I’m trying to pare down my list and choose a couple of colleges from the “reach” category: Princeton vs. Columbia vs. Duke vs. Rice vs. WashU vs. Johns Hopkins. I’m really interested in computer science/applied math, so it’s important that the school has an excellent program in that. It’d also be great that the school has a good finance program. But it’s also really important that the school will open a lot of doors for internships and provide good job training.
I’m trying to take acceptance rates into account, as well. Like Princeton probably fits the bill the best, but I just think it’s so hard to get into that it’s not worth applying.
My GPA is 3.88, ACT is 35, and I’ve won a couple international/national finance awards, if that helps.
@prodesse There are a couple international finance awards (though they’re not well known). I am indeed applying to Harvey Mudd; I loved it there. Any other thoughts on Princeton vs. Columbia vs. Duke vs. Rice vs. WashU vs. Johns Hopkins for me?
I’m not too interested in finance being a major, per say. I just want there to be an entrepreneurial vibe; that’s probably a better way to describe it.
WashU would allow you to major in Math/CompSci while taking classes at Olin, but I would probably consider JHU or Princeton ahead of WashU if Math was my primary interest.
@Burrito12 when combining both overall quality and also quality of finance opps/recruiting I d say the order is something like this: Princeton > Columbia ~ Duke > JHU~Rice ~WashU
If you also take into consideration acceptance difficulty then yes maybe you should shoot for Columbia or Duke and not Princeton. You are well within the admissible range for Princeton too but of course it will be harder.
@Penn95 Does that take math and computer science into account? I just want to emphasize that even though I’m “spiked” in finance, I am more interested in math/CS.
All of these schools have 1) good computer science and/or applied math. You don’t really want to overindex on picking a university because of one department at the undergrad level, especially when you’re comparing elite universities like this; first of all, there aren’t really reliable undergrad rankings of math departments or CS departments, and second of all there’s so much that goes into a good undergrad experience beyond your major. That said, if you just need a really good tie-breaker, Princeton, Columbia and Duke are tops in both of those fields. Rice and Wash U are also excellent at computer science but mid-ranked in math; Johns Hopkins is middle-of-the-road in both. (Remember, though, that these are doctoral program rankings and don’t overlap perfectly with undergrad experience. Normally, I wouldn’t recommend that students pay much attention to these overall, but if you really need a tiebreaker, this is as good as any.)
All of them also 2) have a good track record of placing graduates in great business internships and jobs and 3) prepare students well for internships. Traditional liberal arts & sciences universities don’t really do “job training”; that’s more a vocational school thing, but you’d probably be about equally well prepared for jobs out of any of these universities.
So really, your decision points here are going to be on the things that make these colleges unique. Rice, for example, is a small university with a really small undergrad population - just under 4,000 undergrads - and a residential house system. It’s going to feel almost akin to a small liberal arts college in some ways, albeit with world-class research right on-site. Princeton, I have also heard, has more of an undergrad focus than other big universities. Johns Hopkins and Columbia are both pretty research- and grad-student-heavy universities - that doesn’t mean that you can’t have a good undergrad experience there, but it’s going to feel different.
Location will be another differentiator. Princeton is in the suburbs halfway between Philadelphia and New York. That’s going to give it a very different feel than an urban university like Columbia or Johns Hopkins or even Wash U, although St. Louis (and Baltimore) are smaller than New York. Duke is also in a smaller city and will likely have a more traditional campus feel. Duke and Rice are in the South, where it’s warmer year-round; Wash U will be somewhat in the middle, and it’ll get cold and snowy at Princeton and Columbia during the winter.