<p>What type of person fits well at Columbia? What are most of the students like? Are there any common characteristics or traits that a Columbia student? What extracurriculars do a lot of Columbia students have? WHO IS THE COLUMBIA STUDENT?</p>
<p>Your questions remind me of “what does it take to get into Columbia?” questions. It’d be foolish to try to answer your generalizations beyond what is stated in Columbia’s own admissions webpages. They want (and receive) excellence. In academics certainly – and in many other features. They want initiative, curiosity and maturity. Given the applicant pool, they can cull thousands to choose from.</p>
<p>I think that apart from being excellent in all the standard ways top colleges want excellence, the typical Columbian is urban, urbane, resourceful, intrepid, imperturbable, clever, witty, aware, realistic, and adventurous. I may have left out idealistic, but idealism in a place like New York, with its many assaults on the sensibility, is usually a complex matter. In any event, Columbia’s an adult school, in a very adult city. It’s not for everyone, but for certain people, there’s no other school.</p>
<p>rich or Asian or both</p>
<p>double legacy with a perfect GPA, perfect SAT, and amazing ECs…</p>
<p>pinkfairyprinces, pretty sure they don’t need more Asians, quite the opposite. Legacy helps…</p>
<p>Most people care deeply about something (and express that fact well and often) and are also incredibly intelligent/capable. And socially functional helps as well.</p>
<p>dwharris and historian are right on point based on my experience. Definitely a school for mature people who are ambitious not in a “I want to get good grades and get a good job offer” kind of way but more in a “I want to change the world” kind of way. Idealistic but cynical. Everyone is passionate about one thing or many things, and you can feel that passion and energy in almost any conversation.</p>
<p>But the greatest thing is that there is no standard person; truly I think, Columbia has the most diversity in thought of any elite school. Acceptance for others’ views is ingrained in daily life, because of the city and because of the amazing student body.</p>
<p>Unless you’re a Republican. jk kindof</p>
<p>Definitely what dwharris said. To the extent that Columbia students are different from other students at elite schools, they’re more sophisticated, independent, and critical. There’s a remarkably diversity of students, obviously, but the general culture is one that prizes independence, acceptance, and critical thinking.</p>