Columbia c/o 2015 Applicants (2011-2012 cycle) Forum

[AntipodeanPhil]

I have not been able to follow this thread last a couple of days due to Chinese New Year. Congrats to all admits!
So I guess no email yet for international students? I remember reading a post which says not until two weeks after all VCEs will international students know their decisions.

At least two Canadian students have got emails - one with scholarship money, I believe.

I'm betting there are more emails coming, though - Columbia has accepted the large majority of internationals with LSATs over about 171 (and some with LSATs below that) in previous cycles.

[Take Two]

Anyone with median GPA, VCE, and no fall grade request?

I dont remember exactly what the median is but I am within .1 or .2 and I didnt have a grade request though in fairness I'm not in school anymore... haha

[brogoc]

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[otnemem]

I just had my weekly Skype session with my parents, turns out a VCE has been sitting on the kitchen table since Wednesday. I don't think I could be happier, congrats to all!

[Take Two]

I just had my weekly Skype session with my parents, turns out a VCE has been sitting on the kitchen table since Wednesday. I don't think I could be happier, congrats to all!

haha congrats!

[Bronck]

Hey guys, since I'm sure a lot of you are curious... here's info about financial aid:

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 5&t=148700

And here's a great post about it as well http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 2#p4157092 :

There is non-named merit aid given out with financial aid packages. It's technically considered "need aid," however, and will only be awarded after you fill out and submit your FAFSA. It's also largely given out to those who leverage their scholarships from other schools - basically, send PDFs of your other scholarship letters to CLS's FinAid e-mail address ASAP. Columbia has been very good about providing some money to those with awards from other schools.

Posted by me in another thread: Don't wait to start leveraging, especially since CLS has a limited amount of FinAid to distribute, and leveraged $$ will count as need-based regardless of your financial status. Fill out your financial aid application forms ASAP (you must do this even if you're certain that you won't qualify for need-based aid). After you submit that, send CLS's FinAid office an email briefly outlining your situation, how CLS is your top choice but money is a factor, and you received scholarship offers from X-schools, etc. Importantly, ATTACH PDFs of your other scholly offer letters to that email.

Edit: If I recall correctly, Chicago sends out scholarships sometime in Feb and NYU in early March. So since CLS' preliminary deadline for financial information is March 1.... My guess is that early March is a good time to send out your negotiation email.

[JamMasterJ]

Does anyone know what Columbia's policy is for ASW reimbursement? I'd like to go, but I'm poor right now.

I'm guessing it says something about that on the admitted students' website, but even admitted students are unable to get in to that now.

they reimburse. I'm not exactly sure how much, but I've heard it's at least a couple hundred.

[Bronck]

Does anyone know what Columbia's policy is for ASW reimbursement? I'd like to go, but I'm poor right now.

I'm guessing it says something about that on the admitted students' website, but even admitted students are unable to get in to that now.

they reimburse. I'm not exactly sure how much, but I've heard it's at least a couple hundred.

My understanding is that it's up to $200 on a need basis. I have no idea if that remains the case, however....

[tempur_three]

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[JamMasterJ]

So if some candidates decline the Hamilton, where does the extra Hamilton go? Is it possible to get upgraded from a Butler to a Hamilton? Does anyone know of anyone know of a case where a Butler turned into a Hamilton? Also can someone let me know what the difference is between the two besides money? For example what are the other perks of the Hamilton? Advisor, meetings, memberships, priority track for anything? Are there any other perks for the Butler as well? For example does a Butler fellow get an advisor? Thanks for the help!

If this is in the wrong forum, then please advise where I should ask these questions.

I think they probably offer more Hamiltons than they plan on granting, and plan on some of the Hamilton people choosing to go elsewhere, rather than offering exactly as many as they want and then redistributing them later.

[yankees42789]

So if some candidates decline the Hamilton, where does the extra Hamilton go? Is it possible to get upgraded from a Butler to a Hamilton? Does anyone know of anyone know of a case where a Butler turned into a Hamilton? Also can someone let me know what the difference is between the two besides money? For example what are the other perks of the Hamilton? Advisor, meetings, memberships, priority track for anything? Are there any other perks for the Butler as well? For example does a Butler fellow get an advisor? Thanks for the help!

If this is in the wrong forum, then please advise where I should ask these questions.

My letter said the Hamilton includes being given a faculty mentor, the (potential) opportunity to conduct research with your mentor, and "guidance and support" from current Hamilton students. I have no idea if there are any perks beyond that (or what comes with a Butler), but those are probably the highlights given that they were emphasized in the initial letter.

And I agree with Jam. Based on previous years, they know what percentage of Hamilton recipients will accept their offer and thus give out the appropriate number of Hamiltons (does anyone know how many? I haven't been able to find that info anywhere) to get their intended yield.

[tempur_three]

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[tempur_three]

So if some candidates decline the Hamilton, where does the extra Hamilton go? Is it possible to get upgraded from a Butler to a Hamilton? Does anyone know of anyone know of a case where a Butler turned into a Hamilton? Also can someone let me know what the difference is between the two besides money? For example what are the other perks of the Hamilton? Advisor, meetings, memberships, priority track for anything? Are there any other perks for the Butler as well? For example does a Butler fellow get an advisor? Thanks for the help!

If this is in the wrong forum, then please advise where I should ask these questions.

My letter said the Hamilton includes being given a faculty mentor, the (potential) opportunity to conduct research with your mentor, and "guidance and support" from current Hamilton students. I have no idea if there are any perks beyond that (or what comes with a Butler), but those are probably the highlights given that they were emphasized in the initial letter.

And I agree with Jam. Based on previous years, they know what percentage of Hamilton recipients will accept their offer and thus give out the appropriate number of Hamiltons (does anyone know how many? I haven't been able to find that info anywhere) to get their intended yield.

Cool, thanks for that. I haven't seen my letter because I'm away from home, but my parents told me that I got the Butler, so I'm trying to figure out what the pitch is besides money and what the possibility is to upgrade to a Hamilton.

[JamMasterJ]

So if some candidates decline the Hamilton, where does the extra Hamilton go? Is it possible to get upgraded from a Butler to a Hamilton? Does anyone know of anyone know of a case where a Butler turned into a Hamilton? Also can someone let me know what the difference is between the two besides money? For example what are the other perks of the Hamilton? Advisor, meetings, memberships, priority track for anything? Are there any other perks for the Butler as well? For example does a Butler fellow get an advisor? Thanks for the help!

If this is in the wrong forum, then please advise where I should ask these questions.

I think they probably offer more Hamiltons than they plan on granting, and plan on some of the Hamilton people choosing to go elsewhere, rather than offering exactly as many as they want and then redistributing them later.

Thanks. Do you have any hard data on this? Or can you reference me to any blog conversation about this? While I agree that some people will end up turning the Hamilton down, I'm curious whether it makes sense to take that gamble on their end. Accepting more students than you have places make a little more sense because even if all choose to go you probably end up in a financial gain; with the fellowships, I don't see how offering more than they expect would be financially smart unless they do expect to redistribute later (or if a stand alone fund, then they have an investment company doing something with it to prepare for next year's applicants). I'm just curious what then do they do with the extra money? Either the Hamilton is part of a larger pool where it will be redistributed according to financial aid department (ie a Butler Fellow gets an upgrade, or 16 people get 1000 bucks...you get the picture) or it's standalone and will be carried over into next year. I might be missing something here though....

I assume, like Yankees, that they follow the same logic that they do with acceptances. Using previous years, they may try to guess what they need to offer to get what they want for the class. The one huge difference is that the pool of Hamilton winners is much smaller than overall acceptances, so it's probably a bit harder to predict. I'm guessing they give out a few more Hamiltons than they plan on actually granting, but if the yield gets really low, they might end up upgrading Bulters/redistributing the money

[MachineLemon]

I assume, like Yankees, that they follow the same logic that they do with acceptances. Using previous years, they may try to guess what they need to offer to get what they want for the class. The one huge difference is that the pool of Hamilton winners is much smaller than overall acceptances, so it's probably a bit harder to predict. I'm guessing they give out a few more Hamiltons than they plan on actually granting, but if the yield gets really low, they might end up upgrading Bulters/redistributing the money

Here are last year's LSN figures for Hamilton recipients:

Accepted A = 1 applicant
Accepted W = 7 applicants
Accepted (no decision reported) = 3

[acadec]

Anyone else succeed at the Voldemort trick but not get a VCE yet? I live on the West Coast and the mail service at my school is pretty slow so I'm not freaking out just yet, but I'm wondering whether anybody else is in this boat.

[seanPtheB]

For people who have gotten VCE's with different current and permanent addresses, which one do they come to?

[hypothalamus]

For people who have gotten VCE's with different current and permanent addresses, which one do they come to?

Current. I called in advance to make sure, and they told me they always send to the current address.

[seanPtheB]

For people who have gotten VCE's with different current and permanent addresses, which one do they come to?

Current. I called in advance to make sure, and they told me they always send to the current address.

Awesome, thanks!

[80eight]

For people who have gotten VCE's with different current and permanent addresses, which one do they come to?

Current. I called in advance to make sure, and they told me they always send to the current address.

I had a current address that expired in December, and literally NONE of the schools I applied to automatically switched to my permanent address. If I could go back and do it again, I'd just list my parents' address and nothing else (since I've been a vagrant basically since I applied.)

[lsatcrazy]

Related to the above Butler==>Hamilton question:
1. If I didn't get any scholarship, is it possible to negotiate your way up to a Butler? I have a 67.5k offer from Michigan that I suppose I can leverage into something at the very least...
2. Is it too early to start negotiating with them? Should I wait until Chicago/NYU make their offers (Feb./April)?

[sharktankdean]

hopefully this week leads to a new batch on VCEs...will prob start be checking my mailbox on Thursday or Friday, if they send out some this week. I hope they send VCEs weekly like how Harvard sends out KB1s/KB2s.

[Bronck]

Related to the above Butler==>Hamilton question:
1. If I didn't get any scholarship, is it possible to negotiate your way up to a Butler? I have a 67.5k offer from Michigan that I suppose I can leverage into something at the very least...
2. Is it too early to start negotiating with them? Should I wait until Chicago/NYU make their offers (Feb./April)?

I posted some information above w/ regards to scholarships. Honestly, I'd wait until Chi and NYU make their offers (should be end of Feb and beginning of March, respectively). Keep in mind that NYU gives you a very short window to negotiate (I think you have to accept/reject their offer by early April). So, get all the financial info into CLS before March 1 (FAFSA, Need Access, tax documentation, and their additional form), wait until you get competing offers and then negotiate.

I don't know anything about moving from 0 to Butler/Hamilton. My assumption is that it doesn't happen, or if it does, it is very rare. Certainly, 67.5k from Michigan won't do it. You can check LSN for CLS scholarship info, but it seems like 25-30k is the standard non-named scholarship.

[JamMasterJ]

Related to the above Butler==>Hamilton question:
1. If I didn't get any scholarship, is it possible to negotiate your way up to a Butler? I have a 67.5k offer from Michigan that I suppose I can leverage into something at the very least...
2. Is it too early to start negotiating with them? Should I wait until Chicago/NYU make their offers (Feb./April)?

I posted some information above w/ regards to scholarships. Honestly, I'd wait until Chi and NYU make their offers (should be end of Feb and beginning of March, respectively). Keep in mind that NYU gives you a very short window to negotiate (I think you have to accept/reject their offer by early April). So, get all the financial info into CLS before March 1 (FAFSA, Need Access, tax documentation, and their additional form), wait until you get competing offers and then negotiate.

I don't know anything about moving from 0 to Butler/Hamilton. My assumption is that it doesn't happen, or if it does, it is very rare. Certainly, 67.5k from Michigan won't do it. You can check LSN for CLS scholarship info, but it seems like 25-30k is the standard non-named scholarship.

I also would assume that while you may be able to negotiate for more aid, it would never be for a named scholly

[yoiav]

just got back from the weekend to find some vomit in the mail box!