<p>Don't apply ED unless you are 500% sure you want to go there. Have you visited both schools? Don't apply ED without going to a school several times. New York and New Haven couldn't be more different when it comes to campus environment. If you are at all considering another school, don't apply ED unless you can be confident in your position.</p>
<p>I have relatives at both. I have visited all the Ivies except Brown. Cornell is too big. Dartmouth is interesting. Princeton is very intersting but I just keep coming back to Columbia. It is sort of calling out to me.</p>
<p>It's hard trying to make my decision and not be overly influenced by my brother and cousin and their takes on the schools.</p>
<p>I like Yale but New Haven really sucks.</p>
<p>I like Columbia and I LOVE NY.</p>
<p>And I agree with the poster who said, well in so many words, the prestige of Yale is probably more universal.</p>
<p>By the way I get HYPS but what's the "M". HYPMS?</p>
<p>I do not mean to get anyone mad, but U Penn, unless its Wharton, is just too big. Way too big. Way too many admits. To me it's not in the same league as Columbia.</p>
<p>So where else, lets say if you don't get into Columbia, could you see yourself going. You have to have a plan B, or in the college admissions process: also plans C, D, and E</p>
<p>lol don't worry about the poster who feels the need to mention the "prestige difference" between yale and columbia. they both have, what, a 9% acceptance rate? it's ridiculous to fret about this sort of thing. whatever the difference may be, it's not much. as such, choose the environment you like best, and worry about actually getting in!</p>
<p>I find it very difficult to do academic year internships. Students generally have Fridays off, but on other days you'd really have to taughtly schedule your classes to make it work, and that could be a severe academic limitation. That said, people do intern during the year. It really depends on whether you want to prioritize intellectualism/your GPA or your resume. </p>
<p>As far as the Core and everyone being "in lockstep", it's true that setting such a similar curriculum for all of the freshmen and sophomores breeds common understanding and mutual support to a degree. It's also true that the Core can be overidealized; kids don't necessarily spill out of class eagerly discussing Plato with one another as the brochures would have you believe. That said, my girlfriend, who transferred to Columbia, noted that academics really dominate conversations to a degree they do not at other schools. Take that for what you will. Just remember that while some enthusiastically embrace the Core, others coast through it and still others react vehemently against it, and the balance between those attributes (not to mention the quality of the instructor) will make or break a given Core class.</p>
<p>Please be honest. Are you a "HYPMS" candidate simply because of the prestige. Because it sounds like it. I really don't like it when people say "I just want to get into HYPMS and I don't care which one." It is a very false way to go about applying to College. Apply because you love it for more reasons than its name or where it is. Look at the programs. I would never discard a school just because it wasn't my favorite city. HYPMS kids are the unhappiest because all they want is a name. If they are lucky enough to get in, they spend 4 year working for HYPMS grad school. Eventually in 25 years when we are working, NO ONE WILL CARE. Unless your the Pres of the US or something. BTW, M is for MIT.</p>
<p>Still, just applying to every IVY or top school just because they are an IVY or top school is immature and myopic. It lacks foresight on what really mattters.</p>
<p>truazn ... that seems right to me, but still. I know there's no C for Columbia in that list but then I don't want to work for an investment banking firm anyway and if I did maybe I would see it that way. </p>
<p>Did you read the successful alum posting///I've been looking at that. But the thing is I don't want to slog for money or run money the way my brothers friends call it. At least that's not how I'm starting collegewith that idea.</p>
<p>Maybe if that's the plan I'll go to one of the BSchools or Law School. But for now the plan is to be a writer so looking down the road for money is not at ALL what I'm about///I know, right now///things will change when I have to pay for a condo or house or whatever.</p>
<p>Now I'm just hoping to get a single in some dorm.</p>
<p>Truanz you seem right on to me. But still applying at every Ivy is not that much work and if you live the kind of like that needs an Ivy, like any Ivy behind your name, that's cool. Dude, you don't know what you're saying. I mean some people need that and that's cool. Myopic? I don't get it why do you get to say what is right for someone. If that's myopic then I think they are totally lookig with a long-range perspective and choosing an Ivy is total discernment, if they've got the grades, sat and activities. Total discernment. That's almost all I've looked at. Sorry, but that's a fact.</p>
<p>I'm just looking for a place where every morning I wake up, hopefully in a single, and I'm happy I'm there. More and more I think thats NY and Columbia. I'm worried my brother is influencing me too much. totally he's happy therebut he's going to law school and did poli-sci. That's not me but it's him and he's cool.</p>
<p>Myopic, in an existential sense, simply means you lack perspective. You shouldn't pick a school on the name/location combination. Consider Columbias hard-core "Core." Think of the campus environment. Think of the types of students. There's more to college than waking up in the city that you love. You have your whole life to live in a nice city. Go to college where you will grow and develop as a person defined in a location, not a location defining a person.</p>
<p>Halopeno,
I totally don't get it. Why would I look at any other school in NY if Ny was where I wanted to be? I mean like Columbia is the intellectual center of the universe in Ny. okay, a little hyperbole. but do you just not like ivy league schools or something? There is no way, no way, no way i'd go to NYU over Yale. I mean that's nuts.</p>
<p>I really tyring to figure out where you're coming from. you say don't focus on ivy league, that's myopic and then you say if you want to be in NY there are other schools.</p>
<p>i mean the real consistency i get from you is there are schools other than ivy league. admitted. but for some of us, there really are not. really.</p>
<p>sorry to be so narrow minded but at my school i know what my chances are, i mean there's a record and you just know. and columbia is the ONLY NY school i'd consider.</p>
<p>SOME QUICK HISTORY</p>
<p>Founded as King's College in 1754 by charter of England's King George II, Columbia was the first institution of higher learning in the province of New York and the fifth in the colonies. Its original home was in lower Manhattan, and it's earliest alumni included John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury.</p>
<p>Instruction at King's College was suspended during the American Revolution, and the college reopened in 1784 as Columbia College. Rechartered at that time without ties to church or state, Columbia has the distinction of being the country's oldest independent institution of higher education. As the college and New York City grew and prospered together, Columbia moved from the Wall Street area to Midtown and finally, at the end of the nineteenth century, to the present Morningside Heights campus.</p>
<p>
[quote]
nyu - no campus and huge. fordham, a vertical campus, great if you want to spend your live inside in an elevator. cuny no dorms.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You realize that, like NYU, Columbia is also quite large when you take grad students into account, and that almost every dorm will necessitate getting to your room by elevator, ala Fordham Lincoln Center (which is not Fordham's main campus; it has a very low-scale, bucolic one in the Bronx). CUNY (at least City College) will actually have dorms starting next year I believe. </p>
<p>And Halopeno is right; most Columbians spend an inordinate amount of time studying in the library. Freshman are excited by the prospect of exploring New York; by senior year many are too tired/stressed to make it to the laundry room. </p>
<p>Internships and "contact" are not instantaneously achieved the moment one sets foot in the city. This is a difficult, challenging environment. Columbia's name will not necessarily open magic doors for you. Plenty of people from all over the country descend on New York for summer internships and have equally ample opportunities at future careers in the city.</p>