<p>My daughter got accepted by both Caltech and Columbia SEAS. Caltech maybe better in science and engineering. But Columbia is at New York and financial aid is a lot better than Caltech. We need to pay around $12000 at Columbia but $22000 at Caltech. Caltech may be too difficult. I am also worried about the possible earthquake. Any comments?</p>
<p>There are BIG differences between the schools. Columbia is very urban, school in a high crime city, large student population that is not all concentrated on sciences. Caltech is in a beautiful suburban area of southern CA, T-shirt weather all year round, small campus where everyone knows everyone else and they are all STEM majors. Everyone lives on campus or in Caltech housing all four years (not required, but most everyone chooses to). You can get all your required classes when you want them and don’t have to worry abt taking 5 or more years to finish due to classes filling (happens a LOT in the UC schools). There is such a vast differences in the campus cultures, so it greatly depends on what you want.</p>
<p>Columbia is aggressive in recruiting girls for SEAS because that is the only school where their boy girl ratios are not 1:1. Your daughter might like it. Caltech student body is quite small and so it depends on whether your daughter wants to be in almost 1:3 teacher student ratio or be in larger classes. Columbia core is terrific though.</p>
<p>I sure wouldn’t worry about earthquakes! As a parent I would worry more about the dangers associated with living in a big city like New York than an earthquake in Pasadena. The schools are very different and your daughter should visit each before making a decision.</p>
<p>Yes, don’t worry about earthquakes too much. The two schools have different cultures, and your daughter must decide what kind of school she wants. Caltech is really very excellent in science and engineering, but not in liberal arts. On the other hand, Columbia is more “well-rounded” and not too bad in engineering. Both schools are very prestigeous, but Caltech is more so. If you/she can afford, perhaps visit both places, stay a couple of days in each, and try to get a feel for them. Compared to the atmosphere in New York City, Pasadena is much calmer, and I also think Caltech environment is a lot safer than that of Columbia.
Good luck with your daughter’s admission process!</p>
<p>columbia is in the greatest city in the whole goddamn world.</p>
<p>
Do you just like to make up random facts and talk off-topic?</p>
<p>In 2010, New York City was ranked 269 most dangerous out of more than 400 American cities. I don’t know where you get your ‘high crime’ bias from. </p>
<p>Columbia University in the City of New York in an instance. Your daughter will not regret it.</p>
<p>To me the absolutely huge difference in campus cultures makes the city the school’s located in seem almost like a trivial difference.</p>
<p>There are some useful Columbia threads about the life at or the life after Columbia. </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/1041703-4-years-later-reflections-columbia-college-senior.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/1041703-4-years-later-reflections-columbia-college-senior.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/325668-how-does-columbia-treat-its-undergrads.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/325668-how-does-columbia-treat-its-undergrads.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/1100086-overall-impression-columbia.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/1100086-overall-impression-columbia.html</a></p>
<p>admissiongeek is an ardent advocate for columbia, perhaps working to improve its images to attract more applicants, so read his posts with a grain of salt.</p>
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<p>New York is a big city. We are not talking the very safe 69th and 3rd on the upper east side in NYC here. We are talking Morningside Heights, right next door to Harlem, which taken by itself would probably be in the top 20 most dangerous cities, out of 400.</p>
<p>USNWR Undergraduate Engineering School Rankings
1… MIT
2… Stanford
3… UC Berkeley
4… Caltech
.
.
26. columbia</p>
<p>First if the 10k difference per year in FinAid is a big deal, then obviously pick Columbia.</p>
<p>Columbia and Caltech are very different in terms of campus culture. </p>
<p>If your daughter would prefer to be surrounded by nerds and geeks who love math and science, then its Caltech.</p>
<p>If your daughter would prefer a bigger school with different types of people from the science nerds, Columbia.</p>
<p>Cal Tech imo would be the better choice</p>
<p>What do you mean IMO?</p>
<p>IMO = In my opinion</p>
<p>If an earthquake was going to hit Southern California, I would guess Caltech would be the first to know about it -
The Richter scale was developed at CalTech and they have one of the strongest Geo Physics programs in the country and the Southern California Seismic Network is essentially staffed by and run out of CalTech. I would not worry about earthquakes.</p>
<p>If your daughter has been admitted to Caltech, she can handle the load. And it is a very challenging load. Has your daughter visited both the campuses? If she is really into math and science, I would suggest Caltech. If she is a little uncertain and may want to go into something else, then Columbia is much better choice. Yes you can get a degree in English Literature from CalTech, but you first need to do 5 really tough classes in Math and Physics, so no one does.</p>
<p>Obviously if finances are consideration, I would not borrow $40,000 more over 4 years for CalTech and go with Columbia.</p>