<p>I often hear people talk about sschools like Duke, Stanford, Yale, Princeton etc... </p>
<p>How does columbia compare to those ivy leagues and non ivyleagues like JHU and Duke and WashU StL in premed and engineering?</p>
<p>I've always considered it a great school but i hear less and less people applying there.</p>
<p>In comparison to other Ivys, it's much more expensive, with a less generous financial package. Columbia has a very strict curriculum, while other Ivys go with distributional requirements. Honestly, Columbia was my first choice school, but I keep hearing more and more bad things about it. Like how all the students are overstressed in comparison to students in the other Ivys. IMO, the only thing going for Columbia is its location.</p>
<p>Columbia is very good if you know what you are going to study for sure as it has core curriculumn requirement so there is not much to experiment around.
ranking/Prestige wise
HYPS
MIT, Caltech
Columbia
...
JHU, Duke
...
WU StL</p>
<p>POIH, I agree with that, except that Penn-Wharton belongs with HYPS.</p>
<p>"The only thing going for Columbia is location."</p>
<p>What nonsense!</p>
<p>The undergraduate education at Columbia College and the Engineering School is superlative. And the foundation courses, the core curriculum, are the envy of American academia. I dare say there aren't many people who turn down admission to Columbia, including applicants who were also admitted to Harvard. Sure, compared to most colleges in America, Harvard comes out on top in most categories, but Columbia remains an elite institution.</p>
<p>Columbia has a wonderful reputation. Of course there is going to be stress. If you are not stressed out in college, then you are not getting a good education. Plus, Columbia has the excitement of NYC going for it. It's awesome.</p>
<p>It has one of the better engineering programs in the Ivy League. For Arts and Sciences, it is somewhere in the middle of the Ivy League. In some areas it is the best, like chem, geology, mining engineering, languages.</p>
<p>You mean prestige-wise?</p>
<p>It's not HYPSM, but it's up there.</p>
<p>
[quote]
IMO, the only thing going for Columbia is its location.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>True, in part. Have you visited campus? It's aesthetically pleasing architecturally, but it's surprisingly small. The Core is admirable, though. Many people there are rather cold and jagged.</p>
<p>
[quote]
IMO, the only thing going for Columbia is its location.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>While I agree that Columbia has a bit more than that (which its 80-something Nobel Laureates can attest to), I would say that Columbia has some faux selectivity: it appears as selective as HYPS in its acceptance rate, but that seems largely because many applicants apply only because it's in NYC.</p>
<p>It's generally not regarded in the same class as HYPSM, but it's known to be a very good school. It's location is seen as a huge asset, (why do you think NYU is so popular?) but it's liberal arts programs are very strong and while it's engineering isn't as good as Stanford's, MIT, or UC Berkeley it is amongst the best in the Ivy league besides for Princeton and Cornell. I'd say it is as good as the other schools you mentioned. Just apply.</p>
<p>Columbia is a very very great school, even if you don't know what you are going to study. Its core curriculumn is broad based, and it has very strong programs. Financially, it has expanded it's aid packages significantly, and would be affordable if you were accepted. The location is mearly a suppliment to the amazing school that it is.</p>
<p>"Columbia has some faux selectivity: it appears as selective as HYPS in its acceptance rate, but that seems largely because many applicants apply only because it's in NYC."</p>
<p>More deviously, they exclude the less-competitive engineering (and GS) students from their numbers. No other school does this.</p>
<p>I always got the impression that Columbia would be THE place to be if you were a certain type of person; namely, could succeed on your own without people (ie the administration) holding your hand, didn't care that much about "school spirit" (whatever that means), and loved the city life. Basically, most kids there seem to be very independent and go-getter-ish.</p>
<p>As much as I love the school, there seems to be a lot of ill-informed, useless, ANNOYING protesting being held there. I hope this is a misconception on my part.</p>
<p>Also, I think Columbia is the largest Ivy, larger than Harvard or Cornell. It has some 25,000 students, rivaling large public schools.</p>
<p>Back to the Rankings/Prestige</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard/Yale/Princeton</li>
<li>Stanford/MIT/Cal Tech/Penn (Wharton)</li>
<li>Duke/Amherst/Penn (All Else) </li>
<li>Dartmouth/Brown/Columbia
...</li>
</ol>
<p>Columbia is presitgious but not as presitigious as HYPMS, Cal Tech, Penn, Duke and Amherst</p>
<p>They have a long way to go to be that good...</p>
<p>This is ridiculous.</p>
<p>EDIT:Oh and the part about Columbia being less prestigious than Duke. LMFAO.</p>
<p>well thats why duke is ranked higher than columbia...</p>
<p>Yeah, but Amherst too? It has next to no recognition among the average joes</p>
<p>edit</p>
<p>Oh kyledavid80, Columbia is not one of the largest ivies, if anything it's one of the smallest, with only 5000 undergrads =]</p>
<p>why does what average joes think matter? c'mon people...ur going to college to be better than the average joes and be ceo's...correction ur going to ivy league caliber colleges to be better than the servants below you...</p>
<p>Well, prestige should be judged by how well regarded an institution is by not only the elite, but also the "servants" no? After all, isn't that why Harvard always comes first in prestige</p>
<p>Sorry, I realized I never addressed the OP:
In terms of engineering, there are definitely better schools, namely MIT, Caltech, Princeton...etc thought Columbia's SEAS isn't bad either</p>
<p>As for pre-med, I personally don't think Columbia would be the best school since there's the Core, pre-med requirements, as well as major requirements, which leaves not a whole lot of room for electives, though if that sounds fine to you then go for it, since Columbia students have a pretty high rate of getting into medical schools, so that shouldn't be a problem</p>
<p>Stanford less prestigious than HYP? Caltech as prestigious as MIT? Duke more prestigious than Columbia? People separate Penn Wharton and Penn "All Else" in their minds, as far as prestige goes?</p>
<p>Yeah, don't think so...</p>
<p>
[quote]
Oh kyledavid80, Columbia is not one of the largest ivies, if anything it's one of the smallest, with only 5000 undergrads =]
[/quote]
</p>
<p><a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/opir/abstract/enrollment_headcount.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.columbia.edu/cu/opir/abstract/enrollment_headcount.htm</a>
Columbia</a> University - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</p>
<p>And a link from its Wikipedia page:</p>
<p>Way more than 5,000 undergrads, more grad students than any of the Ivies, and the largest overall.</p>