<p>They need to change "HYP" to "CHP"</p>
<p>Try 10.4% for Columbia (not 8.9%) vs 9.0% for Harvard to compare apples to apples.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Prestige wise, heres how it goes:</p>
<p>in 10 years, some person asks you what college you went to; 2 scenerios;</p>
<p>a. "I went to Columbia"
"OMFG!!!!!!! J00 R SMRT!!"</p>
<p>b. "I went to Williams"
"huh?"
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Because no one can make you feel inferior without your consent, if that is all they could say is "huh", why you you even care? It would be apparent that this person does not know much or hasn't been in many academic circles.</p>
<p>To the OP, your best bet would be to visit, sit in on a class or 2. Columbia, Williams & Amherst are all great schools but vastly different atmospheres. At the end of the day, you are choosing between an Ivy (An athletic conference where the lions play lousy football) and the top 2 LACs in the country, of which any of them will give you a great education if it is your desire to obtain one.</p>
<p>Hm. Williams doesn't have any Nobel Prize winners and stuff but its also an undergrad focused LAC...its as good as Columbia in every way academically, in terms of placement as well. And same with reputation with people who matter. </p>
<p>The only difference is that Williams is in an open and green area, whereas Columbia is in NYC. Btw, I find it really weird you are comparing these two schools, which other than similar academic strength share little in common.</p>
<p>Other schools to look at:
Dartmouth, Brown, Penn <--- all as strong as Columbia and Williams academically, but somewhere in between the two in terms of social atmosphere</p>
<p>I'll admit to not having read many of the responses to the OP's question, but I'll share my experience: after visiting C, A, and W, I decided only to apply to A. For me (and this is far from Truth for everyone), C was too urban and graduate-heavy and W was too rural and small. Both are awesome, well-respected schools (duh), but neither was right for me.</p>
<p>The fact that you are considering doing ED to Columbia or Williams, which to say the least are very different, makes me think that you might be better off not doing ED at all.</p>
<p>While I agree that determining fit is of the utmost importance---- approaching the issue from a pragmatic standpoint, you should decide AS SOON AS POSSIBLE (preferably before Oct. 31st). Decide which you like better, and just ask yourself "If I were forced to go here for 4 years, would I be happy/okay about it?". If the answer is yes, pick one and ED. </p>
<p>The reason I say this is that the difference between Columbia, and I'm sure William's ED and RD acceptance rate is truly significant:</p>
<p>Columbia ED Acceptance Rate: 24%
Columbia RD Acceptance Rate: 6.5%</p>
<p>Princeton ED Acceptance Rate: 26%
Princeton RD Accpetance rate: 8%</p>
<p>Harvard EA Acceptance Rate: 22%
Harvard RD Acceptance Rate: 7%</p>
<p>and so it goes--- obviously there's a puge advantage to applying to ED programs.</p>
<p>As someone who actually WENT to Williams, I will once again dispute that Columbia has better name recognition for 95 percent of the careers that people coming out of places like Williams and Columbia are after. You can assert it all you want, but you have no evidence, and in fact all evidence out there -- actual NUMBER of Williams grads, adjusted for undergrad population, at elite employers -- will demonstrate the contrary. </p>
<p>Most of those careers require a grad degree, and as I said, all top graduate / professional school admissions committees AT LEAST think of Williams as equal to Columbia for undergrad education (as evidenced by the fact that Williams has more representation, on a proportional basis -- absolute numbers are of course irrelevant, you have to compare for school size -- at the top grad schools). Any consulting firm or investment bank you want to work at respects Williams as much or more than Columbia -- it is ridiculous to say that Columbia provides an advantage if you want to work on Wall Street, Williams is known to have outstanding placement at the top ibanks and consulting firms, pretty much as good as anywhere after Harvard / Wharton (and perhaps Princeton and Yale). The only place Columbia's "name" might prove helpful is in that narrow segment of jobs where people would be impressed by academic pedigree, but not have recruited enough people from top schools to know about elite liberal arts colleges, and where graduate degrees are not needed to gain entrance to that career. But the fact that no one at my high school had ever heard of Williams (which is true) hasn't affected my life in the slightest, and every graduate school or job I have EVER applied to has been impressed by my Williams degree. </p>
<p>When picking among schools at this level, you really can't go by "prestige," because whether you go to Williams, Columbia, Princeton, Amherst, MIT, etc., the difference is so negligible at that level that your performance in and after school will be FAR more important, and choosing a school you are less likely to be happy at (and thus do well at) because of (in this case false) claims of prestige advantage will not serve you well in the long run. And if anything, Williams' incredibly tight, accomplished, and helpful alumni network (partially because of the fact that it is relatively unknown among the general public, partially because the place engenders very passionate feelings among many alumni, but Williams alums are, I've found, amazingly helpful in terms of looking out for their fellow Ephs) will provide a resource that few if any schools can compete with.</p>
<p>If you want a top job in the US both are absolute equals, with a possible advantage to Williams. Williams engenders much more alumni loyalty and those in the know respect both equally.</p>