<p>I would just like to see a general comparison.</p>
<p>Columbia is slightly more selective, much more urban, with a narrower selection of majors.</p>
<p>I don’t know how much narrower. Columbia offers plenty, just not things like “hotel management” or agricultural majors.</p>
<p>Most people wouldn’t even notice fewer majors at Columbia. Personally, I see Columbia as a significantly superior school, and most others do as well.</p>
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<p>Significantly superior in what regard? Arrogance?</p>
<p>Columbia is definitely more selective but not enough to say you will do better in life if you go to Columbia instead of Cornell.
Columbia is more urban (it’s in NYC so duh…), has a stricter core, smaller, etc…</p>
<p>Cornell has more schools/major options (although if you are considering Columbia you probably don’t care too much about most of those extras), upstate NY so it’s by all those gorges and things, larger</p>
<p>You can’t really go wrong at either school though :)</p>
<p>Cornell gets more respect for engineering. Both are tied for sciences. Columbia for everything else.</p>
<p>Cornell has seven undergraduate colleges. 2/3 of its students are not enrolled in its Arts & Sciences college. If you are actively interested in a course of studies that one of its specialty colleges provides, you will probably not find an identical program or focus at Columbia in that area. Though Columbia offers Fu for engineering. </p>
<p>Also, New York State residents get subsidized tuition,to the tune of about $10k, at the three “contract colleges” there, this evidently is an attractive feature for some whose academic interests match what is taught at these colleges.</p>
<p>Columbia has three undergraduate colleges, and cross-registration with its affiliate Barnard, but three of the four are Arts & Sciences curricula, the other being Fu.</p>
<p>Columbia has a specified Core curriculum which is a highly significant feature of one’s program of studies there. Cornell’s arts & sciences college has more typical distribution requirements. Each of its other colleges has its own requirements.</p>
<p>To state the obvious, Cornell is in a college town, Columbia is in Manhattan.</p>
<p>Columbia College has become hyper-selective in recent years, and Fu too. On the other hand SATs are not even submitted by students in its General Studies college, and GS entrance stats are excluded from the data that Columbia reports externally. Barnard stats are not reported consolidated with Columbia’s, however in the classrooms, 30% of the average Barnard student’s courses are taken at Columbia, and a similar # of courses are taken by Columbia students at Barnard, there is near-complete cross-registration between the schools. They probably share classes at least as much as students at Cornell’s various colleges do with each other, probably moreso in many cases actually.</p>