Columbia vs MIT vs BRDD

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
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Hello! I’ve posted this elsewhere but I wanted to get some feedback from the Columbia forum specifically. I’ve visited all three choices and honestly am still stuck. I would appreciate it if you guys could give me some personal insight or correct/add to my initial impressions. I’m kind of all over the board regarding my interests which include design, life sciences, public policy, & econ currently.

For Columbia, I love its location in NYC and easy access to internships throughout the school year. In addition, there’s the added benefit of their Arts Initiative and their lovely dorms. In general, the environment felt so much more worldly and refined. The students there seemed very independent, but the Core seemed like a great unifying factor. I sensed more smaller communities and less of an overarching university wide community. I did not find as much entrepreneurial support/spirit as MIT there.

For MIT, it was amazing how passionate and active the student body was in undertaking projects. I liked the breadth of resources the administration seemed to provide to them. The abundance of research opportunities is reassuring, and I like their authority defying culture. The other universities in the area are also a major plus because I can cross register there if MIT does not have a course I want. However, I honestly felt a little alienated during CPW and student culture seemed cliquey initially. I’m unsure about how I would fit in socially here and engineering/tech seems to permeate everything even design courses here.

For Brown RISD Dual Degree, when I met the students in the program they seemed like a family. The students at Brown were so friendly and many people went out of the way to help me around campus (which didn’t happen at either of the other two). I’m worried about the relative isolation of Providence as well as the restrictive schedule of the Dual Degree Program. I don’t want to be unable to explore major options because I’m busy trying to finish up requirements for the combination of majors I think I want. The current students also seem to spent a lot of time at RISD and go into majority art careers which is something I am not quite set on. I do love the major options available at RISD though (ex. glass, textiles) that I feel like I won’t be able to explore anywhere else (but I’m pretty sure I will not major in).

Sorry for all that text haha. I’ve been thinking over this a lot.

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@OhPearl I think MIT is the best deal out of the three. Better for your areas of interest and also more prestigious and renowned than the other two. MIT just has that super wow factor that the others don’t to the same extent. Specifically for your interests, MIT has the edge for Econ and life sciences.I am not familiar with design programs but I bet MIT has some great offering given its strength in technical fields. For public policy MIT is quite strong, similar to Columbia, but at MIT you can always also cross-register for classes at Harvard, which is the best in this field. I say if you liked the environment and can see yourself as an MIT student, go to MIT. In terms of internships, Boston has a lot of offerings throughout the year and you will have no trouble getting a summer job in New York as an MIT student. In my opinion New York is kind of too overwhelming for undergrad and kind of compromises a cohesive university wide community at Columbia (and all the other schools in New York).

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@Penn95 Thank you! Now I think I can be satisfied academically at MIT, but am unsure of my fit with the student body. I feel like Columbia students are more open to expanding their social circles.

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@OhPearl that is surprising because I have heard that MIT students are very nice, non-cliquey and collaborative. On the other hand I have heard that Columbia’s social scene is kind of fractured and cliquey, full of sub-communities out of necessity because New York is so overwhelming that you need to go out of our way to find a close-knit community on campus. Then again these perceptions could be wrong.

At the end of the day MIT might have the edge in terms of prestige, brand,academics but it is not worth going there if you think you won’t be happy there. Especially since Columbia is also an amazing school with great offerings in your areas of interest.

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@Penn95 I decided to go to MIT this morning! I spoke with some friends and they reassured me. Thanks for your help!

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@OhPearl Congrats on your decision. Best of luck!