Columbia over Yale or Princeton. Am I mad?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi all. Due to inconceivably good luck, I was admitted to these three schools. However, while I originally assumed I'd pick Yale, I eventually reconsidered and I now believe I'll enter Columbia. When I say this, people seem to look at me as though I'm crazy. I'm posting this thread to try to get more opinions on whether or not I am, and to get any advice anyone could offer on whether or not Columbia is the right choice.</p>

<p>Here's my reasoning: At Yale or Princeton, I'd have better bragging rights, and perhaps slightly better professional school placement (I'd probably go to law school). There would also be nicer, more luxurious campuses. However, aside from this I am having difficulty finding pros for these two schools. Of the two, I preferred Yale, but it seemed sleepy (and New Haven is a mess). I don't see how I would enjoy life there.</p>

<p>However, Columbia has a larger number of perks: The first is money. I'm a professor's kid, and therefore get free tuition at Columbia (at Yale or Princeton I would only pay half tuition, but of course the difference is huge). My parents are willing to pay for me to go to college anywhere, but I know how much it would strain them. I already chose to attend an expensive NYC private school instead of a top public school. I don't want to make them pay like that again, unless I'm completely sure a massive difference in my college experience would be completely worth it. </p>

<p>The other big perks of Columbia include NYC (I've lived here my whole life, but I truly love it. I'm a true city boy), singlets available to freshman (I have horrible sleep issues bordering on insomnia; I dread the thought of a room mate), I will have many friends there, I have amazingly high paying part time teaching jobs in NYC. I believe I could get myself an education as good as any in Yale or Princeton if I put my mind to it, and I would.</p>

<p>The other thing is this: I have a suspicion I will not like college. This post would be too long if I tried to explain my reasoning completely, but basically I feel that college is "fake," in that it's not true independence and it's also aimless; the education is too broad, and would not connect to anything I'll use in life; it will be a game. I prefer the idea of a graduate school focused on what I'll do in my life. For this reason, I tend to favor Columbia, because paying more for something I would not enjoy anyway seems a waste. On the other hand, it also seems like this might make it more reasonable to go to Yale and get a more prestigious degree.</p>

<p>So yes, I'm in a position many people would kill to have/will hate me for (and which I don't entirely deserve), but I'm still not at all pleased. I realize how absurd this is. I'm very afraid that my losing my chance to go to Yale or Princeton I'm giving up an extraordinary opportunity, but I don't feel they'd be right for me.</p>

<p>Does anyone have any thoughts?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>
[QUOTE=Bigstan2000]
My parents are willing to pay for me to go to college anywhere, but I know how much it would strain them.

[/QUOTE]
</p>

<p>Kudos to you for being concerned about your parents’ finances.</p>

<p>Also, living in NYC and not currently being a student, I still meet quite a few Columbia students in the activities I pursue. They tend to get out into the city and have lives that aren’t limited to campus. They seem to have the best of both worlds - campus life and access to everything NYC has to offer.</p>

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<p>In what universe is going to Columbia “giving up extraordinary opportunities”?</p>

<p>If you seriously believe that you will feel restless in college (sounds like you have not been challenged academically enough so far-- any of these 3 college might be different, you know), then being in NYC might provide more opportunities to “connect” to things that matter to you.</p>

<p>By the way, do you think of college as a game because your parent is a professor? Makes me wonder what you heard about academia growing up.</p>

<p>If you truly feel this way, then maybe you should put your money where your mouth is and take a year off to see what “true independence” is really like. Of course, this would not mean living at home. After that experience, you might find some purpose in a college education.</p>

4

<p>I agree with the post above mine.</p>

<p>And I think you would be choosing wisely to pick Columbia over Yale and Princeton for the reasons you and others in this thread have mentioned.</p>

<p>My top three schools were Pomona, Columbia, and Harvard (waitlisted), and I applied to Yale and Princeton as well. I am attending Pomona, but it was a difficult decision for me to pick it over Columbia :slight_smile: I think it’s a great experience in one of the world’s best cities.</p>

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<p>Columbia sounds good.</p>

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<p>i would personally go to columbia over yale or princeton.</p>

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<p>God forbid anyone make the foolish decision to enroll at Oxford, Cambridge, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Amherst, or Williams. Evidently, they all pale in comparison relative to all eight Ivy League universities with regards to academic strength and institutional prestige. <em>headdesk</em></p>

<p>You’re right: if you were to attend either Yale or Princeton, you would get more “oohs and ahhs.” Princeton and Yale’s professional school representation is much, much better than that of Columbia, though. I personally like Columbia’s small, cozy campus nestled in the middle of New York City.</p>

<p>New Haven is a mess, and Princeton is a quiet, gated suburban town.</p>

<p>College is a long-term investment, and institutions like Princeton and Yale are “worth it.”</p>

<p>Columbia’s dorms are an absolute disaster relative to those of a few select other colleges, but a guaranteed single most certainly has its perks. If you have close, genuine friends in New York, that’s very, very important. I deeply miss and cherish my true friends who go to college in New York, and many times, I wish I had their company to get through the hard and boring times.</p>

<p>Your gut feeling about the college experience is absolutely right. Let’s just leave it at that.</p>

<p>I have a high school acquaintance who ultimately turned down Harvard College for Georgetown CAS. Both of his parents are alumni, and my high school has great representation at Georgetown too. His was a case of personal fit and intellectual and personal maturity.</p>

<p>You know what to expect out of college despite being only a pre-frosh, and your foresight is impressive.</p>

<p>Your decision to choose Columbia would be a wise one.</p>

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<p>You make a bunch of very good points. I suppose Columbia seems sort of less extraordinary because I’ve grown up next to it, and been fairly connected with it my whole life. That’s obviously not the best reason.</p>

<p>And I agree with you about Columbia offering the opportunity to connect with NYC; that’s a strong plus. </p>

<p>As for my comments about disliking the idea of college: my Dad does not feel college is some sort of game, and takes his teaching quite seriously. I will agree though, that my family has probably negatively influenced my feelings about college. Both of my parents had bad college experiences. My dad graduated two years early, and was hurt by quotas. My mom’s parents wouldn’t pay for her college tuition because she was a girl. They both speak far more fondly of their graduate school days. However, my feelings that college is a game stem also from a feeling of frustration that I cannot really begin the life I want, and instead must spend four years mucking about. I would agree your implication that I probably could not handle a year of “true independence.” However, I don’t feel that the time I spend in college will be the way to get me there. College feels like a strange interlude between childhood freedom and adulthood responsibility, and I’m not sure I like that idea. Of course, I won’t really know until I get there, will I?</p>

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<p>I think you should go to Columbia, ESPECIALLY with FREE TUITION. No brainer.</p>

<p>My three favorite schools are Chicago, Columbia and Stanford.</p>

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<p>Of course you’re not, you’d be crazy to pass up free tuition at Columbia. Of course you probably already know you’ll be spending your first couple of years completing the core curriculum (and you mentioned you didn’t like the idea of an overly generalized education), but if you’re OK with that, you’re going to do great. You would have to complete general ed reqs anywhere anyway. I’m a total city girl myself, born and raised in NYC also… so I totally understand not wanting to leave. And you will not have problems with grad school or job placement coming out of Columbia.</p>

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<p>yeah, what take3 said.</p>

<p>I’d also pick Columbia over those other two .</p>

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<p>I’d go with Yale or Princeton, in that order. College should broaden you; Columbia won’t, you’re a campus brat, it will be four more years of the “same old same old.” Getting through Columbia WILL be “just a game,” a fake experience, not a genuine one. You admit as much in hinting that your true energies will be devoted to non-academic pursuits in the city, not to your studies. But you know the ropes at Columbia and can skate by on connections, insider information,and native talent, doing just the bare minimum to get by until you finish and can really start to live. That’s a B.S. way to spend what could be the best and most challenging years of your life. A decision to go to Columbia is a decision to flush that opportunity down the toilet and fake your way through your college years. What a waste.</p>

<p>I think you’re scared. Scared that there are intellectual challenges out there that you’re not equipped to handle. Yale thinks you’re capable. Princeton thinks you’re capable. There are real intellectual challenges out there, huge and complicated and important puzzles to be solved, and you could be the one top solve one, perhaps several of them. It’s pretty clear to me that for you, a decision to go to Columbia is a decision not to push yourself to tackle and conquer those big intellectual challenges, but instead to dance around them and just put in your time to get the degree. Not to say one can’t take on intellectual challenges at Columbia, but that’s not how you view the opportunities Columbia presents to you. It’s just the easy way out, familiar, cheap, not too taxing so you can spend four years screwing around in the city. B.S. all the way.</p>

<p>Sure, you could probably b.s. your way through Yale or Princeton, too. But if you really want to stretch yourself, take on new and substantial intellectual challenges, you won’t settle for the familiar, the comfortable, the easy way out. These can be four great and growthful years, or four wasted years. It’s up to you.</p>

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<p>If you wanted the school with the most prestige you should be going to Harvard. In terms of opportunities, there is no difference going to any of them</p>

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<p>Free tuition makes Columbia very attractive. However, I have to say that the “I won’t like college, it’s just a game” reason will evaporate as soon as you get to any of these colleges, and shouldn’t be a factor. I think I agree with bclintonk to the extent that if money were no object, it would probably be better for you2 personal growth to go to Yale or Princeton (and both are reasonably close to The City). That free tuition, though…</p>

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<p>D2 did not do well with the “urban college experience”, found that the concrete jungle and lure of the city turned her college into virtually a commuter school with dorms, campus experience highly lacking. Based on this I would highly value an actual campus, where students actually stay on or around it much of the time, mostly in the company of their fellow students, and do not merely diffuse into NYC and downtown at the drop of a pin.</p>

<p>However, I would take the free tuition, money like that doesnt grow on trees. But it should be recognizeed that there are tradeoffs, and your college experience there may not be “normal”.</p>

<p>There’s also “The Core” to consider, you ought to have some feelings, one way or the other, about what you will actually be studying/ learning at each school.</p>

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<p>“but basically I feel that college is “fake,” in that it’s not true independence and it’s also aimless; the education is too broad, and would not connect to anything I’ll use in life; it will be a game.”</p>

<p>you sound very jaded, quite honestly college should challenge your perceptions and broaden your experiences. Your attitude makes it sound like you think you have it all figured out.</p>

<p>Columbia is an excellent school, but I think you should choice Yale or Princeton over Columbia, as it will challenge your preconceived notions. As you state you are going to grad school, which could always bring you back to you urban comfort zone.</p>

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<p>Don’t worry, Columbia is not that bad of a school.</p>

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<p>You’re not crazy at all. Go with Columbia!</p>

19

<p>Run to Columbia and save your money for grad school or a Mercedes. It’s not worth it to pay 80K to go to Yale or Princeton.</p>

20

<p>OP –</p>

<p>Columbia does have ever so slightly less prestige at the undergraduate level, but NOT at the graduate level. Taken in the aggregate, Columbia is in the top 6 or 7 universities for prestige at the graduate level, and Yale and Princeton are not. Depends on your perspective. </p>

<p>“College is a game”. While I don’t agree with your exact terminology, I think everybody reading that senses a bit of reality in that description. College really is what you make of it. It <em>can</em> be a game, or it can’t. One advantage at Columbia (I assume) is that your father’s influence can help you get connected to faculty resources more easily that you could at P or Y.</p>

<p>You did not reveal what your career or post baccalaureate interests are – but you do seem motivated and energized by the NYC environment.</p>

<p>I say Columbia is an excellent choice for you.</p>