Columbia University vs. University of Michigan

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I'm a New Yorker but a Michigan resident. I've been accepted to both University of Michigan and Columbia University. I'm thinking of majoring in Human Rights and am much more intrigued with the program at Columbia, but due to my in-state status Univ. of Michigan would be drastically cheaper. I know UofM has a good reputation, but is it worth re-locating and giving up my option in the Ivies? Or, is Columbia going to be worth taking the financial risk considering UofM is a highly regarded state school? HELP! ; )</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>whats the price difference?</p>

3

<p>Well, instate tuition at UofM is $8,000 a semester compared to something more like $22,000 at Columbia. Both schools have offered me scholarship which means I could walk away from UofM with no debt, but I would have some debt as long as a little help from my family if I choose Columbia.</p>

<p>It would be a dream come true to go to Columbia, but at the same time UofM is a good school and finances don’t really have to be taken in to consideration if I go there. I’m having a terrible time deciding, my heart and my head are on two opposite ends!</p>

4

<p>What does your family want you to do? Are they willing and able to afford the difference? Are you also willing and able to get a job on-campus, if necessary, to help out? If the answer to both these is “yes”, I say expand your horizons. That’s a nice dilemma to have!</p>

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<p>Thanks for the reminder ; ) My family is willing to pay for half of Columbia, they want me to be happy but I think are definitely urging me to choose UofM. However, I seem to be urging myself the other direction, but I don’t want to regret it down the road when I’m swimming in debt. My family seems to think that both schools have equal status on paper, so in their minds it’s best to go for the cheaper option. What do you all think? Are there any Columbia grads on here that can add anything? Thanks so very much.</p>

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<p>How are you deciding now? Is it GS or CC?</p>

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<p>It is for the GS program.</p>

8

<p>U of M! U of M!</p>

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<p>Columbia definitely has higher status, especially if you’ll be living in New York after you graduate. That said, GS is quite expensive. What do you want to do as a career once you graduate? If you want to want to work for an NGO/human rights org, definitely choose Columbia for the connections you’ll get in the city. Otherwise, you may want to consider Michigan because it’s so cheap.</p>

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<p>Columbia is higher status, more fun, and to me, it seems like you’d be happier there. Go for it, just make sure your major is one where you can get a good job after so you can pay off your debt fast!</p>

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<p>Comes down to economics for me. At least, that’s the practical advice. Certainly if the debt load for CU is looking to climb into the 100K range, I’d avoid it. But there’s something about going to your dream school, or one of your dream schools. So do the numbers. Look at the career you’re interested in, and the starting salary. If CU is 22K a year, your parents pay half, you’re able to get low-cost loans for the rest, that leaves you at almost 50K in debt, less if you make some money each year, maybe down to 30K. If you can get it down to 30K total, I think that makes it doable. The student loan payments will hurt, but they won’t bankrupt you.</p>

<p>On the other hand, if you’re looking to go into a career with very low job security (performing, entrepreneurship), I’d say Michigan because of the huge loss in freedom—you don’t have as much room to maneuver (change cities, do a project that pays a little now but that has huge growth potential) if you’re constantly worrying about debt payments.</p>

<p>Ultimately, with ~45K being the most you’re looking at, I would say Columbia is a viable option—so long as you have a fairly clear career path/support from your parents (i.e., the option to move back before you find said career). If you really love it, and you use the opportunities you have in the city to leverage you towards a relatively high-paying position… I’d say go for it. People already pay an absurd premium to live in NYC, why not college students too?</p>

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<p>^agree with that, if you want to be a human rights activist or work for an NGO or low paying company then go with mich, because the Columbia debt will seriously burden you and might force you to take a different career path, leaving you bitter at Columbia. if you want to do law, finance, consulting, or something as lucrative, 50k is a small amount indeed. one of my investment banker friends paid off 50 k in his year with signing and end of year bonus. Columbia education is amazing, I am a big advocate for it, but don’t underestimate the burden of debt.</p>

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<p>^ I’d disagree if the OP is thinking of going into law…just because 50k of undergrad debt + the 100+k that would be needed for law school is just too much. Especially considering interest and recent events.</p>

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<p>i think to sort of add onto here - </p>

<p>it is a question of a series of opportunity costs, which ultimately make the decision blurry and less clear. i think that you wont find a perfect answer, so looking for one wont be satisfying in the end you will have to decide between apples and oranges.</p>

<p>also i don’t like it when folks plan too far ahead. you have no idea what the future holds, if law school really is in your future, etc. so whereas you should be aware of future costs, they are potential costs and not actual ones.</p>

<p>so i will appeal to something else to hopefully add a new layer to the conversation. don’t go to columbia because you think it is cool that there is a school in new york city, don’t go because it is an ivy league school or prestigious or has more status, don’t go because you want to be X when you graduate. go because you want to think really hard, you want to (or already do) ask questions that flummox most of your family, because you are excited by intricacies and globality. in a sense, go because you look at the world differently than 99% of the world that for the most part are incredibly pragmatic and programmatic about their lives. like my parents do not understand why i don’t have a career, but instead of being a vagabond, i tell them it is because the career path i am choosing doesn’t have a major, and certainly no professional school. the answer is unsatisfying, and i realize because they can’t fathom the way i see the world and why i feel so certain that i’ll be fine. i respect them and how they have gone about things, but i know that my trajectory will probably not go as theirs has, and even if i go to professional school, it is to develop a skill set and not for some societal rite of passage.</p>

<p>indeed i think this is true not just of columbia, but for a lot of top schools (ives and others). those schools prepare you for a vastly different trajectory than most schools. it is something i’ve said on here before and it is why i like columbia a lot, but also why it is not meant for everyone. if you want to be a pediatrician in your hometown, you don’t need columbia (though i’d say the rigor of the core and the attention to interconnections would make you a better pediatrician). if you want to think, work and live on a global playing field, on a rapidly changing landscape, columbia could be for you, and so long as you keep up with that love of learning, networking, moving, hopefully you wont ever have to fear the debt problem.</p>

<p>in fact i guess one of the things i know for certain is that i could be fired from a job tomorrow, can call up some folks and could if i wanted find something to get me back on my feet quickly. and that is an assurance i think that comes in part from having attended a school like columbia (the network), but also from the frame of thinking of the world that you gain by (or have enhanced by) going to columbia. it is a radically different POV.</p>