<p>So I am currently a senior in high school and I am considering doing Columbia's Affiliated Programs track where you spend either 3 or 4 years at a liberal arts college then two years at Columbia and I have a few questions that I have not been able to find the answers too:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>How much financial aid is available to the Columbia transfer students when they move to New York? (I know Columbia is very generous to undergrads, but a 3-2 isn't technically an undergrad when they finish at their LAC)</p></li>
<li><p>How important is the relevancy of the LAC? (the affiliated schools list has schools ranging from Birmingham-Southern to Amherst)</p></li>
<li><p>What is the deal with the 4-2 M.S. program? (it's mentioned on Columbia's Engineering site but there is very little information about it)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The 4-2 is just another way of saying that you will be going to graduate school the last two years. So you will have to apply like everyone else, although I am not sure on whether you get an upper hand. It does not matter what LAC you go to as long as it is affiliated, and you maintain their requirement GPA. I cant be sure of financial aid, but I remember reading somewhere that financial aid is given. Why do you want to go to an LAC if you want to do engineering, go to an engineering school. I wonder if this would be an option if Columbia wasn’t the end product.</p>
<p>Well, you can try Columbia’s net price calculator, pretending that you are a third year student somewhere considering the 3+2 program.
[Net</a> Price Calculator | Columbia Financial Aid and Educational Financing](<a href=“http://cc-seas.financialaid.columbia.edu/npc]Net”>Estimate Your Net Cost | Columbia Financial Aid and Educational Financing)</p>
<p>There are multiple threads here on CC regarding the subject of 3/2 programs. Take a look for further advice.</p>
<p>By the way, why wouldn’t you just apply to Columbia for the freshman engineering class? The liberal arts/humanities requirements are pretty much the same at Columbia for the engineering school and Columbia College. Certainly your financial aid package as a Columbia freshman would be consistent for four years, as opposed to hoping for sufficient assistance as an incoming transfer.</p>
<p>I would just apply into the undergraduate program at Columbia, but my GPA is not high enough to get me in there (3.5UW/3.7W but SAT 2130 ACT 33). And to answer your question why I wouldn’t just go into an engineering school for undergrad: in another post on CC, a WashingtonU adviser in charge of their 3-2 program said that attending the 3 years in a LAC was beneficial as it offered a better opportunity for the students to have 1-on-1 time with their professors and they were better prepared for the engineering curriculum at the school afterwards.</p>
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<p>Of course, you could do it on the cheap and start at a cheap community college instead of an expensive LAC, before transferring to a school with engineering.</p>
<p>Or go to a LAC or other small school with engineering (e.g. Caltech, Harvey Mudd, Swarthmore, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, etc.), which would avoid the need and uncertainty of transferring to complete an engineering degree.</p>
<p>I think the 1 on 1 student to teacher communication is blown out of proportions by many LACs. You can always go to office hours and communicate with them as much as you want. Or like UCB said, go to a smaller engineering school. Just don’t go for the name.</p>
<p>Vivian707,</p>
<p>I think the following link will answer some of your questions. It’s Brandeis’s 3-2 engineering program (with Columbia). </p>
<p>[Academic</a> Opportunities | Academic Advising | Brandeis University](<a href=“http://www.brandeis.edu/acserv/advising/opportunities.html]Academic”>http://www.brandeis.edu/acserv/advising/opportunities.html)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.brandeis.edu/acserv/advising/Columbia_FAQ.pdf[/url]”>http://www.brandeis.edu/acserv/advising/Columbia_FAQ.pdf</a></p>
<p>There are lots of threads on 3-2 engineering programs, I recommend you read a few. Keep in mind that “engineers” have a tendency to discount LAC’s…many of us don’t see the point of going to a LAC (and taking an extra year or two to graduate), while we could have gone into an ABET accredited engineering school(9 out of 10 times a nice large state public University)…because, hey! we’re Engineers, not French/Latin/English/whatever majors! :)</p>
<p>If you do go the 3-2 path, make sure it’s really, really, what you want to do. You’re committing to an additional year (at least), additional cost, and then leaving all of your friends at school, to switch to your engineering school. A lot of folks plan on doing the 3-2, but after 3 years, decide against it (usually for one of the 3 above reasons) and just finish the LAC degree. Even though a LAC may have a 3-2 program, you may want to ask the LAC how many students actually take advantage of it.</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>I agree with Gator. Satisfying your General Education or University Core requirements at a Community College is very advantageous. With good grades you would be a strong candidate for transfer admission to an engineering university. If you choose wisely, you might find an engineering university that can provide an attractive financial aid package.</p>
<p>Note that Brandeis allows 3+2 students to choose any Brandeis major (alongside the math and physics you need for engineering), but some other “3” schools restrict your major choice (often to physics, chemistry, or math). If your intent in doing a 3+2 program is to use the extra year to study something else in depth, you may want to check carefully what restrictions there are on your major at the “3” school.</p>
<p>There is some appeal to 3-2. But most families that investigate 3-2 (including ours) seem to decide against it. It has 25% extra cost w/o a lot of value. In many cases there is risk of transfer. </p>
<p>My thought is it makes the least sense when the schools are far apart… who wants to leave their pals prior to senior year? Think about it - how would you have felt if your parents decided to move away before your senior year of hs?</p>
<p>^^^We also looked into it, but decided against it due to cost/time. One program we looked at was Emory’s dual degree program with Georgia Tech. Both are in Atlanta, so you could make the transition without having to move out of your apartment, or even changing roommates.</p>