<p>I got accepted into these two colleges, and normally I would have picked Caltech whatsoever. But I got to receive the Rabi Science Scholar award, which is given only to 10 of the 1000 or so freshmen of Columbia Univ., and it is, I think, good enough for me to rethink about where to go.</p>
<p>I haven't got much time to think, so please post your opinions fast!!</p>
<p>p.s. By the way, I want to major in astrophysics.</p>
<p>I don't know much about Columbia, but after looking up the Rabi</a> Scholar Award it seems like you have an obligation of doing summer research at least every other year, lest you be dropped from the Rabi Scholars program. Good to know, but you should not count it against Columbia in your thinking unless you think it's unlikely that you'll want to do that much research (if that's the case, you won't care whether you're a Rabi Science Scholar or not).</p>
<p>The only difference that I can see between the Rabi Scholars program and regular Caltech students is that the Rabi Scholars might get paid more during the summer (since there's a housing stipend), and you would be able to do research this coming summer. </p>
<p>Could you please tell us more about what you like about Columbia? If you're looking at the award as something for your resum?, I think it would be wiser to choose Caltech. However, if you see it as the addition of research opportunities to a school which you'd have liked to attend otherwise, then go for it. I suppose that if I were to make the same decision, I would weigh the schools against each other in the absence of any research whatsoever. </p>
<p>Congratulations on the award!</p>
<p>Yes, the Rabi's have to do summer research, and get free housing plus guaranteed research support (ie no need to apply for it). In addition the Rabi's get their own "clubhouse," have montlly dinners, sometimes with invited faculty, and can get summer housing on the same floor. I think they have extra advisors too, and they generally they seem to have great to the faculty.
I don't know anything about astrophysics teaching there, but both Brian Greene (Elegant Universe) and Philp Kim (whose work on graphene was recently in the NYT) are both teaching full-year undergraduate classes this year.
Everyone else on this board probably knows more about Caltech physics and astrohysics than I do so I won't try to make any comparisons.</p>
<p>This year's valedictorian at Columbia is a Rabi scholar heading to Princeton for a PhD in astrophysics. She won two research-based awards while at Columbia, and did research a number of places, including JPL.</p>
<p>astrophysics = caltech, period</p>
<p>Although I have never had any doubts about it, but
why?</p>
<p>Yes, the Rabi's have to do summer research, and get free housing plus guaranteed research support (ie no need to apply for it).</p>
<p>The average Caltech student will do research at Caltech through the SURF program (or independently of it) during their time here, with no worry about a lack of support.</p>
<p>In addition the Rabi's get their own "clubhouse," have montlly dinners, sometimes with invited faculty, and can get summer housing on the same floor. I think they have extra advisors too, and they generally they seem to have great to the faculty.</p>
<p>The average Caltech student is a member of one of the eight houses, and has abundant opportunities to dine with and interact with the faculty, from faculty advisors, to inviting faculty to formal dinners held at the houses three times a year, to taking a faculty member out to lunch (paid for by the Caltech student government). I don't know of a Caltech student who isn't on a first-name basis with at least one or two professors, and personally, I've toured Kip Thorne and his granddaughter through some of the construction setups for our annual parties.</p>
<p>I don't know anything about astrophysics teaching there, but both Brian Greene (Elegant Universe) and Philp Kim (whose work on graphene was recently in the NYT) are both teaching full-year undergraduate classes this year.</p>
<p>Kip Thorne, John Preskill, David Politzer (recent nobel laureate), and Mike Brown (planetary scientist, discoverer of Sedna and many other KBOs) all teach classes here, from introductory freshman classes, to graduate-level classes that are well attended by undergraduates.</p>
<p>Everyone else on this board probably knows more about Caltech physics and astrohysics than I do so I won't try to make any comparisons.</p>
<p>Here are some other things that Caltech's got over Columbia in astrophysics:</p>
<p>*Mt Palomar Observatory
*Keck Observatory in Hawaii
*Upcoming 30m (TMT) Telescope
*JPL</p>
<p>(see more information about Caltech's observatories here <a href="http://www.astro.caltech.edu/observatories/%5B/url%5D">http://www.astro.caltech.edu/observatories/</a> )</p>
<p>Many average Caltech students do summer research at JPL starting in the summer after their freshman year. In their senior year, Astrophysics majors are taken on a department trip to the Keck observatory in Hawaii, to have the chance to use the equipment themselves. There's a new Astrophysics-dedicated building beginning construction right now, and Caltech will provide you with the best education in astrophysics it's possible to get. A Caltech education in astro will certainly be more rigorous and in-depth than what you can get from Columbia.</p>
<p>That said, Columbia is a great school, but it just doesn't match up to Caltech in astro.</p>