<p>In spite of SEAS increasing selectivity, is it still true that women applying to SEAS ED get a little bump in terms of admission? Also, does SEAS frown upon applicants, who while do have a passion in science and math, don't have the bulk of their resume in that field? For instance, I have a lot of EC's related to speech and writing. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Yep, it's still easier being a girl because 1) there are still less girls applying, and 2) the girls who apply have weaker numbers on average.</p>
<p>You should somehow demonstrate a passion for math and science, and good grades/scores in it. If you have well-rounded ECs, it's not a problem. You don't need to be on the math team and researching the cure for cancer to get into SEAS. But you need something to say/show the adcoms.</p>
<p>SEAS .. like any good college now days.. like a good diverse group of students. your EC in humanities can only help you (given you still demonstrate what C02 stated above, and don't come off as someone using SEAS as a back door to columbia)</p>
<p>i have sort of the same question. i am taking advanced physics, chemistry, and math. in addition, next year (senior) i will continue with physics and chemistry and do calculus. there isn't any math teams at my school, and i don't do research. but i have received top marks on each of these subjects, and on provincial exams. i have a passion for music, in addition to having several leadership positions in the arts. i am a competitive figure skater too. will this be a good enough portfolio for a girl wanting to do SEAS Columbia? I am by no means thinking of it as a back-door for Columbia. This is a school I genuinely want to go to, and i am 85% sure that I will apply ED.</p>
<p>you certainly do NOT have to have math/science ECs to be competitive at SEAS....this applies to both genders.</p>
<p>thanks for your input guys! and don't worry lynda. with SEAS becoming more competitive to get into every year, i don't think it could hardly be percieved as the "back door" to Columbia anyway.</p>
<p>It's not.</p>
<p>And girls have an advantage at every engineering school, though less so at Caltech.</p>
<p>do any of you know how many female students who apply get into SEAS at Columbia? do we really get a big boost in admissions for being female?</p>
<p>^ i personally doubt it's a 'big boost' many of the seas girls i've encountered have been rather smart, i haven't in my limited experience, found them to be academically inferior. seas is also less of a 'hardcore' engineering school, most engineers go off and work in other disciplines (business, law, econ and medecine primarily, a few in international dev, a few in pure science), so i would expect more girls to apply and to come, given that it isn't mono-facetious. then again there are no numbers available anywhere on this, except in the stats file of admissions.</p>
<p>girls have a considerable advantage at any engineering program (including MIT).</p>
<p>But I wouldn't do it unless you were sure you could commit to doing well in an engineering program!</p>
<p>^don't underestimate the importance of this comment, engineering is incredibly rigorous, that's precisely why acceptance rates and sat scores / % of high schoolers in the top 10% of their highschool are all very high, it scares many off, and rightfully so.</p>
<p>i dont mean to drag this out more than is necessary, but its no coincidence that the major with the biggest proportion of girls is IEOR... and many of them i'm sure didn't indicate that as their interest when applying</p>
<p>what's IEOR? I'm personally interested in chemical or biomedical engineering (2 hardest majors, I know)</p>
<p>IEOR = industrial engineering and operations research</p>
<p>don't get me wrong, its not like girls are THAT underrepresented in other majors...BME and Chem E tend to be ones where there are a fair number of girls. Electrical though is a sausage fest! I took this EE class for all of 1 day and in a class of like 60 there were one or two girls.</p>
<p>Thanks. That's actually comforting to know that there will be a reasonable number of girls in biomedical or chemical engineering. :) I'm tired of being one of like two girls in my AP science or math classes!</p>
<p>haha what's kinda funny is that...
my intended major is IEOR (female here).
:)</p>
<p>i have a random question...why is it that females are more likely to go to biomedical or chemical engineering? idk. i'm female and i've never considered either. i'm more interested in either mechanical or electrical.</p>
<p>My two favorite girls in SEAS - who were also cuties - were in Civil and Mechanical, respectively.</p>
<p>They exist and they're awesome (if a bit geeky). And if it weren't for the awesome M/F ratio campus-wide, they could probably get some of the guys to carry them from class to class. Try visiting RPI and seeing how that ratio looks.</p>
<p>just wondering...anyone know how strong the environmental engineering program is at Columbia? And considering that being only in high school and obviously not knowing for sure the specific field I want to major in, how hard would it be to switch engineering majors at Columbia? Even though as of now I'm torn between biomedical and environmental (totally different, I know)</p>
<p>EEE is good i think, don't know how it's ranked or anything. But columbia has the Earth Institute, headed by Jeff Sachs, and they do a ton work with EEE. Columbia is also at a stage of international economic/political/environmental synergizing to understand global environmental challenges and to come up with possible solutions. Today and yesterday they had the State of the Planet which hosted two The Economist Debates and had Kofi Annan speaking. I snuck into a couple of debates and it was quite educational, aside from being high powered, moreover they focused very much on science and statistical data on renewable energy, global warming, carbon sequestration etc. </p>
<p>From what i've heard they do a ton of significant environmental work and research, like they have clubs which come up with energy saving devices for less developed countries. In conjunction with the earth institute they collect a ton of climatic data, profs are knee deep in renewable energy, carbon capture research.</p>
<p>There no difficulty in switching majors, if you applied as BME and now want to do EEE that's straightforward. If you are unsure, they have pre-professional courses in each to give you a taste of what each is like. Either way if you decide to switch after your first year it's no big deal, later on it puts at a disadvantage. Most at seas come in unsure or switch majors.</p>