<p>Bringing a laptop is a good idea, right? My parents are hesitant about letting me take it.</p>
<p>aaah I'm excited. =D</p>
<p>Well, when I went I didn't have a laptop. My desktop was fine but a laptop could have been useful.</p>
<p>for those of you who have already been there, what's it like? how much work do you get? what do you do in your spare time? what's the best part about it? </p>
<p>^.^ I'm so excited!</p>
<p>I didn't get too much work last year - I usually did it on the train ride home, nothing took terribly long. I had tons of spare time, which was either spent roaming NY - lunch in central park, shopping, etcetera - or chilling on or near campus just talking to everybody. </p>
<p>I didn't live there, though, and so I suppose it's different. x) I'm crazy excited too.</p>
<p>Workload depends. Went there last summer, mostly depends on how demanding the course is to you personally. I saw kids scrambling around to do their homework during lunch. I had enough that it would take me the entire lunch break to do, but not so much that I had to do it that night. Took intro to C by the way.</p>
<p>I took Expository writing and critical reading and it really wasn't that much. Perhaps an essay or so and like 20 pages of reading. Maybe 2-3 hours of work which isn't so bad if you spread it out over the lunch break and after class.</p>
<p>does anyone know how much work you get in advanced creative writing?</p>
<p>I think you get a decent amount, you have to write a lot(obviously), but I believe there are a lot of assignments. Man, alot of people are going to be there this year aren't they?</p>
<p>Is it hard to get into? What were your science/math grades and how hard was the test?</p>
<p>It's not hard to get into..</p>
<p>Well, some of the courses are more selective than others. I wasn't able to get into the Biomedical Engineering program, however, I hurt my chances by applying 1 week before the deadline (it's rolling admissions).</p>
<p>Yeah, the Biomed Engineering and Advanced Creative and a few others are really selective, while other ones are fairly easy.</p>
<p>How do you know which classes are selective? I'm taking advanced creative and someone told me that the only selective classes were the science ones. </p>
<p>At least now, if you're information's correct, I'm glad to know I didn't just get in because I simply applied. If it's really a hard class to get into, I got in because I was good at writing! </p>
<p>That makes me feel good. Yay. I have finals now, so I need all the light-happiness I can get. ;)</p>
<p>Well, I can't creatively write for my life, and so such a talent might simply carry much more weight for me. xD But I'm guessing based on people I know who got in from my town whose grades and scores and whatnot I know, and then guessing based on my convos with people in various classes last summer.</p>
<p>I had an awesome discussion with two of the creative writing people during the lunch break on my first day - we went from defining quality to relativity to existential philosophy, then looped back to quality and discussed classics vs bestsellers, went into favorite authors (Nabokov, Sedaris), went into our own english class experiences, and carried it from there. I didn't speak with either of those people for the rest of the summer, but we talked for more than 2 hours on that first day. You'll have a really great time.</p>
<p>Finals are oovverrr for me - took my last one today, Physics. x<em>o Now all I have to stress about is SAT and AP test score returns. -</em>- Junior year sucks.</p>
<p>Are the people easy to talk to...and not complete nerds. Like are the people there kids who stay in their room all day or do they go out into the city?</p>
<p>You're always going to get a few shy people, but for the most part, everyone was really awesome. Columbia does a really good job of choosing applicants who aren't just a GPA or a test score, but whose personal statement and reccs reflect an actual person with actual interests. Almost everyone I talked to was really interesting, friendly, and so on. And why would anyone go to NYC and not go out?</p>
<p>For those of you who have been before, you sound like older students. Do many ninth graders go? My daughter is going and living in the dorm, and while it sounded like a good idea when she was signing up, I am beginning to be nervous that there is too much "free time" for a ninth grader.</p>
<p>Upcoming 9th and 10th graders go, but have seperate programs, and so I personally didn't talk to any. =/ </p>
<p>There's tons of stuff to do on or near campus - and if your daughter is a reader, the Columbia Library is like heaven. Columbia also has activities planned, a lot of people just choose not to go to them. I didn't live in the dorms last summer, but no one was really getting into trouble or anything. If she generally has good judgement, it's nothing to worry about.</p>
<p>What kind of books do they have? Are we allowed to borrow books???!?!?</p>
<p>"Program participants have access to the Columbia University Libraries. Because the programs of study are short in length, students may enjoy reading room, but not borrowing, privileges."</p>
<p>That's what the website says. But I saw the library when I went to the CSPA conference there and to the info session thing in March, and it's huge! </p>
<p><a href="http://www.columbia.edu/acis/tour/start.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.columbia.edu/acis/tour/start.html</a> (location 2)</p>