The material below provides additional information to the officially posted. It covers question which I often see in initial communications with students who inquire about the 3+2 and 4+2 combined degree with W&M and Columbia.
The Columbia list of prerequisites located at their website. Here you can find list of prerequisites with W&M class equivalents.
For students entering W&M in Fall 2019 and after, the admission to Columbia is no longer guaranteed.
According to Columbia:
Guaranteed admission is not available for candidates who began college, whether at an affiliate school or not, in Fall 2019 or later. All applicants who began college in Fall 2019 or later will be considered under the competitive review process. This is a holistic process that evaluates a candidate’s preparation for Columbia Engineering’s curriculum, fit for the university, character and recommendations, among other factors.
There is no special application or form at the admission or during the first years at W&M. From the W&M point of view, you are a normal student with intent to transfer. Every year around December, Columbia opens electronic application form where you indicate your desire to transfer along the combined degree track. You complete this application either during the 3rd (3-2 program) or 4th (4-2) year at W&M.
There is no need to worry or do anything special.
Yes. As long as the W&M registrar’s office counts them as equivalent for a particular class. They are also not counted as part of your GPA.
No. Columbia specifically states that all prerequisites must be taken at affiliated institution, i.e. W&M.
No. As long as the W&M registrar’s office counts them as equivalent for a particular class. They are also not counted as part of your GPA.
In short, if the class is in the list of prerequisites, you should take it for real grade. Other classes are OK to be in Pass/Fail mode. Below is the official response from Columbia:
For Spring 2020, if courses were moved to online for the remainder of the year, we went with whatever policy the school adopted, for all courses including any prerequisites that normally have to be taken for a grade. So if schools went all P/F, or gave students the option to select some courses to be P/F or CR/NC, even if they were prerequisites, that was fine. For Fall 2020, we’re flexible in terms format (online, in-person, hybrid), but will resume requiring that prerequisite courses be taken for a grade. Non-prerequisite courses can otherwise be taken P/F according to individual campus policy.
While at Columbia you pay their tuition.
If you choose a science major (physics, chemistry, biology, CS, etc), you probably have a good chance to be accepted to a graduate level engineering/science program somewhere, including top universities. In this case you might get a master degree within 4+2 years, which is a better deal. Columbia also recommends to apply directly to their Masters and Ph.D. programs.
Note that you can apply to any place you want, not only to Columbia.
In addition, graduate level science students are usually paid a stipend during their study, which compensates for the education cost as well. It is not always true, but good schools do their best to maintain it this way. The W&M graduate physics program is not an exception.
Well, I cannot speak for all W&M departments, but the physics department (where I belong) routinely sends our students to physics and engineering graduate school at such places as Harvard, Duke, CalTech, Virginia Tech, and many others.
One of our students (with a physics major) was accepted to the MIT engineering Masters program. He was chosen over another candidate with a B.S. in engineering. He also needed to take only 2 extra classes at MIT to fill missing pre-requisites.
I am a physicist. So this is what I am comfortable to speak about the most. Also this is where I can support my statements with real data.
No. You will get an additional BS degree in engineering from Columbia. Please also see the answer to the next question.
There is none. Both tracks give you an additional BS degree in engineering from Columbia. Some people need an extra year to fulfill pre-requisites or/and take classes of their choice or for their major requirement.
This information is not available for W&M liaison. Once students made their decision, they do not report back to the liaison.
What I know is how many students apply for the transfer every year. Below is the yearly statistics
| Year | # | W&M majors |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1 | Business Analytics with Data Science |
| 2022 | 5 | Math, Applied Math, Economics, Finance, Psychology |
| 2021 | 5 | Psychology, Applied Math, Mathematics, EPAD |
| 2020 | 3 | Chemestry, Finance, Mathematics |
| 2019 | 8 | Business Analytics, Computer Science, Finance, Goverment, Economics, Interdisciplinary Studies Economics, Biology |
| 2018 | 10 | Computer Science, Accounting, Mathematics, Physics, Finance |
| 2017 | 8 | Neuroscience, Mathematics, Financial Economics & Mathematics (Self-Designed) major, Applied Mathematics, Finance, Computational Science (Self-Designed) |
| 2016 | 4 | Mathematics, Economics, Geology |
| 2015 | 2 | Economics, Chemestry |
| 2014 | 2 | Mathematics, Computer Science |
| 2013 | 3 | Chines, Psychology, Goverment |
This is outside of the scope of the combined degree program which aims to give you a second BS degree in engineering. If you do apply to a Master/Ph.D. program at Columbia then your admission is not guaranteed. You are in the common cohort of applicants.
Do not worry. Extra classes taken at Columbia will be counted toward your W&M degree.
According to Columbia: Applicants who do not meet the above criteria are welcome to apply as part of our competitive review process, where admission is not guaranteed.
Below are requirements of the W&M registrar office
Please, contact Dr. Eugeniy E. Mikhailov via combined_degree@physics.wm.edu email, phone or schedule a meeting. I will do my best to answer all of your questions.