Columbia or Duke?

beard_tax
Thu, 29 Apr 2010 03:57:53 +0000

HawaiinPunch, I can answer some of the questions that you’ve posted. Keep in mind that it’s from my perspective as a student with straight A’s, so my view on academic success and learning are different from admissionsgeek’s and confidentialcoll’s. However, I can give you the perspective of what it takes to get an A in a course, how to learn the material well, and simultaneously minimize wasted effort.

You aren’t forced to major as what you declared when you applied. Actually, over the summer session (if you attend), the admissions officers asked us what our majors would be, so you’ll have the opportunity to put down what you’re interested in. The financial engineering program is competitive to get into. Once you’re a sophomore, you can apply in the fall as well as the spring. In general, my friends who got in (without networking with the IEOR administrators and getting strings pulled) had above a 3.7 GPA overall and around a 4.0 GPA in quantitative classes (Calculus, Linear Algebra, Probability, Physics). Financial Engineering is a rigorous program with difficult classes and a lot of mathematics and programming, but BME takes the cake for rigor in the engineering school. It’s notorious for being time-consuming with a curve of around C+/B-. Essentially, don’t expect to go to Harvard Medical School in the BME program at Columbia unless you are in the top 10%.

If you’re interested in pre-med, many students take the Applied Math route, because it has the fewest requirements of the engineering majors and allows students to complete the pre-med classes. That said, Applied Math is also quite difficult because the required classes are tough (curved once again to C+/B-) and PDE, Intro to Dynamical Systems, and Analysis can take upwards of 15 hours a week each.

In terms of student life, I have a skewed view of students who are all doing quite well. For example, an engineering curriculum can take upwards of 15-25 hours of work a week. This is not Facebook/talk to friends/AIM work, but actually concentrating and learning the material.
Trust me, I try to minimize wasted effort as much as possible, by learning from the book when the professor is horrible, using answer keys when the algebra is extremely tedious and doesn’t contribute to learning of the material, as well as brainstorming with friends on computer programs before we start.

Most of my friends and engineers I know don’t have an incredible amount of time for fun. If they do, their GPA’s are usually hurt by it and they have lower than a B+ average. If you’re fine with that (especially in the IEOR department) you can get away with going out several times a week. However, if you’re shooting for an A, then prepared to master the material and really understand it. I’m not even sure if admissionsgeek is an engineer, but I can definitely say that school has taught me to mature as well as given me the quantitative ability to tackle tough brainteasers, write some sick recursive CS code, and go through mathematical proofs on Wikipedia. These might not be real-world skills, but I’m sure that the ability to look at problems from a quantitative perspective doesn’t hurt, though maturing and understanding the professional world is more important in the workplace.

PM me if you have any other questions.