Admission Advice.

<p>Hello everyone,</p>

<p>I have read through the threads here and realize the general consensus is that there is no "standard" way to gain acceptance into CSGS. I still would like to ask for advice from someone who has undergone this process with some success. </p>

<p>I attended high school from 2004-2008, and didn't do well by any means. Honestly, I finished toward the bottom of my class. I have a number of legitimate reasons that I will touch on in my essay. I started community college in 2009, I took 1 semester and received 3 w's (Not making excuses, but will touch on reasons in essay), these most likely are going to be wiped via fresh start if that matters. I realize my prior career may be difficult to overcome. I have very unique life experience from 2009-2011. In fall of 2011 I attended CC for 1 semester. I received a 4.0 and was named to the deans list. I was then offered and took an political internship that spanned across four states during the 2012 presidential primary. I returned home in the spring of 2012 and worked from that point up until now. This summer I was accepted to a selective political convention in DC. While I was there I was offered the chance to intern for a non profit in DC during this upcoming summer. I am now enrolled in CC again. I am founder and president of a successful club, I am joining phi kappa phi, the student leadership program, and possibly the economics club. Assuming I get all A's for the next 30 credit hours, and score relatively high on the SATS (which I am confident I can do with proper preparation), and really knock out the essay; would it make sense to apply for fall 2014? Or should I take an internship this summer, take two more semesters of CC, then apply? To summarize, If I applied this May,(lets assume all goes as planned) I will have 42 credits of A's, 3 wiped W's, a bad HS record, extracurriculars, very unique life experience, one internship, high sats, and a great essay. If I wait until 2015 I will have all that, plus 30 more credits, and an additional internship. If I do apply for 2014 and get rejected, can I still apply for fall 2015? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!</p>

<p>Uh, you left out what you did in 2009-2011, which sounds like the main reason you stand out as a candidate.</p>

<p>You can reapply after rejection, but you should make sure you’ve addressed the reason you were rejected initially. If it happens, talk to them and ask specifically what you can do to address your issues.</p>

<p>Be aware that GS only accepts a maximum of 60 credits to transfer, so if you end up transferring after completing substantially more you’re “wasting” your time and money in CC.</p>

<p>I honestly had a bit of trouble following your story (paragraph breaks, chronological order, a summary all might help). However if sounds like you only have completed 1 semester at 4.0? That’s probably insufficient, unless you can otherwise prove you can handle the academic load at Columbia. If you have in May with another year of ~4.0, I think you might have a shot, but it would depend heavily on your essay.</p>

<p>I was accepted with just one semester at a 4.0</p>

<p>Then again, I was in the military for nearly a decade prior to that.</p>

<p>Charman2 - Can you elaborate on what your “unique life experience” was from 2009-2011? You’ve got a good shot if you can keep up the grades. Also, if you want to apply to GS you do not need to take the SAT’s. GS has their own test that they like to use called the “GSAE”.</p>

<p>Thanks for the replies. I apologize for the poorly put together post, I was just trying to write a brief synopsis. </p>

<p>The fact CSGS only takes 60 credits is pushing me to apply for fall 2014. I am already enrolled in school and will have a total of 42 credits after this year. I am in a pathway program at a CC that has an agreement with Ohio State, so I am trying to take a challenging course load, while still taking classes that would go towards a degree at OSU. My first choice is Columbia, however. </p>

<p>I have read that CSGS doesn’t give much aid to their students? Have either of you found this to be true? </p>

<p>From 2009-2011 I managed a kitchen at an Italian restaurant, worked for my grandfathers business, and I also started my own record label. I put out about 13 cd’s of bands from around the United States. My friend and I did everything ourselves, and while it wasn’t very lucrative, it was somewhat successful. I don’t do the record label much anymore, but the website and everything still exist. I also traveled extensively, which helped me gain some “life” experience. I know none of that is comparable to being an olympic athlete, or going to the middle east, but it was productive and structured.</p>

<p>Much more of my life experience comes after 2011. December of 2011 is when I went to Iowa with an organization to intern in the political field. From there I went to New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada. I gained a lot from that experience. After I returned home I became involved in local and national politics. I am still involved to this day. I have started a really successful political club on campus. I went to DC in July after being accepted to attend a convention. The convention was competitive to get into, and had a lot of notable speakers. I will be attending a few events out of state this school year, as well as staying politically active here locally. I also have the opportunity to intern at a few non-profits this summer. </p>

<p>I wouldn’t say 2009-2011 is the main reason I stand out, but everything put together. This is just an quick overview of everything, there are a lot more details. I also have some hardships I’ll discuss (Don’t worry I am not going to write a sob story in my essay, just relevant information.) And why I think Columbia would be the best possible school for myself, and what I can offer. I am going to keep my grades as perfect as possible this year, and continue what I have been doing. The one thing I need to work on is building relationships with my professors, I don’t really have that “go to” professor right now.</p>

<p>Get some good recs. I took the same teacher for two economic classes and showed an interest in another’s class. I have yet to read either letter but I did get in so what exactly they said was apparently good enough.</p>

<p>Write about how you got fresh perspectives on life and all that kind of stuff when you were doing your internship and running your label. I brought up how teaching students piano showed me how incredibly transparent all the ******** excuses students give are. And also about how being depressed and having anxiety issues affected me. And how I thought high school was stupid and I had never been really interested in anything so I never really tried that hard (I did still have fairly decent grades, though)</p>

<p>In my opinion, what you did should be enough to get you in if you have decent grades (I had like a 3.6 applying, wrecked by a 19 unit, 30 hour work week semester), a decent test score, good recs and a great essay (which seems to be the most important part - I definitely used storytelling tricks that I learned while studying songwriting). Just tell them your story and you should be good.</p>

<p>You know, these threads about getting in are cool. But, I’d be much more interested to hear about why people think that they’d be successful at Columbia. I’d also really like to hear about what people bring to the table, besides a story.</p>

<p>What do you guys plan on doing with this opportunity?</p>