Columbia Undergraduate Scholars Program

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

My D was named a Kluge scholar. Does anyone know anything about the Columbia Undergraduate Scholars Program and the benefits?

2

Well I did find this in the FA Package:

3

I was named a Kluge Scholar also!!

4

Benefits:

  • Access to some events held for scholars
  • Summer funding is available (I’m doing my app right now) for either assistantships or independent projects
  • We have the best advisors, hands down, who really take time to get to know us. I love mine.
  • 1st year students do a journey seminar and we also did a tour of Harlem…it’s not too serious, and YMMV on them.
5

All the above is true, but there are some cons as well:

  • You are required to engage in weekly seminars that nobody wants to be at
  • You are supposed to take time out of your day to go to 5 events per semester, regardless of whether they conflict with your classes
  • Funding is premised off of being entrenched in the program rather than based off of your qualifications, your ideas, your plans, etc.
  • Everybody will think strangely of you when you tell them you’re a Scholar. It’s like being among the top 5% at a school that’s already made up of the top 5%. Nobody holds it against you or think less of you, but it’s an added quirk you can place on your resume as a Columbia student that you merited through some one-off decision of a college admissions counselor.

Overall, it’s pretty cool—after freshman year is over, of course.

6

Well if part of your aid package is work study and it gets waived the time you would have spent working is way more than the time going to seminars so it’s a win for those kids.