<p>Hey guys! I'm having a hard time picking. I know it sounds ridic, but I'm totally scared of accepting harvard and am more inclined to columbia now.</p>
<p>To Harvard people:
**
How happy are you?
How relaxed are you?
Do you have enough fun?
Is the school liberal enough?
Is there a sense of community?**</p>
<p>I want the academics and rigor of harvard, but not the cut-throat competition and no sense of community.</p>
<p>It would be great if you could answer these for me. </p>
<p>Look, I did not get accepted to Harvard. And I didn’t apply to Columbia. So I may not be the best person to answer this.</p>
<p>But I think you would be making a very big mistake to spurn Harvard for Columbia.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, they’re both fine places, but Harvard is the best school in the world, for starters, and none of your reasons for not going are unique to Harvard and not Columbia.</p>
<p>None of the people I know who went to Columbia were all that happy with it, to be honest. They really didn’t like it at all, especially in the beginning, although some have warmed up to it, I think.</p>
<p>So there’s happiness. With Columbia’s tough core, I don’t think they’re that relaxed either, and the people I talked to there didn’t seem very easygoing. Fun is what you make of it. I don’t think it’s easy to say that one is necessarily more fun the other. There will be shut-ins and party-goers at both. Both are very, very liberal. Columbia probably has the edge, but really, Harvard is in Massachusetts. It’s liberal. And I really don’t think you’re going to find a stronger sense of community whether while there or as an alumni than you will at Harvard, save for possibly Notre Dame. I mean, I know it’s a running joke, but people who go to Harvard are proud that they went to Harvard. </p>
<p>So I would definitely say pick the college in Cambridge, Massachusetts that isn’t MIT.</p>
<p>I don’t know where this cutthroat competition stuff is coming from. Having talked to a number of students including my kid, most have said its less cutthroat than their high school.</p>
<p>Ya I wouldn’t worry about competition, there really isn’t any. I couldn’t tell you any of my friend’s grades if I tried. I also think Harvard might have the better community to the two. I’ve heard Columbia kids tend to disperse all over the city to find things to do. There is a great sense of community in Cambridge. Especially in the Freshman dorms in Harvard yard. But I doubt that Columbia will be a disappointment, it’s one of the best schools in the world.</p>
<p>Two kids at Harvard - neither have experienced cut-throat competition, both have found a terrific sense of community. If there a palpable degree of competition at Harvard, it’s a friendly competition to out-do each other in extracurriculars. In short, just about all the stereotypes about Harvard that might sound scary - “snobbiness,” “inaccessibility to faculty,” “lack of undergrad focus (whatever that is?)” - turn out to be urban legend. On the other hand, my understanding of the sense of community at Columbia (from others, no personal experience) is that it’s moderated somewhat by the fact that many students are attracted more to life in the city than to campus life.</p>
<p>Yes, Columbia is prestigious. It’s a well-regarded, Ivy League institution. </p>
<p>Just to reiterate what’s been said above about Harvard though - there is virtually no cutthroat competition, and the Houses provide a sense of community. Also, there’s a definite “community” feel to be found within many areas of Harvard’s extracurricular world. </p>
<p>To answer your other questions: When I was there I was usually very happy, and times I was unhappy had nothing to do with Harvard the institution. I was relaxed, because that’s my personality. There are very relaxed people there, and then there are people who are stressed all the time, and everything in between, just like you’d find anywhere. Naturally, everyone is less relaxed around midterms and finals, but that’s just college. I had plenty of fun, and the student body and faculty are very liberal. </p>
<p>I don’t know much about the undergraduate experience at Columbia, so there’s nothing I can say about that. </p>
<p>i think these decisions are rather simple really. assuming that financial aid/better program is not an issue, all you have to ask yourself is:</p>
<p>if you go to columbia and someone asked you which school you are attending, would you say, ‘columbia,’ but then feel the urge to say that you also got into harvard? if that urge is there, then you have made the wrong choice. if it is not, then go with columbia.</p>
<p>oh by the way… columbia has NO sense of community whatsoever. i think its kind of ridiculous actually. you go to columbia for NYC, not for your college community.</p>
<p>If it’s “rigour” you’re looking for, Columbia probably wins out because of its Core Curriculum, but it’s foolish to base your decision on such broad indicators as “academics” and “rigour”. They’re not useful concepts when comparing about two universities of such high repute.</p>
<p>I myself, when faced with this decision, chose Harvard because of its Social Studies Committee and the “radical” professors who are part of it. That’s just me, though. Perhaps if you revealed your prospective fields of study you’d get better advice.</p>
<p>this is a pretty ridiculous thread to be fair. i don’t often come on the h board, and i am starting to figure out why.</p>
<p>statements such as - “harvard is the best school in the world,” it is a great school, but it is so unfounded in reality that shows how simpleminded the commenter is, or “i don’t know about columbia, but i hear it has no community” - shows to me the level of thinking on this board.</p>
<p>columbia is a top rate school with some of the world’s best professors and without question at the level of harvard. at the grad level they are probably two of the best universities in the world and highly sought after. at the ugrad level h has without question a stronger name recognition. but that is like saying Paris Hilton is a better actress than Tilda Swinton because more people know about her. on a similar analogy, just because Paris has more money, doesn’t mean she is better either. invariable though - it does mean that she will have more hits on Google and a lot of great students will chose to matriculate. </p>
<p>i was speaking with some students a few years ago that without question had a great love for columbia, but when they went home to tell their parents they were choosing columbia; well mom and dad put the veto to that. you also get a sense that they and others are not affirmatively choosing harvard so much as passively choosing - i got into h, ergo i must go. i do not think that is the majority of harvard students, but certainly more than 1. so i think when you consider the cultural and psychological phenomena it would make sense that students in large numbers may prefer a school that on the merits may not be a better ‘fit/match’ for them. which is the ultimate question. what is the best school for you. columbia is an intense, exciting and exhilarating roller coaster with probably one of the finest academic curricula out there in the country and in one of the world’s greatest cities. i think it is a very compelling academic experience. for some, not for all. </p>
<p>but please future, current or rejected harvardians, consider that yes there might be a good reason to chose Columbia over Harvard. i did, and i didn’t turn into a pumpkin.</p>
<p>they now why would more students chose h over c? well not because it is the best school in the world, but rather more questions of perception, </p>
<p>mustafah - good thought there. glad you made a choice you are happy with, wish you had gone to columbia.</p>