<p>I have a few questions, if you guys don’t mind.</p>
<p>How easy is it to double major? I have no idea what I want my major to be, but I’m looking for schools that make it easy to study two different fields. The reason I wonder is because of the core. How many students double major, do you think? Is it rare?</p>
<p>If I don’t get an on-campus job, how easy is it to work somewhere in the surrounding neighborhood? I wouldn’t want to work the first semester (or maybe the first year) but I’d like to try to get something part time so I don’t have to continuously mooch of my parents and have money to actually do things in the city since it gets expensive.</p>
<p>Also, my mom is a bit put off by the fact that Columbia is in NYC. I understand I probably won’t get in, but I really don’t want her to try to stop me applying to my dream school, or bugging me about it. How can I try to calm her nerves a little? I explained to her that Columbia is like it’s own little bubble in NYC; unlike NYU there is an actual campus. Is there anything else I can do?</p>
<p>Nearly all of New York - not just the Columbia bubble - is safe. I’m female and I’ve taken the subway at 1 AM by myself, I’ve walked home at night by myself, etc. Sure you need to know where you’re going and you need to be aware of your surroundings and yes, there are occasional issues, but the fact is - it’s safe. Columbia Public Safety patrols the neighborhood at all hours and there are public safety officers all over the place. Both the NYU and Columbia tours suggest that their neighborhoods are the safest police precincts in the city. I don’t know which is true, but they’re both fine.</p>
<p>If your mother needs concrete evidence, I’m sure you can find plenty of stats online - I just googled “America’s safest big cities” and found the Forbes list.</p>
<p>I hope you can bring your mother around! My parents were totally cool with me going off to NYC, but they did field a lot of questions from friends - “How can you let your 18-year-old daughter go off to NYC by herself?”</p>
<p>Thank you! That list definitely helps. Especially since I live in a major city that didn’t make the list.</p>
<p>My dad is all for me going to Columbia if I get in. Because I’d be the first person to get into an Ivy League and go out of state. My mom just worries a lot. I’ll tell her about the police precinct thing and the security. I think that will hopefully bring her around. You were very helpful!</p>
<p>Ill answer your remaining questions since mrbc2011 did a great job on the safety one.</p>
<p>I assume you want to finish in four years. Double majoring would be extremely difficult if:
the majors arent extremely close (even though you cant double dip)
you take 5 classes per semester (the average, although people are known to take 6 or 7)
you dont take classes in the summer</p>
<p>If neither of your majors unintentionally fulfilled the some core requirements and you dont test out, there are about 18 classes depending on whether or count PE and the nature of your science requirements.</p>
<p>If you decide to double major youre going to have to start out strong: know exactly what you want to major in, no electives, and studying abroad is not going to happen.</p>
<p>If you have work study, a job is guaranteed. In my case my work study ended and my employer hired me for casual employment. I havent heard of many people working in the neighborhood, but that is because its pretty easy to find a job on campus. The library job fair alone had over 100 slots to fill.</p>
<p>If you want to make a little money during freshman year without the commitment, you could participate in psych studies. They’re usually surveys or activities that pay anywhere from $5-$15 depending on how long it is. Ive seen the more invasive ones go up to $100+ but that involved MRIs.</p>
<p>I’m from Virginia and although my school is competitive we do not send any kids to the ivies. My gpa my not be a perfect one but its 3.7UW. Does Columbia really do the holisitic thing? I have over 1000 hours of free babysitting services and I’m a URM (Sierra Leonean)…if I get great scores on the ACT and Subject Tests do you think I will be competitive? Also, my mom makes less than 60000 dollars a year does that mean I won’t pay anything if I am accepted?</p>
<p>I was the only person in my school to get accepted to an ivy but I was probably the only one to apply to the ivies. So I dont think it matters that your school doesnt send kids to the ivies. Do a lot of students at your school apply to the ivies and get rejected?</p>
<p>Your GPA might not be perfect, but it is around the average and according to Columbias records theyve accepted students with 3.0s. If you get great scores on those tests, based entirely on numbers, I dont see why you wouldnt be competitive. Do you have any other ECs? Maybe some prizes or leadership positions?</p>
<p>As for the financial aid, it depends. You and I are in the same boat, last year I think my mom paid about $2000-$4000. Which is amazing considering tuition costs. Also take textbooks into account; Columbias core classes will take a chunk of your money if you dont shop around.</p>
<p>At my school people just don’t apply to ivies. My friend applied last year, but was rejected. They doubt themselves way too much to apply.</p>
<p>I’m charges d’ affairs for MUN, Parliamentarian for SCA, Peer Trainer, Athletic Trainer Assistant, Key Club, Junior Civitans, Hopsital Volunteer, Bowling with special needs people (ARC Bowling)…there’s more but these are just some major ones to me.</p>
<p>Prizes: three academic letters, medical letter, AP Scholar, Youth Salute Scholarship Finalist, Girls State, Girls Nation, MUN letter, MUN most prospective delegate award</p>
<p>And wow you received some very good aid. Congrats I know its hard paying for Columbia without and sometimes even with aid.</p>
<p>I’ve been wanting to ask this. I’m from Sierra Leone and I know that Columbia has little if not any Sierra Leoneans. How much does that help me.</p>
<p>Being African American (assuming this is the box you check) helps, but I don’t think being from Sierra Leone is necessarily going to add to that.</p>
<p>Hi, I’m a junior in high school and attending Columbia has been my dream for years. </p>
<p>I’ve been told repeatedly I need scores of ECs in order to get accepted. Is this true? My main EC is soccer; I play competitively year round, as well as on my high school’s varsity team. Would that, paired with a couple of clubs and some volunteering, be enough for ECs?</p>
<p>Also, do you have any recommendations or advice on what I should be doing academically and outside of school this year in order to get accepted? </p>
<p>Thank you, any advice on getting in would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>While it is good to have a lot of ECs, I think its better to have a few that you put a lot of time an effort in (like soccer). If you want to improve your ECs, I would suggest trying to get a leadership position in one of those clubs or adding more volunteering hours.</p>
<p>For academics, the general advice applies: keep your grades up, take the hardest classes, etc. Also, take the SAT IIs as soon as you finish the class. As for the SAT, try to avoid Kaplan online classes theyre terrible.</p>
<p>As for outside of school, it depends on how much time you have. If you know what you want to major in, you could start showing interest in that area. For example, I have a pre-med friend who shadowed a physician on the weekends. You could also see if you could take courses at your local college. The credits may not be transferable, but at least it would show that you have the ability to excel in college.</p>
<p>This sounds a little strange, but you may want to start writing down your favorite books and movies for the supplement. </p>
<p>Ok so I made this account a while ago but this is my first post. I’m applying early decision to Columbia & I know my GPA & SAT stats are good enough, so I’m just really worried about my application standing out and I have some questions about the Columbia supplement. Obviously every person is different but for the question that asks “what you find most appealing about Columbia and why” did you focus more on one aspect of Columbia or mention a few things you really like about the school? The 1500 character limit is killing me on this question, there’s so much I love about the school.
Oh and when it asks me to “list the films, performances, exhibits, concerts, shows, lectures, etc.” that I enjoyed most in the past year, should I stick to museums and plays, or is it okay to list movies and tv shows too? (I think you might have already kind of talked about this but I wasn’t originally going to list tv shows so I just wanted to clarify, sorry)</p>
<p>Also, a question unrelated to the application: would you say there are any stereotypes within the student body? Like a certain description that most students fit? Or is the student body just completely diverse, I don’t mean just demographically, but in general? (idk if this is a weird/dumb question but I was just wondering)</p>
<p>Thank you so much for taking the time to answer questions like this.</p>
<p>Ok so I made this account a while ago but this is my first post. I’m applying early decision to Columbia & I know my GPA & SAT stats are good enough, so I’m just really worried about my application standing out and I have some questions about the Columbia supplement. Obviously every person is different but for the question that asks “what you find most appealing about Columbia and why” did you focus more on one aspect of Columbia or mention a few things you really like about the school? The 1500 character limit is killing me on this question, there’s so much I love about the school.
Oh and when it asks me to “list the films, performances, exhibits, concerts, shows, lectures, etc.” that I enjoyed most in the past year, should I stick to museums and plays, or is it okay to list movies and tv shows too? (I think you might have already kind of talked about this but I wasn’t originally going to list tv shows so I just wanted to clarify, sorry)</p>
<p>Also, a question unrelated to the application: would you say there are any stereotypes within the student body? Like a certain description that most students fit? Or is the student body just completely diverse, I don’t mean just demographically, but in general? (idk if this is a weird/dumb question but I was just wondering)</p>
<p>Thank you so much for taking the time to answer questions like this.</p>
<p>I definitely mentioned more than one aspect of Columbia. I know its difficult, but try to pick 3 or 4 reasons and expand on them.</p>
<p>Its perfectly ok to list movies and TV shows on the supplement. I doubt look down on potential applicants for enjoying TV. Im not sure what kind of TV you watch but listing cruse humor and most MTV shows seem out of the question.</p>
<p>I dont think your question if dumb at all, its rather interesting. I would have to say that the student body is extremely diverse. There are a few stereotypes that students APPEAR to fit: jock/frat boy, party girl, prep, bookworms/nerds, hipsters, geeks. While some people Ive met seem to fit a particular stereotype most dont, and there are a lot of shared interests between the groups. In college it seems like people are more willing to admit they like things that were considered taboo in high school (old cartoons, anime, fanfiction, liking science/math). </p>
<p>Its no problem. I enjoy helping you guys out and talking about Columbia.</p>
<p>Hi I was just wondering about my ECs. I just want to know if they are good enough for Columbia. I going to list them here:</p>
<p>VIP= Volunteering is Priceless - I’ll be VP this year and President in senior year (all 4 years)
FBLA= Future Bussiness Leaders of America- VP right now will be President Senior year (3 years)
Public Speaking club- no leadership at the moment but planning to be president this year since all the seniors last year are gone (3 years)
Rutgers Upward Bound Program- (5-4 Years)
College Prep- (6 years)
Will be in Varsity Tennis this year and next (2 years)</p>
<p>Over 200 hours of volunteering, 100 from VIP and another 100 this summer from working at the public library. I will have more hours.</p>
<p>I’m also planning on doing a book drive for my schools library (I’m pretty close with the librians)
I’m also planning on starting a club for young writers and I might join the newspaper club but its not really good and organized. </p>
<p>I might also do math club and hopefully I get a position or awards in these clubs someday.</p>
<p>I’m a junior, love Columbia, want to apply for Columbia pre-college this year with the help of a scholarship from my school. So just tell me, are my ECs good so far or do I need more.</p>
<p>You have more than enough ECs. With the number of ECs you have I would question the quality, but you seem to be putting a lot of time into each of them. There is no magical number of ECs you need to get into Columbia. You look like you’re doing really well, good luck!</p>
<p>I never really know how my ECs look, if they’re good or not. I dedicate time to them but I just don’t really know if I am doing enough.</p>
<ol>
<li>I volunteer two to four times a month, for about six hours per time, at a music venue/art gallery in downtown Seattle. I’ve also held an internship there for a few months. By the time I’m a senior, I’ll have three years of this.</li>
<li>In school, I’m part of Drama Club/Play Production, and we meet several times a week, after school and even on weekends for play rehearsal. Senior year will be my third year.</li>
<li>Three year member of Undead Poet’s Society, although I haven’t done really anything with this besides presenting at assemblies, etc. There aren’t any leadership positions. But I’ve won a couple Scholastic Gold Key awards for my poetry so hopefully that shows some interesting.</li>
<li>Member of an environmental club, GREAN, for three years. No leaderships available. We do a lot of recycling, helping try to better the planet, etc.</li>
<li>Volunteering one a week for three years at the hospital. I’ll probably have around 200 hours of this. </li>
<li>I’m part of the Teen Advisory Group at a downtown art museum (different from the aforementioned art gallery) and do various volunteering there, for three years so far, about 150 hours.</li>
</ol>
<p>And that’s really it. They’re a bit scattered, and I don’t know if I show enough dedication or if I’m doing enough. There are other opportunities at my school, just nothing I’m really that interested in. And I don’t really have any leadership positions but I they are available for the sort of things I am involved in.</p>