I’ve been admitted to all three schools. I plan to major in economics or physics, haven’t decided yet. I have pros and cons for each school so I can’t decide!
Cornell: I think Cornell has the strongest science. I visited and love Ithaca but grade inflation and reputation of “easiest ivy”?
Columbia: Most prestigious of all three? New York City will give me the most internship and job opportunities. But I don’t like humanities? Will the core be a problem for me?
Penn: I think the presence of Wharton will help me find internships even though I’m in CAS. Strongest economics department of all three I think but weakest in physics. Also, I think it has grade deflation from what I’ve heard(more than Columbia).
ATM I’m leaning towards Columbia for the name. But I feel like that is a bad reason to choose it =/. What are your thoughts?
Thanks!
I personally thought Penn was more prestigious which leads me to my next point. Prestige is a subjective son of a gun. It literally means nothing because it’s different in every person’s mind. Your idea that Columbia is the most prestigious may be counteracted by someone else who doesn’t believe Columbia is that hot. Go for the one you love and the one that is most affordable. You say you love Ithaca; you don’t like humanities.
Well, Columbia makes sure you get a core education. You may have to read the Odyssey and study other humanities-related subjects. That’s not bad but if you don’t want to focus on that so much, Columbia may not be the place for you. The presence of Wharton WILL not help you unless you’re actually in Wharton, so your point there is null.
Actually, the presence of Wharton will help you. First, under the “One University” model, you are free to take Wharton classes regardless of which undergraduate school you’re in (so you can supplement a liberal arts degree with business classes if you wish). Second, the same employers who interview Wharton students interview arts and sciences students and undergraduates with degrees in some obscure arts and sciences majors get hired in consulting and finance positions.
Penn publishes very detailed placement information. Here’s a link to the Class of 2014 placement survey for CAS at Penn: http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/files/CASFinalReport14.pdf
Here’s a link to the 2014 internship survey:
http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/files/CAS_SummerSurveyReport2014.pdf
I wanted to commend the OP on an excellent piece of satire highlighting the absurdity of nitpicking nanoscopic differences in “prestige” and the farcical stereotypes of complex institutions (e.g. Cornell is the “easiest” Ivy). Oh wait… this was satire, right?
Yeah, I think comparing prestige among Cornell, Columbia and Penn is splitting hairs here, so it really should depend on what you like and your fit. They’re very different - Ithaca is a college town in a rural area, New York and Philadelphia are both very large cities and of course there are differences there, too. Size is also a factor - Columbia has a small to medium undergrad population; Penn’s is medium and Cornell’s is quite large. There are other different things, too.
So don’t worry about the prestige - all three of these universities attract the best recruiters/employers and have high levels of academic rigor and prestige.
As for the Core at Columbia - the Core is a broad study that requires classes not just in the humanities but also the social sciences, natural and physical sciences, and fine arts. Literature Humanities is the humanities course, obviously; you read historical works from the Bible until contemporary times (more or less) and discuss them with your classmates. However, do note that Penn and Cornell have gen eds, too - you have to take humanities and social science classes there, as well.
Also, Columbia does not have grade deflation. In fact, the Ivies in general are known for their grade inflation. Per my own experience and discussions with faculty, they do it so they can remain competitive with each other - none of the Ivies wants their students to have lower GPAs on average and thus lower admissions to med and grad and law schools and to the top employers who care about GPAs.
I think the reputation of Cornell as the “easiest Ivy” means the *easiest to get in * with regards to its admissions rate, as well as its ranking on USNWR, not really grade in-/deflation for its students.
I would make my choice based on which city I would like to reside.
If I choose to decide the city, will Philly give me the same opportunities as New York City?
@admit201515 penn has the strongest econ department and also the best employment statistics (quite better than columbia’s) http://www.thedp.com/article/2015/03/penn-seeking-employment-rate-one-of-lowest-in-country.
the recruiting opportunities at penn are only comparable with those at harvard. it doesnt matter that your are in the college. you have access to the same opportunities as the wharton and engineering kids. and the employment outcomes data support this. also could supplement your econ degree with wharton classes (this is a huge plus). also yea penn is ranked lower in physics but from what i understand you are more interested in business/econ and want physics mainly for the quant background, in which case strength of econ dpt and recruitment opps are more important.
also i dont think there are significant grade deflation differences between columbia and penn. they are pretty much the same from what i know. also i know columbia has anannoying core curriculum like princeton, whoch penn doesnt.
in terms of name Penn and Columbia are not really different. now if you told me penn vs princeton or harvard I would say you have a point. but Penn vs Columbia not really. they are pretty much on par. for years penn was ranked above columbia in us news now it is the other way around i am sure it will change again and again in the future. that said, the majority of penn-columbia cross admits choose penn over columbia. http://www.parchment.com/c/college/college-rankings.php
lastly from what i have heard columbia doesnt have much of a campus vibe and the community is not that close-knit because new york is so huge and overwhelming. philly is still a big enough city so you wont get bored but small enough to enable penn to have a campus atmosphere. as an undergrad, given penn’s amazing recruiting opportunities and its proximity to new york, you will get pretty much the same opportunities along with a better quality of life.
as for cornell unless you wanna be a hardcore engineer (and even then depends on what type- for example penn’s bioengineering is much better than cornell’s) then I cant why you would ever turn down either penn or columbia for cornell as an undergrad.
"
" I cant why you would ever turn down either penn or columbia for cornell as an undergrad. "
If you can’t, then you shouldn’t.
My friend’s kid, a Penn legacy with suitable stats, wouldn’t apply to Penn. Much to her dad’s chagrin. She toured Penn and hated it.She didn’t want to go to school in a city. She wanted a traditional college student experience at a campus centered school in a college town. She had the most fantastic college experience I could imagine, and had amazing subsequent results after graduating from Cornell. She loved it there, and would certainly have no cause for regrets now.
As for Columbia, ditto all of the above, but moreover “from what i have heard columbia doesnt have much of a campus vibe and the community is not that close-knit because new york is so huge and overwhelming”.
-and
The Core occupies a significant enough number of courses that one should only attend if they affirmatively want to take that course sequence IMO. Personally, I would have loved to take it. My kids, however, hated the idea of being forced to take specific courses. They strongly preferred having lots more more choice. YMMV.
Cornell actually has the reputation for having grade deflation (saying is ‘easiest to get in, hardest to stay in’). Columbia is a fine choice but if you’re looking for finance post-grad, Penn would edge out Columbia. Also a little known fact is that it is much easier to transfer into Wharton once you’re at Penn than from high school if you’d be interested. But CAS does have a difficult curve (classes curved to B- avg). Columbia’s social scene is quite a bit different from Penn’s (Penn’s is a little more traditional).
“…grade deflation”
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/grade_inflation_at_cornell/
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cornell-university/487570-grade-inflation-or-deflation-p1.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20100214201042/http://registrar.sas.cornell.edu/Grades/MedianGradeSP08.pdf
@monydad fair enough…I guess it’s rep for being tough for pre-meds does not carry through all of Cornell’s courses. That last document is pretty revealing.
There was a CC poster norcalguy, who recently has made a brief cameo re-apperance. He is now a physician. He insisted, based on his examination of the data, that Cornell is not particularly tough for premeds either. In reality. After normalizing for ability levels at the various universities, he said it was exactly where it should be.
I have no direct knowledge to agree or disagree, but interested parties can look up his numerous posts on the subject.
Alright thanks guy^_^! I briefly visited all three schools over the last week. I’m strongly leaning towards Columbia and penn b/c they are in the city. Can anyone elaborate briefly on the social life of these two campuses? I know that NYC can be overwhelming and can make the student body less of a community. On the other hand, I felt that Penn students are really close knitted. Thanks!
Also how cut throat /competitive are they?
Isn’t Penn known as a social school? Unless you like the core, Penn is a better choice.
I’m a lot more familiar with Penn and I’ve heard some stuff about Columbia - Penn has a pretty traditional social scene w/ the frats and parties (rated #1 by playboy funny enough) and this is possible vs Columbia b/c it’s in University City which is a part of philly which caters to college students from Penn and Drexel. Columbia’s location is definitely more city-like and thus doesn’t lend itself to the same sort of social scene. A key thing to note about Penn is that there is some level of hierarchy of wealth/status on campus which Columbia, I’ve heard, does not have as much of. So in general, Penn probably cater more to the social/partying types while Columbia might cater more to the intellectual/nerdier types but I’m sure you will find people you like at either institution. I don’t think either are ‘cutthroat’ but Penn CAS does have a tougher curve for sciences - not so sure about Columbia but I would think approximately the same in terms of difficulty.