CC Freshman Answering Questions

Colleges & Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

<p>Well, it's Christmas Break, and I'm bored, so... ask me questions about Columbia, and I'll try to answer them. I can't promise I'll get back to people super fast, but I should be able to respond in a reasonable amount of time.</p>

<p>First, a little bit about me:</p>

<p>I'm a freshman in CC. So far I've taken classes in and really investigated the philosophy, english, and creative writing departments, although I know people in just about every subject (SEAS kids, chem majors, psych majors, econ majors, etc.). I'm pretty darn active in the arts on campus, primarily theater and (vocal) music, although I think I'm going to start getting into dance, and I know a good amount of dancers (mostly Barnard girls). I live in John Jay (which owns Carman, btw).</p>

<p>Alright. I'll do my best to answer any questions people have (admitted students, applicants, people thinking about applying, w/e) from my perspective. Thanks.</p>

2

<p>Hi! how many classes do most SEAS kids take?</p>

3

<p>Why’d you pick JJ over Carman?</p>

4

<p>Hi! how many classes do most SEAS kids take? </p>

<p>I’m not at all sure, but I think my SEAS friends are in five right now. I know it’s a pretty demanding and largely preset curriculum your freshman year (and sophomore as well to a degree), so if you want to take “fun classes” or “just because classes” in addition to what you have to take, you’ll definitely be in five or six. (I don’t know anybody in six first semester, but lots of us, myself included, are trying six this upcoming semester). But someone in SEAS could answer this far better than I can, because I’m not sure. Sorry!</p>

<p>Why’d you pick JJ over Carman? </p>

<p>Singles. My little brother says I’m too messy to have a roommate. This prediction has been borne out in the form of my disaster-area dorm room. Besides that, JJ is more chill, let’s-stay-up-talking-until-4am, let’s go on random adventures, whereas I feel that Carman is more active, let’s-stay-out-partying-until-4am, let’s get wasted, etc. Not that there aren’t people who chill and talk in Carman and people who get completely wasted in JJ, but I feel like JJ leans more towards the talking/hanging out and Carman leans more towards the partying.</p>

5

<p>already admitted students, I’d use the helpful threads list (<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/347790-helpful-columbia-threads.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/347790-helpful-columbia-threads.html&lt;/a&gt; ) or wikicu.com</p>

<p>silverchris9 might be bored and think he truly understands Columbia, but he’s been there for. . .yes, approximately 4 months. so although his answers regarding questions like “why’d you pick JJ over Carman” are certainly accurate because they are his opinion, be wary. Claims like </p>

<p>"JJ is more chill, let’s-stay-up-talking-until-4am, let’s go on random adventures, whereas I feel that Carman is more active, let’s-stay-out-partying-until-4am, let’s get wasted, etc. Not that there aren’t people who chill and talk in Carman and people who get completely wasted in JJ, but I feel like JJ leans more towards the talking/hanging out and Carman leans more towards the partying. " </p>

<p>are accurate only in that more parties occur in Carman, simply due to the configuration of doubles. The main decision factor in choosing Carman or John Jay is whether or not you want a single.</p>

6

<p>Meh. I did note that having a single was the chief factor involved. And, to be fair, one only lives in John Jay or Carman for about eight months total, so having half of the total experience possible (not possible I suppose, but typical) of a given situation probably lends enough understanding for providing general characterizations. Am I really going to learn so much more about what it’s like to live in John Jay over the next four months than I learned in the past four? My point was, I spend more time sitting and talking with my floormates than I think I would in Carman. I’d be glad to have someone who actually lives/lived in Carman contradict that though. Also, the whole more-parties-in-Carman thing is general perception of the people I know I remember someone joking that its better to live in John Jay than Carman because you can always go party in Carman, but the barf stays on their floor, not ours. This is of course anecdotal and a joke. Besides, does it really hurt to have an additional source of information? I know when I was prefrosh, I was eagerly looking for anything and everything about Columbia (but then again, I was super-obsessive), and I explored and perhaps exhausted both of those resources, or at least the information about what most interested me.</p>

<p>But, self-justification aside, it’s just my entirely subjective perspective on my four months of experience. That much is true. So taking everything I say with a grain of salt is probably a good idea, because there are some 4000 other ways to experience columbia besides the one I’ve done so far.</p>

7

<p>I have never visited Columbia, so I am an obsessive prefrosh, lol. Was JJ your top choice? How would you compare JJ and Furnald?</p>

8

<p>What were your stats?
Does the food at JJ really suck? (i know you can go off campus and stuff and their are plenty of options but is the dorm food good or not?)
Do you like the community baths or do you plan to get the shared baths next year?</p>

9

<p>Was the workload overwhelming at first? How would you compare college life/workload to high school life/workload??</p>

10

<p>what would u say is very unique about columbia’s economics and political science courses? as opposed to other schools?</p>

11

<p>Was JJ your top choice? </p>

<p>Yes. I almost roomed with someone I went to high school with, in which case I probably would have done hartley or wallach, but once I decided I wasn’t doing that, JJ was it.</p>

<p>How would you compare JJ and Furnald?</p>

<p>Umm… I’ve only been to Furnald once, honestly. As far as I know it’s not as much of a social center as the other freshman dorms (I spend a good amount of time in my friends’ suite lounge in Hartley), but the room I visited did seem pretty nice. I do know that Furnald =/= social suicide (I mean, this should be obvious, but it’s always nice to have real-life examples). One of the girls in the show I was in lives in Furnald, as does one (actually I think two) of my closest friends from the school, and they’re definitely not recluses or any such negative stereotype.</p>

<p>What were your stats?</p>

<p>780 CR, 670 M, 800 W. 790 Lit SATII, 800 U.S. History SATII (750 Bio). When I applied, I had taken 4 AP exams and gotten 5s on all (Eng. Lit, Lang, Bio, and APUSH, lang self-studied). My weighted GPA was 3.97 or thereabouts, and my unweighted was… kinda bad. Something around 3.6. Rank was 8/105. Some other things that really helped are the fact that I really emphasized my writing on my application (creative writing is a relatively new major at Columbia), and that I’m African-American, so admissions bonus there.</p>

<p>Does the food at JJ really suck? (i know you can go off campus and stuff and their are plenty of options but is the dorm food good or not?)</p>

<p>Short answer: yes.
Longer answer: yes, but it doesn’t matter as much anymore: [Bwog</a> On the Horizon: Meal Plan Changes](<a href=“http://bwog.net/2009/12/07/on-the-horizon-meal-plan-changes]Bwog”>http://bwog.net/2009/12/07/on-the-horizon-meal-plan-changes)
Full answer: No, not really. It’s passable food, and every night I can find something that I can eat and that won’t taste bad. It just won’t taste good either, if that makes sense. Like, I never <em>enjoy</em> John Jay food but I’m never grossed out by it or have to force myself to eat it. But I’m also a vegetarian, and beside that really picky, so other people might like it better.</p>

<p>Do you like the community baths or do you plan to get the shared baths next year? </p>

<p>I don’t mind shared baths. I mean, there’s the occasional gross moment (multiple plugged toilets, failure-to-aim, people up-chucking in the sink), but 90% of the time it’s completely fine. I do plan to live in Hartley next year if at all possible, so I’ll be doing a shared bath among a suite, but that’s mostly for the sake of the kitchen moreso than anything else. Also, just fyi, the kitchen or kitchenette or whatever in John Jay consists of a microwave and a sink.</p>

<p>Was the workload overwhelming at first? How would you compare college life/workload to high school life/workload?? </p>

<p>Workload was not bad for me at all. I was in five classes: LitHum, Frontiers (very little effort required), History of Philosophy 1, Modern Poetry (great class, btw), and a Poetry Workshop. The poetry workshop was more work than I expected it to be, but overall, the workload was completely manageable. I pulled quite a few all-nighters, but none of them would have been necessary had I not procrastinated so horribly. That being said, I had friends (mostly in SEAS) that were sometimes overwhelmed by the amount of work. College wasn’t much more work than high school, in my opinion. The material is more difficult (especially in my philosophy class), but the sheer amount of work is equal or less (this is partially because I was in Physics B and BC Calc senior year, and I’m not in any real science classes now, so no problem sets, which are time consuming). The real answer is that the workload is up to you. If you take Physics 2801, the workload will be intense and way more than high school. If you use culpa to find easy professors and take classes that only require one midterm and two or three papers, workload will be equal to or less than the typical AP/IB curriculum at a good high school.</p>

<p>what would u say is very unique about columbia’s economics and political science courses? as opposed to other schools? </p>

<p>To be honest, I have no idea. I know a girl who’s in barnard and takes a lot of econ courses (although I think she’s polysci or int’l relations major), and we had a conversation about barnard vs. columbia econ once. Unfortunately, I promptly forgot everything she told me. So basically I’m useless for this question. Sorry! I know that in general Columbia departments are really focused on the theory and the liberal artsy aspects of things (architecture for example) rather than skills, but that’s pretty much the extent of my knowledge. I know that at once point Columbia econ was right-leaning (much like Chicago econ), but I don’t know to what degree that is true currently.</p>

12

<hr>

<p>I was wondering, if a teacher is submitting my rec letter by mail, do they need to write my columbia ID on the envelope?</p>

<p>Do they just address it to the admission and the letter will be sorted into my file? </p>

<p>And also, if I’m sending supplementary material, what if I haven’t yet received my Columbia ID yet?? I’m not an US citizen so I cant write my SSN either… (14 days is exceeding the deadline since I submitted part 1 yesterday)</p>

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<p>silverchris9, ur very kind to do for this for other people by the way…</p>

14

<p>I was wondering, if a teacher is submitting my rec letter by mail, do they need to write my columbia ID on the envelope?</p>

<p>Do they just address it to the admission and the letter will be sorted into my file?</p>

<p>And also, if I’m sending supplementary material, what if I haven’t yet received my Columbia ID yet?? I’m not an US citizen so I cant write my SSN either… (14 days is exceeding the deadline since I submitted part 1 yesterday)</p>

<p>In general, I can’t give you an answer to these questions, because I don’t work in the admissions office. The best thing to do in this situation is to email your area’s admissions counselor (I mean, I know that there are different adcoms for different reigons in the states, I don’t know how it works for international) and get info from him/her. </p>

<p>Now, that being said, my personal opinion is that you should send the rec now and email your adcom letting him/her know that you sent the rec without your ID. Then send it again once you get your ID just in case. I don’t really remember what the app says about supplementary material, but I recommend the same proceedure: email your adcom telling him/her exactly what you plan to do, send the stuff without your ID, then send it again with your ID just in case. But that is absolutely nothing more than my personal opinion, and the fact that I’ve spent four months at columbia definitely makes me no more qualified to answer this particular question than joe schmo on the street. Emailing your adcom is definitely the first step, though.</p>

15

<p>For teacher recs, as far as I know, the ID isn’t required. It’s only required for supplementary materials.</p>

16

<p>Do you know any frosh doing work/study? If so, what jobs are they doing?</p>

<p>What were the first few weeks like in JJ? Everyone meeting everyone else, hanging out, making friends?</p>

<p>Do you mostly go to Hewitt instead of JJ for dinner?</p>

<p>What, if anything, have you heard about the Philolexian Society?</p>

17

<p>Bored, so:

I know a few; two are Public Safety escorts (easy money for those so inclined lol), a few work in Butler (where they chill and get paid), and one of my friends works in the financial aid office.</p>

<p>

Pretty much, but I also met a bunch of people who I have not talked to since (nor do I remember their names).</p>

<p>

There are several schools of thought on Hewitt vs JJ. Personally, I prefer John Jay. It’s more spacious, has more beverages, is a better environment (devoid of the shrill chatter of Hewitt), and you don’t wait 30 minutes for your food. On the other hand, Hewitt food has been known on occasion to be better than the food at John Jay (this is particularly true for dinner). Some people may enjoy the female:male ratio at Hewitt (or Jew:non-Jew ratio; my Jewish friends eat almost exclusively at Hewitt). There is also a large TV in Hewitt where solitary people sit, watch, and eat. In any event, a case can be made for either dining hall and you should try them both out at least a few times (I have found John Jay brunch to be much better than it’s dinner; it’s a pet peeve that they only have fresh melon for brunch and canned fruit for dinner). However, I hear that Ferris Booth is going to be converted into a dining hall sometime in the near future and Ferris Booth food is indescribably better than either John Jay or Hewitt food. </p>

<p>

They are the oldest club at Columbia? They put up interesting fliers for discussions once in a while. I’ve never been to one, so I don’t know what it’s actually like.</p>

18

<p>Have you seen any bugs/rodents in your room or in JJ in general?</p>

19

<p>

I live in Carman, and I have never seen a rodent in my room. There was a cockroach in the hallway once that I very quickly exterminated. Once my roommate left the window open and we were bitten multiple times by mosquitoes. There are also a bunch of roaches in the tunnels of Carman.</p>

<p>I have also never seen bugs/rodents in John Jay, but perhaps a resident would be more knowledgeable.</p>

20

<p>Thanks Crooked! Are you able to get studying done in your room? I heard Carman is known for partying. Currently, my pick would be JJ, but I am still uncertain.</p>