<p>I got into Columbia as a John Jay scholar and was wondering exactly what that means (especially since there isn't any money involved :/ ). I'm considering Columbia against Stanford, Princeton, and Harvard, if that helps and if you have any opinion to offer.</p>
<p>It means you don’t have to work during the school year. In exchange you have to attend meetings once a month, plus write papers for the Scholars program. </p>
<p>[The</a> Scholars Program](<a href=“http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/scholars/program/The_Named_Scholars.php]The”>The Named Scholars | Columbia College and Columbia Engineering)</p>
<p>what’s the difference between John Jay and Kluge?</p>
<p>Kluge is for minorities, whereas JJ is for “regular” people.</p>
<p>Minorities minus Asians, that is.</p>
<p>
Make that minorities minus overrepresented Asians. Cambodians and such are still URMs.</p>
<p>I’m curious as to why I was named a John Jay Scholar rather than a Kluge Scholar or Global Scholar, then… </p>
<p>Anyway, I don’t think all the Columbia students on this website are on the same page as to what benefits it confers. All I can ascertain is that the Scholars Program is what you make of it. And having learned more about its potential benefits, I’m tempted to choose Columbia over Harvard.</p>
<p>John Jay scholars are basically the most impressive and promising of the lot. They usually give those to the people they REALLY want to attend.</p>
<p>It does make a financial difference, btw. Any loans you would have gotten as part of your aid package are automatically converted to grants. Saved me $8,000 my sophomore year.</p>
<p>“I’m tempted to choose Columbia over Harvard.”</p>
<p>from all your posts on here, you might actually prefer C over H and thrive here better, even though H has more name-recognition and resources.</p>
<p>Denz, I think Columbia’s doing no-loan for all undergrads now, not just John Jay Scholars. John Jay Scholars get a work-study exemption for 4 semesters.</p>
<p>I wasn’t sure that was for all undergrads or just undergrads whose families make less than $X/year ($40k? 60k?)</p>
<p>The no-loan policy seems to be for everyone, and my family doesn’t qualify for enough aid for the work-study help to make a difference. So I’m mainly asking about whether there are academic/social advantages to the John Jay Scholars.</p>
<p>How many John Jay Scholars are there in each class roughly?</p>
<p>hi about - there are some serious academic/extra-curricular advantages of the program. it gives you funding to carry out summer projects or do an unpaid internships, gives you free trips to see plays, operas (aka take advantage of nyc), and gives you a smaller community of students that are generally speaking some of the most intellectual and ambitious folks in the school. many scholars go on to win various awards on campus, or win prestigious fellowships like the Rhodes/Marshall/Truman, etc. the program doesn’t guarantee you these, but it helps you in preparing and doing things you want to do so you can get to where you want to get. pretty much gives you the best parts of Columbia - it is not to say a non-scholar can’t gain any of these advantages, it is more about the fact that is pretty much prepared for you. makes it very easy to get engaged, do internships, meet fascinating people.</p>
<p>I think it is like 30-40 a year of each of the scholar designations.</p>
<p>so is there a rank to these scholars?</p>
<p>Not really, they’re determined based on fact-based buckets; Global is for international students, Kluge is for URMs, CP Davis is for SEAS (engineers), and John Jay is for everyone else.</p>
<p>^^just to clarify, the lines are kind of blurry. I was a Kluge Scholar, and an international student. From India (read: Asian). My dad and I thought Columbia messed up for the longest time.</p>
<p>the full language for kluges is that it is people coming from underrepresented backgrounds and particularly those who have given significant amount of their time and energy to their local communities. i knew a few kluges from central europe, from underrepresented parts of countries, quite a few from SE Asia. i got the sense that jays were more intellectual types, kluges were more leaders, davis’ were a mix as they were all engineers, and globals were like jays. in the end it is more where money comes from (i.e. the jay dinner sponsors all jays, kluge sponsors all kluges), so there is no pecking order - though it is an honor to receive it and it has some perks as mentioned. i really liked the program and the people. and it was a ‘sweetner’ for me in choosing Columbia, though without it, i still think it was the best choice for me. there are so many layers to the columbia experience that i really think it is unmatched. the scholars program is just another layer that makes cu special.</p>
<p>^^yeah I probably got it for the community involvement. No way in hell am i underrepresented by region or ethinicity :D</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I agree, though I’m still undecided.</p>
<p>By the way, I spoke with a Scholars Program coordinator and she said that the primary purpose of the programme is to cultivate future PhDs. That really clears things up.</p>