I am looking into both Brown and Columbia to apply to one of them ED. As ED is binding, I really want to make sure I make the right choice. I really like both for different reasons. Both have very high quality professors and overall academics, as well as having the same sort of clubs and reputation.
For Brown, I really like the open curriculum and how much choice it gives you in directing your own course of study, but I don’t necessarily know if I would like the location of Providence, Rhode Island.
For Columbia, I really love the location of New York City and all the opportunities it provides. I have loved going to Broadway shows since I was a little kid. I also think Columbia has a better reputation to potential employers, as Brown generally has the image of being the most laid back of the Ivy Leagues. Even though I really like a lot about Columbia, I’m not necessarily sure I would like the Core Curriculum, as I generally do like to choose what I study.
I am also looking for a positive environment where everyone manages to find their place, as I have had trouble with that throughout high school and would really not want to go to a university where it is easy to be left out or unhappy.
Overall, I would like any advice on choosing between the two, the benefits of either one, and if either one would not have the environment I am looking for.
I would say, choose Barnard, if you are a girl. But, absent that key ingredient, you have two sharply different choices. Sounds like you are leaning toward Columbia. Its New York City location makes up for a multitude of sins.
I have to agree. If you “really like the open curriculum” at Brown, I think you are not going to like the Core Curriculum at Columbia. NYC and everything it has to offer is all well and good, but I’m not sure it makes up for the Core.
Brown is a very positive place with happy students. The flexible curriculum means that students pretty much only take classes they are interested in, so not a lot of suffering through required courses. If you like Broadway shows, take a train to NYC for the weekend and go see one. Otherwise get involved with any of the many theater productions happening on Brown’s campus.
@aimeedvr Columbia might be a bit more well-known as you say and it has the NYC location, but at the end of the day at this level we are splitting hair in terms of quality and prestige. Fit is much more important once you are comparing schools at this level. It looks like you want a more relaxed, friendly environment with a flexible curriculum. Brown fits that bill. Columbia sure doesn’t.
They don’t have the same reputation at all, internationally. Times world rankings has Columbia at 14 and Brown at 50. US News Global rankings has Columbia at 8 and Brown at 92. QS World Rankings has Columbia at 18 and Brown at 53. In addition, the opportunities available in NYC far exceed those in Providence, RI.
Students from Brown get great jobs, get into great graduate programs, and have great lives, too. Providence is definitely not NYC but it has some good theater, great food, and is a very livable city. That said, you will definitely have a greater variety of options for internships during the year at Columbia, especially if you want to go to Wall Street. And if NYC is your end all and be all, then go for Columbia. (I think they are both amazing schools.)
The most important thing: choose the school that is the best fit for YOU. Simply choosing a school by the rankings is a recipe for disaster. Being miserable at a school with a higher ranking is a terrible way to spend four years.
@mommyrocks Still, the prestige difference is not that huge for undergrad that would make Columbia a no-brainer over Brown, even if someone was a much better fit for Brown. Columbia aint HYPSM. If ones fits in much better at Brown, it would make much more sense to choose Brown over Columbia undergrad and not just make a purely prestige-driven decision. the opportunities will be the same in practice. The opportunities in NYC are not exclusive to Columbia students. Tons of Brown and other ivy students get internships and jobs in NYC every year.
If you’re not sure you’d like the core curriculum then don’t bother applying to Columbia. From what I’ve heard it really defines the first 2 years of your Columbia experience. It makes up the majority of your freshman and sophomore classes and plays a part in conversation with your fellow classmates and creates an ‘intellectual community’ if you will as you are all taking the same classes at similar times. It is very humanities orientated and some people absolutely love it but it isn’t for everyone and if it isn’t for you then Columbia isn’t for you.
I’m going to disagree with other posters and say that Columbia and Brown ARE similar because they attract the same type of student: intellectual (note that is not the same as smart). Both the core curriculum (which is almost all made up of small, discussion based, humanities class and the open curriculum and the option to take classes pass/fail appeal to students who are very intellectual curious and want to delve more into areas of interest to them and areas which they think may be of interest to them. Although they are different approaches to education they foster the same ideas about academics. But I guess it depends on why the open/core curriculums are attractive to you. If you love the open curriculum for the freedom or the core for its structure then both would not match your interests but if you love them for the intellectualism they foster then both may very well appeal to you.
1/3 of Brown’s most recent graduating class wound up employed in NYC. Aside from Google (the #1 hirer of Brown grads), the companies hiring the most Brown grads are the major finance and consulting companies (Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, McKinsey, etc.). There is absolutely no reason you wouldn’t be able to get a job in NYC after graduating from Brown.
I applied ED to Brown this year, and I honestly can’t believe how you are trying to make a decision that would be binding between these two schools–they are so different! I can’t imagine going to Columbia. I would be miserable with that Core Curriculum! If you like the open curriculum, then choose Brown. If you are still torn between the two, then apply to both of them in the regular decision round. Don’t force yourself to apply ED to one of them if you’re not 1000% sure. There’s nothing that says you have to apply ED anywhere!
Can you manage to visit them, if you haven’t already?
If you can’t, have you read Fiske and the Columbia and Brown threads here?
FWIW, my husband, born and bred in NYC and something of an extremist on the pro-NYC front, only considered schools in NYC. He went to Columbia. He’ll tell you he was satisfied with his choice because he got to stay in NYC. . . BUT he didn’t really enjoy college. Columbia wasn’t a particularly good fit for him, aside from being in NYC. He didn’t warm up to the people much and he had mixed feelings about the Common Core (it was a great education, but he would have liked the flexibility to take some classes he was interested in but didn’t have time for.)
My advice to you, based on the little I know about you, would be to go to Brown. Providence certainly isn’t NYC, but it’s not the middle of nowhere. You have a lifetime, plus school vacations (I’m assuming you live near NYC) to see Broadway shows. I promise, the difference in prestige between Columbia and Brown is negligible and is not going to have a significant effect on the course of your career. If you’d actually enjoy the people, the atmosphere and the education at Brown more, Broadway and prestige aren’t enough of a reason to choose Columbia.
