@dreambigg No worries and good luck! See you this coming fall semester!
Thank you. @aogiri . I might defer for spring. I just got financial aid package. Do u know guys is it possible to be waived from medical insurance if I have already one?
Yay I got 18000 dollars for new student scholarship. This is far greater than what I expected!
Thats great @SMSNYAL . Good for you. Congratulations!!!. I got little less than that but more than what I expected too.
Just got mine. Not gonna lie, I’m confused about how the financial aid packages, loans, billing, and total costs work. I’m also not sure of the amount I’ve received so hopefully I can talk to an advisor very soon.
@dreambigg I think you can, but you still have to pay for the medical fee which is around $500. Someone correct me if I’m wrong
I understood that International student cannot wave the insurance. I am not sure though
Hey guys I called them, they said I need to call to Columbia Medical office to do that. They gonna ask my insurance plan stuff and will check if it equal to their requirement then will decide.
Do you know how much scholarship a Gs student can receive? I heard that someone receive 30,000 thousand.
@LUAL wow that’s unbelievable. I think most of students receive around 12-15000$, I might be wrong. However, I do know that its very rare to receive over 20000$ on your first semester.
When I was at the Gs office I heard from a Gs student that he received 25.000 thousand as a scholarship. That’s why I am asking, how much is the Max that you ca. Received ? I didn’t get my financial aid package yet.
I think thats the highest I think.
I have to do the Alp test in two weeks. Is there a way to waive it?
@LUAL I don’t think you can waive it since it’s required for non-native English speakers, as far as I know. Also, I don’t think there’s a max amount of scholarship funds you can get. I’ve heard some people can get almost full scholarships, particularly military veterans.
Has anyone been able to talk to an advisor yet? I was told in the planning session we’d get an email regarding advisors but it’s been a week and there’s still no email. I’d like to talk to an advisor before registering for classes and also talk about financial aid, loans, and scholarships.
@aogirl yes I received an email a week after aps and was able to make an appointment following day in the gs website. You can see your advisor in the ssol. If its past more than a week I would contact them
@SMSNYAL thanks, will do!
Anyone with an insight to Columbia’s Economics program? I’m not very good at math and I’m worried about the math classes that comes with the Economics major. I’m debating between Economics and Financial Economics. I’ve heard Financial Economics is less math-heavy but more difficult and restrictive.
@aogiri I’m majoring in economics-political science. I take the same economics core courses as every other econ (including financial econ) major takes, just with some different electives.
If you feel that you aren’t good at math, maybe economics and financial economics would be challenging for you. However, everybody has to take the same math requirements (Calculus I, Calculus III, and Calculus-Based Introduction to Statistics) before they can move on to take the other major requirements. Provided you do well in these classes, there is no reason you can’t handle the classes required for the major. There are also a wealth of resources available to you, including tutoring (especially for classes required for the economics major).
I will also clarify the difference between the economics and financial economics majors. ALL econ majors (including economics-political science, economics-statistics, economics-math, economics-philosophy, and financial economics) have to take the same core courses: the math requirements which I mentioned above and Principles of Economics, Intermediate Microeconomics, Intermediate Macroeconomics, and Introduction to Econometrics. After you finish these econ core requirements, you move on to taking econ electives. Each econ major will have certain classes that you have to take (for example, Financial Economics, Corporate Finance, and Financial Accounting for financial econ majors), but you will still choose among the same econ electives that the other econ major students can take. Those majoring in economics will just take more econ electives of their choosing, while those majoring in financial economics will take those required financial econ classes mentioned above and fewer econ electives in addition. (So they don’t differ in terms of the total number of classes you have to take).
Since you have to take certain required classes for financial econ major and only have a few econ electives you can take, in that sense it is more “restrictive.” But whether it is actually “more difficult” depends on what you’re interested in and good at.
Hope this is clear and helpful! Let me know if you have any other questions about the econ major.
@GSTourGuides thanks for the detailed reply! You basically answered most of the questions I was wanting to ask.
I’m determined to be an Econ major. I just feel like studying the financial markets and the economy as a whole seems interesting. However, I’m taking Precalculus first instead of jumping straight into Calculus I. Some days I feel like I made the wrong decision because it feels more like a review but I feel like I surely would have failed had I jumped straight into Calculus I. For example, I barely remember anything about Trig.
If you don’t mind me asking, do you think it’s doable to finish everything in 2 years as an Econ major? If not, is 2.5-3 years enough? I transferred to Columbia as a junior and I’m in GS. Looking at the requirements and how certain classes want you to take them consecutively, I’m not sure if I can finish here in 2 years. I’m also not currently taking any language classes yet and you know we need 4 semesters of them. I’m not rich at all and I won’t lie, I took out a lot of loans since financial aid for GS students is terrible and I’m worried about accruing more debt the longer I stay.
Lastly, you don’t have to answer, but I don’t know anyone I could ask so I’m curious about internships. I went to the career fair and I’ve talked to some people, but it feels like everyone is a lot more competitive than I am. How am I able to secure an internship especially if I don’t have a lot of related experience? I’m definitely worried because junior year is the prime time to secure internships, isn’t it? I’ve applied to a bunch of places but I haven’t gotten any yeses.