.Read more...General Admissions Advice
What might make for a good “Why Us” essay topic at my school142 WordsBe as specific as possible!!!! I can't stress this enough. These schools want to know why you want to attend there, not why you want to attend "generic good school." It's key to find very specific reasons you are attracted to a school ...Read more...Recommended summer activities during high school and college133 WordsRESEARCH! The only reason I got in where I did was my research experience. Research also broadens your perspective and exposes you to the world of academia. Universities want researchers because they possess the values that indicate tenacity, critical thinking,...Read more...Why I ultimately chose my school80 WordsColumbia's research prowess is really fantastic. But the most important thing to me is the fact that the student body is so diverse and...Read more...What I’d change about my application process61 WordsI would have FINISHED my essays much earlier. I had a tendency to start the essays right away...Read more...Whether I used a private admissions counselor, and advice I received23 WordsI did not use a private admissions...Read more...List of schools I interviewed with and my interview experience149 WordsI interviewed at Yale, Penn, Brown and Dartmouth. All of my interviews were a little bit stiff, perhaps with the exception of the Brown interview. I would say that my having done very extensive research about the SPECIFIC perks of each college (residential colleges at...Read more...Why I declined other schools118 WordsI have a lot of relatives (cousins; I was not an immediate-family legacy) who have recently attended Columbia. I think they will be able to offer me guidance, and their families are wonderful people whom...Read more...My advice about getting recommenders58 WordsFind teachers who KNOW YOU, not just teachers you think are the ones colleges necessarily want to...Read more...What set me apart from other applicants89 WordsI'm certain it was my research experience and the abstract I submitted that clearly set me apart from other students. My research was objectively extremely strong, and...Read more...How I chose schools to apply to75 WordsFor me, it was all about resources and research. I wanted a school with enough resources to support whatever I decide to do....Read more...How to increase chances at my school145 WordsI believe that what Columbia is looking for is for students who 1) get things done, and 2) bring something to the community. In other words, it's very important to indicate through your essays that you care about the work you produce, the organizations you are...Read more...What I like about my school’s location and culture137 WordsThe culture at Columbia is remarkably collaborative, which is a nice change of pace from some of my experience in high school. Yes, some students are cagey, but on the whole, most students are happy to collaborate and share their experiences....Read more...Most popular extracurricular activities at my college151 WordsMany students choose to participate in debate (parliamentary), although you honestly will rarely see these people be outspoken about the activity. The newspaper (the Spectator) is extremely popular, although many folks joke about how time-consuming it can be. There are also many financial student organizations ...Read more...What I’d change about my school if I were student body president130 WordsI would make events management far easier. This is my #1 complaint about Columbia. If I'm a part of a club, and I want to make an event happen, by FAR the biggest bottleneck is trying to book space for...Read more...My favorite course thus far, and why69 WordsMy favorite course so far at Columbia would probably be my Data Structures course. The professor is genuinely very funny, he...Read more...How I narrowed down my essay topics173 WordsI had essentially two stories I could tell: my experience starting a debate team, and my experience getting started in scientific research. My scientific research was the more impressive body of work, but it also spoke more to who I am, someone who takes great joy in discovery and sharing my...Read more...What I learned transitioning from high school to college307 WordsI had already moved high schools (entering my senior year of high school), and I moved to smaller school in which everyone knew each other. Socially, this was challenging, because I felt like I was "breaking in" to the social structure at the school. College felt similar in the sense of not knowing anyone, but it was easier because neither did anyone else! So that made orientation less scary. The workload was quite different, and required a lot more independent effort. In high school, I used to do all of my work during class. Listening to one lecture or watching...Read more...Recommended summer activities during high school and college223 WordsSomething I'd add that I hadn't thought about when I last wrote the advice is to consider interning at a startup. Learn marketing or product management, or learn to program (consider Codecademy), although none of these are necessarily prerequisites. You can cold email startups, and some of them will gladly allow you to work with them. You'll learn important skills in the process, and it will...Read more...High School Performance
Weighted GPA4.33(equivalent to 4.00 unweighted)RankTop 5%
Academic Performance in High School Steady
Test Scores
Highest ACT35ACT Score DetailsOther ACT ScoresACT Prep
Highest SAT1540on 1600 scaleHighest SAT2260SAT Score Details
Other SAT ScoresSAT Prep
PSAT Scores
AP / IB Classes and Scores
Details9 classes and scoresSports
SportsSquash
Extracurriculars
ActivitiesDebate Club/Team, Model Congress / Model UN, Chess, Science Club/Team, School Jazz / Orchestra
Elaborate on Extracurriculars or Work
Experience & Awards
How Spent Summers
Volunteer Experiences
Awards Received
Application Additional Materials
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