<p>Mboyle1988---</p>
<p>In the 1950's Harvard University and Columbia University were considered the most prestigious institutions in America. While Berekely, Yale, and Princeton were certainly prestigious- in the mind's of academia and the general public Harvard and Columbia reigned supreme.</p>
<p>To back up my claims:
During the first half of the 20th Century Columbia and Harvard had the largest endowments in the country.</p>
<p>By the late 1930s, a Columbia student could study with the likes of Jacques Barzun, Paul Lazarsfeld, Mark Van Doren, Lionel Trilling, and I. I. Rabi. The University's graduates during this time were equally accomplished - for example, two alumni of Columbia's Law School, Charles Evans Hughes and Harlan Fiske Stone (who also held the position of Law School dean), served successively as Chief Justices of the United States. In the '50s, Dwight Eisenhower served as Columbia's president before becoming the President of the United States."</p>
<p>There was an article in the Times of the 1950's expounding upon the prestige of Columbia University. Not only did it have the largest endowment, it also owned Rockefellar Center and had the best economics department in the world. And to this day, Columbia holds the largest patent income of any University and holds the most Nobel Prizes.</p>
<p>Now what really sunk columbia out of the HYP realm was during the 1960's when Columbia students rioted and literally bombed the army/navy off campus. New York City went to hell during the 70's-80's and Columbia went down along with it. It wasn't until the mid 1980's that Columbia began her ascent again. Today, Columbia is regaining much of the ground she lost during that period. </p>
<p>But other than that-- yes I agree with you. Prestige is one of the most significant reasons to choose a school mainly because most of the people who think one school is unequivocably better than the other don't really matter. But I do have to say however, that Columbia places better in Law/Medicine and Investment Banking (unless you;re from Wharton).</p>