Columbia vs. JHU

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

I want to do something with a Biology and CS related career. This is my academic profile. I really love research and I’ve worked in dry and wet labs. I plan on interning at either Rockefeller or another intuition during the year.

ACT: 34
SAT II: Biology [800], Math 2 [800], USH [800]
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0 [94.8]
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Upper 25% (school doesn’t rank lml)
AP (place score in parenthesis): European History (5), Computer Science (5), United States History (5), Spanish (4)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Biology, AP Calculus BC, AP Government, AP Statistics
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): USABO Semifinalist 2x

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):

American Red Cross (President & Chair of local youth council): Part of club since freshman year / 1000+ hours of service

NYU Langone (Researcher): During sophomore year for around 4 months / Didn’t culminate in a research project

Weill Cornell Researcher (Researcher): During junior year for around 6 months / Culminated in research presentation with undergrads

iGem Community Lab (Team Member): During summer between sophomore and junior year but totaling 5 months / Culminated in gold medal winning project
iGem H.S. (President & Founder): Secured around $5K in funding, but due to restrictions unable to use until senior year / lectures to underclassmen about synthetic biology

Rockefeller SSRP (Summer Student): Currently working in biostat lab with lots of classes and lectures and lots of work

Philosophy Club (President & Founder): I was a debater in my underclassmen days and fell in love with the topic
Research Club (Member)
Writer for Biomedical Magazine (At High School and Rockefeller Outreach)
Writer for School Newspaper (Opinions & Humor)
Science Bowl (Member / Lecturer on Team B)
Honor Society Member (Events Committee)
West Indian Club (Member)

Job/Work Experience: None, I just do lab stuff for free lmao
Volunteer/Community service: Mostly from ARC
Summer Activities: A lot of MOOC courses ranging for MIT’s OCW to edX on topics like Statistics, Computer Science, and Biology

Teacher Recommendation: From my USH and CS teachers, who both love me.

State (if domestic applicant): NY
School Type: Large Public
Ethnicity: Caribbean ( 75% Indian / 12.5% Portuguese / 12.5% African)
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: Less than $65K
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First generation college

Do you all think that Columbia or JHU would be a better fit for me? If Columbia, engineering or just the liberal arts colleges? I want to have a good STEM base, but at the same time I do enjoy the liberal arts and philosophy. I want to be in a suburban or city environment that isn’t too isolated because I want to do stuff besides stay on campus. My career goal is to get an MD/PhD.

I like meeting different people and not just hanging out with the same crew, so on that note I would like diversity and international students.

In terms of academics, if it has a good computational biology or bioinformatics track that is beautiful. Aside from like academics, social activism is nice. I need clubs and a focus on service. I don’t really care if there is weak greek system, would be interesting. If you have any other suggestion besides Columbia or JHU that would be really helpful also!

2

i think jhu’s program would be better for you. columbia’s engineering program especially premed/bio i haven’t heard as many good things as jhu’s, and if you do columbia college then you’re gonna be doing mostly liberal arts classes to fit the core curriculum which you probably don’t want to do.

From attending Columbia, and visiting my friend at JHU, I feel that most in columbia seas don’t double major since it’s a lot harder, but jhu my friend did bioe and cs and did fine?

3

I disagree with #1. I’m a Columbia student in the college aiming for an MD/PhD and I happen to think that Columbia, with the core, gives substantial liberal arts exposure, to both literature and philosophy, if that’s what you’re looking for. We have tonnes of international students (I’m one of them), and obviously its incredibly easy to go anywhere in the city from Columbia. There is also an incredible amount of activism on campus - I’m personally involved in one group, and there are protests/events probably weekly. It’s a very socially aware and diverse student body.

I would personally suggest the college for you. I’m currently probably doing biochemistry as a major, but even with the core, I would’ve been able to double major in Bio and Applied Math, had I planned early enough. I’m pretty sure you would be able to double major in CS and Bio if you want in the college. CS requirements (you can obviously take more) come out to 21-24 points, i.e. 7-8 classes. Bio, since 80% of the requirements are premed, is also a fairly decent major to take on and double major with. I have a friend who double majored in Biochem and Physics and is now doing his MD/PhD at Duke. The advising is also pretty solid.

I actually work in a BME lab at Columbia at the moment. BME is intense at Columbia, but I personally admire how many skills they come out of the program with. You definitely can’t double major in SEAS, and it’s not really worth it, IMO - you have plenty of work/stuff to learn. Funnily enough, a number of people in the lab did either BME undergrad at JHU or a masters degree. They described it as a very stressful, less than ideal environment, but are also great at their research, so…

Columbia has a Computational Biology centre: https://systemsbiology.columbia.edu/center-for-computational-biology-and-bioinformatics-c2b2. DE Shaw, the guy who invented automated trading and made 3.4 billion, was a former computational bio professor at Columbia who returned to research after his finance adventure and still collaborates at times w/ Columbia on CB. There are internships accessible in the DE Shaw Research group for computational biochem, as well. There are lots of opportunities in NY, as I’m sure you know.

I can’t speak to JHU, but I think Columbia should be a viable contender on your list.

4

Your profile makes it such that either school is a very realistic option for you in terms of admission (although you know it’s a crapshoot so there is NEVER a guarantee, but I’d say JHU is a pretty good chance, and Columbia you’re a candidate). In your position, I would also consider the following schools, both based on your academic aspirations and your profile as a candidate for admission. All of these are reaches/high targets for any applicant, but you’ve got a great profile so I thought I’d at least point you in this direction (in no particular order):

  • Northwestern University
  • MIT (if you like Boston and think you could fit in having visited)
  • Duke University
  • Vanderbilt University (perhaps not the strongest CS, but double majoring is possible and the biology is phenomenal along with the research opportunities)
  • Stanford: I hesitate to list this because it is so impossible to get in, but I think you’d be an actual candidate at Stanford if you were interested. If you DO decide to apply, submit and forget. Students who make the mistake of dwelling on Stanford invariably fill their college process with unnecessary heartache. Go for it if you want but know, just like the other 40,000 rejected applicants, you probably won’t get in simply due to the competitive nature of the pool.

Also, you might want to look into small, elite liberal arts colleges that offer ease of double majoring along with extraordinary undergraduate attention and mentored research opportunities - schools like Williams, Amherst, Pomona, Harvey Mudd, and even Hamilton which I believe has a rather good CS program.

Good luck!

5

Thank you all so much for this insight! Especially #2 for their experience at Columbia and #3 for the other colleges. I think that I am going to apply Early Decision for SEAS in BME with a minor in Philosophy. I understand that #2 said that BME is rather difficult, but the course load is just so fascinating [ie; Introduction to Genomic Information Science and Technology] compared to the AP Biology looking course load of just the Biology department. This does make me wonder if I should just go for JHU’s BME program since it is so good. I will have to think about this more, but nonetheless thanks.