I just finished reading an older post on the topic from 6 years ago, as well as several “why Columbia” and “why Yale”, and I thought it was time for another discussion of this type.
I’m currently a senior that’s struggling with the decision of applying to Columbia ED or Yale REA after having visited both campuses. I prefer Columbia’s core curriculum/location a lot more than Yale’s counterparts, but everything else from student life, to campus/student body size, to overall atmosphere seems to be a lot nicer at Yale.
Columbia’s style of living intimidates me - the lines of singles down a long hallway are a long shot from the suite style , residential houses of Yale. My question is, do Columbia students ever feel isolated/lost in the student body, or locked into the closed campus style that Columbia has? Additionally, how is the stress load? After reading a lot of other posts, it seems Yale is much more laid back and less competitive; could anyone speak to this?
Any additional comments on Columbia atmosphere, or additional views from students that had to decide between Columbia and Yale would be greatly appreciated - Thank you so much for your time.
Since Yale allows you to craft your curriculum, why not see what mimic’s CU’s core in Yale’s course catalog and adopt that, if accepted? The only difference will be that not everyone around you is in the same path. One item about Yale is that its campus cohesiveness seems to me (my opinion only) higher than CU were students can easily leave out to the city’s distractions.
While @T26E4 makes a good point about the distractions of the City for Columbia and researching the Yale catalog, CU does have a central campus, activities to create cohesiveness, and the neighborhood that’s set off from many of the distractions. The neighborhood is very neighborhoody. I think that it’s possible to focus at CU as much or as little as you like, while having easy access to NYC. CU looks like it’s completely closed, but it’s not. CU is one of the largest land owners in NYC, like I think second or third largest. There’s that central campus that most people see, but virtually all of the buildings surrounding that campus are associated with CU too. Plus there’s the new campus CU is building at around 125-132 street. There’s the med school at around 168 street. And on the northern end of Manhattan there’s a gorgeous athletic facility. Buses can take you around. Lamont Dougherty is even further north and focuses on earth sciences, and there’s a dedicated bus for that area. The distraction issue I think is much stronger at NYU which doesn’t have a central campus and it’s pretty hard to tell that you’re even on a campus when down there. I’ve felt more cohesion at massive campuses like UWMadison than at NYU. CU is nothing like that. It’s generally delineated between two parks area and the area is really pleasant, especially because of green space and fairly easy access to the Hudson River.
New Haven is on the end of the commuter line into the City and you can make it into NYC for a day trip, if you like. You won’t completely miss out. The college system at Yale is nice, IMO. New Haven itself has pleasant things to offer, like theater that gets developed there, the many museums, the Italian pizza (Sally’s and Pepe’s) and the bakeries, Louie’s lunch, etc. But most things seem to be focused primarily on Yale at its center. Much of the City of New Haven feels like the Mornignside Heights area around Columbia. They’re similar in many ways. But Yale is of course further from the Met Museum, Broadway, Wall Street, the UN or whatever might attract you to NYC. You can still access these things, but there’s a little more effort involved.