<p>DS and I just finished ALL his apps and I have to say, COlumbia's was the worst - it is an exercise in fitting words into 75 character boxes, has nothing to do with whether you get to express an answer or not. Spent all afternoon both us us fooling with it to make words fit.</p>
<p>gggrrrr just had to get that off my chest</p>
<p>I actually found columbia the easiest of all of the non-common app schools.</p>
<p>agreed.......</p>
<p>columbia is hellish. and they should give you one big textbox instead of many individual ones for line by line renditions. that makes moving words around a real pain.</p>
<p>wow...i found that a lot easier for some reason.</p>
<p>yeah, i disagree with that. it's fine if you compose it in the boxes, but impossible to transfer something pre-written in there.</p>
<p>i don't understand why u guys like the common app. i feel weird. i can't stand it.</p>
<p>I liked only one essay</p>
<p>I didn't think Columbia's application conveyed precisely who I really am. I need more than one personal statement in order to truly show different aspects of myself...I miss Stanford's application!</p>
<p>about how many words were any of you's long essays? I'm afraid mine might be a little too long. Heh.</p>
<p>mine is like 550 but i know people whose long essay was over 1000</p>
<p>i hated the columbia online app. whats the point of putting words in each line...</p>
<p>I used the paper app and I cheated a little for that "most meaningful activity" part.</p>
<p>It provided only two lines but I made up a third line below the second one and just continued writing.</p>
<p>It is hard to condense a prewritten answer from the common app!</p>
<p>I also hate the format with the boxes.</p>
<p>the worst part is having space for only 4 out of school activities. that's ridiculous imo. i've done FAR more out of school than in school and so I end up being cheated.</p>
<p>idk about that. yeah, it sucks, but i think most people get screwed by that, so it may come out even. i hadnt enough space for out of school, but i had several blank spaces for in-school (which will happen with only 2 semesters of school)</p>
<p>yeah the columbia app kind of sucks</p>
<p>first of all, there is only one good essay to truly express yourself, which was the long essay where you attach a file</p>
<p>all the other essay questions were either too boring or had too little space to write(impossible to cutpaste so you have to compose in those brackets!)</p>
<p>Too much room for inschool activity and too little room for out of school activity--also, there is no way to truly express your most meaningful activity or what you did during the summer within the confines of those tight brackets!!!</p>
<p>Overall, though, it wasn't as bad. It just took too much time to get used to, but I think Stanford has the best overall.</p>
<p>it felt like writing a poem with fixed form</p>
<p>It could be that they are trying to discourage wordy replies and lengthy laundry-lists of activities.</p>
<p>i LOVE the application. i think it's simple and provides a good view of an applicant in regards to what Columbia is looking for.</p>
<p>the online version, however (which they prefer :() is a nightmare</p>
<p>i wish i had applied to stanford now. i'm gonna go look at the app. it's too late now, right? ;)</p>
<p>the columbia app was great...on paper last year.</p>