Admission Statistics

<p>Hi, I'm currently a high school senior who's looking to apply ED to Columbia SEAS. I looked at the admissions statistics on Columbia's website, and noticed that far fewer students apply to SEAS than CC. Is this simply because CC has a much wider range of majors, and that many people aren't certain about majoring in engineering?</p>

<p>I'm seriously considering ED, but I'm also seeing people posting on this board wanting to transfer to CC after getting into SEAS, so I'm wondering if attending both colleges is the same experience, only that the core is somewhat different and that SEAS has limited majors?</p>

<p>Don't pick your school based on what you perceive to be an easier program to get into. Their selectivities are comparable (same adcoms, etc) and the number largely has to due with the fact that the applicants to engineering schools as a whole are self selective (sort of like what happens with UChicago). Apply to the school you WANT to be in.</p>

<p>Both undergraduate schools are completely integrated (apart from the transfer barrier) so the experience is largely the same. SEAS has a less humanities based core, so I suppose in that sense it's different, but that's about it. Students take classes/eat meals/live together regardless of their affiliation.</p>

<p>no-one who comes to seas transfers to CC because they think it is a more prestigious school or anything like that. fu takes many engineers who, in addition to their math/science interest, have deep rooted academic interests in other fields. Sometimes such students realize that they're better off majoring in a pure science or a social science and transfer over. at columbia noone considers one of the schools to be better than the other, if anything there's a vibe that seas students are smarter, because they do the engineering classes and take many of the humanity classes that CC kids take.</p>

<p>examples:
-CC has frontiers of science, seas kids aren't asked to do a frontiers of humanities, they have the option to do lit hum/CC/major cultures which the CC kids take.
-CC has physics for poets (introductory, pretty easy), seas doesn't have poetry for physicists, they would just take a normal lit course like the CC kids.</p>

<p>apply to where you see fit, if you're a math/science only person, then a purer engineering school would fit you best. If you're math/science heavy and have other academic interests seas is a good bet, if you're sure you want to do pure science and go through to core - CC. if you think you'll end up doing something not so sciency or mathy - CC. the acceptance rate gap is considerable but the seas applicant pool is growing rapidly, bridging the gap. on other metrics that define the strength of an incoming class (top 10%, sat score etc) seas does better.</p>

<p>^ that was actually a really good post, i second everything said in it</p>

<p>confidential: are u a student, alum, prefrosh, etc..?</p>

<p>student :)</p>

<p>
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no-one who comes to seas transfers to CC because they think it is a more prestigious school or anything like that.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>This moron I knew who did badly in SEAS and somehow was able to transfer to CC ran around telling people that he transferred because CC was more prestigious than SEAS as sour grapes when he obviously couldn't cut it in SEAS.</p>

<p>
[quote]
noticed that far fewer students apply to SEAS than CC. Is this simply because CC has a much wider range of majors, and that many people aren't certain about majoring in engineering?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>That's right. SEAS is a small school. It's 1/4 or 1/5 the size of CC. Engineering's more specialized, as you say.</p>

<p>^ haha, lol</p>

<p>hey Columbia2002, i was under the impression that you had to have a decent gpa (something like a 3.7) in seas to transfer to cc. my friends who have done it (and i know only two who have) both had gpas in that range. does the college allow students not cutting it in seas to transfer to cc so that the graduation rate doesn't drop, or is a high gpa required?</p>

<p>i think it's all about why you want to transfer, if you're doing badly and they see that you have the potential to do well in CC it happens often</p>

<p>fewer students apply to seas because: ENGINEERING IS HARD. this trend exists all across the country; it is not specific to Columbia.</p>

<p>straight from an admissions officer "seas students have stronger stats". she acknowledged that they look at engineering applicant's stats more closely, especially math.</p>

<p>I think the difference (though small) is that to get admitted to CC, you need to be able to stand out more to the admissions committee.</p>

<p>Since most of the people here have given me the impression that SEAS places stronger emphasis on stats, would it hurt to apply ED with an SAT score of 2170 (CR: 690 M: 780 W:700)?</p>

<p>^ not at all, it will probably help</p>