<p>Hey, I've noticed so many of these threads, but was unable to find an active one for Columbia. Maybe I just missed it; if so, the least I can do is provide a different perspective on things. </p>
<p>So here's a little bit about me:
This is my first post at CC even though I've browsed the forums since I was a senior in high school. I'm currently a rising sophomore at Columbia College. I spent my freshman year thinking I wanted to be an econ major before finally admitting to myself that I don't like econ/business. This upcoming year I will be starting the pre-med requirements and declaring a major in biology (and maybe a concentration (minor) in Italian cultural studies).</p>
<p>So, if you have any questions (dorms, life, the core, money, etc.), I'd love to answer them.</p>
<p>Unfortunately there are no merit based scholarships. If you’re absolutely sure your family doesn’t qualify (annual income over 90,000ish) you may want to consider outside scholarships or even loans.</p>
<p>Yeah, no merit scholarships, but actually the top income (without serious mitigating circumstances) for need-based is closer to 175-200K. If you’re in the lower 100,000s, you may still get substantial aid (10,000+), and a finaid app is worth it regardless—you never know. Just get it in early cause finaid here is slllllllllloooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwww…</p>
<p>“I spent my freshman year thinking I wanted to be an econ major before finally admitting to myself that I don’t like econ/business. This upcoming year I will be starting the pre-med requirements”</p>
<p>Out of the frying pan and into the fire!</p>
<p>Regarding financial aid, Columbia’s total cost for 2011–2012 is more like $60,000. If you make less than $200,000, you should get at least some aid. Columbia makes sure that your family can afford tuition (and room/board), but not without sacrifice. Even though you can definitely afford Columbia, you might prefer to go to a state school or lower-ranked private that will shower merit aid on you to get you to attend.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure the financial aid cutoff is below $200,000. I didn’t get any financial aid during my freshman year and my parents made less than $200,000, had around $250,000 outstanding on their mortgage, and around $15,000 in savings. Another friend received $15-20k in grants even though his sister attended NYU without any aid and his family made around $180,000. </p>
<p>I think the cutoff for financial aid is around $150,000. It depends on siblings who attend college, outstanding debt, and declared assets but I don’t think most students will get any aid if their parents make over $150,000. Harvard and Yale have financial aid for families making less than $200,000 (maximum of 20k based on 10% of income) and their funding ability is much higher than Columbia’s.</p>
<p>^^ untrue. the finaid office doesn’t have a strict cutoff, but look at the whole situation. so last year, for example, columbia awarded aid to a family w/ a combined income of $230,000/year.</p>
<p>In general, though, it’s probably safe to say an informal cut-off for Columbia is about $150,000. You might get some aid if you’re above that (I did), but you’re pretty much guaranteed to get something if you’re under $150,000.</p>
<p>Yep, I’d agree with $150,000 as a cutoff for receiving some form of financial aid (grants, Pell loans, or work/study).</p>
<p>Columbia is not nearly as generous as Harvard, Princeton, or Yale due to the school’s lower endowment. Princeton might give you 15k in grants while Columbia gives you 5k in work/study.</p>
<p>The tour is led by a current student who answers questions about student life, academics and walk you through the campus. The goal of the tour is to give prospective students an idea of what it’s actually like to go to school here as well as answer any potentially awkward questions you didn’t want to ask the admissions officer during the information session.</p>
<p>Wow, thank you so much for taking time off from your busy schedule to answer our questions!</p>
<p>I’m not sure if you had the same Columbia supplement when you applied, but on the supplement, it asks you to list your favorite movies, TV shows, etc. you watched in the past year, and the character limit is 600, which is really–wow–a lot.</p>
<p>I already have twenty or so titles on there (and there probably will be more), but would that make me seem like I have a lot of free time on my hands that I could be using to do more “productive” things like studying? A lot of them are fiction, but some of them are nonfiction. (And yes, all of the ones I put down are “favorites.” :P)</p>
<p>I actually rarely watch TV or movies during the school year, but over Thanksgiving, Christmas, summer, etc. breaks, I watch several movies, but I’m not sure the admissions officers would get a good impression. On the other hand, I’m planning to list many titles for the favorite required readings and books read during your free time.</p>
<p>But in short, should I narrow down my favorites?</p>
<p>Sorry for the delay; for some reason I haven’t been receiving e-mail notifications. I’m also getting ready to head back to campus.</p>
<p>@thisismymingzi
Personally, I sleep with the tv on, so I had no trouble filling out that portion. I don’t think listing a lot of tv shows/movies is necessarily a bad thing. You’ve been alive for 17-18 years; this is plenty of time to watch hundreds (or thousands in many cases) of movies and still do a lot of productive things. The supplement is about getting to know what kind of person you are. It’s about your tastes. In my opinion as long as you’re not listing crude/highly offensive material it’s fine.</p>
<p>@Woahgosh
Were talking high school here right? Before I dump the list on you, I should tell you that I did 1 EC in freshman year and was homeschooled (online) during sophomore year. Thus, when I returned to public school I was STARVED for human contact.</p>
<p>Junior year:
PE
English
Pre Calc
Chem
AP US History
AP Bio
Spanish 3 (no AP at my school)</p>
<p>Senior year:
AP Chemistry (over 3 hours long)
Honors Physics
AP Calculus
AP English
Courses at local college: Speech, Art Appreciation, Government, Microeconomics </p>
<p>ECs
Library volunteer 1 year
Mock Trial 2 years (State lvl)
Future Teachers of America 2 years (State President)
Anti Tobacco Club 2 years (Treasurer)
NHS
Science UIL year
Superintendent Student Advisory Board 4 years
Youth Advisory Council 1 year
Golf 1 year</p>
<p>As someone who is very much so in love with Columbia, what is your take on the Early Decision agreements? My application/courses/etc are very strong, but my only slight weakness is the SAT, on which i received a 2100 (got 770 on writing), and I have yet to write the subject tests (will be doing this in october). I have some really cool things on my application, but am worried that I will be deferred from ED round simply because of my scores, even though I have a 95% average and a 4.0 in school. I am an international student living in a very small town in Canada, where SAT writing is in a center 2 hours drive away and is a very big ordeal (I also had bronchitis and was very sick-on antibiotics- on test day). I do not plan on rewriting the SAT1, however, due to lack of time for re-prep. I’m obsessed with creative writing and have an obvious knack for it throughout my application. I also attended a summer program at Columbia and am 150% sure that Columbia is my #1 choice. Would the early decision round give me an advantage?</p>
<p>Last year Columbia’s class was 40+% ED applicants. This is difficult for me to answer because I am neither an international student nor an early decision applicant. Despite what some people on CC say, 2100 is NOT a low score (I’m sorry about you’re bronchitis and congrats on getting a good score when you wear ill!)<br>
If you think you’ll receive at least a 650-700 on your SAT IIs and you don’t need significant financial aid, I think you should take a chance (especially since you say your application is quite strong in other places).</p>
<p>I highly doubt ED will give you any sort of advantage. In my opinion, it seems like it would be more difficult to be accepted during early decision considering the applicant pool. There are some schools that say they take early interest into consideration but I haven’t read anything about Columbia being one of those schools.</p>