<p>BTW, Columbia doesn't need a C alongside HYP. It's practically amazing to see it being seriously compared to Harvard at all; this wouldn't have happened 20 years ago or even 10.</p>
<p>i got into columbia and harvard, and i would have gladly chosen columbia (my parents sorta made me choose harvard), so i consider on the same tier... </p>
<p>as a matter of fact, i think about how great it would be to go to columbia all the time.</p>
<p>Haha, I think about what it would be like at Harvard. I actually went to the Yard yesterday (I'm working in Boston for the summer) because I miss school so much.</p>
<p>All petty distinctions aside, they seem to have the most similar student bodies (in my experience) in the Ivies. Both relatively diverse and socially unpretentious (IMO) compared to some other schools, actually.</p>
<p>Of course these are broad generalizations.</p>
<p>I can only say that the core certainly played a role in my son's choice of Columbia, along with NYC, and that the friends he's made there who have come through our home have been mostly enthusiastic about it. It was only after visiting a core class that he made his decision, because it was the best class he experienced on his tour of the schools to which he was accepted. This is not to disagree with your point that not everyone who chooses Columbia even knows much about the core before they get there or to argue that it is a uniformly good experience. (I have only met one student out of my admittedly small sample who didn't loathe Frontiers of Science.) But, the fact of the core does draw some people and repel others, especially exclusively science and math types, and so does shape the student body somewhat differently than at universities that do not have it.</p>
<p>Of course there are increasing numbers of undergrads at Columbia who are already headed to a career, whether it is investment banking or medicine, because that is true of the whole undergrad population compared to decades past. When you are investing these huge amounts in tuition, it's difficult not to feel pressure to do something other than "finding yourself" for four years. My point in response to the OP was that Harvard actively selects for those students who have devoted themselves to one area and are high achievers in it ("lop-sided" vs "well-rounded") and also asks students to commit to a major sooner than elsewhere and that, therefore, you are more likely to find such students at Harvard. Not that there aren't other types at Harvard, as well, or some of them at Columbia. Again, not a judgment, just an observation.</p>
<p>OP, is that the correct usage of prodigal?</p>