<p>So I am having to decide between Cornell and Columbia for early decision. I am trying to choose (my decision is needed in a couple days for certain "sport" reasons) but it is getting quite hard.</p>
<p>I LOVE the city, the urban diversity, and the small campus of Columbia. </p>
<p>But Cornell has a better science program. And it allows more options for electives (no core curriculum - which I haven't decided if I am for or against)</p>
<p>I have visited both and like both campuses. I could see myself at both. The main argument in my head is "Cornell has a better program, but Columbia is in NYC"</p>
<p>So my questions are: Does it really matter that Columbia is not as science focused? Would it affect my admittance into Med School? Will the Core eat away any chance I have at exploring anything besides sciences?</p>
<p>"Cornell has a better program, but Columbia is in NYC"</p>
<p>Columbia is actually extremely science focused. Perhaps not as much as Cornell is, but the science faculty and the research at Columbia is excellent. Pre-med at both schools is going to be challenging, and the quality of education at both schools won't differ by much. The only thing is the Intro bio class at Columbia is pretty damn hard: it's one of the premed death classes. I've heard it's much easier at other schools.</p>
<p>In any case, unless cornell offers you something specific in the sciences that Columbia doesn't, don't base your decision on that. And cornell vs. Columbia definitely won't make a difference to your med school admissions. </p>
<p>The core may eat into your desire for pursuing the sciences: but it'll also depend on structuring your time--it didn't affect me or most of my friends from taking science and other random classes. On the flip side, if you're not a fan of the core and what it stands for, I'd dissuade you from columbia.</p>
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The only thing is the Intro bio class at Columbia is pretty damn hard: it's one of the premed death classes. I've heard it's much easier at other schools.
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<p>The material is challenging and they expect you to rise to the high level at which they want you to be. While it's not an easy curve, it's definitely not a "weed-out class" where they fail masses of people. I don't recall the curve being that much different than a premed class like regular organic chem.</p>
<p>^ things have probably changed in a decade C02 ;).</p>
<p>I have a few really smart really committed friends, who rock other classes, but are more committed to bio. They struggled and failed to get a good grade. They're still bio chem majors, but it was lower than their average grade. It is an insanely competitive, weed out the chaff class.</p>
<p>Today's intro bio is the same class that I took (actually 8 yrs ago) -- same profs, same syllabus, probably the same recycled questions on the exams, etc.</p>
<p>It's not a weed-out class. A weed-out class fails a ton of people, or forces them to drop out because they're likely going to fail. I don't think Columbia has any such courses; crappy state schools do.</p>
<p>I agree with you that the class is difficult and the grades aren't inflated, and that bio will probably be one of peoples' worst grades. But some class has to be your worst grade. And it's not like an A student who works his butt off is going to get a C -- he may struggle to get a B or B+. But that's not a weed-out class.</p>
<p>"And it's not like an A student who works his butt off is going to get a C -- he may struggle to get a B or B+. But that's not a weed-out class."</p>
<p>this is precisely what I meant by a weed out class. Perhaps I'm very cushioned at columbia, but someone below class average could get like a C / C+. This would turn people away from the major as they'll think to themselves "hmm, I can't even crack a B in this intro course". I think we just disagree on the definition of 'weed out', for me it's a class that discourages a whole bunch of people from a major (most people below average in the class.)</p>
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Today's intro bio is the same class that I took (actually 8 yrs ago) -- same profs, same syllabus, probably the same recycled questions on the exams, etc.
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<p>Are you sure about that? A kid I know got completely screwed on his Calc Final because the teacher decided that writing a new test would be a great way to keep the students on their toes.</p>
<p>While I agree that there aren't there isn't an infinite variety of questions to ask on a test, the professor this semester stated up front that the class would be following a much more quantitative paradigm than it has in the past.</p>
<p>Mosho's class isn't intended to be a weed-out class, but it ends up being that way because so many people end up with B's and B-'s: those aren't such hot grades if you're planning on being pre med and heading towards a grad school bottleneck</p>