<p>Best advice I can give about the Why Columbia essay is to write what you would honestly say in an interview, not what you think Columbia wants to hear. That essay kicked my butt, honestly. I spent WEEKS on it and had about 3 drafts before it was said and done, so I understand the difficulty.</p>
<p>I wrote about 3 things, the Core, faculty, and the Human Rights concentration. For the Core portion I talked about how it fostered solidarity with students as everyone takes the same class (which is a little bit different that gushing about a “desire to learn the classics”). For Human Rights, I talked about how I thought it was awesome they had a specialized course-plan for it and allowed for interdisciplinary work, and for the faculty I talked about learning from great minds and collaborating.</p>
<p>Point is, don’t write what you think Columbia wants to hear, but a genuine reason it speaks to you. Even if it’s just a major you’re interested, why do you want to study it at Columbia? Interesting course catalog? Special professor?</p>
<p>“As I came out of my mother’s womb, a Columbia-med educated physician delivered me into this world with a passion and vigor that I don’t think he could’ve found at any other school”</p>
<p>That’s what I put, LOL, XD… dude you’re putting too much into this, just think about what you want to do at Columbia, your interests, etc…</p>
<p>While visiting a friend at Columbia we talked about the “why columbia” essay with a few of his floormates at dining hall. When I mentioned “New York” and “core” the ENTIRE table freaked out. Basically, they said that EVERYONE talks about the core and, unless your stats are so stellar the “why” essay is just a formality, you are not doing yourself any favors by mentioning the core. Same with NY unless you can find a NY trait exclusive to Columbia (there are many).</p>
<p>Personally, I talked about a community service opportunity in the city that only Columbia provides, a conversation I had with some black students about why they liked it there, and specific courses and professors in my major.</p>
<p>And no offense overachiever92, but how in the world do you have any idea about the “passion and vigor” of the doctor who delivered you? Let alone his alma mater? I guess your parents could have told you, but it still seems like a stretch… Good luck.</p>
<p>I just talked about the diversity (made a small mention about NY in this aspect) and neuroscience. I mentioned the SURF program and one of the neuroscience professors.</p>
<p>As a blanket statement, I would just like to remind several of the younger members (especially this year’s set of applicants, and collegeftw) that juniors and seniors currently attending Columbia, as well as alumni, probably have a better idea about what is needed for these sorts of essays than you do. Many of us have spoken closely with professors and admissions officers, and all of us have actually been admitted to the school. </p>
<p>I understand that the stress of applications might yield a tendency towards argument. However, bear in mind that the upperclassmen who take the time to return to these forums and provide a helping hand - without the possibility of boosting their resume or gaining public recognition - do so primarily for your sake. You may disagree with some advice; if so, then seek someone else’s. But sometimes the most valuable thing to do is to sit back, listen closely, ask questions, and take in as much of the debate as you possibly can.</p>
<p>Senior0991, you must have a really damaged sense of logic if you didn’t see the sarcasm in my post. If anyone put that, they would automatically be rejected, no questions asked.</p>
<p>Does Columbia do interviews ? Sorry to digress from op’s topic, but I don’t seem to see any thread on Columbia alumni interviews. Maybe they don’t have enough alumni volunteers ? My S2 applied four RD schools and Columbia is the only one that did not contact for interview so far.</p>
<p>they do alumni interviews. they don’t give them to everyone; i’m not sure if the selection process for them is random or not. it took a while for them to contact me for an interview, so don’t worry, it’s only been a few days.</p>
<p>the interviewing process is random for columbia. as soon as your application is submitted your name and information is entered into their online interviewing database where you are then assigned an interviewer based on availability in your area. like most schools whether you get an interview depends on both the concentration of alumni in your region and the relative number of people applying from your region. i wouldn’t worry about it yet though, interviewers do have a fairly broad window of time within which they must interview; i didn’t get contacted for my ED interview until about a week and a half after the deadline. for that matter i wouldn’t worry about it all, interviewers are explicitly not required because they can’t interview everyone and they will not hold it against your son if they are unable to interview him.</p>
<p>hey um…I’m not so sure if its completely random haha</p>
<p>because I said on my app that I wanted to major in American History/Political Science, and my interviewer was a professor of American History at a local college…</p>
<p>3 other ppl from my school also applied, and they didn’t get any interviews. Last year, there were 5 ppl that applied, and the only one that got an interview was a girl who also said she wanted to major in American HIstory, and indeed she had the same interviewer as me</p>
<p>^i think that’s pure coincidence. the interviewers don’t know anything about you before, and they don’t see your app. my guy worked for a cruise line</p>
<p>yeah, probably coincidence. my interviewer appeared to have no information about me other than my name and school.</p>
<p>also, hopingdad, i wasn’t accepted, i was deferred. now i just kind of wander around this forum aimlessly in my spare time, and try to use the sort of neurotic knowledge that i acquired about columbia’s admissions process (largely, to give credit, from adgeek) during the ED round, although i’ve more or less given up hope on columbia as far as RD is concerned. good luck with your son!</p>
<p>I distinctly remember my interviewer knowing at least a few of my extracurrics. However, this was before common app so it may be different now. Perhaps someone who does interviews for columbia can chime in here.</p>
<p>hey um…no. I am an interviewer and I myself randomly picked most of my ED interviewees, I picked a location, a high school and the system randomly chose person X applying from that high school, if I declined that interview, and went back to the same school, the system would again pick randomly (sometimes giving me the person I declined to interview and most times giving me someone else). I did this many times to check whether the system was random and it was entirely random. </p>
<p>any correlations that you see are you making patterns out of nothing, like finding animal shapes in the clouds. Whether you get an interview or not depends on alumni availability in your area and then on pure chance.</p>