The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

I’m hoping for a tornado. Or maybe a little earthquake. I’d settle for a grease fire. But no such luck.  Everything is peaceful on the stage at the qualifying tournament of the Catholic Nationals For

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List a selection of texts, resources and outlets that have contributed to your intellectual development outside of academic courses, including but not limited to books, journals, websites, podcasts, essays, plays, presentations, videos, museums and other content that you enjoy.

Websites: Tabroom (my debate homebase), Khan Academy, The Anarchist Library, GoodReads, The Oyez Project (summaries of SCOTUS decisions), NYTimes’ Modern Love column YouTube: TED-Ed, Amoeba Sisters,

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A hallmark of the Columbia experience is being able to learn and thrive in an equitable and inclusive community with a wide range of perspectives. Tell us about an aspect of your own perspective, viewpoint or lived experience that is important to you, and describe how it has shaped the way you would learn from and contribute to Columbia’s diverse and collaborative community.

This spring, I worked as a canvasser for [Organization Redacted], collecting data on whether residents were planning to vote. To say it was challenging would be an understatement. Some people shooed m

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In college, students are often challenged in ways that they could not predict or anticipate. It is important to us, therefore, to understand an applicant's ability to navigate through adversity. Please describe a barrier or obstacle you have faced and discuss the personal qualities, skills or insights you have developed as a result.

At five, I was a native speaker. But at fifteen, I could barely string together a sentence. Although I had grown up speaking Russian, my parents worried that growing up in a bilingual world would hold

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Why are you interested in attending Columbia University? We encourage you to consider the aspect(s) that you find unique and compelling about Columbia.

In a big campus and an even bigger city, I want to use my education not only to develop political insights but to develop a liberal arts background that gives me a comprehensive lens through which to

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What attracts you to your preferred areas of study at Columbia College?

Political science has always been part of my life — first as a child listening to my Russian dad rant about the news, then as a teenager on the debate team, engaging with political questions for four

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