Stats:
• Previously attended HYPS years ago: dismissed.
• CC GPA: 4.0/4.0 (A.A. and Post Degree Certificate).
• Cisco CCNA R&S.
• CompTIA trifecta (A+, Network+, Security+).
• Worked IT Help Desk at a Fortune 500 company for six months.
• SAT I: 760/800 M, 750/800 V
• Very strong essay.
• Had a ton of HS EC’s but didn’t list any because I thought they were no longer relevant.
• Two academic LORs (one from my Physics professor and the other from my Business instructor).
• Exceeded the maximum credits allowed at my CC to receive any more Federal financial aid.
@longshot413 you seem like a very strong applicant!
Maybe, but I was rejected for Fall 2020 admission. I really like Columbia’s CS/IS programs and dig its intellectual culture with the Core. Heck, it’s Barack’s alma mater! Plus, they actually have a Korean language department, so I have no excuse to learn my own language 
Never wrote here before but I’ve been constantly following the feed in anticipation… I got accepted today! Can’t believe it… Does anyone have the link to the FB page for accepted students?
@longshot413 I hope you have better luck this time around. I’m also studying CS. Would be awesome if we both got in.
@bigtruss Congratulations on your acceptance! I don’t think there’s a GS page for 2021 accepted students yet
Most definitely. I’m looking forward to taking on the very difficult Advanced Programming with Professor Jae Woo Lee. People on Reddit complain vehemently about the difficulty of his class, but at Stanford, it’s only equivalent to CS106B or their second introductory CS course. Pointers can be difficult but even Swift uses them! Sheesh, a bunch of CS lightweights!!!
You RD applicants should check your status. I got rejected, but best of luck to you guys, and congratulations to those who got in!
@Venomxite: Wow that’s rough man, sorry to hear. Yeah I still haven’t heard of a decision, but my last recommendation wasn’t posted until 11/1, even though I finished my app on 10/23. All I can do is hope for the best.
@longshot413: My last recommendation was posted on October 30th, I imagine you should have a decision within a week or two. I hope you get in!
I’ll be applying again for Fall 2021 Priority Early Action, I’m hoping that my chances will increase by then. Does anyone know if applying earlier considerably increases chances of admission?
I was told at an information session that applying priority early action or early action does not affect your admission chances.
Columbia GS is not actually competitive, per se. Traditional students applying to CC or SEAS are fighting each other for a limited number of spots. To gain admission to those schools, you need to be a better candidate than someone else. For reference, in 2018 CC & SEAS accepted 2,291 out of 32,952 applicants. That means that as long as you were a better candidate than person #2,292, you got a spot in the freshman class.
GS is not like that-- You are not head-to-head with other students fighting for a spot in the class. Rather, you compete against program in the sense that you either are the right fit or you are not. This isn’t competitive, because there isn’t really a way to make yourself a good fit. You could, theoretically, decide to attend another college right out of HS, fail out, start a non-profit, go back to community college and get a 4.0 with the intent to apply to GS at age 28, but I seriously doubt that anyone is playing the “long game” for GS like that. By the time that most people are applying to GS, their life story is already written and changing it to be a better fit for the program would be difficult or time consuming.
If you are rejected from GS because the admissions committee needs to see a bit more work from you to ensure that you are prepared to return to the classroom, I am sure they will communicate that to you. But otherwise, if you are rejected, you shouldn’t get down on yourself because it has nothing to do with you as a person or student, it simply means you are not the right fit for this particular program.
I think you make a few valid points. The key factor really comes down to having a non-traditional sort of life story, along with being academically fit to attend Columbia. What makes an applicant qualified in terms of their non-traditional background cannot specifically be catered towards when applying to the program, it simply either fits in with what they’re looking for or it does not.
However, you imply that Columbia GS isn’t competitive, and I would disagree. You say that you’re not fighting other students for a spot, but Columbia says otherwise. In my rejection letter, it describes that they had an “extraordinarily high number of very well qualified applicants for a limited number of spaces.” So it still comes down to being more qualified than the next guy.
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Hmm… That is interesting. In a virtual information session I attended, the counselor running the meeting said something a bit different than what was written in your rejection letter.
In the meeting I attended, the counselor explained (I am paraphrasing a bit here) that they didn’t publish their acceptance rate and other admissions-related statistics because it is not a helpful way to assess their admissions data. The gentleman continued to say that in his years working in GS admissions, he has never seen an instance of GS not having a place for a qualified student.
Hi, longshot413.
I just created account in this site. I got an admission from CS department as well.
I try to figure out about financial stuff at the moment. I speak Korean and German.
I am from a community college, and this is going to be my third degree if I get it.
Hahahah.
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Did you say you transferred from a cc to a top 5 public? If yes, then why would you need to transfer to GS?
What was said about financial aid?
Hey y’all Spring admits —
HOW ARE YOU DOING AT COLUMBIA? ARE YOU OKAY?
We’re all very proud of you - and also incredibly proud of the people who applied and did not get in. Way to put yourselves out there! Your path will come and it will be the right one for you!
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