So I have a decision to make...

<p>Everyone is right to some degree, but in some cases are conflating two issues. It is the old “perception versus reality” thing. People are right that Wash U has excellent programs in many areas and is a lot stronger than the “average” person thinks, but that is exactly it. The “average” person knows Ivies and big name sports schools, and that’s about it. So no matter what the rankings and realities, Columbia is of course going to be more well known. Guess what? So is Michigan, and lots of other schools that are not as strong as Wash U for a lot of areas. That this should be of concern to anyone is what is worrisome.</p>

<p>I know WashU is most known for its Med school, but as gprime said, the social work, BME, psychology, and others are also top, not to mention its architecture grad school program -which is ranked #6 this year, #5 last year.</p>

<p>i like columbia better… not cuz of the name… i hate that reason… u have to truly like a school… like when u love a person. u can’t base it on appearance… it’s short-lived.</p>

<p>When I had to choose a few years ago between WashU and an Ivy League school, I thought I would be the only person at WashU who would do such a thing (based on the 30% yield versus the 60+% yield for the Ivy). </p>

<p>I was really, really wrong. Almost all of the kids at WashU will have chosen the school over peer schools like JHU, Northwestern, etc., and many of the lower Ivies (Brown, Penn, Dartmouth, Cornell). </p>

<p>People aren’t at WashU because they couldn’t get into Columbia. They’re there because they want to be there and because they could get over the name factor.</p>

<p>my brother goes to Columbia, and he absolutely hates it there. He says the proffessors don’t care about undergrads, discipline is unfair, dorms aren’t very nice, etc. Although he does love NYC.</p>

<p>I’m going to WashU next year, but I didn’t apply to the Ivies because I knew I wouldn’t get in.</p>

<p>So there you go.</p>

<p>I wasn’t going to get into this, but since winrawr brings it up… My D got into all the schools to which she applied, including a couple of Ivies (and Wash U and others). She decided not to even consider the Ivies after determining that most of them are so grad student focused because they are into research, publishing, and winning major grants and prizes to the extent that undergrads are just a nuisance (Dartmouth seemed not to be this way and Brown seemed less so, to be fair). Also we realized this is a fairly broad brush with which to paint them, and that there were exceptions. But on the whole they seemed to be much better choices for grad school. Just our humble opinion.</p>

<p>I can only say again, going to a certain university because of name recognition is a mistake. You may end up loving it, but that would more likely be a coincidence. There are a lot of really great universities out there, and they are often sufficiently different that one is undoubtedly a better fit for you than another, and thus you would be much happier there. There are so many examples of highly successful people from all sorts of “unheralded” schools, certainly from non-Ivies, that it just makes me sad to see this discussion still happening in this day and age, with the amount of information available to everyone to dispel this myth. Sorry for the run-on sentence.</p>

<p>So that’s my way of saying I hope you can overcome the name recognition dysfunction. But if you can’t, then you can’t and your decision is easy. The only thing I could add is that if this is not your terminal degree, then the name recognition will come from where you get your highest degree, so don’t worry about it now.</p>