<p>hiii 
</p>
<p>does the existence of core means that there are less/no quirky courses at Columbia?</p>
<p>(since not many students will choose to take them)</p>
<p>@franzferdinand
Thatās a lot of ECās, and if you like them all, keep doing them. You definitely donāt need to do more. And itās not as scattered as you think. When I look at your ECās I see someone who does a lot of volunteer work, and that shows that you care about your community. Leadership positions are nice, but if there are none, thereās nothing you can doā¦or you could create your own club. But you shouldnāt do it just to have a leadership position.</p>
<p>@signiture
there are probably around 1000 courses at Columbia (just imagine adding Barnard).</p>
<p>My junior schedule is as follows:</p>
<p>English 3 Honors
Algebra/ Pre Calc Honors (block period)
AP Bio/ Bio lab (which just means is a block period as well)
Gym
Chem
World History</p>
<p>I wanted world history honors, I had it first but then they realized I had no lunch because of my AP Bio and they switched me out. And Iām just worried that without that honors class or other AP classes that even though I qualify for I cant have because its the same time as another class. It this good enough or should I fight my guidance counselor till she gives me what I need?</p>
<p>Senior Year schedule however will look like this:</p>
<p>AP English
AP US History
AP Calc AB
AP World History
Gym
Newspaper
AP Chem (might not take that class. who knows?)</p>
<p>I doubt one honors class is going to make or break your application. Scheduling conflicts happen; you need lunch. I hate when schools schedule honors classes during the same times. Anyway, Your schedule looks great.<br>
Plus AP Chem is generally more important than World History Honors.</p>
<p>Hi I am a current senior applying ED to Columbia. Jennaira I think you said you used to be interested in economic- can you tell me if Columbiaās economics undegrad program is particularly strong and are there a lot of students in it? Iām am interested in the major financial economics that is offered at Columbia. </p>
<p>I have pretty good class rank and solid SAT scores but Iām pretty most people have that too. How much do you think placing at Intelās international science fair would help? Is that considered a hook?</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your time!</p>
<p>Iād say the econ department is pretty strong; they had a surprising amount of info for the freshman, including awesome study abroad opportunities.
Columbia = New York = awesome place for econ/financial stuff
Seriously, companies are always coming here looking for interns and full-time employees.
Most numerous majors: econ, pre-med bio, poli sci</p>
<p>The science fair, while awesome, is not a hook. It is, however, an excellent EC.
Out of curiosity, can you tell me what your project/experiment was? Feel free to PM me if youād be more comfortable.</p>
<p>You make Columbia admissions seem so much nicer than some people on CC. Do you have any tips on how to stand out with my application? I think I have plenty of ECs, my grades are good and Iām taking the hardest class I can. My one obvious downfall is that my SAT scores are lower. Also, I have no national or even state awards, which worries me. Hereās the link to my āChance meā and statistics if you want to look at those and give me advice: <a href=āhttp://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/1212330-chance-me-please.html[/url]ā>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/1212330-chance-me-please.html</a>. Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>Personally, I believe that admissions are intense and do involve some luck. However, I feel like people on CC really demonize the process. Sure, itās pretty hectic and stressful, but it should be enjoyable to some degree. Plus, I genuinely liked all the colleges I applied to, so I wouldnāt have been traumatized if I hadnāt gotten into Columbia.</p>
<p>Your ECās are great as is your GPA. Like you said, your SAT scores are a little low (if you have the funds you may want to enroll in a prep class - do not do online class though). Of course itās not impossible to get in with these scores, but itās definitely more difficult. </p>
<p>As for awards, I donāt think itās going to significantly drag you down. Maybe there just arenāt any awards in your area. I agree with BernieMadoff there are thousands of absolutely amazing applicants, but there are also ānormalā people at Columbia. Stellar scores and awards donāt necessarily make you unique. Obviously, schools arenāt just admitting the applicants with the highest scores and GPA (donāt get me wrong, these are very important), theyāre also looking for people who fit the school and are going to do well. After all, if you drop out, itāll lower their percentages.</p>
<p>Also, as SheepGetKilled said, maybe your school is trash. I donāt know. But I do know that mine certainly was (is!). My alma mater doesnāt have a trig class! The local college doesnāt even have a trig class! I advise you to really take a look at your school, and start self studying now if you donāt want to struggle in college.</p>
<p>If you donāt manage to bring up your SAT scores, I advise you to apply regular decision.
Stay optimistic, but be prepared. And stay open minded. I love Columbia, but Iām sure I could have been just as happy at the other schools I was accepted to. Make sure you pick colleges you like, not just based on rank.</p>
<p>I hope this helps, feel free to pm me.</p>
<p>P.S. Some may feel this reply seems too positive, but I found the comments on your chance board to be pretty negative, which would be fine if they also gave you some advice.</p>
<p>Iām currently interested in philosophy, classics and international relations, and I know that academically, Columbia is perfect for these three areas. The one thing that has me hesitating from applying to Columbia is its focus on graduate students rather than its undergrad, and Iām looking for a college that will give me intimate classes and close relationships with my professors. So I was wondering,
- Have most of your classes been lecture based or seminar based? How many of them have been taught by TAās rather than actual professors?
- How accessible are the professors?
- What proportion of the classes youāve taken have been around <30 students?</p>
<p>In addition, how is the student atmosphere on campus? Iāve heard rumors that there isnāt much of school spirit and campus activity due to its location in a huge cityā¦is that true?</p>
<p>Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions!</p>
<p>1&3. Iām taking five classes right now. My two intro classes are large lectures: one with about 150 people and no discussion section, and one with about 60 people and a weekly discussion section led by a TA. Then I have an introductory language class with about 14 people, UWriting with about 14 people, and Lit Hum with about 22. Lit Hum and UWriting are discussion based; the language class is more lecturish. </p>
<p>Teaching Assistants (usually grad students or advanced undergraduates) assist the instructor or professor and occasionally lead discussion sections, but by definition are not instructors themselves. Sometimes, however, graduate students can be instructors. My Lit Hum and UWriting instructors are both grad students.</p>
<ol>
<li>It varies. They all hold office hours, but some really make an effort to appear accessible and others donāt so much. My two grad student instructors are actually the best about being approachable, probably because 1) they arenāt too busy with their own research to deal with undergraduates and 2) they are eager to avoid the stereotype grad students have as been disinterested and incompetent. Columbia has tons of grad students, and if one has been selected to teach you it means that he or she is one of the best. Theoretically, at least. So far itās worked out well for me.</li>
</ol>
<p>Also: Classics here is GREAT. My experience with the professors and the department has been nothing but amazing so far (:</p>
<p>As far as campus community, it does take a certain amount of initiative to get involved in things. This is a huge, busy, fast-moving place, and no one is going to check up on you. I actually havenāt found that the city saps campus social life, just that it can be easy to isolate yourself from the community socially because of work, stress, laziness, etc. If you donāt make the effort be get involved, its easy to get lost in the shuffle.</p>
<p>How difficult how are the sociology and anthropology majorsā¦ I know they are probably regarded as the ājokeā majors but I am sure columbia knows how to make them difficult.</p>
<p>Itās strange that the average number of courses per semester at Columbia is 5- itās 4 at most colleges. Since you donāt have class on Fridays, does that mean that most of the day during the 4 day week is taken up by classes?</p>
<p>@gstransfer
I tend to view sociology and anthropology as humanities majors so I have no clue. Sorry!</p>
<p>@bpd123
Not necessarily. It really depends on what your major is. If your science/math related you hours kinda suck because of the labs/lab lectures/recitation. The issue here is that it is difficult to spread things out, so one or two days may be heavier than the others. If your major is different, your hours still probably suck. Columbia classes have a very unfortunate timing.
I average 4.625 hrs a day (18.5 credits) but on mondays I spend about 6 and a half hours in class.</p>
<p>@ilatte
Your question has already been answered, but if youād still like my opinion, let me know. Sorry I couldnāt respond earlier!</p>
<p>@iteotwawki
Thanks for your detailed response!</p>
<p>@Jennaira
Iād love to get your opinion as well! Any information would be helpful at this point</p>
<p>@gstransfer The first anthro department in the world was at Columbia, and we have one of the best departments in the country (especially if you include Barnardās department). As far as difficulty, I guess it depends on how you feel about doing lots of reading, writing papers, and understanding fairly complex social and cultural theory. I personally find critiquing anthropological studies to be challenging, but far easier than doing physics or calculus. But I know there are science and math majors whose eyes glaze over when people talk about āagencyā and āpost-colonialist discourseā and ādialogic tradition,ā so your mileage may be vary. </p>
<p>I wouldnāt call it a ājokeā major, since I donāt think thereās a sense that anthro majors are dumb, but there are definitely stereotypes associated the department, chiefly that everyoneās super-liberal. Whenever people are protesting the War in Iraq or Israeli policies in the Middle East, itās usually Anthro professors leading the charge. But I also think that, at Columbia much more so than at other schools, Anthro majors and professors are very well-respected.</p>
<p>The actual major requirements ([Anthropology</a> | Columbia College](<a href=āColumbia College Bulletin < Columbia College | Columbia Universityā>Columbia College Bulletin < Columbia College | Columbia University)) arenāt too bad: you basically have to take 12 classes, including: 3 intro classes, at least 2 classes focusing on a specific culture, and at least 2 classes in a related discipline (like history, sociology, or area studies).</p>
<p>What about Creative Writing. What are the requirements for that? And if I wanted to double major what would be the best major to compliment Creative Writing? Thanks :)</p>
<p>[Creative</a> Writing | Columbia College](<a href=āColumbia College Bulletin < Columbia College | Columbia Universityā>Columbia College Bulletin < Columbia College | Columbia University)
As for a double major, it really depends on what your areas of interest are. Do you want something close to creative writing, like english, even though thereās no ādouble dippingā for courses?</p>
<p>Iām between Georgetown and Columbia and am becoming increasingly anxious because I donāt know which one to choose. I know they are very different but I loved both of them. I guess I wanted to know how the campus life is and how the party life is. Do you feel that Columbia feels āhomeyā? Do you have fun?</p>
<p>Thereās always something interesting going on on campus (I just saw bridesmaids at a free showing!). And even if this werenāt true, itās in NYC so thereās really no excuse to be bored. Iām not sure what more to say about campus life (in this thread). If you have more specific questions, it may be a bit easier for me to answer.</p>
<p>If youāre into parties, thereās frat row. There are also parties hosted by the school itself. I personally am not a party person, but thereās no shortage of them here.</p>
<p>Thank you for taking your time to reply to our questions. I am really interested in Columbia which is why I decided to apply ED. Iām not sure if I really qualify according to other peopleās scores and ECās but could you maybe tell me what I could do more this year or some suggestions in general? I actually want to major possible double major in like anthro/psych but basically I do want to go to med school so Iād have to take the underlying science classes and what not. But here goes:
just FYI i am a korean female from California, but I did transfer schools from hawaii after freshmen year if that has any weight at all. and I will be a first gen college student. i actually moved quite a bit so iām from hawaii went to school there until 7th grade winter break, moved to korea to british international school, then moved back to hawaii for freshmen year, and then moved to california (sillicon valley area) in sophomore year and am planning to graduate hereā¦ the move was definitely challenging as the quality of education here is much higher than Iāve ever received in my opinion at least.</p>
<p>Junior yr:
AP USHistory
English Honors
Japanese 3 Honors
Trig/Math4
Biology at comm college (to make up for D in ap bio 1st semester)
Orchestra</p>
<p>Senior yr:
AP Environmental Science
AP language and comp (english)
physics
Orchestra
US Gov/Econ</p>
<p>EC:
- NHS (2 years, senior yr- president)
- Sillicon Valley Volunteer Orchestra (2 yrs) approx. 60 hours (comm serv/instrumental)
-Korean American Music Supporters Association (KAMSA youth orch) (2 yrs) 60 hrs (comm serv/instrumental) - Hospital Volunteer at Kaiser for 3 yrs approx. 130 hrs and still counting
- Peer Tutoring (1 yr) freshmen year (kind of a job because I got paid with lunch? idk)
- Link Crew Leader (1 yr) freshmen welcoming committee
- Orchestra for 4 years
i think thats all i have. could you give me some feedback? anything would be appreciated thanks!</p>