List College vs. Columbia

<p>Hi everyone, </p>

<p>List College, a Jewish private university, offers a joint degree program with both Columbia University and Barnard College. If one were to attend List College, would it be better than attending Columbia? You'd get two degrees; one in Jewish studies, and the other in whatever you'd like to major in. </p>

<p>List College has a 52% admissions rate, which is much higher than Columbia's, which is at 7.4%. If I were to get accepted into Lists College, would I be (in a way) also accepted into Columbia?</p>

<p>No, not at all. Theyā€™re separate institutions. Iā€™d never heard of this particular joint degree (the 3+2 engineering one with LACā€™s is a lot more common) but I looked it up, and youā€™d have to be accepted by a joint admissions committee to get in this program. An acceptance from List College alone does not translate into one by Columbia, and itā€™s not like you can sign up to be a Columbia student in the same way that youā€™d sign up for classes.</p>

<p>And the term better is subjectiveā€“in your case, for Jewish studies, sure, maybe. But Iā€™d wager that Columbia is bit ā€˜betterā€™ in everything else. Good luck! </p>

<p>Oh. Alright. Thank you, @Coriander. I was under the impression that you only had to be accepted into List to get a degree from Columbia. I know Columbiaā€™s better, but I was thinking that if you could get two degrees, why not? </p>

<p>Thanks for clarifying for me!</p>

<p>@Solostish ā€“ you should look at the information on this page:
<a href=ā€œList College - Jewish Theological Seminaryā€>http://www.jtsa.edu/List_College_(Undergraduate)/List_College_Admissions/Frequently_Asked_Questions.xml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>You would get a degree from Columbia University with the joint degree program (via Columbia GS) ā€“ if you apply for that program, a decision is made by the admissions committees from both colleges. </p>

<p>If you wanted the Barnard- then you also have to submit an application to Barnard as well as JTS.</p>

<p>I think that their admission rates might be misleading ā€“ it is probably a very self-selecting applicant pool. Itā€™s definitely a very demanding program. When you ask whether it would be ā€œbetterā€ than attending Columbia ā€“ itā€™s only ā€œbetterā€ if you very strongly want the Jewish studies major - as a practical matter, the demands of that program are going to also place some limits on what you might do at Columbia as compared to a CC student. </p>

<p>Also, if you apply to JTS, you canā€™t apply separately to Columbia ā€“ so itā€™s not the type of thing to do as some sort of backup. </p>

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<p>In case it matters to you, the joint program gives you a degree from Columbia Universityā€™s School of General Studies, NOT Columbia College.</p>

<p>Yes, and if you want a Columbia degree that bad, just go to freaking Columbia. Take a gap year and apply to the General Studies school! Your degree will say Columbia and you will get to attend the same classes as CC students. Ba dum tss!</p>

<p>@solostish- there are certain posters on CC who cannot wrap their heads around the fact that Columbia UNIVERSITY issues degrees, and the Columbia College and the School of General Studies are undergraduate colleges that donā€™t issue degrees of their own. </p>

<p>If you get into JTS you will graduate with two degrees ā€“ one from JTS and one from Columbia U. Your experience over your 4 years will probably be strongly colored by your JTS experience ā€“ itā€™s a small school so you are highly likely to find that you end up feeling more drawn to and identified to that student body, simply because it is more cohesive. </p>

<p>My D knows a couple of women in the joint program. I can tell you that they are very intellectual, studious types. OP, does that describe you?</p>

<p>Yeah. My GPA could imply that Iā€™m studious. Itā€™s not necessarily Columbia worthy, but Iā€™m most likely smart enough to handle it (3.83/4.33. 2200 SAT).</p>

<p>Would I be at a disadvantage having a degree from Columbia Gerbal instead of Columbia College? List would be awesome, too. Iā€™d like to strengthen my cultural Jewish backbone.</p>

<p>Gerbal? lol.</p>

<p>Depends on what you want to study (Is List focused on theological education? You could look into Yeshiva if youā€™re into that?). However, you could do better than List, I assure you. There are lots of schools between Columbia and List.</p>

<p>Sorry, not Gerbalā€¦ I meant ā€œGeneral.ā€ I replied at like 2am my time, haha.</p>

<p>Nah, Iā€™m much more into culture than theological. Originally, I thought that it was a loophole into Columbia. Haha. Guess those donā€™t exist. </p>

<p>Iā€™ll probably apply to Berkeley and UCLA and maybe some other UCs and a private.</p>

<p>Thank you, all!</p>