I’m trying to decide between Yale, UChicago, and Columbia (if someone has a very strong case for Penn I’d like to hear that too).
I will probably be doing math with economics focus, or applied math. I might do chemistry too, but definitely something with math involved. UChicago is probably the best for both math and economics of the three, but I’d like to hear what your thoughts are on that, because they’re all pretty amazing academic schools.
I also value school spirit and athletics a bit, which I worry Columbia and UChicago lack (this isn’t a major factor, but cmon Columbia football went 0-10 last year). But Yale has a more laid back attitude from what I hear than the intensity of UChicago. I don’t want to never have fun, but I think that’s more a reputation based thing than anything. And cities are a nice asset, but there seems to be plenty of stuff on campus at Yale all the time. I also am a John Jay Scholar at Columbia, which means my advising will be supplemented and summer research is funded, among other things. Something I don’t know about is how good the career and grad school advising is at each school.
The schools would each cost about the same for me, so it’s really just about which I like best. I’m super torn! Any thoughts, comments or advice is greatly appreciated, especially on the math there! Thanks in advance.
FWIW, my AP Econ teacher thinks UChicago’s economics program is unparalleled by any school on the planet, and it also has her candidate for “smartest economist in earth.” So I agree with you about math/Econ focus.
But for school spirit, don’t let the mediocre performances in big sports fool you. Columbia sucks in football, but they have great fencing teams (both won championships earlier this year). They also are top 30ish in tennis. Yale’s usually top of Ivy League in quite a few sports as well. I’d argue that for all of these schools you’ll find “spirit” through other avenues than just the regular big sports like football.
I suggest you visit each (even though it’s relatively late to visit 3 colleges now) and decide from your impressions of each. Personally I’d favor Columbia slightly over the others, not only because of my bias, but because of your being a John Jay Scholar. It guarantees you’d have an elevated experience at an already fantastic university that you might not have at the other two universities. Good luck with the tough choice
Thank you for your detailed response! I’ll be visiting each through their overnight admitted students program, and will probably make my decision based largely upon that.
There definitely is not a “sports school” type vibe on campus. Pretty much everybody makes fun of the football team. We have good teams but I wouldn’t say that most students really care about it.
I totally get what you’re saying about sports, but the draw of NYC kinda balances that out in my opinion. Do any of you have insight into the math program at Columbia? The math at UChicago sounds pretty amazing.
Of course - I have lived in NYC my whole life, and I think it is an absolutely amazing place to live out your college years. I can’t say I know a ton about it. I’m a physics major and my experience with the math dept has been mostly positive. UChicago’s may be better, I certainly wouldn’t be surprised to hear somebody say it is.