<p>
[quote]
Is this really true?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yes.
To answer your question, I'll use the departmental rankings. The most popular majors at Penn and Columbia, according to their websites, are: Psych, Econ, Bio, History, English, Biomedical Engineering.</p>
<p>Psychology:
Penn = 8
Columbia = 17</p>
<p>Economics:
Penn = 8
Columbia = 12</p>
<p>Bio Fields:</p>
<p>Physiological Biology:
Penn = 3
Columbia = 10</p>
<p>Neurobiology:
Columbia = 6
Penn = 10</p>
<p>Molecular Bio:
Columbia = 11
Penn = 16</p>
<p>History:
Columbia = 5
Penn = 12</p>
<p>English:
Penn = 8
Columbia = 9</p>
<p>Biomed Engineering:
Penn = 5
Columbia = off the charts (ranked lower than 40)</p>
<p>So, for the intents and purposes of nearly all students: yes, it appears as though Penn is on par with Columbia, wouldn't you agree? </p>
<p>Of course, if you're going to be one the 30 students/year that major in Linguistics or Anthropology, Penn is number 5 and Columbia is 20 - and if you're going to be one of the 30 students/year that major in Physics or Math, Columbia is number 5 and Penn is 20. But that is not the majority, and it seems pretty clear that for most fields, both are incredible.</p>