Rice vs. Columbia Admitted Transfer

College Search & Selection
1

Cross-posted from reddit just wondering what the CC crowd thought. Most of them thought I should choose Columbia in this situation.

Hello! I’m a transfer student from a large state school and was admitted to both Columbia and Rice for sophomore status. I was admitted to Rice for the School of Natural Sciences, and admitted to CC for Columbia. I am a computer science major interested in Computational Biology. however, I’m not really sure what to pick but I’m leaning towards Rice. Would like some input from some of the people here. The costs are nearly the same, however, Columbia would require me to take out a 15k loan for the full 3 years. However, I am open to doing CS-Finance work.

The big things I’m worried about is stress culture, at my current university, I only took 14 credits each semester and got A’s, however I’m not sure if my state university would be on par with Columbia difficulty or not. I do not plan to go to graduate school. If I went to Columbia, I’d be more interested in a lighter load for credits. I just feel like I’d be below average there and not be able to keep up the same work, especially since I have to take about 15 credits a semester to graduate on time. I know they admit people for a reason, but I feel like I wouldn’t be able to handle the academics so I’m a bit worried. I’ve been scouring this reddit and it seems like people go either way on the stress culture itself, some people say its not that bad and usually the people who get the most stressed out are people who overload. Other people say that it’s incredibly hard and I’m not sure what to believe.

I was decently interested in the core itself, which was the reason I applied to Columbia, but the more I read about the stress culture, the worse I felt about my decision. Columbia is a great school for CS, but is it worth that extra 15k for prestige, the core, stress factor, and NYC? Also, I’m in the process of appealing aid to see if they can match Rice but I’m not sure how successful that would be. Rankings usually aren’t super helpful, but they are so close together I wasn’t really sure what to do. Any input would be appreciated, I’m kinda lost here.

2

What was the result after the appeal?

Is that 15K total, or 15K per year?

3

Cost not the same if Rice $15k less. Clear the person wanted Columbia, going thru trouble to appeal award. I’d have advised Rice in an instant unless strong personal reasons and tied to NYC. Rice just s nicer place to go to college

4

Go with your gut. Rice is less expensive and has happier students. You would be welcomed into the Rice campus and culture during O Week. You will be assigned to a residential college, which is an instant social group. Rice doesn’t have Greek life. The cost of living is lower in Houston too for things like meals out, etc. Rice has some distribution requirements. You are required to take some courses in Rice’s various schools outside of your major, but there are tons of courses to choose from. Rice doesn’t have a strict core requirement like Columbia does. Columbia is more intense while Rice is more collaborative. Don’t let prestige blind you to the best fit. https://unconventional.rice.edu/happystudents?fbclid=IwAR22wBqTVnFfJf3hVvcl9dJ0LKk8owZlpGXERlYvNNV04bOPlnr3HYnvbHk

5

OP - you’re overthinking the so-called, “stress culture” at Columbia. What you’re really saying is you think the work would be easier at Rice than at Columbia. That’s patently false. As a rising sophomore, the Columbia core would be doable. If that and New York City are at all appealing to you, then, $15k total indebtedness for all four years is pretty reasonable.