Hello all, this will be my first post here and I hope some of you may be able to provide insight on my situation because I'm caught in a quandary. It may be a little long so please bare with me.
I'm a 23 year old undergrad student who took quite some time off post high school to work, and later got side tracked. My situation was that I never applied myself through highschool receiving pretty abysmal grades, hardly attending class, and by mere chance of a decent SAT I got into a pretty good school[never completed any classes]. Anyway about a year back I returned, this time to community college, and am now in the 2nd semester of my first year. Long story short I'm now a Bio Major with a 4.0 and only about 20 credits accumulated, but I have some misgivings about my next step.
A: I live in NYC and I want to transfer to Columbia in fall 2012 to complete my undergraduate degree. I believe Columbia is the right choice because I'm seeking a more challenging education to prepare me for the rigors of medical school. I was considering NYU but being that they were fairly similar in terms of cost of attendance, I chose the latter for obvious reasons. For reasons specified by their transfer requisites, they do not take Spring applicants and require 24 credits for transfer. I've been applying to a few research and clinical volunteer programs and will cram this between college and a 40 hour job. I understand transfer to Columbia is extremely competitive, with less than 10% of applicants accepted.
1)Between now and then, is there anything I can do to strengthen my chances of acceptance besides maintenance of gpa / clinical experience?
2)Columbia is very core centered in their curriculum, and I have a few English classes that may overlap with theirs; in my research I have found that 99% of the time they make you retake these. In what way should I proceed, class wise, to take classes which will strictly transfer?
3)If they deem a semester's worth of classes non-equivalent, would it make sense to transfer anyway or consider a different school?
4)I'm a Bio major but my first true passion has always been English. Would it be beneficial, upon transfer, to switch my major to English in order to diversify myself from the majority Bio med school applicants?
5)As far as credentials on a medical school application, I've been reading on this board that research publications serve as a great means of demonstrating leadership qualities and separating yourself from the pack. If I were to publish a fiction novel or book of poetry, would medical schools hold that in the same regard?
AND LASTLY lol
6)If Columbia ultimately does not accept me, are there any other ivy league caliber educations I can get in the new york city area?
thanks so much for reading and any input contributed
I'm a 23 year old undergrad student who took quite some time off post high school to work, and later got side tracked. My situation was that I never applied myself through highschool receiving pretty abysmal grades, hardly attending class, and by mere chance of a decent SAT I got into a pretty good school[never completed any classes]. Anyway about a year back I returned, this time to community college, and am now in the 2nd semester of my first year. Long story short I'm now a Bio Major with a 4.0 and only about 20 credits accumulated, but I have some misgivings about my next step.
A: I live in NYC and I want to transfer to Columbia in fall 2012 to complete my undergraduate degree. I believe Columbia is the right choice because I'm seeking a more challenging education to prepare me for the rigors of medical school. I was considering NYU but being that they were fairly similar in terms of cost of attendance, I chose the latter for obvious reasons. For reasons specified by their transfer requisites, they do not take Spring applicants and require 24 credits for transfer. I've been applying to a few research and clinical volunteer programs and will cram this between college and a 40 hour job. I understand transfer to Columbia is extremely competitive, with less than 10% of applicants accepted.
1)Between now and then, is there anything I can do to strengthen my chances of acceptance besides maintenance of gpa / clinical experience?
2)Columbia is very core centered in their curriculum, and I have a few English classes that may overlap with theirs; in my research I have found that 99% of the time they make you retake these. In what way should I proceed, class wise, to take classes which will strictly transfer?
3)If they deem a semester's worth of classes non-equivalent, would it make sense to transfer anyway or consider a different school?
4)I'm a Bio major but my first true passion has always been English. Would it be beneficial, upon transfer, to switch my major to English in order to diversify myself from the majority Bio med school applicants?
5)As far as credentials on a medical school application, I've been reading on this board that research publications serve as a great means of demonstrating leadership qualities and separating yourself from the pack. If I were to publish a fiction novel or book of poetry, would medical schools hold that in the same regard?
AND LASTLY lol
6)If Columbia ultimately does not accept me, are there any other ivy league caliber educations I can get in the new york city area?
thanks so much for reading and any input contributed
