In the email it says “the interview is an important and mandatory aspect of the application process”, which actually was pretty clear already before… @queen67 I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you:)
@DualBAapplicant thank you!
@queen67 I’m in the same boat as you; haven’t heard a word. However, it seems that my application status is incorrect, as it still states that I’m missing materials despite numerous confirmations to the contrary. Perhaps they made a mistake with you as well? You may want to check or send an email to them.
@tbell13579 did you receive an email on january 20th that stated your application is complete and under review?
@queen67 Yes, but my status page still shows deficiencies that do not exist. I’m wondering if that has delayed my email, either informing me that I did or did not receive the interview.
My status still says submitted but I have not gotten any emails. Is it possible that they are sending them out by region or campus?
hey y’all I’m a current high school junior looking into this program. does anyone know if there are any admission statistics or class sat/gpa profiles out there? I can’t seem to find any.
@gwbush check the 2016 thread? What I vaguely recall a representative saying: ACT 31, SAT 2180.
I hope everyone that hasn’t heard gets an interview! Also @strive16 I am applying to Menton.
@queen67 @tbell13579 @askokinos maybe they are waiting to see how many offered interviews accept the interview… There could be people who have decided on another university already,…
@queen67 I got the invitation to interview through email.
Just got an email notification, and sadly did not get an interview. You may want to check and see. Good luck to all.
After getting several messages and hearing concerns from @student42 and @strive16, I want to address the negative review of the program that was left by a student from the Reims campus (I believe he is now in his third year and is a current student at Columbia). He essentially criticized the organization of the program, lack of resources available, poor teachers, etc. I’ll just copy and paste what I said to the people who approached me (it’s very long, sorry, but I wanted to be honest and detailed):
I saw the same post last year when I applied for the program, and I had very serious concerns as well about the program. I don’t want to discourage anybody from applying, but I do think I should be honest; although I personally still would have chosen this program, I do wish I had a better idea of what I was actually getting myself into before I committed to the program. I’ll address all of the concerns that the poster raised.
It is true that campus life at Sciences Po is nothing like that of an American campus. Rather, there really aren’t campuses per se; it’s not typical for European university the way it is in North America. Le Havre, for instance, just has half a building where classes and lectures (as well as school events) are held. Menton also has a small campus (I have never visited, so I’m not sure); Reims has a larger campus that actually would feel more like an American campus, as it has much more students. We don’t live on campus - we live in apartments away from campus. While “campus life” is vastly different than in American universities, we still have a social life! We have bar nights and club nights and campus-sponsored activities (especially for the holidays and cultural events) pretty regularly; there are many different clubs and sports available (I’m on the sailing and K Pop dance teams, in feminist and LGBT club, etc). Personally I can go have fun whenever I want (except maybe during exams).
It is true that the quality of teaching does vary a lot; I’ve had some teachers that are the best I’ve ever had, and I’ve had others that weren’t so great. The lecturers especially have all been incredibly-qualified professors. But honestly I think you will find this variation at any university you would choose. The professors and teachers almost always commute to the regional campus from Paris, which is why it’s difficult for them to spend much time on campus. But most will take questions after classes and lectures or answer their emails in a timely fashion, so they are still reachable. Also, often the seminar teachers will stay overnight in the regional campus’ city, and they will have “office hours” during which they are on campus. (By the way, I should say I can only really speak for Le Havre, as I’ve never been to the other regional campuses; thus I can’t be sure what their situations are like.)
Compared to the United States, the administration definitely is not as organized, although they will help you when you need them. This is because the regional campuses just do not have the resources that an American university would have; this is probably my biggest criticism against Sciences Po. For example, a bunch of us are trying to search for internships for this summer (which is required to complete unless we have already had a job), and Sciences Po really lacks good resources to find jobs outside of France. So a lot of us have been using Columbia resources or our own networking instead. French universities just aren’t as well funded as American universities like Columbia; there is just no way they will ever be able to offer the same amount of resources to us. BUT while we are at Sciences Po, we are still Columbia students and have full access to all of the resources that Columbia offers - even their library and career search and study abroad resources.
For classes, we do get an overview of courses for this semester during the last semester, so we did have time to familiarize ourselves with the courses, and Columbia also makes it clear which courses we need to take (and the minimum grade we need) in order to get credits transferable to Columbia. The way course selection works is everybody logs onto their student space at the same time and registers as quickly as possible for the courses they want until it fills up. The administration can be pretty flexible fixing your schedule if you have conflicts, though. For Reims, because they have so many more students, it is especially very competitive to get the courses you want, I’ve heard.
I do have to say, though, that I have absolutely no regrets choosing this program. I am so much happier here than I could ever be at any other program. To give some context, I would have ended up going to Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service had I not chosen this program. But I’m confident that this is the best program for me. Although there are some shortcomings with the resources available and the quality of some of the teachers, I learn so much outside of the classroom that I never could learn had I gone to a typical American university. For instance, my friend group is so international. I’m currently sitting in a hostel with my Australian, Japanese, and Indian friends. We learn so much from each other just from engaging in conversation that I would be completely ignorant of otherwise. I feel as if my horizons have broadened so much because of them and especially because every day I am being made to challenge the ideas that I hold. It’s really good for me, and I can feel myself becoming a much more open-minded, well-rounded, and worldly person. Also, after going home for break, I realized that I’ve matured a lot more than my other friends who all stayed in the US - not only because I pay rent and clean and cook vegetables, but also because of what I’m learning from the environment that I’m in. And of course, there are a number of lesser perks as well - I’m currently traveling in Spain and Portugal with my friends for spring break, and I traveled around Italy with some other friends in October.
I really cannot stress enough that while there are cons which exist at Sciences Po, the pros far outweigh them. If you’re a good fit for this program (as it’s highly specialized) and know that you want to have an extraordinary, international experience (as it’s challenging if you’ve only lived in one place your entire life and had an average public school education like me), then you would really be happy in this program. I wanted to be 100% honest of the cons, because I wasn’t so aware of them before I arrived, but I do want to stress that it is totally worth it.
Also I apologize for taking long to answer, as I usually check this page pretty frequently; I’m currently traveling in Spain and Portugal with @summmm and other friends, lol. I hope my response covered all of the concerns you might have (if not, please don’t hesitate to message me directly!) and didn’t deter you from applying to the program!
@gwbush @studentde They don’t post any statistics or figures about the GPAs or SAT scores of incoming students. To be honest, I don’t think they’re that important, as the admissions seems to care a lot more about who you are as a person and whether you would be a good fit for this program. Of course, you do have to be a good student to get your foot in the door, but after that your grades and scores don’t seem to matter. However, you can look at the thread last year and before that to get an idea; a bunch of us posted our stats and profiles.
@AllisonNelson Thank you so, so much for your extremely sincere, honest, and detailed reply! You’re awesome :-bd
Thank you @AllisonNelson for your input! Also, I’m applying to Menton.
thanks for all the advice @AllisonNelson (also, I’m applying to Reims)
@student42 I saw your comment regarding teaching and stuff and wanted to clarify. First off, where have you applied? It’s true that teaching varies greatly by campus, and Reims is, in my opinion, the best, because you get teachers from Paris. Be warned: you will wonder if you should’ve gone to Honolulu State and you’ll think Scipo should be called Sh*tPo bc it’s so bad. I wanted to drop out. I really did. But it gets better, and you learn to love what you hate. I hated that the campus is small, but I’ve learned to appreciate it. It doesn’t even have a gym, but I don’t let it bother me. Honestly the first semester was really hard, but when I came back from Winter Break I loved it for some reason. I really enjoy being in the heart of Europe and being able to travel so much, as well as see my family (but that’s subjective bc they live in Milan, doesn’t really work if they live in Iowa). So basically, you’d think that this is like learning to take some medicine you hate, but in my experience it was more falling in love with it without expecting it. And I think in the end you’ll love SciPo, each semester is better, and ofc Columbia is Columbia so there’s not much persuading to be done there 
@Drizzy33 Congrats on getting your interview! I think my biggest advice for the interview is to just be yourself. Yes, it is true that the interview for this program is ALOT more intense than your normal college interviews and yes, they’ll most likely ask you very technical questions on top of your normal “tell me about yourself” questions. But, I honestly think that the interviewers are looking more at how you think rather than if you actually know the answers to the specific questions that they ask you. Having said that, of course if you know the answer to the question go for it and try to impress them. But DONT try to bullshit your way through. If they ask you something that you have literally 0 knowledge/opinion about, just tell them as is. Also, it may be a good idea to brush up on what you wrote on your essays and pick a few important current events happening both in Asia and Europe and reading about them, an try to dress professionally.
Also, if there are any Koreans or Korean experts that can enlighten me about Democracy in Korea, please message me… I’d appreciate some help. Cool. Thanks. Bye. Good Luck!
@FalafelHummus is right. The interview is meant to test your critical thinking skills; this is the main purpose of the “normal” Sciences Po interview that international students have to go through, in which they create an on-the-spot presentation on an article. You won’t have to do this for Columbia, but they will try to grill you a bit to see if you can think critically and think well on the spot. They will try to ask you questions that you probably won’t know the answer to, as @FalafelHummus said. I definitely got some of the answers wrong (because of that, I actually thought I ruined my chances to get into the program), but I did my best to show my critical thinking skills and answer based on what I did know. And for that reason, I think I was able to successfully show what they were looking for. However, they do also want to get to know you as a person, and I would suggest to be yourself, of course, but also try to show that you are a multifaceted person. If you have other interests besides languages, international studies, politics, etc., then show them! This is the Columbia aspect of the interview, I would say; they want to see that you are well-rounded and not just the expected model for Sciences Po.
Also, the critical questions they ask you will be relevant to the region of study. During my interview, they asked me about current events such as the South China Sea territorial dispute and also Chinese history, because I had demonstrated an interest in China and said I wanted to continue studying Mandarin.
One thing that a former Dual BA student (who was in the first cohort to graduate) advised me to do was really to consider why I wanted to study at Sciences Po. They want to see that you are interested in Sciences Po and this program - NOT just Columbia; apparently there are some people who only see this program as a backdoor entry into Columbia, and they WILL weed you out for that. He advised me to watch videos on Sciences Po’s vimeo and YouTube pages sort of to get more perspective on the Sciences Po side.
Hopefully our advice is helpful! Feel free to send a message if you have questions or want more help! Best of luck to everybody in their interviews 
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