Dartmouth vs. Columbia/Sciences Po Dual BA

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I have narrowed down my choices to this two vastly different programs but am having a hard time to make the final decision. I have visited both and would be fine with either in terms of school setting, student life, etc, though I have a slight preference toward Dartmouth. Cost wise Columbia will be about $70k lower due the the lower tuition in France, but it will not be a deciding factor either.</p>

<p>I would like to major in Econ and pursue a career in management consulting so I would like here from you guys which option will put me on a more favorable position. From what I found out, I can do a double major in Dartmouth without much a problem, and I'm not sure if it is viable to do joint major such as Econ/Math at Columbia in the final two years (still finding out how much core and major requirement can be transferred after the first two years).</p>

<p>Any input is greatly appreciated.</p>

2

<p>Bump… Anyone?</p>

3

<p>Since you said cost isn’t a factor and both are pretty highly recruited for consulting I’d go with the one that you like the most.</p>

4

<p>Is the fact that Columbia is in NYC have any influence on your decision? There are so many cultural experiences available to you there.</p>

5

<p>Thanks for the reply.</p>

<p>@barrk123 I actually lean towards Dartmouth a little bit but I’m just wondering if the dual BA program with Columbia would give me an edge due to factors such as bigger name, global exposure, location, etc. That, plus the saving in tuition, will certainly swing the decision that way.</p>

<p>@FlyMeToTheMoon Marginally but not a huge factor because I think I will have opportunities to intern in NYC, and it is possible where I will end after college anyways.</p>

6

<p>In my opinion, I would think Columbia would be better, for it has more direct access to any place you would want to intern at or work at after you graduate. But go to each school and see because how you feel there is a major deciding factor. Good luck!!</p>

7

<p>The SciencesPo part sounds impressive for law, but I’m not sure it means much for business unless your talking about international biz with francophone countries. </p>

<p>D plan promotes foreign study, but you won’t get a second degree. Students also get good internships under the D plan. </p>

<p>I don’t recall any joint math/econ major when I was at Columbia. The math department is fairly theoretical. I really don’t see how doing at dual degree with joint major at Columbia is possible.</p>

<p>I think the main issue is how much do you want to study in France and get a degree from SciencesPo. It’s a grande </p>

8

<p>The campus I applied to actually focuses on Euro-Asian relationships and I’m more focused on the Asian aspect rather than the European aspect. If I go to Sciences Po, I’d be guaranteed a place in the graduate school in Paris after completing the program. </p>

<p>However, like you mentioned, I don’t know if I am willing to fully commit to studying and living in France. The campus is only about 100 people and so I’m not sure if I’m willing to choose this over a more conventional college experience. </p>

<p>How useful would two degrees be?</p>

9

<p>Oh, BTW, the econ/math joint major might only be available in General Studies since I only see it listed there: [Economics-Mathematics</a> | General Studies](<a href=“http://gs.columbia.edu/major-title?majorid=1818]Economics-Mathematics”>http://gs.columbia.edu/major-title?majorid=1818)</p>

10

<p>The Columbia/Po is with the School of General Studies? Dartmouth College sure beats Columbia GS.</p>

<p>This dual degree program is new. It’s not clear what you are getting into. However, I think you have to be sold on the France part of it to be viable. The program looks more like a way for French students to pick up a Columbia GS BA.</p>

11

<p>Thanks for the insight. It is definitely helpful.</p>

<p>Yes, the dual BA program is with GS since it is considered “non-traditional”, although most/all of the admitted are high school graduates.</p>

12

<p>I have thought about this a bit more. In France, you’ll take classes taught in English by professors who live in France. How good can that be? For your first year, I think you are better off at Dartmouth, with intro courses in economics, politics, humanities, and language (except for the French emersion aspect of Le Havre), than at Po. The second year at Po looks more appealing than the first as it is more special topics.</p>

<p>In the third and fourth year at Columbia GS, you will NOT be housed with Columbia College and SEAS students. This means you’ll be isolated from the students your age, and you will be entering as a transfer student. You will have a transition from a French to an American curriculum, and it’s not clear that you would be able to finish requirements in just two years at Columbia. Lastly, there is the whole divided college experience with a 2+2 program.</p>

<p>I’d pick Dartmouth for a math/economics major and try to find a suitable study abroad option.</p>

13

<p>Save the $70k and go to Columbia. Being able to study abroad in Paris is an excellent opportunity and the dual BA will certainly look good on your resume.</p>

14

<p>I was wondering what the difference in perception is between Columbia GS and Columbia College (in terms of prestige, future opportunities, etc.).</p>

<p>Also, how different is GS from CC?</p>

15

<p>Verify whether you can do math/economics in the Sciences Po / Columbia GS program:</p>

<p>[Frequently</a> Asked Questions | Dual BA Program Between Columbia University and Sciences Po](<a href=“http://gs.columbia.edu/sciences-po/faq]Frequently”>http://gs.columbia.edu/sciences-po/faq)</p>

<p>

</p>

<p><a href=“http://gs.columbia.edu/sciences-po/traditional-sequence-lehavre[/url]”>http://gs.columbia.edu/sciences-po/traditional-sequence-lehavre&lt;/a&gt; describes the typical course selection at Science Po. You may want to check whether you would be able to take the needed math preparation into the elective slots or in substitution for the “math methods for economics” courses.</p>

16

<p>Columbia College is elite and admits fewer than 6% of applicants. The School of General Studies is the University’s extension division. The awarding of degrees by GS (since 1968) has always been a highly controversial topic at Columbia, as the GS admission standards are much lower than at Columbia College. The average age at GS is 29 years old and 20 at Columbia College. [Program</a> Overview | General Studies](<a href=“http://gs.columbia.edu/program-overview]Program”>Statistics and Facts | School of General Studies). Students who are not transfers at GS are rare. Sometimes students who have started at good colleges transfer to GS after working for a few years. However, the large majority of GS students are of noticeable lower caliber than the rest of Columbia. Yes, most people in New York know exactly what GS is. No, you don’t turn down Dartmouth College for Columbia GS.</p>

<p>The reason for doing this program is that you want to study in Le Havre and get a degree from Po. Where do you want to be next fall?</p>

17

<p>Thanks for all the details. They sure help a great deal for me to make the final decision.</p>

18

<p>Re: #16</p>

<p>Why is there always the assumption on these forums that transfer and non-traditional students are automatically inferior students?</p>

19

<p>“Columbia College is elite and admits fewer than 6% of applicants. The School of General Studies is the University’s extension division. The awarding of degrees by GS (since 1968) has always been a highly controversial topic at Columbia, as the GS admission standards are much lower than at Columbia College. The average age at GS is 29 years old and 20 at Columbia College. Program Overview | General Studies. Students who are not transfers at GS are rare. Sometimes students who have started at good colleges transfer to GS after working for a few years. However, the large majority of GS students are of noticeable lower caliber than the rest of Columbia. Yes, most people in New York know exactly what GS is. No, you don’t turn down Dartmouth College for Columbia GS.”</p>

<p>There are so many errors with this post that I don’t even know where to begin. To save time, I’ll just post a few fragments regarding GS on wikicu, Columbia’s ostensible encyclopedia:</p>

<p>General overview:
“The School of General Studies, commonly known as General Studies or simply GS, is one of the three official undergraduate colleges of Columbia University. It is a highly selective liberal arts college known for its non-traditional and international students. GS confers the Bachelor of Art and Bachelor of Science degrees in over seventy different majors. GS students take the same courses with the same faculty, are held to the same high standards, and earn the same degree as all other Columbia undergraduates. GS students, who comprise of approximately 25% of all Columbia undergraduates, have the highest average GPA of all the undergraduate schools at Columbia.”</p>

<p>Educational experience:
“A Columbia undergraduate class could include students from any of the following schools: GS, Columbia College, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, or Barnard College. GS is unique among colleges of its type, because its students are fully integrated into the Columbia undergraduate curriculum: GS Students take the same classes with the same students and professors and are granted the same degrees as students at Columbia College or SEAS.”</p>

<p>Placement
“More than 70 percent of GS students go on to earn advanced degrees after graduation. Columbia GS students have been admitted to top graduate programs all over the country including law schools at Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, the University of Chicago, NYU, the University of Pennsylvania, UC Berkeley (Boalt Hall), Duke, and Cornell. They have also been admitted to medicals schools at Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins, Duke, Stanford, UC San Francisco, Yale, Columbia, the University of Chicago, Cornell, and many others. In recent years, GS graduates have been recruited by investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, UBS, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Citigroup.”</p>

<p>GS is NOT an Extension school:
GS should not be confused with the separate School of Continuing Education, which offers individual courses on non-degree basis. GS is one of the two official liberal arts colleges at Columbia University along with Columbia College. Students are expected to pursue a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree."</p>

<p>All the information provided has been verified and “peer reviewed.”</p>

<p>Source link: <a href=“http://www.wikicu.com/School_of_General_Studies[/url]”>http://www.wikicu.com/School_of_General_Studies&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

20

<p>Hi funkeicool,</p>

<p>First off, congrats on your acceptance into the program! I’m currently a full time student at the Le Havre campus of Sciences Po and I’ll here to answer any questions you may have.</p>

<p>After reading through some of the posts here, I highly advise you consider your options carefully before committing to a school. The best option for you would be to visit both schools and then decide (Columbia and Dartmouth, and possibly Sciences Po if you have the time). I also highly advise you not to trust the opinions of all users online, as some may provide misleading information.</p>

<p>However, before you make any decisions, I’d like to clear some things up, as the user @rhg3rd seems to be very misinformed about what he has posted.</p>

<ul>
<li><p>On the issue of the School of General Studies being inferior: this is simply not true, as GS has a higher admittance rate because it receives fewer applications stemming from certain application prerequisites. This is due to the structure of GS; because it only accepts applications from students coming from nontraditional backgrounds, GS does not receive applications from high school seniors on the normal academic track. Thus, at GS you find military veterans, ballet dancers, and other people with varied backgrounds. The assumption that transfers are somehow inferior is completely unfounded. In fact, because the transfer process is so selective, the students admitted from other schools are often of the highest caliber.</p></li>
<li><p>On the issue of prestige:GS students are fully integrated into the Columbia community, take the exact same classes as every other student, and graduate with the same degree from Columbia (the only difference being that Fu and GS have English diplomas, whereas CC has Latin diplomas, due to tradition); it would be interesting to note that GS students also have the highest average GPA of the students on campus. Of course, Columbia’s alumni network is open to GS students, just like it is for Fu and CC. </p></li>
<li><p>On the Dual BA program as a whole: the Dual BA program was created out of a long standing partnership Columbia has had with Sciences Po, and it was originally supposed to be hosted with Columbia College; however, due to the admissions system CC has in place, the only college capable of hosting the Dual BA is GS, despite the fact the vast majority of Dual BA students are graduating seniors. The program is highly selective, as hundreds of applications are reviewed from across the world for a class of roughly 30 students. Current students who have been admitted have also been admitted to some of the top universities in the world, such as Cambridge, Harvard, Oxford, Princeton, Stanford, UPenn, UCL, etc. Furthermore, Sciences Po students (already very qualified) in the 2nd year are also given an option to apply to enter the Dual BA Program; this year, only 3 of over 30 applicants per campus were accepted. This in itself is a testament to the quality of students selected. Furthermore, Dual BA students also receive a considerable amount of personal attention from the Dean and Assistant Deans of Columbia.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>As for some other notes about Sciences Po, I highly encourage you to speak with one of the current LH students about life in Le Havre. We can tell you very much in depth what the Euro-Asia campus has to offer. For example, did you know the LH is the only satellite campus that hosts undergraduate double degree programs with University of British Columbia, Keio University in Tokyo, and the National University of Singapore? On campus there is also a branch of Junior Consulting, which handles management consulting services at the university level.</p>

<p>For more information, please do not hesitate to contact one of us!</p>