<p>So I was told that one major reason advisors suggest students in their first year not over-reach in terms of the number of courses taken and their difficulty is because your scholarship situation is entirely based upon your GPA/academic performance at Columbia once you've established a GPA.</p>
<p>I'm curious: those of you who've been through a year at Columbia, did you see a correlation between your/a friends GPA and their merit scholarship award? Is there a specific golden number, or a cut off rather?</p>
<p>This scholarship question is completely un-related to financial aid/need by the way, as that's obviously determined by your income/other factors -- I'm asking about purely academic scholarships awarded by columbia</p>
<p>PBR do you go to the school of general studies or Columbia college? Merit based scholarships and financial aid are two separate things. Merit based is need blind and is only based on academic performance–hence merit. GS offers small stipends ranging, usually, up to 8000 per academic year (or 4k a semester). This gets reevaluated yearly and increases proportionate to your academic performance. Financial aid told me you may be eligible for 4k increase generally speaking. Of course there are the rare students who get full rides as well.</p>
<p>GS rolls most of the “normal” institutional aid into a single number, determined mostly, but not exclusively, by merit. I’ve heard people refer to the institutional aid as both scholarship and financial aid.</p>
<p>They award additional aid from the state and federal government (Pell grants, stafford loans, APTS, TAP, federal work study, etc, etc). </p>
<p>Columbia College/SEAS award all aid based strictly on need.</p>
<p>Phillyman: yes. What iggs says is true; GS scholarship/grant aid is primarily merit-based. </p>
<p>After finishing my first year with a 3.85, my institutional scholarship aid increased significantly for the next year. And in discussing this with some GS friends, it does seem that those with decent, but lower, GPAs received increases as well, but perhaps not as significant as mine. I’m certain that financial need is never completely disregarded in this process, but it does seem that merit is the major determinant here.</p>