Columbia University Transfer Thread Fall 2019

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

Just wish to create a thread for Columbia Transfers, Fall 2019.

I am currently a student University of California, Davis and wishes to apply to Columbia next fall. Columbia is also my first choice for freshman application (but I didn’t get in).

Hope we can discuss our ideas over the next 9 months.

2

hoping to get in as a rising sophomore!

3

High School 3.1 GPA (35 ACT) didn’t care until I was cornered

I am attending Arizona State University
Freshman Year: 4.1
I intern at a politicians office, not going to say who.
EC: Off the charts, practically all political clubs on campus, was a capital scholar.
Sophomore year is great so far.
Got plenty of good recommendations.

Anyone know anyone with similar stats who got in? I know my greatest weakness is my high school GPA but I’m trying to make a comeback in life and try to get into a good school. Any other recommendations on schools?

4

Hi everyone, I am also looking to apply to Columbia as a transfer this year as a rising sophomore!

5

Has anyone here applied to Columbia in the past?

6

@CollegeUG2018 I applied for first year

7

I was placed on the waitlist before so now I’m trying to get it. I will be entering as a rising junior

8

I applied in my senior year of high school but got rejected. I’m in my safety school and working hard to get to where I want to be.

My stats:

High school=
GPA: 3.8
SAT: low score but I’m planning on retaking it: 1080
4 APs: AP Spanish Language, AP Art Studio, AP Psychology, AP Literature, and Writing
Honors Student and was part of 3 honor societies
Clubs: Robotics, Blanket Making, DIY club, and Meditative Coloring (I’m an art person if you couldn’t tell, haha!)

Undergrad=
GPA: unknown until the fall semester is over; if I had to make an estimate, I think I would have a 3.9-4.0
Fall Semester Credits: 16 in total
Clubs: Student Art Association, Chemistry Club
Spare time: Volunteer work that is available on campus and helping at my local Animal Shelter

9

I’m also a first-year reject! I’m going to apply as a rising sophomore.

10

I also plan on applying as a rising sophomore! has anyone started there application yet(i know its super early but i have already lol)

11

Hi guys!
I am applying to transfer as a rising junior Econ major, and here is some basic info about me!
p.s. I did not apply as a freshman

High School:

  • took honors classes and AP EURO, AP LIT, AP LANG, AP MICRO, APUSH, AP STATS, AP GOV/POL (with atleast a score of 3 on each test, about half of them 4’s)
  • GPA 4.2
  • class rank around top 10% of about 300 students
  • SAT: 1350 (only took once, retaking this year)
  • ACT: 30 (only took once, retaking this year)
  • EC’s: no sports (lol rip), FCCLA (competed in fashion design portfolio for 3 years, went to nationals junior year), NHS

1st year of college:

  • attended Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC (acceptance rate around 44%)
  • Fashion Business Managment major
  • took a few GE’s (including Macroecon) but mostly major classes (those were basically bs fashion classes)
  • got majority A’s, but a couple B’s
  • GPA: 3.7
  • didn’t end up liking it mostly because I felt like fashion was more of a hobby for me and didn’t see it as a career, and basically it just wasn’t challenging enough for me?? if that makes sense, like I felt I could do better and the people around me weren’t very academically motivated

2nd year of college:

  • transfered to a community college back home (in California) to kinda regroup/figure out what I’m gonna do etc. you know, the usual college existential crisis
  • Business Adminstration for transfer major (basically the path designed to transfer to the business administration program at Cal Poly, the local pretty competitive university and my back up school, which I got into as a freshman, but decided not to go to)
  • taking 6 classes (21 credits!!!) this semester in order to catch up and make up for all the bs fashion classes I took that don’t transfer, so basically I’m hella busy nowadays with school and work (retail at a skate/surf shop downtown)
  • currently all A’s (pretty proud of that)
  • GPA: 4.0
  • going to get letters of rec from Calculus and English teacher so I think they will be pretty solid
  • like I said earlier, retaking SAT and ACT coming up pretty soon in December to hopefully get better scores, although I think they are pretty good already idk

Sorry about the text vomit on you guys, and hopefully I don’t sound too pretentious, but I always find everyone’s story very interesting, so I thought I would share mine! Please let me know what you guys think, I’d love to chat!

12
13

:slight_smile:

14

I’m currently a freshman in college, Columbia’s website says that you need 24 credits to apply as a transfer but it also says that to apply as a sophmore transfer you can only get your first semester’s GPA due to the time window. I’m assuming RD is due on Jan 1st (please correct me if this is different for transfer), so I’m wondering what Columbia counts as a “credit”, does it mean that you only submit first semester grades and the classes you registered for 2nd semester?

15

Never mind I’m stupid, just re-read their website you just have to be registered for 24 credits

16

Hi everyone! I’m just looking for some advice - not sure if I should apply to transfer or if it would just be a waste of time.
Currently at a top 15 school. I’m pretty happy here but I really miss New York and would like to be closer to my family. I didn’t apply to Columbia as a freshman because I initially thought I wanted to get away from home (also didn’t think I could get in… not that I think I have a much higher chance now but that’s why I’m here!)

asian female
70k income

HIGH SCHOOL:

Went to one of the top private schools in the US, allowed us to take only 3 APs each year starting from junior year = 6 max APs. Outside of that, was on any available honors track (only two were math and language). Majority of people took maybe a total of 3-4 and were not on honors tracks.

  • 3.61 GPA UW (garbage, did not try in high school/ often ended up being 0.2 away from the next grade)
  • honors track all 4 years. (spanish really dropped me)
  • junior year: AP Spanish (5), AP World (5), AP Bio (5)
  • senior year: AP Calc BC Honors (... we don't talk about it), AP Euro (5), AP Chem (4) - (did VERY poorly senior year bc of slump + upset that my ED choice didn't work out: 3.44 GPA avg)
    • (do I put my non AP classes? idk! very new to this! plus so much word vomit very sorry to anyone who endeavors to read this + eternally grateful)
  • took AP Chinese outside of school (5)

ACT 35 Composite (36 reading, 36 english, 33 math, 33 science)

  • took it once at the beginning of junior year, everyone told me not to retake but my math/ science subscores are garbage

Honors/ Accomplishments:
Siemens semifinalist
Scholastic Art and Writing 2 gold medals + bunch of silvers
gave platform presentation at an international professional genetics conference about bioinformatics cancer research (10% of submitted abstracts get this opportunity)
full merit scholarship to Iowa Young Writers Studio (most prestigious + selective summer writing camp) from National Society of Arts and Letters
National Spanish Exam Gold all 3 years I took it
New York Times Student Editorial Runner Up
published in 2 literary magazines
National Merit Semifinalist (didn’t want to take the SAT)

Experience:
Job at gelato shop
West Point Summer Leaders Experience (selective)
design editor for majority of publications including school newspaper
volunteer at public library for 2 years, volunteer at animal shelter for the other 2
intern at lab doing cancer research for 2 summers
varsity cross country, track, and swim

COLLEGE:
Man I been bumming and playing league of legends bc I didn’t think I’d want to transfer. But here we are.

GPA: 3.70
5 courses, 2 A’s, 2 A-'s
B+ in Physics… failed the first test (54% LMAO meme) got an A on everything else - would’ve gotten an A in the class even if I’d gotten just a C on the first test (is there any way to explain this to admissions if I do decide to apply)

Stuff:
Features writer + design + starting humans of college column for newspaper
menstrual rights club
dj for radio station
intramural sports
writer for science pub + mentor AP Research high school students at local high school
paid work at the library as 2nd level assistant (got automatic promotion because of previous experience in library)
linguistics club

I’m sure I could pull up my GPA next semester, but they barely consider it.

My grades are truly unimpressive. Do I even have a shot? Should I just focus on stop being a bum?

I’d be so grateful for even a word of advice. Really, you’re an absolute star if you got through this mess of anxiety :slight_smile:

17

what are your thoughts on applying with a low GPA ~3.5 from a top public school with decent extracurriculars? is it worth a try if i can somehow muster up amazing essays?

18

@AmberRose248 the columbia website says the minimum for a transfer applicant should be a 3.5, so you’re still within the range! depending on your courseload, top public schools can be very challenging and i know they consider that (they do appreciate rigor). i am a complete pleb and don’t know much, but i’ve definitely heard about essays that really helped an applicant shine, so if you can make yourself unique and stand out in some way i’d give it a try :slight_smile:

19

@Razzmataz upward trend is so telling and your standardized testing is good. i believe they can overlook high school if you’ve shown that you’re working hard now - even just during high school, i know people who tanked freshman and sophomore year but really pulled their grades up junior and senior year and got into great schools (including columbia)

20

hey, guys, I’m also hoping to apply to Columbia for transfer but my low sat score (1300) is really bugging me. I am a freshman in college rn and really want to transfer. My college GPA is a 3.75(got 3 A- and 1 A), I have really good ec’s from hs but not so much in college, could only join 1 club. Hs GPA is pretty good, the only thing is my SAT score. How big of a factor will my SAT score considering my college GPA is fairly high. Also applying to NYU, (i was waitlisted senior year). PS. Good Luck on your transfer applications also!