<p>I wasn't even considering Columbia, but I got a 33 on the last ACT and it seems like a better bang for the buck than NYU and I saw on princetonreview that poli sci is a common major at columbia, so how does it rank and what do you guys have to say about columbia that would make me want to go there over NYU? Also do you think I have a chance to get in? heres the shortened resume:</p>
<p>ACT: 33 (do they superscore? if so 34)
GPA: 3.5</p>
<p>Extracurricular: School President, Leader of Spirit Crew, 2 varsity sports, leadership position in schools diversity club, wrote for newspaper, worked on yearbook, 2 years of theater, involved in youth group, held down a job throughout school, volunteered a lot</p>
<p>Classes: 34 college credit hours (I know they dont transfer but still), taken hardest classes through h.s., school is a bronze Newsweek school,</p>
<p>Other: first generation American, speak Russian fluently as well as taken German 5 years at school, from St. Louis MO</p>
<p>1) how does columbia rank - it has one of the best political science faculty in the world.
2) i am really turned off by what you say here “what do you guys have to say about columbia that would make me want to go there over NYU” i mean honestly i can’t tell you how to think. i can give you an impassioned reason for columbia as one of the best places to go to college. but i try not to argue against another school.</p>
<p>i highly suggest you do your homework into columbia first before you make a post like this one.</p>
<p>geez chill dude i just ment whats the difference between the two, what does columbia have better than nyu and vice versa. i mean its a pretty legitimate question in my mind given that their two of the most highly ranked colleges in the country and their in the same city.</p>
<p>bud, have you read this board? there are a dozen and a half threads just on NYU v. Columbia.</p>
<p>even though they are in the same city, Columbia is completely different than NYU, particularly for undergrad. from having its own contiguous campus to most of the students living on dorms, to being smaller in size, having fewer undergraduate schools in terms of balkanization, being removed from downtown. and Columbia being far harder to get into. the schools are hard to compare. i rarely say one is better or worse - that is for you to decide.</p>
<p>and if you read this board - i am one of the most (unnecessarily maybe) verbose folks out here, and i am always willing to sell folks on columbia. i just started a thread to explain to people the advantages of columbia - you could read it. i am sorry i don’t have the patience to answer a question that was just answered or to rewrite a thread that i just wrote trying to explain the unique advantages of columbia.</p>
<p>the only thing i can tell you- columbia in admissions cares about folks that know the school well, it is a criterion. so if you are serious you want to know more, start reading this site and their website, visit campus if you can. it takes effort to figure this stuff out - and in life you wont be given a silver platter, so don’t be surprised now.</p>
<p>all i was looking for was a link to a thread like that, not a whole essay. and its funny you say that because im the complete opposite of a “silver spoon” kid, i just thought someone would be able to point me in the right direction without trying to humiliate me. if this is the way people act from columbia im not so sure i want to go there</p>
there’s a search function on this forum, that’s really all it takes. You were made fun of because you asked a horrendously broad question without taking any initiative to find some direction yourself.
Columbia is not a good place for the over-sensitive.</p>
<p>RuskiBear, you seem somewhat new to CC, and perhaps to forums like this in general. Learning how to use the “search” functions will help you get a lot of your questions answered. I don’t think anyone is trying to humiliate you, but narrower questions are easier to answer, as a general rule. And don’t infer too much about Columbia from what you see on an anonymous public forum like this. Good luck in your decision-making!</p>
<p>thanks pbr. i havent really been on here much, not alot of time for that. But on other colleges the people sure seemed much nicer. I’m not gonna base Columbia alot off of this. And i really loved the college when i visited my sophomore year, but back then i wasnt thinking about majors and admissions, the place just seemed awesome. </p>
<p>My younger son unequivocally adores Columbia and all that it offers, and has developed a huge network of charming and pleasant friends. I have no doubt you would do the same.</p>
<p>This is so incredibly more productive than this post above. I could have certainly given more help. </p>
<p>But let us breakdown your folly, and if you don’t see it as such you will really miss out on a teaching moment.</p>
<p>You asked us - “what do you guys have to say about columbia that would make me want to go there over NYU”</p>
<p>This statement is incredibly inappropriate. It is like going up to someone and saying “what can you tell me that would make me vote for you and not the other person.” It is inappropriate in almost any forum because you are asking someone to subjectively argue that A is better than B, when in reality the two things are very different. There are reasons to go to NYU or Columbia. If you asked - “Tell me what you like about Columbia.” Do you see how this takes the bite away?</p>
<p>Each school’s board surely takes on the persona of the people that go to the school. Columbia is an aggressive and intellectually demanding place - it is the kind of environment in which you will be called out when you are being intellectually lazy, you will (and I believe should) feel bad at times because your peers wont let you coast. Precision in what you want is important skill to learn in life. It develops in you a degree of toughness, flexibility and resilience that makes you a better scholar and more prepared in your future career. We certainly speak with this ‘culture’ in mind.</p>
<p>And so I am really shocked that you pretend to be the victim here when this is certainly of your own making. If you had come to me as you did the Vandy forum embracing your desire to learn more about Columbia, this is certainly another thread entirely! Do you see that? I know you are just an excited student, but language has consequences. You were very rude here.</p>
<p>In the end, I love Columbia because what it will mold you into, and I can speak quite affectionately about its incredible educational opportunity. But I do hope you realize that the way you waddled onto this thread in fact insulted Columbia because you didn’t do your homework, you didn’t ask questions that would lead us to want to help.</p>
<p>I apologize for my harshness and intensity (certainly a fault of my own). But I honestly do not think what you wrote above (nor do I personally engage in chance threads so that question I am skipping) really is specific enough or indeed respectful enough to warrant a careful response. In the end it is of course your choice if you want to pursue Columbia. My hope is that you come away from this mini-altercation with the realization that you need to be more cautious with what you say. If you have more formal questions that you would like me or others to answer, please ask them. And I will do my best to provide you a perspective.</p>
<p>i dont think the op was trying to insult columbia. maybe he just wanted to see what everyone thought about the school, so he made it sound like he was unsure about a lot of what columbia had to offer. this is an open anonymous forum after all. im sure he’d be a lot smoother in his interview.</p>
<p>^Really? The insult was pretty visible to me. You don’t go up to choice A and ask “why should I choose you over (unrelated) choice B?” lack of good manners geez.</p>
<p>I agree with both admissionsgeek (as I often do) and thenatural. While there was no intent to offend, the rigor of the language presented by the OP was lacking. Welcome, RuskiBear, to a much higher bar! You will face a lot of intellectual criticism as you leave the high school cocoon, but it will make you a better person. (My first-year Columbia son has tremendous respect for the professor who gave him his first lifetime grade of less than an A, and acknowledges that he didn’t deserve one. As a parent, I love to see him pushed.)</p>
<p>Well, this thread certainly provides plenty of reasons for want to attend Columbia. I suppose if all these replies leave a sour taste in your mouth due to the harshness or over-analytical nature of the respondents, then you’d be on an alright track toward deciding the school isn’t for you. As for me, however, well, I’m kind of turned on by all of it.</p>