<p>Im trying to decide between these two schools. I am planning on major in economics or international affairs. Can you guys just give me your opinions on the two schools and tell me which one you would choose and why? Is one better than the other when it comes to economics/international affairs? Which one has the best business opportunities? Which one do do you think there would be more fun at?</p>
<p>stw, Wow, could you have tried to find two schools that are more different? In order to answer your question I’d have to ask first why these two? One is urban, one is rural. One is big, one is small. One is very leftwing and activist, one is middle road, less involved. One is apathetic toward sports, one has an atheletic outdoorsy culture. </p>
<p>No question that you’d get an excellent education at either one, but you really have to ask yourself where you want to be, how you’d fit in the culture.</p>
<p>Specifically on Williams: Economics and political science are very good at Williams, especially development economics. Students go on to excellent graduate and professional programs. Williams is also well known and respected by MBA programs, Wall Street and Fortune 500 companies. </p>
<p>Williams has an excellent alumni/ae network and opportunities abound for internships and job connections; however, outside of the United States (and even outside of the Eastcoast) name recognition is low. </p>
<p>Fun is subjective. Williams kids definitely have fun in their insular mountain village, but it’s a different kind of fun than Columbia students have in New York City.</p>
<p>Haha to be honest, apply to both because they’re both reaches and there’s no need to pick between them now. If you get in both, come back and start this discussion. Anyways most of the info you want if you’re really interested can be found using the searc@h</p>
<p>More realistically, apply to both, then decide when they both say “no.” ;)</p>
<p>What are you looking for in a college?</p>
<p>They’re both really really different, but I’d pick Williams in a heartbeat. Maybe it’s because I go to NYC a lot, but I just don’t like the area where Columbia is, and when I visited Williams I felt like it was more fun, more relaxed, and overall a much tighter-knit campus and student body. I’m biased, but I also felt like the campus was about a million times more attractive. It really depends on the atmosphere you’re going for, since academically both are fantastic.</p>
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<p>I think there are a few misconceptions here:</p>
<p>1) Columbia is a large university but the undergrad part is not huge like NYU or a state school. class sizes are among the smallest of anywhere (both liberal arts and national univs), the freshman class is ~1400 kids. and the dorms are all very clustered. </p>
<p>2) Columbia has more activists on one end of the spectrum but a greater proportion of Williams kids are generally liberal (I have a few close friends who go/went there). The college republicans at Columbia has a decent presence on campus and there are actually many conservatives/moderates/libertarians on campus. Columbia is probably like 55% liberal, 15% moderate, 10-15% conservative, 10% libertarian, 5-10% other. Williams is more like 65-70% liberal, but fewer crazy liberal people. </p>
<p>3) Columbia is definitely not indifferent to sports there are people that paint their faces and support our mediocre teams, our basketball home games were well attended and at capacity a couple of times this year. But yes Williams definitely has more of an athletic culture. </p>
<p>Williams and Columbia both have great offerings in finance and with jobs in general. But they are very different schools with very different feels. I would worry about choosing if you actually get into one or the other.</p>