For Columbia, I was so fortunate to interview two wonderful people, Jalen and Jalsa! both provided some really helpful responses about the college life at Columbia! I definitely recommend you guys to check it out! Thank you so much Jalen and Jalsa!
JALEN
I had the opportunity to meet Jalen, who is such a wonderful and amazing person! I will be attending Columbia's Summer Immersion Program for Introduction to Python this August and his responses definitely helped me in learning more about Columbia! Thank you so much Jalen, I hope to meet you one day!
What do you think makes Columbia unique?
"I mean, I’ve never gone to school anywhere else so it’s kind of a tough question 😅 But i think it would have to be the people. Never in my life have i been around such well rounded people! Almost everyone that I’ve encountered here are not only extremely academically intelligent but also extremely artistic, whether that be in visual art or performance art. This, of course, also extends into the realm of sports, etc."
Were you awarded financial aid? If yes, how would you rate the financial aid package given? Was it able to remove some financial pressure?
"I was given financial aid, and to be completely honest, my family and I could have used slightly more, although many of my friends who are also given aide find theirs to be suitable, I think. The conversation doesn’t come up often."
How would you describe the workload? Do students study at home during the weekends or go out and relax with their friends?
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"Truly both! A lot of CC (Columbia College) students find that they have Fridays free, and can spend their time doing whatever they want. At the beginning of the year, I would go down to NYU to hang out with some of my friends from high school, or sometimes just stay in and get a good chunk of my work done before the real weekend even started."
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"Something I never considered before coming to college is the amount of free time you now have. My current schedule has me in class most days from 10AM-4PM with an hour break or longer around noon. This is just my schedule, so other people have their own experiences. And though the workload is larger than most have in high school (as one would hope), you really have all the time you need to get work done."
What is one advice you would give high school students searching for colleges? Should they research how good the food at the college is, the weather, or how prestigious it is?
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"I mean, food and weather are important, because you’ll likely be eating/living there for a number of years, but it is not extremely important. I won’t say that prestige didn’t come into play when I chose Columbia, but it definitely shouldn’t be the main reason you choose a college. You need to be able to feel comfortable and nourished in the place you choose. Nearly any place that you go, you’ll be able to get a good education. The thing that makes an education great is the ability to learn inside and outside of the classroom. The only way to do that is to find the place with the right group of people."
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"Something that helped me make a decision was taking the step and asking a lot of people in my prospective major and the extracurriculars I wanted to be in about their experiences at Columbia."
What jobs are you looking towards in the future after graduating from Columbia?
"I’m definitely going to be doing something related to theatre, particularly musical theatre, and I’m really interested in acting and telling stories!"
JALSA
I had the pleasure to interview Jalsa, who provided some great tips and her process when applying to college! She also provided some great common app assistance so I would recommend you to check her responses out at the Common App page for Columbia! Thank you so much Jalsa!
What makes this Columbia so special to you? Was it your first choice and your dream school?
"Columbia was my first choice and I ended up choosing ED. Columbia is special to me because it’s in the writing capital of the world with amazing writing networks, it had NYU connections so I could still pursue film, strong black presence on campus, NYC which is where I used to live so not far from home, the student culture and so much more!!!"
What was your reaction when you opened your acceptance letter?
"I was ECSTATIC when I got my letter I threw up all over the place 😂."
Personally, would you recommend morning or night classes?
"I would recommend late morning classes so you can start your day but not too early. And you can also be productive 😉."