I just got into Penn and waitlisted at Columbia. I want to send a letter to Columbia saying I’m willing to be on the waitlist, but I need to find out if that’s where I’ll go if I actually get off of it (I know that saying I’ll matriculate if they let me off can be helpful). Here’s the deal: I’m thinking about going into medicine (biology, chem, sciency stuff), but I want to have options for other careers, primarily business if health doesn’t fit me. I understand that I’m pretty much splitting hairs at this point, but can I get any advice on what I should do? Here are some pros and cons that I’ve established based on what I know so far about the two schools:
Penn:
- better pre-professional advising
- better medical and business preparedness overall
- better school environment IMO
- the big con: Wharton and CAS are segregated, making it very hard to transfer
Columbia:
- Columbia college houses a lot of majors, maybe not a business major itself but can prepare future business students well for grad school
- more selective, higher ranking
- con: more geared toward law and engineering in general
Because of coronavirus, I can’t go and check out either of these schools in person, so any tips/recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
What is your feeling about the Columbia Core? http://www.college.columbia.edu/core/
Yes, splitting hairs. Do you want to be in NY or Philly? You can visit campuses, but you won’t have a tour or a dog and pony show. These are both urban campuses, so if you are within driving distance you can go and walk around outdoors on the campuses.
“the big con: Wharton and CAS are segregated, making it very hard to transfer”
…is not a con, vs. Columbia. Because Wharton and Columbia are yet more segregated. I bet more Penn CAS students successfully transfer to Wharton than Columbia College students do.
The bigger issue is The Core. And the amount of credits/course time it eats up.
The Core: yay or nay should be a primary factor in your decision IMO.
The big issue, I agree, is the core. Columbia is known for placing students in strong business careers regardless of the lack of an undergrad B program. I doubt that CU is truly any more prestigious than UPenn. Probably if you view the core as “eating up” time, it’s not the place for you. If you view it as exciting and interesting to be exposed to those ideas and to share this experience with your fellow classmates and the alumni, then it’s for you. If you do find it exciting, then I would put that as part of your letter to the Admins. In previous years I would guess (and you can google the common data set to be sure) that Columbia took very few from the waitlist. This year, because of the virus and the loss in the markets, they may need to pull from the waitlist more, as more students previously expecting to be full pay may not be able to attend. This is unclear, however.
If your interests lie in medicine and business, Penn is a perfect fit. Many Arts and Science students from Penn go on to get an MBA, which undergrad Wharton students can’t really do, and go on to have successful business careers. My impression is that Columbia is more “purely academic” while is Penn is more “pre-professional”, but you can’t go wrong here as long as you don’t graduate with a lot of debt. Graduate business and medical schools are big $.
OP wrote:
“I … got into Penn and waitlisted at Columbia.”
There is no issue as Penn accepted you, while Columbia has not.