<p>I heard that NYU has a better philosophy department than Columbia....possible?</p>
<p>Who knows and who cares, particularly if you're an undergrad. NYU has Ronald Dworkin, so they can't be all that bad.</p>
<p>NYU is ranked as the best graduate philosophy program around, and that ivenitably trickles down a bit to the undergrad level. However, Columbia College is smaller than NYU CAS and has a real campus, a core curriculum, better departments in other subjects, and a stronger alumni network. Even if the professors and TA's are a bit better at NYU, you'll likely be surrounded by more ambitious and/or smarter students at Columbia.</p>
<p>^I know nothing of NYU's philosophy dept, but columbia has a strong department, Columbia College requires its student body to take a year of contemporary civilization, where students read a major philosophical work or two every week. Plato, Aristotle, the Bible, the Qu'ran, Adam Smith, Marx, Mill, Kant to name a few. So the whole students body is educated in these works, and they come up in discussions frequently.</p>
<p>sounds good....i like that</p>
<p>Big Big Big BUMP.</p>
<p>I’m going to NYU next year but a transfer to Columbia is very possible (and I do think I’d get in) during my sophomore year. However, I will probably end up majoring in philosophy - and more the ethics side of the study. I’m thinking that if NYU has a better program in that area of study, I might not put too much effort into a transfer (and maybe not flip out about my grades this year even though I’m into college already). </p>
<p>I know most of the stuff on here will probably be about applications and admissions but for anyone who can offer any input, it would be much appreciated.</p>
<p>Don’t be so sure about the Columbia transfer…</p>
<p>I have very good recent numbers, good scores, and a pretty good connection - but anyway, anything to say about the Philosophy departments (let’s not get into my confidence about admissions, it’s not what I’m worried about at the moment)</p>
<p>both are great departments, columbia i should note doesn’t like taking a lot of their own for graduate programs, so don’t think about applying to CU just cause you want to do grad here - they’ll expect you to attach on later to another top flight grad program (like nyu’s)</p>
<p>yeah I’m not too worried about grad school yet but I could definitely see myself doing NYU grad A/S for Philosophy (what is there to do with a philosophy major really besides learn enough to teach it?.. i’m sorta kidding), but a big part of the reason I might apply to Columbia is because I am a MUCH better student now than I was a couple years ago and could conceivably get in (unlike this year with freshman and sophomore grades playing a real role)… so this is why I’m curious because I don’t want to end up transferring to an inferior (I know, not by much but still) department in a more prestigious school just so I can wear a Columbia sweatshirt and say I’m a grad. </p>
<p>Any current or past Columbia philosophy students, if you could comment on how the philosophy department is and how you view it’s stature amongst the top programs… that’d be fantastic.</p>
<p>Columbia is like a liberal arts college in the city.
Unlike NYU, it has a campus and a student body of manageable size.</p>
<p>You can more easily get individual attention, small classes at Columbia, do research with professors, all of which are very important for studying philosophy.</p>
<p>There’s likely little difference between the strengths of the departments, and it’s difficult to measure teaching quality and ability. So, what you have left to work with is the learning environment, and Columbia is the better choice in that regard.</p>
<p>NYU has a great, great department. Lot of heavy-hitters. If you’re well-read in a particular field it can be exhilarating to study with someone who wrote a personally seminal text. But if you’re just a high school kid who likes Nietzsche, then this Columbia vs. NYU philo thing isn’t that important. Grad school, that’s another matter.</p>
<p>^^I agree with this. I had a seminar with Ronald Dworkin at NYU in the late '70s as a graduate student. It was awe-inspiring, in part because he was a great teacher, largely because he was the great Ronald Dworkin. As a naive undergraduate, it would not have been the same experience.</p>
<p>With all the Philosophers written on Butler Library, I wouldn’t be surprised if their philosophy department trumps NYU’s</p>
<p>I think it could come down to whether or not I feel as if I want to continue doing philosophy in graduate school. If i decide that I do I’ll likely do what’s best for my chances of getting into a top graduate program like NYU’s… if it seems as if Columbia will give me a better shot at that then I’ll apply and go if i get in</p>
<p>The graduate school philosophy department at NYU is ranked the best in the country. But applying to NYU (undergrad) on that basis is like applying to NYU or Columbia because they have highly-ranked law or medical schools; it’s ludicrous. Sure, the college has more resources and you might get the chance to sit in on a seminar or even take a graduate-level class, but for all intents and purposes, you’re not going to be receiving the benefits of that department. When you make your choice, consider the undergraduate academics and student life, not the graduate schools.</p>
<p>Okay, that’s just simply not true.</p>
<p>If NYU has the best grad department it means I’m going to be taught by many of the same professors OR grad students from the best department in the country. And I’ve already found out that the undergrad department is considered top 1 or 2 with Princeton so that’s a moot point anyway.</p>
<p>i really think that splitting hairs about which department is the absolute best is stupid. Much more important than marginal differences (which can’t really accurately be measured anyway…) are your fellow students. And Columbia has the far superior student body for something like philosophy.</p>
<p>i understand that, but if I can go to NYU without paying tuition (probably a good thing if I’m considering graduate school and want some help paying for it) - i might have to get over the difference in student quality.</p>
<p>That being said, I’m going to NYU pretty much because I didn’t care about school early in HS and had the grades to reflect that… it would mean a lot to me to be able to get into Columbia (which has really always been a dream school of mine) as a sort of realization of the work i’ve put in since… if i were majoring in just about anything else (outside cinema studies which is also a pretty likely major) this would be a non-issue. Now I’m starting to fear that with philosophy not being a huge sell in the job market that grad school would seem the logical step for a philosophy major… we’ll see, this is nothing of imminence.</p>
<p>NYU is not a bad school by any means. You can try transferring to Columbia next year if you really want to, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Transferring into Columbia can be tough (due to Core requirements) and if you go into the year just thinking “I’m going to be out of here in a year!” you’re going to have a terrible time at NYU. If you actually try to like NYU (and you do have some amazing opportunities downtown that no one else in the country has) then you might find you love it.</p>