Fu or CC

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
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<p>What is the major difference between the two, besides the obvious engineering vs. liberal arts. Are they like two different schools that are affiliated like Barnard. If you go to SEAS can you say that you go to Columbia University or not. </p>

<p>I havent really come across a situation like this. Like Upenn's engineering school is not separtated from its liberal arts like FU is from CC. For example, Fu has its own admisssions statistics and has its own Collegeboard, College at a glance entry.</p>

<p>Are your chances greatly affected by applying to one over the other. I want to major in BME and get the 1 year additional BA but i dont want to risk not making it for that program because in the end it doesnt matter what you study for Med School. I absolutely love Columbia, and it is by far my number one choice. Id pefer to go to Fu, but i also want to make it to Morningside Heights. </p>

<p>Also this thing called the National (New York) higher educaition option or something that promotes minorities and the poor into getting in, DOESNT apply to the Fu SEAS. </p>

<p>Has anyone been affected by that program, or better yet what kind of boost does it offer. </p>

<p>And lastly does anyone have any predictions on my chances</p>

<p>AT Fu SEAS, and CC, respectively and then in the 4-1 program</p>

<p>Black male, very poor, urban, Washington, DC</p>

<p>2100, basically 700 on all sections (Retaking, realisitically expecting 2200-2270)</p>

<p>Chemistry- 790
World History- 800</p>

<p>AP: Chem 5, Bio 5, World Hist 5, Government 5, English 4, Statistics 4, Macroecon 4, Calculus BC 3</p>

<p>3.72UW, 4.45W 4/390</p>

<p>Lot of Extracurrics, A LOT OF WORK WORK WORK experience</p>

<p>Prestigious NIH high school research grant, most likely will publish findings in May in Journal of Viriology. </p>

<p>I also want to know if Columbia has a lot of programs aimed at Harlem. I want to volunteer in Harlem, and would love to help the people in the South Bronx, Wash Heights, and Harlem.</p>

2

<p>Your stats are very solid, but it doesn't seem to me that you are particularly strong with math (that 3 on BC is a little painful). Since math is the foundation of engineering, you seem more of the liberal arts type to me. You would also have to take Math Level 2 to apply to Fu SEAS.</p>

<p>When I toured Columbia they explained that they decided to seperate the engineering and liberal arts schools because they had had problems with people getting into one and then immediately switching to the other. Under their new system it is far more difficult to switch from Fu to CC and vice versa. Columbia University is the name for CC and Fu together, unlike Barnard, which is a seperate but affiliated school.</p>

3

<p>if you go to seas you say you go to columbia and you're studying engineering. you live in the same dorms and have the same meal plans and traditions as the columbia college kids. i agree with the above poster, you sound like you're more of a cc type than seas, and if you're in cc you can still major in math or science. (i'm not sure if you can take engineering courses.) but i would say a 3 on bc calc ap is pretty damn good, as that's a really freakin hard class to take in high school.
columbia's seas is interesting because they focus on liberal arts there too, you still have to take the core just not as much of it. and there's an engineering core too.
what school do you go to? my dad grew up in dc and i live in moco.
just the fact that you're from poor urban dc makes you a more interesting candidate. there definitely are a ton of volunteer opportunities in harlem, right now things are a little tense between the harlem and columbia communities but they need more people like you to help bridge that. you can work in soup kitchens, tutor in elementary schools, all kinds of things.
i think you have a good chance at columbia, but no one can say it's for sure or even a great chance.
i go to barnard and i love it here. columbia, morningside heights, new york, everything.
good luck!</p>

4

<p>SEAS is definitely Columbia, don't worry about any questions on that score. It isn't really clear why their stats are separate vs. other colleges that have separate schools of engineering but who publish integrated stats. The applicant pools are separate, but SEAS isn't a great deal less selective than CC.</p>

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<p>The question isn't whether or not BC is an advanced course, and 3 is not a bad score (although Columbia only accepts 4's and 5's for credit). I just think that applying to the engineering program of one of the top ten universities in the country is not a good idea unless math is a strong point, because you're going to be up against a pool of applicants that got 5's as freshman (not really, but you get the idea) and go to math competitions for fun. Your stats are excellent, especially in context, and if I were an admissions officer I would accept you to CC in a heartbeat.</p>

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<p>Yay, I really really love biomedical engineering, but math has traditionally been my weak point. Although i get A's and everything, our school teachs at a sub standard level so that I have to really pretty much learn everythin my self, and i focused way way to much on derivatives and integrals and not enough on polar and taylor. </p>

<p>I think you guys are right, I will apply to Columbia College and then hopefully do the 3-2 combined, so that i can still get the Biomedical Engineering Degree. </p>

<p>I have a few questions though</p>

<p>For the combined programs, does it diminish the value of the engineering degree</p>

<p>If you do the 3-2 program, how will you fit two majors together, like Biomedical Engineering and Urban Studies or Politcal science??? Do you take all the classes for each program separately or like can you say you want to take one class from Fu and another from CC in the same year??</p>

<p>Is it harder or more competitive to make it into the combined programs??</p>

<p>Is it easy to change courses of study. For example if you were doing Chemical Engineering and then decided to switch into the BA/JD program after your first year, is it hard to do so?</p>

<p>Why is there an uneasy relationship between Harlem and Columbia U, is it because Columbia is buying people out of apartments and stuff?? In general how is harlem during the school year (ive only gone in the summer), how about Morningside Heights? Do people venture past 125th street, or do they generally avoid the area. </p>

<p>Is the Fu Biomedical Engineering program on par with Johns Hopkins BME and MIT..... Basically how good is the BME or better yet the Engineering school in general??</p>

<p>I have heard about some recent hate crimes at columbia, and i wanted to know if its inviting and do people only feel comfortable within their own groups and is there a lot of tension ???</p>

<p>How do people balance NYC with Columbia??? Is there a weekend scene at columbia? Do people simply leave campus for parties and stuff? Is there really a cohesiveness on campus or does NYC just suck people out of Columbia on friday and saturday nights???</p>

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<p>I don't have time to respond to your entire post now (I'd like to do so later), but noticed something about HATE CRIMES. What on earth are you talking about? That's pretty serious stuff to be throwing around. I'm curious where you heard that and what the basis for your thoughts were.</p>

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<p>Hate Crime Rocks Columbia’s Campus</p>

<p>Harvard groups reach out to Columbia peers after vandals draw swastikas on suite walls</p>

<p>Published On Tuesday, December 13, 2005 1:45 AM</p>

<p>By NOAH S. BLOOM</p>

<p>Contributing Writer</p>

<hr>

<p>Two Columbia University students were arrested December 2 in the school’s Ruggles Hall for allegedly committing a hate crime in which they drew graffiti of swastikas, racial epithets, and homophobic symbols on the walls of a suite.</p>

<p>Sophomore Stephen Searles told police that he and junior Matthew Brown used red and purple markers to deface the walls of a Ruggles suite, according to reports in the Columbia Spectator and in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. Searles attended high school in Bozeman, Mont.</p>

<p>“We were drunk and we wrote anti-Semitic graffiti on the walls in our friend’s dorm suite,” Searles said, according to court documents cited by the two newspapers.</p>

<p>Junior Daphne Rubin-Vega, who shares the suite with Brown’s girlfriend, said in a phone interview with The Crimson that she felt particularly targeted because a pink triangle, an anti-gay symbol with historical ties to Nazism, was drawn on her door.</p>

<p>Rubin-Vega and her suitemate, senior Cassie C. Herr, both said they thought Searles did not take the vandalism seriously. “I am pretty sure he thought he was playing a joke,” said Rubin-Vega.</p>

<p>The New York Police Department arrested Brown and Searles on December 2. and were charged with criminal mischief as a hate crime, a Class E felony, and face a maximum sentence of four years in prison.</p>

<p>The most recent reported bias incident at Harvard occurred three weeks ago. Huma Farid ’06, who is Muslim and wears a head scarf, or hijab, was crossing the street by Lamont Library when a group of women called her a “filthy Jew-hater.”</p>

<p>Last spring, Galo Garcia III ’05 was punched as he was leaving a dance sponsored by the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Supporters Alliance (BGLTSA). The assailant also yelled racial epithets at Garcia.</p>

<p>According to Columbia junior Jennifer Oki, the president of the Black Students Organization, there have been other cases of racially-motivated vandalism at Columbia. “This is not an isolated incident, but rather it is part of a larger trend,” Oki said.</p>

<p>A spokeswoman for Columbia, Elizabeth Golden, said in a statement that the administration was fully cooperating with the ongoing police investigation of the Ruggles incident and that Brown and Searles may also face repercussions from the school’s internal disciplinary system.</p>

<p>“Acts of anti-Semitism, bigotry, and other forms of hate violate University policy and have no place at Columbia,” according to the statement. “Such acts run counter to our principles and values as an institution, and we condemn them in the strongest possible terms.”</p>

<p>Rubin-Vega and Herr said they would support further disciplinary action for the suspected vandals, especially for Brown.</p>

<p>“He needs to leave,” Herr said. “He is around too many people who are too different from him and cannot handle it.”</p>

<p>Students from all faiths and ethnicities at Columbia have joined in a protest and candlelight vigil, according to Oki, Herr, and Rubin-Vega.</p>

<p>Representatives from Harvard’s Black Students Association (BSA) and the BGLTSA also responded to the Columbia incident has also touched them.</p>

<p>BSA President Nneka C. Eze ’07 said she e-mailed her Columbia counterpart, Oki, last Friday morning, and the two have been “in close contact” since.</p>

<p>Eze also said she has tried to reach out to other student groups on Harvard’s campus to gather support for Columbia students.</p>

<p>BGLTSA co-chair Michael A. Feldstein ’07, who is also a Crimson editor, said the group was “extremely disheartened when we heard about the hate crime at Columbia.”</p>

<p>“These recent hate crimes both at Columbia and here at Harvard are important reminders that we have a lot of work ahead if we truly want to make our communities safe for everyone,” Feldstein said.</p>

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<p>im not saying that this happens all the time, but before i apply i would want to know if it would be hard to be accepted in the columbia environment. I just want to know if there is any pent up tensions or anything.</p>

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<p>the hate crimes surprised everybody. i think it was just two snotty kids who thought they were better than everybody else; it happened late at night so maybe they were drunk? not that that's an excuse.
but the university is taking this very, very seriously. it's definitely not something that happens all the time, usually everyone here is extremely tolerant. so many different kinds of people are attracted to columbia, and new york in particular; the fact that it's a university, so you have the engineers, the liberal arts kids, general studies, and lots of diverse grad students, means that there are all kinds of people here so you're kind of forced to get along with everybody. i am sure if you end up here you'll find your niche.</p>

<p>columbia and harlem have a tense relationship for the reason you said: columbia is trying to buy out people in harlem. basically columbia's presence makes the area more expensive, and since columbia is trying to expand upward, rents in higher areas (like around 135th street) are going to increase. they feel like their concerns as a community are being ignored. there have always been tensions, at least since harlem became harlem and wasnt just farmland (which it was when columbia was first built). for example, there were the 1968 race riots.. i think most people understand that it's the institution not the students who are inconveniencing them (although it's more than an inconvenience) and students certainly volunteer in harlem and other parts of the city.</p>

<p>i'm far from an engineer, but from what i've heard about the programs, columbia is below mit but slightly above jhu. this may not be the case, though. sorry i cant answer your other questions about the programs, your best bet may be to contact admissions or the deans of the programs which interest you.</p>

<p>and as for nyc.. it can be as big or as small a part of your life as you want. there's sort of a stereotype that columbia students never leave the 10 block radius around them, as opposed to nyu students who immerse themselves in the city. i think for many people that is true..party because nyc is expensive and there ALWAYS is something fun to do on campus on the weekends no matter how many people tell you it's dead.
for me, this semester i went out into the city at least 4 times a week, usually more, but i was probably on the extreme for people who don't have jobs or internships, which people definitely do. basically, if you want columbia to feel very small and cozy, like you would a rural school, you can (except with sirens and trucks in the background) but if you need to get out of the morningside heights bubble and take advantage of the amazing city you live in, you can.</p>

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<p>Wow, this is certainly a shocker. I don't know why I didn't hear about it. The fact that this sort of thing would shock most of us Columbians ("this isn't something that ordinarily happens at Columbia") tells you that it is an isolated incident rather than an institutional problem. You can't control the behavior of every single person, no matter how despicable that person is.</p>

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<p>If you do the 3-2 program, how will you fit two majors together, like Biomedical Engineering and Urban Studies or Politcal science??? Do you take all the classes for each program separately or like can you say you want to take one class from Fu and another from CC in the same year??</p>

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<p>Is it harder or more competitive to make it into the combined programs??</p>

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<p>Is it easy to change courses of study. For example if you were doing Chemical Engineering and then decided to switch into the BA/JD program after your first year, is it hard to do so?</p>

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<p>Is the Fu Biomedical Engineering program on par with Johns Hopkins BME and MIT..... Basically how good is the BME or better yet the Engineering school in general??</p>

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<p>I have heard about some recent hate crimes at columbia, and i wanted to know if its inviting and do people only feel comfortable within their own groups and is there a lot of tension ???</p>

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<p>My responses were pretty short, so let me know if you want me to expand on anything.</p>

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<p>the more and more i learn about Columbia, i just get happy. I really really want to go to Columbia but here is my predicament</p>

<p>I HONESTLY want to be in the Biomedical Engineering Program, but if i dont make it, i wont care since ill study biochem or something</p>

<p>here is the problem, if i apply to Fu SEAS and get rejected, i wont get a chance to apply to columbia. I really want to do the BME but my primary priority is to MAKE it into Columbia, so theres the problem.</p>

<p>For Jonhs Hopkins University, if you dont make it into the BME program you still have a chance to make it into the university, but Columbia makes one take a chance. </p>

<p>ANYONE HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS!!!!!!!</p>

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<p>anyone have any thoughts</p>

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<p>Well you can't eat your cake and have it, too.</p>

<p>You can only apply to Fu or the College and not both. My only suggestion would be for you to choose because there's no way it's going to change. The acceptance rates for the two are more or less the same. I'm sure the reason Johns Hopkins gives you two chances is because the engineering program is harder to get into; this is not the case for Columbia. </p>

<p>Fu is for engineering, the College is for liberal arts. That's pretty much all there is to it.</p>

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<p>I think i will go with Columbia College, and then do the 3-2 thing</p>

<p>Has any one here done the 3-2 thing, does it work well? </p>

<p>Any info will be great!!</p>

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<p>I'm not sure where this two chances stuff comes from. You apply to SEAS in general, not the BME program. For someone with a good science background, I don't think there's going to be much of a difference in your ability to get in SEAS vs. CC. I know lots of people who did the 4-1 and 3-2, and it worked out for them. I thought about doing a combined program in 4 years (rather than graduate in 3 years), I wouldn't have been able to do it.</p>

<p>Fructose--"the College is for liberal arts" is sort of insulting to the people doing natural sciences at Columbia. I wouldn't be talking like that on campus!</p>

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<p>I know i did not think I was getting into Columbia CC, but I applied Fu SEAS since I knew that I definately wanted to do Engineering. The thing is, here's my stats:</p>

<p>SATI: 760m, 680v, 610w (writing didn't count for much of anything this year)
SATII: m2c 800, physics 710
School Rank: Does Not Rank (It was gotten rid of this year, but last year I was top 25%, but I know I was the bottom of that, it's out of a class of 280)
GPA: 4.92/5.0 weighted, don't know unweighted.
EC's: Research on a NIH Grant during the summer under a professor at Marist College.
Piano for 13 or so years, I made a Piano CD and sent that in.
Got two extra great recommendations from my piano teacher and the professor I had done research for.
Done some math compeitions, ranked top 5 in my school.
And yes, I do math competitions for fun, as dmurphyiv said.
Application: I just wrote all the short answers truthfully, and down to earth. For the reason why I wanted to go to Columbia I wrote that "I know the most unoriginal answer would be for the location, but it's not only that, etc.etc." and went on to just express myself truthfully.
Interview: went really well.</p>

<p>As you can see, from my GPA, i thought I had no chance of getting into Columbia, and some people have even wondered how I got in. But I think, since I applied Fu SEAS and my m2c800, satMath 760, and decent verbal of 680, for a combined 1440 (lowest SAT for the mid50% at Fu SEAS. CC has a lower mid50% SAT score with a much lower math and a little bit higher verbal SAT) got me in. So, if you have anything math related that sticks out, go for Fu, especially since you seem to really want Biomedical Engineering (which is what I want to do also, but you don't choose that until year 3).</p>

<p>So overall, in my mind - since my GPA was so low, I keep thinking Fu's easier to get into. But, I think the people who got into Fu also have outstanding math, science, etc. related stats. So I think Fu looks much more into the math,science accomplishments (which your NIH resaerch and publication would look awsome) more so than GPA, ranking, etc. While CC looks at everyone with overall stats. Top in everything, vs. the Very Top of the math Science group.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
Fructose--"the College is for liberal arts" is sort of insulting to the people doing natural sciences at Columbia. I wouldn't be talking like that on campus!

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Ah, just talking in generalities here.</p>

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<p>LoJT, thanks for your input, and i think i will definetly pursue Fu SEAS, since honestly i dont want to study Biochemistry since it will just be a replacement for my true passion which is biomedical engineering.</p>