Columbia GS Fall 2019 Early/Regular Decision Thread

I’ve looked up the group too!

Does anyone know when the deadline for accepting the offer is? I’m still on the fence on a few things and I might not be able to accept the offer until I iron a few things out in the coming weeks.

@joelfromthemoon I talked to someone on the phone at Columbia about that and she said there isn’t really a deadline. But I have talked to several people from Columbia on the phone about a range of things and some of the info they gave me was incorrect. So, it would probably be worth contacting them to ask again.

I have a question for admitted applicants, did any of you have a gap of less than 1 year?

I will most likely be attending a CC next semester, as my 4 year state school is unaffordable. I have already taken one semester off, and was part time this semester.

I spoke to someone from GS, and they said I was currently ineligible based on the non-year long gap, and that others had to have compelling reasons to be part time.

While I am about to be 20, I have an odd background. I went from food service in HS to now working in IT and paid research positions. I grew up on a farm, low-income and rural, didn’t have any parents, and have paved my own path in life. I have a lot of extracurriculars and a few awards.

Would you all reccomend applying after I complete Community College? Or take time off, to work full time?

@joelfromthemoon if anything you can always defer, if that’s an option you’re willing to take.

@stringtheories I didn’t have any time off from school and I was accepted. They asked me in an email if I intended to go part-time/full-time and I told them I was planning on going full-time so I didn’t even have the “compelling reason” to attend part time. I’d encourage you to apply.

My stats are on page 7 but I’ll repost them here for your convenience.

App Type: Transfer
College/ Country: Wake Tech Community College
College GPA: 3.9 (Wake Tech)
HS GPA: 3.5
Testing: Took the GSAE; never found out how I did.
ECs: Phi Theta Kappa, President of Accounting Club

I failed out of a four-year school. I got a job working for the state in maintenance; I realized I didn’t want to be doing that type of work forever. So I went back to school. (there was no year + gap, so giving hope to anyone in the same situation as me) I worked full-time and went to school full-time. Eventually my CFO noticed my hard work and offered me a job working in finance.

One thing I really focused on was how it took me until after I failed out to realize the value of education.

@joelfromthemoon My sibiling is also took an interview, the interviewer said it takes maximum 2 weeks. Did you took interview or get any news?

Hey guys. Is there any reason GS doesn’t have a lot of STEM major students? Is there any disadvantage of it?

@SMSNYAL There’s no engineering in GS.

@SMSNYAL The only major offered in GS that you can find in any university’s engineering department, including SEAS, is computer science.

@SMSNYAL while you can‘t study engineering at GS, there are other STEM majors such as in the sciences (chemistry, biology, physics and more), mathematics or computer science. A disadvantage might be that as far as I know, you earn a Bachelor of Arts, whereas at other colleges you earn a B.Sc. in these fields — which might be a Master‘s requirements or comes higher pay than a B.A…

@oatafix I knew GS only offers BA, but I was never aware that some graduate schools require BS degree. I heard some schools like Berkeley and Oxford only give BA for math… I’m now concerned that if GS is a good choice for me as an aspiring mathematician(I might double major or minor in CS)

@SMSNYAL it‘s not like a B.Sc is better than a B.A. A B.A. is just teaches subjects more broadly (Columbia has the Core Curriculum for this) and a B.Sc. usually tends to be more focussed in one area and is more technical. It‘s personal preference what one prefers and both types are equal diplomas. I know that here in Germany most STEM undergraduate degrees award B.Sc. and Masters therefore are Masters of Science as well and require certain courses that B.A‘s sometimes don‘t cover. If someone plans to pursue a scientific career maybe this could hinder them from doing certain master’s degrees. But I‘m no expert at all! It could be completely different in other parts of the world, especially the US with it‘s liberal arts colleges.

So don‘t worry about it, this is just a possible implication for a small number of people that plan to do M.Sc. in some parts of Europe. Sorry for the confusion ?

@oatafix thanks though for the information! It’s little odd because the requirements for BA and BS for math are the same. But after I read some comments in forums I suppose I expect slight discrimination regarding BA defree in math if I wanna have a place in Europe or from employers who don’t know well about the details. I was just curious what the people in this industry in general feel about BA in math

@jasennian How are you? I’m Kevin, a current student and a tour guide at the School of General Studies. I saw your post and thought that I should clarify a point you made, so I ran it by the admissions committee.

The committee wanted me to let the group know that GS students generally need either a one-year gap in their education since high school or a compelling reason to study part-time. The exception to this rule is when a student has been out of high school for four years or longer and continuously enrolled in college courses. Is that the case with you? By then, in their mid-20’s, students in this situation would be better served by resources designed for nontraditional students.

We wanted to clarify because recent high school graduates without a gap in their education should not apply to Columbia GS, since they aren’t eligible.

@SMSNYAL A lot of the times the difference between a BS and a BA is the requirements to graduate. For example, at Cornell, a CS degree in Arts and Sciences that will give you a BA, requires things such as language course requirements and humanities requirements. A BS degree from the college of engineering, however, doesn’t need these courses and allows the students to take more engineering or CS courses to fulfill their credit requirements. The overall major requirements overlap, but BS students may have to take more engineering or CS courses to graduate.

@Gaspardandlisa I didn’t get called in for an interview, I got my acceptance offer on May 1st!

@GSTourGuides I’ve been out of high school for more than four years and am in my mid twenties so I qualify for that exception then. Thanks for passing the info along! I’m sure it’ll be useful for future applicants.

Do we have a specific date for a decision? If so, anybody knows when it will be?

@SMSNYAL no, all decisions from here on out are on a “rolling basis from May 1st to July 20th.” In other words, we all get to sit around and lose our minds, ha.

I’m debating calling to inquire about whether or not to be prepared to send in final grades for spring semester since this is my last week (but really just as a way of gauging decision making time lol.) I might do that after my last day of class if I don’t hear.