Sciences Po/Columbia Dual Degree 2020 Admissions

Hi! I was wondering if someone could explain the type of essay format they’re going with? I’m not sure how much of it to dedicate to the nitty gritty of why one university or another and how much of it to dedicate to my personality/goals/merits. And did you go with a narrative format or more just lists?

I have some questions about the essay. Is the prompt intended to have us address our specific campus choice, or just the choice to apply to the Dual BA program overall? I know this application doesn’t require our larger Common App essay that is supposed to show our personality and life story, so I’m just curious if we should talk about the campus choices in detail or focus more on writing an essay that gives a glimpse into who we are. Thank you!

Ideally your essay would touch on all of these areas that you mentioned. You should definitely indicate your interest in a specific campus choice; each campus is very different in terms of the region of focus, so you should make clear why you’re interested in one campus and in studying one region of the world over the others. But of course the Dual BA Program is not just about your Sciences Po campus of choice, so you should also discuss your motivations for the program overall. You would also do well to discuss “who you are” in your essay, rather than just discussing your interest in the program. Throughout the entire admissions process, I really felt that the program cared a lot about who we are as people and how we would fit into the communities.

I know it’s a lot to discuss - especially since there’s only one essay for this year’s application. But a concise, persuasive, and comprehensive essay will go a long way. My best advice (for this and every other college essay) would be to write and rewrite and edit gradually over time, continuously getting second opinions from teachers/guidance counselors/parents/whomever as you fine tune it. DEFINITELY get people to proofread it before you submit it.

Hope this helps!

Hello, @GSTourGuides

I have another question. On the application portal, it stated that the official documents needs to be uploaded by the school counselor through Slate.org. There is no specific links. My daughter went into slate.org and she is unsure if she should some how register her school?

May I know if the Dual BA program Admission will be forwarding a link/instructions directly to applicant’s school once the applicant submits the application? I am concern that Counselors may overlook and send everything to ‘Columbia College’ rather than the School of General Studies.

Please kindly share any insights on the process. Lastly, may I confirm if this needs to be done by deadline in January as well?

Tks,
magtse

I have a question about the application itself. I would like to ask if linguistics is a possible major for Dual BA Students at Columbia. To my understanding, linguistics is a somewhat new major at Columbia. I’m interested in linguistics and would like to major in it at Columbia; however, it doesn’t seem to be an option on the application page where you choose your anticipated major for Columbia. Thank you so much for your help!

I would advise you to contact the admissions office for clarification on documents being sent through Slate, as I’m not familiar with the process behind the scenes with teacher recommendations and school forms. I would also advise your daughter to contact her guidance counselor about applying to the program to get reassurance that the documents will be sent to the right place.

And yes, all of the documents (with the exception of an SAT score for a December test date) need to be received by that January deadline.

I believe the Linguistics major is embedded within the Department of Slavic Studies, so it’s quite a small major department - maybe this is why it doesn’t appear on the list of intended majors you can choose?

Regardless, what I would do is pick a major that you’re interested in for the options on the application page (either something close to linguistics or perhaps a second choice you’re considering) but specify in your essay that you’re interested in majoring in linguistics while at Columbia. That question on the application page is not a firm commitment - it’s just to give them a little insight, which you will also discuss in your essay anyway. Many of us majored in something different at Columbia than what we initially specified when we applied. So don’t stress about your major choice not being listed on the application page!

@nsind20 I’m applying for Ling and Dual BA too!

Thanks @GSTourGuides! This has explained so much.

Hello! I am a French highschool student and I’m kind of panicked about one thing: on the application it says “Applicants will still need to submit official scores, which must be sent directly from the testing service to the Office of Admissions.” Problem is, I passed the TOEFL 3months ago and I have no idea how the testing service can send the results now… Can someone help me ?

@GSTourGuides What were the Dual BA stats for last year (2018-19) - applications, interviews offered, admissions places offered, etc. The website says the program is also around 59% women, 41% men. Is this still the case?

We don’t have official published stats for admissions. But off the top of my head, if I recall correctly from information sessions, about 1,000 students applied last year. 175 were invited to interview (those who do not receive interviews do not move on in the admissions process). I think around 110 admissions places were offered, and about 90 of those who were admitted decided to accept their offer (so there is a high conversion rate). I should stress that these are just figures from my memory, so they’re not 100% accurate. However, information sessions cover all of these admissions statistics, so I encourage you to attend them if you can! Generally they can give you more information that isn’t available on the website.

I don’t know the official gender breakdown, but typically women outnumber men in the program and at Sciences Po itself. This is the norm for European social sciences programs, for the gender breakdown to be about 60% female and 40% male. So I would guess these statistics are close to the actual breakdown that we see in each cohort.

Hope this helps answer your questions!

Hey guys so I am in a situation. So I am almost ready to apply, I have sent my test scores and mailed my transcript. Only problem is that on the “Review” section of my application it says that on my “Previous Education” section I need to say the date when my transcript was ordered. It is not going to let me apply until that field is taken care of, and when I click on it there’s no option to say when my transcript was ordered. Were any of you guys having that problem? Also could any of you guys help if you know?

Also, my school does not work with slate.org so the transcript was directly mailed. I emailed a copy of my transcript to the program just in case. I tried calling the office but it says they are closed for the holidays. Does that mean they are not open till the deadline? Will they be open any time between now and January 2nd?

Please help, I am very confused and scared for this because I do not want to miss the opportunity to apply to this program.

Also, my school is obviously closed for the holidays, so there is no way I could remail my transcript.

Don’t panic! I’m sure you are not the only person to have experienced a problem like this. I’m not sure how the application portal works this year, but I believe the admissions office would take this into account and not block your entire application just because you couldn’t put in the date your transcript was ordered. If you emailed and called, then I think you should be all right - they will have your transcript on file in some way or another.

If you can fill out that section in some way, even if it doesn’t match the option closest to your situation, then I might do that and follow up with an email (which you may have already done).

I remember I had to call the admissions office or somebody (not sure whom or which number) right before the application deadline, because I accidentally uploaded the wrong version of one of my essays. So I think it will be possible that the office may be open after Christmas and before the deadline, but I can’t say anything with certainty.

I think you will be okay, as this sort of thing likely happens every year with applications.

For anybody who will soon be submitting their application, the admissions office will be answering emails periodically during the break; they will try to respond to emails and upload materials as they come in.

So if you have a serious problem and can’t submit your application, feel free to try emailing the admissions office.

If anybody has a similar problem to what @yamsycola described, you can just put today’s date for “Date Transcript Ordered.” This field is only so that the admissions office has an idea when to expect transcripts to arrive, so don’t sweat it.

Hi everyone,
the way I understood it, it‘s sufficient to just upload copies of our transcripts by ourselves, isn’t it? So why do we have to indicate when we ordered our transcript to be sent by the school if that is only necessary once a student is actually offered admission?

Your school does submit an official transcript when you apply (either through slate or by mail if your school doesn’t do slate), so the admissions team wants an idea when they can expect to get the official transcript.

Hello! I have submitted my application, but have yet to send in the required essay. I was informed by my school higher ed counsellor that the documents only need to be sent in by Jan 10. I’m not sure if she was referring only to the transcripts or documents in general. Does anyone know if the deadline for the essay is Jan 2 or Jan 10, and the exact time and time zone for the submission deadline? Thank you so much!

Thank you!