<p>I was just wondering which of the two have the best academic reputation.. I'm trying to choose between them!
thank you</p>
<p>No difference at all! Choose on what type of lifestyle you want.</p>
<p>well what sort of lifestyle defines the two different schools?</p>
<p>Columbia WINS!!!!!!! No doubt about it.</p>
<p>I don't think I have ever seen Brown ranked as a better Ivy over Columbia. It's always Columbia on top, and if you think I am just saying that search for "best Ivy" or something like that, and you will see the lists people have made ranking them. I do think that you should go where you want. The schools are very different, and you shouldn't base it on academic reputation because any Ivy school will have a great repretation.</p>
<p>NYC is a double-edged sword. You have all of these fantastic resources and interesting opportunities, and you also have very little space to spare. Columbia's campus is a testament to an ingenious economy of space. Consequently, I think it is unsurprising that Columbia is so well-known in the humanities and so ignored in the realm of the sciences. For the humanities NYC is a great lifestyle draw for famous intellectuals and a source of constant inspiration. For scientists, NYC means you're going to have a very small lab...or no lab at all.</p>
<p>Brown has lots of room. Real estate prices in Providence are quite manageable, and consequently Brown has found it relatively easy to expand its campus in the last 8 years (including several new buildings dedicated entirely to the sciences). Providence, however, is no NYC - and so the draw for big names in the humanities is not as strong. Brown's strengths lie mainly in the applied sciences and in various interdisciplinary programs that the university has created over the last 15 years: Modern Culture and Media, International Relations, Brain Science and Cognitive/Linguistic Science.</p>
<p>There's my $.02.</p>
<p>Whole range of "x is better in this subject and sucks in that subject while y is the other way" going around these days. Somehow they've been contradicting themselves, too. What a mess. She asked about lifestyle anyway.</p>
<p>I personally think Columbia has a fancier name. But I still think that doesn't matter, because that's kind of unrelated to academics. Go to the place you like better, if you've been so blessed as to have a preference. They're excellent academically. NYC is an awesome place to be in, with lots of culture to absorb while you're in college. The Columbia campus is inspiring. Also remember that Columbia has a core curriculum and Brown doesn't.</p>
<p>Academic reputation of the two colleges will vary depending on where you are. Undoubtedly, Columbia is more esteemed here in the tri-state area, but I'm sure that in Rhode Island Brown enjoys a better name.</p>
<p>yeah thats true, ppl dig Brown here in RI. But I think overall Columbia has the bigger name, most likely due to its big name in graduate schools. My dad was like asking his friends in academia what they thought of the two schools, and he said that it seemed that (internationally) more ppl were familiar with the name of columbia and were more aware of its strengths than Brown. That's just hearsay of people's opinions, however.</p>
<p>For overall prestige nationally and internationally, it's Columbia.</p>
<p>As a semi-disinterested chap (in that I go to another ivy), I'd say the Columbia name impresses me more than Brown.</p>
<p>The truth is for 99% of the world they are about the same. I know a TON of students from both at the top grad schools, it wont make a difference at all.</p>
<p>am thinking about brown at the mo because of the core curriculum at columbia looks horrible.. it's all a bit tricky. thanks for helping you guys!</p>
<p>why is columbia ranked #9 by USNews? Is this a fair ranking? I would think it would be higher than Duke and Penn?</p>
<p>Nothings fair if you disagree with it lol</p>
<p>haha I agree</p>
<p>Presidents of these schools rank their rival schools in categories. I wonder how the ivies handle that. . . . I wonder if they make a pact or something, like "give all the ivies 5s in everything or it's war"</p>
<p>Even faculty salary is factored in, and so is alumni giving, and SAT test scores (whopping 50% of the selectivity category (you're welcome, MIT and Caltech)), and student-teacher ratio (Columbia's is good here, though Princeton's is just a bit lower), ratio of full-time faculty, and lots of other things. The graduate school rankings put UC Berkeley way up there in absolutely everything, but for some reason the undergrad is lower. Maybe this is because of stupid things like SAT scores, acceptance rate, and other things that don't get factored in for grad school. There are many reasons US News is pretty stupid. Which is why I always try to tell people to go to the school they want to go to at heart, for more important reasons than rankings. I don't think they listen to me, though.</p>
<p>i dunno if this is what you were referring to jono, but i think a fair gauge for reputation is the US news ranking of the "peer assessment" rating. I think it's supposed to be the opinions of various people who are somewhat experts in academia. </p>
<p>If you look at that, UC Berkely goes way up, it would be 5th or 6th or somethin, Duke/Penn go a little down, Columbia moves one or two spots up, and i think Brown remains relatively similar.</p>
<p>That is what I was trying to stress. Like, a lot of ppl think that Duke and UPenn are on par with MIT and Stanford, when simply that is not the case. They are all great. The peer assessment score is a more valid indicator of the academics. As you can see, Penn, Cornell, Brown, Duke, Hopkins, U of Chicago, Northwestern, Dartmouth, and Michigan have similar peer assessment scores.</p>
<p>What are the peer assesment ratings?</p>
<p>It's when US News calls up admissions people from other schools and asks them what they think of XXXXX University.</p>