Hey guys, I’m a current junior making plans for next year’s college app season and would appreciate input on where I should apply early decision.
Pros and cons of each:
Barnard:
- Really like the LAC feeling
- Majoring in CS+Stats (data science) (heavily male-dominated), would appreciate having lots of core classes with girls to balance it out
- Want to double major in environmental policy - Barnard is the only school that offers this major out of the three (question -
is a double major helpful in undergrad? is it perhaps a better idea to try for a different school in CS and then get a graduate degree in policy?) - Good advising, plus you don’t have to take the Core --> “happier” college experience? (i’ve heard this but idk if it’s true - anyone want to validate or disprove this claim?)
- Columbia is my dream school --> Barnard allows me to double major, stress less, and get the Columbia experience (plus CS is all at Columbia so I’d get the same technical education)
- Con: Doesn’t carry the Ivy League name/prestige (not super important to me but parents care about this a lot)
- Con: Parents want me to ED to the “best” schools, they view Barnard as second-tier and a RD school
- Con: No one gets accepted to Barnard from my school (2 total in history)
Columbia:
- Love the school, campus, etc. - dream school
- In Columbia Science Honors Program, doing research with a Columbia PhD - lots of ties to Columbia. Could benefit from devotion + recs. Idk if these “school dedication” benefits would extend to Barnard.
- Con: Doesn’t offer desired double major
- Con: Stressful, bad culture (again, a disproval or validation of this would be appreciated)
- Con: No one gets accepted to Columbia from my school (1 or 0 a year)
Princeton:
- High school is located near here - Princeton is familiar with rigor of the academics there
- Taking math here next year (dual enrollment) - rec’s from prof can help a lot
- Statistically a LOT of kids get accepted here each year (minimum 3, maximum 10 i think??) (a lot are accepted RD, more RD than ED actually)
- Parents really really want me to go here for some reason
- Cheaper than going to school in NYC (we can 100% afford CU/Barnard though so that’s absolutely last priority)
- Culture seems better, much less competitive, than Columbia
- Con: I don’t like the preppy vibe I get from here
- Con: Too close to home. I go to Lewis Library and the town almost every week. Want new experiences
IMO, early decision should be for the school that 1) you absolutely love and 2) your chance of getting in can be greatly boosted by applying ED.
Oh also I did really well on the SAT but bad on the essay (1580, 17). Columbia and Barnard don’t care about the essay, but Princeton does. Idk if that impacts anything.
TLDR – Princeton is much statistically better for getting in, but I like Columbia better. Thinking that perhaps Barnard allows me to get Columbia experience + desired double major + less stress. Don’t know which to pick.
Obviously there is a clear bias toward Columbia in my words here but I want an objective opinion.
Sorry for this huge wall of text. Thank you in advance!