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@RonSwanson well this is unethical

They just be letting anyone give out scholarships these days man.💀

@jeremiahsamroo "Grip tape scholarship" head ahhh.

But seriously though, good luck

@jeremiahsamroo I don't think you'll get in for the following reasons:

GPA too low, esp if unweighted. Just about everyone at an Ivy (excl. Athletic recruits) has 3.9+ UW GPAs these days.

ECs are decent quality for an Ivy, but not exceptional, and there aren't many.

No big awards. This is not a ding per-se but noting it bc it could otherwise save the application.

Obv intangibles like essay, race, and appeal are important, but definitely won't be enough to swing this to an admission for ED period. If you don't get in ED, your chances are plummet pretty much all the way down to 0.

@jeremiahsamroo Also one AP will definitely hurt too. They claim they judge you in the context of your academic opportunities, which is mostly true, but skipping out on one AP looks different when your school offers 7/year vs 2/year. Not availing yourself of all the APs offered at your school is going to reflect poorly on your application

side note: no sports on your application is definitely another thing that could go the wrong way. Most ivy admits played a varsity sport in HS (not all were super involved tbf), and the ones that didn't are the academic superstars who have 1550+ sat, 10 ECs, and IMO gold medals.

All in all, I just don't think you're strong enough.

@jeremiahsamroo
1. no AWARDS per se, but a CCNA certification + being on a T25 worldwide team is pretty impressive
2. The thing about varsity sports is not true - about half play varsity sports , for most Ivies.

I agree with you about APs though.

@ShadowyZephyr

1. fair enough, I don't know anything about CCNA, but I will certainly argue that a non medal placing in a pretty obscure competition doesn't add anything to an application.

2. Seems pedantic, that's a sizeable plurality. I will admit that this is mostly based on my personal (anecdotal) experience though. Pretty much everyone I know did a varsity sport in HS.

@jeremiahsamroo HackTheBox isn't that obscure, they have at least 1.7 million community members (one of the largest hacking platforms) and many governments and organizations using it.

With all that being said, I'm somewhat biased because I know the market creator IRL.

https://undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu/columbia-announces-class-2027-admissions-decisions

For comparison, last year’s admission rate was 3.9%. It sounds like your odds are a good deal better than that, but the base rate for Columbia (or any Ivy League) is very low.