LunaSea

Everyone, I can't thank you all enough for your help and insight. Between this forum and my correspondence with the Financial Aid office, I have been able to devise a few plans. I will DEFINITELY be consulting Wells Fargo as well so thank you KH1264!! Thanks everyone for your advice as it has given me more options and a gleam of hope. I really REALLY appreciate it.

Awesome- I never heard of uni's doing that, but it makes sense since they can just add it to my tuition bill. I will look into that today- thanks!!

"Presumably you're not the first and only incoming Columbia grad student to wonder about this." Exactly. That's why I asked. "First of all, you really should be talking to Columbia's financial aid office about this and not posting here. We aren't going to have the specifics that you need." Thanks.

Like I said, Columbia's policy, regardless of the source of my loans, is that they are directly deposited to them. So I was asking to see if other people had this problem and if there is some sort of loop hole or appeal I could make. Thanks anyway. Perhaps "berate" was a strong choice, but you were disproportionately aggressive for a simple question not directed towards you. My day was fabulous, thanks.

Thanks Demetrios for your post. I have been thoroughly digging through loan websites to investigate this and after speaking with the financial aid office, it appears that regardless of the source of my loan, their policy is that it is directly deposited to them in full. Rising star: relax. "You should really be talking to Columbia about this and not here" Why not exhaust all my resources? Why have a forum if I can not ask a question to those who may have had a similar situation? That is the point, isn't it? If you think it is silly for me to ask for advice, then you don't have to give me any. Furthermore, my undergraduate university also did not give refunds until the end of the semester, so it IS likely that other universities follow the same procedure. Perhaps you should be asking more questions before your berate others for posting what you consider a sub-par inquiry.

Did they refuse to release the data to you? Because if so- it probably won't be made public to the rest of us. I heard once that it was 50-60% acceptance rate in LSMA, though I believe it was on a forum and I have no real backup to support the claim. http://lsma.columbia.edu/content/student-directory Here is the directory of those currently enrolled. EAS is relatively small, so it might give you at least a general idea of how many they take each year, though there is no telling how many applied.

Since I will have little to no income while at graduate school, I need to take out loans that will also cover my housing. The financial aid office at Columbia just told me that lenders give them the tuition money directly, skipping me as the middle man, and would send Columbia my rent money and not me. To receive my rent money, I would then have to apply for a refund check from the school that I would not receive til the end of the semester. However, I need the $ on a monthly basis to pay rent. I don't have the $ to even pay September's rent, and I do not have parents who can help me. Does anyone know of a lender who will put the money in my account instead of the schools? I understand this is supposed to be safe and convenient way for banks, but I can't afford to live there without access to my loan.

I'm not sure. It didn't ask for any depository $ when I accepted their offer, so I don't know why/how they would go about charging you if you rescinded.

I got the same email at the same time. They have pushed the deadline to June 15th for us to accept or decline. I agree with Rach though, this process has been insane. The email says they'll let us know about orientation, registration, etc within the next few weeks. I hope we find out before classes start. But anyways, congrats future classmates!

Madeline told us to contact her if we don't get the email by the end of this week. But doesn't the email say we have to respond by the end of this week? If we have to put in a deposit by May 29th, we'll need that email before Friday.... For anyone who has received the official email- does it say how we are to respond by the 29th?

Ossuary- I applied to a different program at Columbia, but I wouldn't give up hope. I found out I was accepted today, about 2 weeks after others had been sent their decisions. Apparently, some glitch delayed the decisions from being mailed out, and because of commencement this week, Admissions and IT have both been preoccupied. Have you emailed them yet?

I got accepted !!! Finally! I was so scared. Madeline said they are sending out the official emails this week. I tried calling her a million times to no avail, but she returns emails quickly. Congrats everyone, and thank you sooo much for all of your info. Had it not been for this forum, I'd still be in the dark.

They said the same thing to me! I FINALLY got ahold of someone yesterday. It was the admin office, and they said the only one who could tell me if I was accepted or not is Madeline Rivera and she won't be in the office until tomorrow. Remember when we thought we'd know by May 1st? *sigh*

Thanks so much! Today are the MA and PhD commencements for GSAS so I doubt I will reach anyone in the office, but I'll keep trying. God I hope they don't have caller ID because my number has probably appeared 10 times in the last 24 hours! lol.

I've been trying to call them all day and to no avail. I believe it might be because this is commencement week. People have managed to get through so I guess we just have to keep trying- good luck! Also, I have heard that Madeline Rivera of GSAS admissions has been telling people whether they were accepted or not over the phone, so try to get ahold of her.

Well her mailbox is full so I guess it doesn't matter. URGH I am wasting away !! Congrats to all -hopefully I will be joining you!

I just got a voicemail when I called her too. Evilevie, did you leave a voicemail and she called you back? Or should I just try calling again later?

Apparently, they must. That is really odd! Especially since the office said the decisions had not been entered into the computer until Monday 11th. Now I'm really confused! I'm looking at that "accepted survey" again, and someone also said they received a rejection email on Friday 8th as well. So I don't know what their pattern or method is for informing us. Noname- by any chance does your last name begin with an A or letter at the top of the alphabet? lol.

urgh, this forum has turned into a vigil!

I turned mine in on March 10th, before the first deadline. I feel like I've been waiting an eternity! haha.

tick tock tick tock I am wasting away at this computer! I'm pretty sure they are telling us by email. Best of luck to everyone!

Thanks for the info Rach! It's only 11.30am and this has been the slowest day ever! I'm checking my computer every 5 minutes :roll:

Same here- I've read horror stories in other discussion about Columbia losing applications! I'm afraid of the same fate. Maybe we're waitlisted?

ya know what, I'm looking at the other "accepted" stories on that board, and people received their emails from GSAS anywhere from May 8th to today the 13th. There doesn't seem to be a set date they all were sent out, so I would fear not! (sigh)

omg!!! Maybe they are sending the emails out in increments Maybe they just sent the HR ones out, not the other divisions yet Maybe.... ? What I want to know is what "Email to check website" means. Someone here emailed them on the 8th and got a response saying "you'll be notified shortly" and I have sifted through every detail on the LSMA website and have seen nothing about acceptance notifications.