<p>anyone here considering applying to Columbia ED? Introduce yourself!</p>
<p>Hi! I’ll be applying to Columbia ED this fall.</p>
<p>Hmm, I’m from Eagan, MN. I plan to major in Creative Writing with a double-major in Computer Science (potentially Information Science or Human Rights–I have many interests). </p>
<p>I’ll be upfront: My battle for admission to Columbia is an uphill one. My GPA is pretty mediocre, even low, by Columbia’s standards, but I do have personal family issues that should explain some of my poorer grades (nothing lower than a B).</p>
<p>Other schools that I’m looking into include Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, NYU, Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, Barnard, Vassar, Sarah Lawrence, University of Michigan, Boston U, and Boston C. I have a very absurd hope that I get accepted into one of the Ivies based upon my application essays, arts supplement, and recommendations (all of which should be excellent; my counselor is also a graduate of Columbia’s social work grad program). My ECs are wide and varied with a definite focus on writing and leadership-based activities.</p>
<p>I would like to be the underdog with success. I think I have the qualifications for it–a few messed up circumstances have put me in a worse position, but I’m okay with that.</p>
<p>Worse case scenario? I go to one of the smaller liberal arts colleges and try at a larger, more prestigious school for the grad work. I want to work in the publishing business and publish novels on the side, so Columbia’s education is not like 100% necessary.</p>
<p>Oh, I’m also a first-generation American in my family with an interesting ethnic background.</p>
<p><em>shrug</em></p>
<p>How about you?</p>
<p>wej I have a similar issue. My gpa is on the low side, but I’m banking on pretty good stanardized testing scores, my essay, ec’s and recommendations to get me in. Columbia definitely looks beyond pure numbers when they determine their decisions.</p>
<p>well Columbia ED 2015 applicant lol oh yeah to SEAS btw</p>
<p>sorry for intruding lol couldnt help myself</p>
<p>Haha. Those of all ages are welcome into this thread (in my opinion.) I think it’s great that you already know where you want to ED. Now you have motivation to really work hard and increase your chances of acceptance.</p>
<p>I haven’t really introduced myself so I’ll do that. Btw KB24yo I replied to one of your earlier threads about Columbia. </p>
<p>I live in the New York metro area in New Jersey. I got a 2130 on my SAT’s and am taking three SAT II’s. My GPA is a 3.65 unweighted, definitely on the low side but I’m still taking a shot.</p>
<p>Obviously I do extra curriculars, including varsity football and numerous academic competitions in various subjects. I really want to major in Economics-Operations Research. It seems to really fit my interest in both econ and optimization/applied quantitative skills. </p>
<p>I’m applying to a couple of other ivies, northwestern, Amherst, Tufts, NYU, umich, and wisconsin. I’m being recruited for football to a couple of schools as well.</p>
<p>I’ve takin two SAT 2
Bio M: regualar class freshman year 730
Chem: Regular class sophomore year 730 (retaking this june for a 770+ score)
thats about it so far 90ish gpa
half first generation college student mom didnt go to college while dad did his college in pakistan
decent ec’s so far
aiming for 2300+ SAT score
can fluently speak though can not read urdu, hindi, and can only fluently read arabic text.
and last but not least im pakistani lol.</p>
<p>btw im a sophomore right now</p>
<p>To bigjay: Are you good enough to play football for Columbia?</p>
<p>To wej: I’m looking at almost the same schools you’re applying for :)</p>
<p>@ shaheiruddin: Wow. I had no idea until…January…of this year were I wanted to go. I hadn’t really considered post-high school plans, which is probably one of my biggest mistakes.</p>
<p>@ bigjay71: We have the same GPA. Woot. Let’s start crossing our fingers now! I looked at that major and would consider it, I guess, but right now I have an unnatural interest in computers…My double-major has a big chance of changing.</p>
<p>@ KB24yo: Which ones? What majors are you looking at?</p>
<p>I’ll be back! :)</p>
<p>KB24yo: I’m not good enough to play football for Columbia. Both Amherst and Tufts are viable options in terms of being recruited for football. </p>
<p>wej: Yeah my fingers will be crossed. I’m counting on my intangibles including my essay, recs, and some supplemental information/stuff I plan on submitting.</p>
<p>if any of you have question about columbia and/or pretty much anything having to do with life on and around campus, admissions (although honestly I’ve forgotten a lot from when I applied), or anything else with the school, feel free to ask/private message me/any other form of contact i’m missing lol. it’s summer, i’m bored, and feeling generous. please just no chances questions, I really have absolutely no idea whether or not you’ll get into Columbia or not.</p>
<p>@ wej : I’m looking at a music major. I want to double in something else, just not sure yet. </p>
<p>@ metsfan : Thanks a lot for volunteering to give us some information. I actually have a bunch of questions to ask, and I’m sure that others as well as myself would love to learn more about Columbia from a student’s perspective.</p>
<p>1) How are the students? (according to college pwler, no offense, they’re not deemed to be very attractive) 2) Is it easy for freshmen to get internships around the city b/c I really want to be an anchor or commentator of some sort 3) Are the people here really competitive? I’m looking for a school where the students are intelligent but also willing to help each other. 4) What are the usual class sizes? Is it hard to get to know your professor. 5) What do you personally feel about the Core Curriculum 6) Is it hard for to change majors? 6) Do you know anything about how generous Columbia’s financial aid program is for students whose families make +100K</p>
<p>Thanks a lot !!</p>
<p>1) How are the students? (according to college pwler, no offense, they’re not deemed to be very attractive) </p>
<p>Haha first off lemme say good for you for actually coming out and asking rather than looking through whatever brochures/application material before reading any of the stuff to see how attractive the student body is like a lot of us do.</p>
<p>We’re certainly no Arizona State, but there definitely are some good-looking girls & guys at Columbia. As a guy I can comment more about the girls on campus, and I’d describe most of the attractive girls on campus as either “cute” (as opposed to “hot”) or, to put it mildly, pearl earring-wearing future Stepford wives. To be honest most of the girls on campus, in my opinion at least, aren’t really people I’d wanna date, and most of the attractive girls (and I guess a lot of the attractive guys) are on sports teams (and people on sports teams tend to mainly date/chill with other people on sports teams although certainly not always), but there are definitely still enough date-able people on campus, and if you’re not an athlete there certainly are some attractive guys/girls who’re pretty good-looking.</p>
<p>2) Is it easy for freshmen to get internships around the city b/c I really want to be an anchor or commentator of some sort </p>
<p>I wouldn’t really say it’s easy, but it certainly is doable. It’s generally difficult for freshmen to get internships anywhere, at any school, although I do know a kid or two at Columbia who got internships at Goldman-Sachs the summer after their freshmen years (I’m going into senior year so it was before the fecal matter collided with the overhead cooling unit in the market), and even though the market did get hit pretty badly this year I still have a friend who got a reallllllly good internship with a bank this summer that’ll almost definitely lead to him getting a pretty nice job there (and hopefully getting me a job there when I get outta grad school in a few years–social networking actually is that important nowadays and going to Columbia and having friends that get these great internships and jobs, even if you yourself don’t, can really help a lot). Specifically for you in the media field, I’m not totally sure about being a commentator/anchor, but you certainly can get media internships the summer after freshmen year (someone I know got an internship I think either writing or editing or something) for mlb.com the summer after his freshmen year, you just need to know what to do to make yourself look like a good applicant for the internship you want (the mlb.com guy wrote for our campus newspaper the Spectator his freshmen year, I’d suggest if you get in you try to do something with the campus television station, CUTV, it’s a club so anyone can join.</p>
<p>3) Are the people here really competitive? I’m looking for a school where the students are intelligent but also willing to help each other. </p>
<p>Depends quite a bit on your major, but generally nah, people really aren’t that cut-throat and most (although honestly not all) people are generally willing to help explain something to you if you ask.</p>
<p>4) What are the usual class sizes? Is it hard to get to know your professor. </p>
<p>Definitely depends on the class, but for core classes, lit hum and contemporary civilization are usually around 20 or so people, frontiers of science and university writing are probably around 15 people, art and music hum are also probably around 20 people, and the global core or whatever they changed the name to classes can actually be pretty large 'cause they’re not specific classes you hafta take but classes in “areas” that’re often lectures. For some intro classes such as general chemistry the classes are giant lectures with probably a couple hundred people in the class (they have recitations but honestly they’re a bit lame most the time). For some classes it even varies by section, like for Calc 1/2/3 if you take a well-known/more senior professor, be prepared for close to a hundred person class, but if you take a younger, newer professor, it’s possible to get classes with 40 or so people.</p>
<p>5) What do you personally feel about the Core Curriculum</p>
<p>When I came to Columbia I was dreading it, almost ended up applying to SEAS to avoid as much of the core as I could, but at this point, after three years of it, I love most of it and I’m really glad I was forced to take the classes I was. A lot of your perception of the core will depend on the professors you have for your core classes. I had the greatest lit hum professor ever and even though I came into the class simply hoping to get through it alive I left…well let’s put it this way, I’ve actually re-read some of the books from lit I liked it that much. On the other hand I had a horrible art hum professor, and I still would rather have a couple fingers or toes amputated than have to go to an art museum.</p>
<p>6) Is it hard for to change majors? </p>
<p>Depends when you do it. A friend of mine changed his mind about what he wanted to major in countless times freshmen year and was fine. Sophomore year maybe it’s a little more challenging but certainly still easily feasible, especially considering the fact that you don’t have to declare your major until early on in the 2nd semester of sophomore year). Junior year I’m not gonna lie it’s pretty tough, I decided I wanted to do a concentration in addition to my major after a really incredible class first semester of junior year, and after having the semester from hell trying to do it last semester, I’ve decided it’s just gonna be too much work and too difficult so I’ve given up. On the other hand if you take a bunch of intro classes in two separate fields freshmen and sophomore year in order to help you decide which you wanna major in, it’s pretty easy to switch back and forth between the two fields like one of my friends did this year.</p>
<p>6) Do you know anything about how generous Columbia’s financial aid program is for students whose families make +100K</p>
<p>Not really, I think a year or so ago they improved financial aid in general by making a greater percentage of awards in the form of grants (rather than loans), but also Columbia’s been receiving less money from donors this past year due to the economy, and I honestly don’t know what impact, if any, that will have.</p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>Hi all, I’m applying to Columbia SEAS 2014, maybe ED, I’m not really sure yet. Good luck to us all</p>
<p>Hey you guys : Why Columbia?</p>
<p>metsfan : thanks a lot!</p>
<p>obstinate: NYC 
I don’t know about you but I think I prefer living in a big city. Infinite things to do.</p>
<p>Why Columbia? So many things to say.</p>
<p>That most important admissions question must make or break those on the borderline. I haven’t fully formulated what I am going to say, but there are a wealth of good reasons to attend Columbia :).</p>
<p>Hello, I’m planning to apply ED in the fall- tears my heart out, I’m so nervous. Main reason for applying is because of their music program, excellent professors who also happen to teach at Juilliard. </p>
<p>I’m from Boston, a fairly good public school, top 10% (GPA is about a 3.8). SATs are 2300, but they were my first time without any prep so I might retake them. No SAT IIs yet, but I’m doing chem and latin in two weeks. I’m half Brazilian, I used to live there and I speak Portuguese, and have volunteered there in the past. I hope to major in history and double minor in linguistics and music, but that’s not certain- I also like philosophy and math. </p>
<p>Good luck to everyone applying! :)</p>