<p>First, very amused by Francis’s edited last name in your original post… CC does that automatically to certain letter combinations, and my eye glided by it before I realized that three asterisk marks replaced the first three letters.</p>
<p>Second, I think that wondering if Stanford’s program in international studies isn’t “good enough” is a bit like Carrie Bradshaw wondering if her shoe collection isn’t big enough (and how she does it on a writer’s salary? Millions want to know!) I don’t mean to call you a snob, but I do mean to point out how absolutely subjective this “good program” stuff can be. Probably the best way to tell is Stanford’s program is right for you is to contact as many profs as possible to get to know if they are people you want to learn from. Some of my favorite profs ever (profs who have sped through my school at one point or another) teach at schools ranked in the 20’s, 30’s and 50’s by USNEWS, while my school is ranked in the single digits. I would do almost anything to take another class with them and sit in their office and talk about life.</p>
<p>Third, you may want to open up some of your options, particularly for applying early. It sounds like Columbia ED is not the best choice for you, because you aren’t totally in love with the school, but Stanford SCEA sounds like a good deal. Or you might fall in love with another ED or EA school entirely… okay, I’m going to try not to sell the University of Chicago right now, but I think it’s worth your looking into :-)</p>
<p>Fourth, I don’t think your experience at Columbia is reflective of the school itself. I don’t know much about it, but I do know people who are very intellectual and academic (and also not very outwardly social) who seem to really love it there. As a prospective among prospectives, you not only have no control over who you hang out with, but also these kids haven’t even been admitted yet (I’m assuming the context is a college visit) so they’re all into ponying themselves up for each other. Once you get to college, nobody cares about how cool you think you are!</p>