I was recently accepted into both of these schools, and am hoping to major in engineering, but am undecided as to which field. Also, I come from a fairly small school and am worried Caltech might be too rigorous for me. I was also nominated as a CP Davis scholar at Columbia Engineering, and am wondering what exactly that entails. Both schools are appeal to different aspects of me – i know at caltech i’ll be a kick-butt engineer but may struggle through the courses but at columbia i’ll be more well-rounded which is what I’ve done throughout high school, and I’m not completely sure I want to go into engineering when I grow up. Any assistance will be helpful!
Both schools are extremely rigorous for engineering curriculums. Columbia Core, in arts and sciences is heavy in philosophy reading, literature and history, but it is is not required in the engineering college, look over the Columbia engineering core, which is the standard math,physics , chemistry sequences, , and looks very similar to Cal Tech’s core. You can take a larger variety of coursework at Columbia than you may be able to at Cal Tech. The locations are very different. Columbia’s environment is urban, wealthy and trendy, with subway access to all parts of manhattan. Living may be a little more expensive in NYC. I think if you are undecided on major Columbia may be better, but for sciences and engineering Cal Tech is the winner by a long shot. At Cal Tech, not only is Jet Propulsion lab close by, you will have access to more jobs and internships in the Los Angeles area, which is the largest population of science and engineering universities and companies outside the CA Bay area. NYC is a world class city, but not particularly a high tech city, although IBM and ATT and many other firms are in the surrounding New Jersey and New York State area. The two schools have vastly different student bodies, ethnically and geography. Cal Tech is more heavily Asian American and has more west coast students but also has phenomenal students from around the world. Columbia draws from around the country and world, and is more diverse racially. Columbia’s student body is more liberal and politically active. Cal Tech, while smaller, is very focused on math, science and engineering and thus has more research options to explore your career interests from the very first day. Columbia has some good research options, study the website for the Engineering colleges at both schools and see which one appeals to you. You cannot go wrong at either school, good luck.