<p>hey guys! i'm THISS close to deciding to apply to columbia ED. i just loved the atmosphere and the core curriculum sounds absolutely amazing. the only thing is i'm planning to major in some biological science (but not engineering). i know columbia has AMAZING resources for its polisci majors and it's world-renowned for its humanities, but how do the science kids bode in graduate school placement? what i'm thinkin is that since there won't be as many of us, the letters of recommendation will be more personal, right? i read somewhere that there were 3 physics majors this year or something. that'd be awesome. for the current students, do you know of your science-major friends getting accepted to top-notch PhD programs, like at MIT or Harvard? the reason why i fell in love with columbia in the first place was because of its focus on humanities, and i want to be a very well-rounded graduate, even if i do major in science, but do you think i'll have any problem with graduate school placement?</p>
<p>btw, i love love love love columbia. right now it's between columbia ED or MIT EA, and i'm really leaning strongly towards columbia! and sorry if this has been asked before, but i searched and couldn't find it. :) have a good day!</p>
<p>Why not do MIT EA and Columbia ED? It's non conflicting and many people do this. And I know a couple of my Senior friends headed to MIT-Harvard PH.D program (the joint one).</p>
<p>birk - yours is a very very good reason for wanting to go to columbia.</p>
<p>I personally know a few classmates who ended up at top PhD programs at Caltech and Harvard. Our own Primefactor is a harvard grad student I believe (dunno if she's FAS or somethign else). etc. You won't have any "problem" with graduate school placement, your preparation will be looked at as equal to that of any other school - the difference, of course, will be in the publications you can take part in while an undergrad. Not published = No PhD program = going to a Masters program to try to develop a publication history.</p>
<p>:) it feels so good to have reassurance. i really think i'm going to ED now. i talked to my parents about it today, and they were surprisingly amenable to it. i feel sooo relieved to have found THE school. =)</p>
<p>its certainly not going to be a disadvantage to have gone to columbia, should be comparable to going undergrad to another top school. which means generally strong placement, as would be expected of universities at this level.</p>
<p>by publications, I mean scholarly works, not just undergrad discussion circulars. Academic research published in academic peer-reviewed journals. that is what a professor's life's work tends to consist of - conducting research in their field, writing it up, and getting it published. "Publish or Perish" is the mantra of new professors seeking tenure. And your ability to help out professors with their work while an undergrad has a direct and primary impact on your ability to get into a PhD program, because you want your name on published papers (even if it's at the end of the credits). If you don't have that track record of scholarly research publications, you have to acquire it, typically through a Masters program.</p>
<p>That is, if you want a PhD. If you want to go to a professional school (med school, law school, social work, whatever), there are usually well-defined ways of getting into those schools - but that's very different from an academic PhD.</p>
<p>S recently had a conversation about PhD admissions with an advisor. They pay the most attention to the three letters of rec, especially from people well known to them in the field. The value of undergrad research is not so much whether a publication comes out of it, as the relationship that you form with a prof who can write a letter that talks about your capabilities as a future researcher and not just about how you did on problem sets or exams. Lots of undergrads don't get published in professional journals and still get into PhD programs. </p>
<p>If a student enters Columbia with the ultimate goal of a PhD, then it's good to find ways to know profs. This could be office hours, independent studies, looking for seminars and small classes, being active in an academically related student group that brings you in contact with a faculty advisor, a work study job. But it doesn't happen automatically at a research university like Columbia. </p>
<p>There's excellent information on the PhD.org website, including an article on how to go about approaching professors in productive ways.</p>