<p>Hi! I am trying to decide between Columbia and another school so I would really appreciate it if anyone can tell me what they liked most about Columbia and what they disliked most about Columbia, or anything else that comes to mind. Please be 100% honest! Thanks!!!</p>
<p>hi anon: check out a few threads on here first, worthy of giving you a lot to think about. are you seas or cc?</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/836242-down-wire-hard-sell-columbia.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/836242-down-wire-hard-sell-columbia.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/1120580-princeton-vs-columbia-engineering.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/1120580-princeton-vs-columbia-engineering.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/1123201-columbia-vs-stanford.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/1123201-columbia-vs-stanford.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1121041-columbia-v-upenn-v-washu-v-northwestern.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1121041-columbia-v-upenn-v-washu-v-northwestern.html</a></p>
<p>Many of these posts become ‘flame wars’ but in the end they offer a lot to think about. The main protagonists on here are myself, confidentialcoll, Denzera and especially a set of current students that pop in from time to time. The main antagonists are usually students that have never attended Columbia (someone from Princeton was quite strong on here a few months back), truazn, at times slipper1234 (transferred from C to Dartmouth), beard is a sour guy, but his main qualm is SEAS, and occasionally other folks.</p>
<p>I think the realization is that Columbia for some reason conjures up a lot of strong feelings, and it seems to especially draw folks that dislike it on here, take it with the grain of salt or believe it, either is your choice. I can attest that the biggest Pro for Columbia is that the entire educational/co-curricular experience is truly impressive, unwieldy and awe-inspiring. It leaves you almost surprised you could do so much, learn so much in 4 years. Both the university, the local community and the big city conspire to give you a memorable experience that made me into who I am today, and I am eternally grateful.</p>
<p>The greatest Con is probably the fact that Columbia is not like other schools, so when your friends talk about having some rager on campus, that wont be your reality (your neighbors at Columbia are not other college students all the time). To a lot of students (on here and elsewhere) this is an unacceptable proposition. To me, it was a necessary trade off to have the experience in college that I wanted. There are just some things that happen at a traditional college campus (local cops look the other way, there is no omnipresent oversight) that can’t happen in a major urban university, let alone one that draws as much ire as Columbia from the press (Fox News, but also the local press really enjoys to see Columbia come down to size, ironic considering Columbia gave NYC most of the original press organs).</p>
<p>Thanks for your very informative post! I am SEAS but I don’t know what I’ll major in. The other school I’m considering is MIT. The threads you gave were very helpful, but I noticed (unless I missed something) that none were dealing specifically with MIT vs. Columbia. What are your impressions of MIT and how is it different from Columbia? I noticed that you mentioned that one poster-beard-had a qualm with SEAS. Could you elaborate?</p>
<p>@anon: if u r seas, i would say mit is a better choice. i have a friend who were in the same situation and he ended up in mit. he told me he had been great there and enjoyed every aspect of his life in mit.</p>
<p>Anonymous, I went to a high school that sent 15+ kids to MIT so I have a good deal of friends there and I’m a senior at Columbia so I can shed some light.</p>
<p>I’ve been a bear about Columbia for a while, but with that said, the question comes down to – What do you want to do?</p>
<p>If you’re interest is <em>legitimately</em> engineering / ‘real’ economics (versus ‘fluffy econ’), then the choice is an obvious MIT. However, with that said, I have to add an important caveat. Even now, I can sniff an MIT student a mile away - yes, because they are <em>that</em> nerdy and often <em>that</em> socially awkward and have their quirks.</p>
<p>The other question I want to ask you is this: Do you consider yourself a ‘prodigy’-type? (i.e. AMC’s, AIME’s, USAMO, IMO etc.), or merely someone who is extremely intelligent and generally good at math/sciences? If the former (i.e. you’re <em>extremely</em> into math/sciences), MIT will be the better experience. If the latter, and it’s merely that you’re extremely good at math/sciences, but you don’t live for that kind of thing, then Columbia will give you a better overall experience. </p>
<p>As a SEAS student, there’s a higher chance that you’ll end up at a Wall Street investment bank than you will at an engineering firm. From MIT, you have lower portions going to Wall Street, and more into top consulting firms, PhD programs, software engineers, and at the very top level, proprietary trading firms (e.g. GETGO, AQR, JUMP). </p>
<p>Think carefully about your choice. I do know personally know people who have turned down MIT for Columbia and they’re doing well here. But with that said, MIT is MIT.</p>