From the perspective of my rocking chair, “25 or 26” is still a young whippersnapper.
For the first couple years, the OP will be about as old as many 3rd or 4th year students.
College classes (other than some 1st year classes or thesis seminars) typically aren’t segregated by graduating class. So IMO any of these 3 options probably could work (esp. if you are not too thin-skinned and accept that a few kids might ask about your age.)
When I was in college, we had a classmate in his late 20s with prematurely grey hair. He was a little odd, but I liked him. Then there was an old dude, about 70 maybe, whom some of us called “Ben Franklin”. He contributed nicely to discussions. One guy started at age 14, another was getting his doctorate at 19. Each one fit in, more or less. Our total undergraduate population must have been about 3K (so not much bigger than a LAC.)
Columbia has an exceptionally strong program in philosophy, and its Core is rigorous regardless of whether one is in the College or GS.
I think many people are not very informed about Columbia College vis-à-vis GS – in terms of academics and post-graduate opportunities, there is zero difference between the two. One could hardly pick a better undergraduate institution for philosophy than Columbia.
I have always had somewhat mixed feelings about Reed. While Reed produces more than its fair share of PhD students, more than a few wash out along the way – some unprepared for academic rigor, and others deciding that Reed was not the right school for them. 65% of students graduating in 4 years and 80% in 6 years is not great for a selective private school. (The four and six year graduation rates, respectively, are ~88% and ~95% at Swat and Columbia.)
I’m not sure you’d find zero academic differences between GS and Columbia College though. Even though the available curricula are similar, note that GS states its core program, for example, differs from that of Columbia College:
As this goes, I’m not certain as to whether classic core curriculum courses at Columbia College such as CC and Lit-Hum would be open to GS students. In any case, I’d recommend you look into this further if any of these distinctions might seem important to you.
Re. the rooming question someone asked, you would be able to get a single room at Reed pretty easily and could probably even move into the Reed Apartments complex at the edge of campus, which is usually reserved for seniors but also has apartments for non-traditional students AFAIK.
The Reed philosophy department is very strong and has a great track record placing students into top grad schools: Princeton, Harvard Law, USC, Berkeley, Oxford BPhil, UMich are all examples from the last 3-4 years off the top of my head. It’s also a pretty small department, so you’d get a lot of individual attention from professors.
I can’t recommend Reed highly enough and don’t think you should be concerned about the graduation rate if you’re as goal-oriented as you sound.
Hi @Aspiringacademic, just wanted to chime in and confirm that GS students are able to take “classic” core courses such as Lit Hum and Contemporary Civilization, if they so choose. Consider this one more vote for GS - grad school placement is excellent, by the way. More than 70 percent of GS alumni go on to earn advanced degrees. I think you’ll feel at home at Columbia, given that you’ll be surrounded by not only “traditional” undergrads, but you’ll be part of a large community of nontraditional ones who have had some life experience.
@CardinalBobcat: I’m not sure where you looked, but that thread appears to be a discussion forum for prospective Cornell transfer students in which the OP states that he would be transferring from Reed.
@merc81, I see what you mean. I’d misunderstood because the post asks readers to “chance me” and lists the college as Reed. But you’re right; a closer read shows that the author is already at Reed.