<p>I was accepted offer of admissions to the MS programs in Mechanical Engineering at Columbia University and at University of Pennsylvania. I'm good at Solid Mechanics.</p>
<p>Getting high income and high salary job in industry or in finance and consulting is my goal. My plan is that some years down the road I will go for MBA in Harvard Business School.</p>
<p>Which one should I choose?</p>
<p>UPenn
Pros:
1.For career: "One university" policy allows me to take courses in Wharton!
2.Ranking: little Higher than that of Columbia
UPenn : No.7 for colleges ; No.29 for Mechanical Engineering
Columbia: No.8 for colleges; No.32 for Mechanical Engineering(according to "US News & World Report")
3.Ivy League</p>
<p>Cons:
1.Reputation: Not as famous as Columbia around the World!!!
2.For career: not strong in engineering, its school of engineering has only a short history
3.City: a Boring city ! Expecially when comparing to New York!
4.Accepatance rate is too high!!! About 16.9%!!! while in Columbia is only about 10%</p>
<p>Columbia
Pros:
1.For career: the university helps every Master student in Mecanical Engineering to get an internship and maybe a job...
2.Oppotunities: there are much more interviews in New York
3.Ivy Leagure;Small Program where student-faculty ratio is about 7 to 1, therefore professors have more time to "deal with me"
4.Faculty members in the department have received outstanding Teaching Awards. </p>
<p>Cons:
1.Not strong in engineering either
2.New York is wonderful but it is also dangerous and so wonderful that can easily distract people from their study.</p>
<p>When choosing graduate schools, you shouldn’t look at the undergraduate reputation of the school. The fact that UPenn accepts more undergraduates should have absolutely nothing to do with you as a graduate student. You aren’t an undergraduate after all. Employers know the undergraduate divisions of both schools are more selective anyways. Additionally, employers will not decide to hire you with a graduate degree based on a school’s undergraduate admissions. Given that, you should visit the schools. Finding the right advisor and determining whether or not you will enjoy Philly or NYC is more important. Also realize that going to either will not do much to help you get into Harvard Business School down the line. Work experience is more important.</p>
<p>I would not consider NYC dangerous at all, particularly the upper west side of Manhattan, where Columbia is located. My daughter is finishing up her four years of undergrad on that campus…no problems!</p>
<p>Thx a lot Blah2009! It seems that you used to get involved in the similar situation for Ivy and JHU. So I will take your advice as the most important reference of my selection of schools.</p>
<p>I’m also waiting for Stanford, if accepted, I will definitely go to Stanford, and I hope we can become good friends </p>
<p>I didn’t apply for Harvard and although there are a lot of reasons for that, yet it is one of my stupidest mistakes I have ever made.
…</p>
<p>But, I’ve been to UPenn in Philly as well as Columbia in NY… and Paris,Tokyo, Milan, Zurich,Beijing, L.A… and I like NY most andthere are much more interviews.</p>
<p>On the other hand, imo, the overall reputation is very important for everybody, maybe that is why you are not condiering Berkely, UIUC,UT-Austin, which are also among top5 in Civil Engineering. But they are not among “HYPS”.</p>
<p>However, the most important thing I care about, as you metioned, is who can help me to gain eough working experience that will do much help me get into HBS… </p>
<p>The one university thing you mentioned- I noticed that a lot of universities have reciprocal courses where for instance you can take courses at both UNC and Duke if you are a student at either. If you dig deeper, you may find that Columbia has this too.</p>
<p>columbia students in the arts and sciences faculty can take courses at NYU, princeton, rutgers, CUNYs, SUNYs, and possibly yale and cornell as well. the commute would be rough, but lots of students take advantage of the new york consortium of schools (i think that’s what it’s called).</p>
<p>If you want a better job in the mechanical engineering industry, you would be foolish to choose Harvard over Berkeley, UT-Austin, Carnegie Mellon, and other great engineering schools that are not as prestigious as Harvard “overall”. You don’t know which schools I considered. I chose Stanford because I knew who I wanted to work for and because I received the best fellowship offer out of all my schools from them. I had narrowed down my choices to Berkeley, Stanford, and Cornell among others. I could have chosen to go to Princeton or MIT, arguably more prestigious schools, but that, in my opinion, would have been foolish.</p>
<p>Beyond that, Columbia has a wonderful business school too, and you should be able to take courses at Columbia business if you like.</p>
<p>At this point, you will be shelling out a substantial amount of money for this degree. You should go where the school has an excellent placement record for getting students into the kinds of jobs you want to do; where the school’s graduates make salaries in the range that you want to make; where the graduates work in the general area that you would like to work; and to the school who’s reputation will enhance your record for years to come.</p>
<p>I’d like to say that the school’s undergraduate selectiveness and overall reputation should matter less than the department’s ranking, but let’s face it…if you ever decide to switch careers or work for people who are unfamiliar with graduate school rankings, the name of Columbia (or Penn, really) will do a lot for you. I’m earning a Ph.D at Columbia in a highly ranked field, so if I stay in-field, I’m gold. But say I decide I want to be a management consultant for McKinsey or something…they’re not going to care about the rankings in my field. They care about the name Columbia because it impresses people. It gives you some versatility outside of your field.</p>
<p>from nyu’s history department site, where i initially found the information:</p>
<p>Outside of NYU, students after their first year can take courses in the Consortium of New York Area Graduate Schools, which includes Columbia, the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, the New School, Rutgers University, and Princeton University.</p>
<p>That list doesn’t seem to be quite complete/up-to-date.</p>
<p>Columbia University, GSAS
CUNY Graduate Center
Fordham University, GSAS
Graduate Faculty, New School University
New York University, GSAS, Steinhardt
Princeton University - The Graduate School
Rutgers University, New Brunswick
Stony Brook University - The Graduate School
Teachers College, Columbia University</p>
<p>In this case, y1justin is overvaluing the prestige factor to the point where it is affecting his ability to look at things objectively, which is what StrangeLight probably means.</p>
<p>there is a difference between being smart and being good at school. many people are smart without being good at school, and many people are good at school, great even, without being smart.</p>
<p>anyone who can’t think of a meaningful reason someone would take a class at CUNY if they were going to columbia falls into the latter category.</p>
</p>