<p>Red&Blue, your points on why HYP still reigns supreme over Columbia are extremely valid. I'm not going to contest the points on UChicago, Berkeley, Stanford vs Columbia because all are great schools but I don't agree with two out of the three schools listed. But that's just my opinion.</p>
<p>Wharton may have a 9% acceptance rate, but that's out of 3.5k applicants. When you are choosing the top 9% out of 18,000 (CC) vs 9% out of 3,500, IMO I think there's an inherent distinction. But with that said, I agree wholeheartedly that if you know you want to do finance, Wharton is right up there with Harvard and definitely is higher on the totem pole than Columbia- a point that was never in contention. As a side note to this-- I believe that Penn, Duke, Columbia and all schools with essentially separate admissions practices should split up it's schools stats up because it's misleading to potential applicants when you tell them you have a 15% shot at Wharton when in effect, each pool of candidates for each school is split up.</p>
<p>Now to really address your HYP Points. I really don't know where you are coming up with some of these. </p>
<p>-Princeton doesn't have a Medical School, Law School, nor Business School
-Columbia Law is ranked consistently in the top 5, usually #4 after HYS
-Columbia Business school is consistently ranked top 10, Yale isn't even close
-Columbia Medical School is consistently ranked top 10 with Yale always #8 or 9. Harvard of course takes the cake on this one
-Columbia Teachers College is consistently ranked #1
-Columbia Engineering is higher than Harvard and wayyyy higher than Yale.
-Columbia SIPA (International Studies) consistently ranks above Yale and is more or less tied with Harvard and Princeton (woody-wood)</p>
<p>So you see... with all your "Grad schools which are ALL on average among the top 5 in their fields (CU doesn't come close)" I'm inclined to believe you are making crap up off the top of your head.</p>
<p>As per your "research" point and national academies, Columbia consistently brings the #1 amount of revenues from University Patents. Columbia has more Nobel Prizes than any other university in the world- way more than Princeton or Yale. Columbia does not lose in the research department by any means... and it's only true rival among the Ivies is Harvard. </p>
<p>Alumni giving at CU sucks. No contention there. </p>
<p>As for RD yield. I think another way, probably more accurate is looking at the cross admits. Beyond HYP, Columbia only loses marginally to Brown. The majority of all other Ivy cross-admits choose Columbia including Penn. More importantly however, is that among the HYP-other Ivy cross admit battles, Columbia wins the most relatively. 15% at Yale, 22% at Princeton, 21% at Stanford, 20% at MIT, and 9% at Harvard choose Columbia in the cross admit battle. Is it still very low? Yes. But it still is higher than any other Ivy cross admit rates. Additionally, Columbia has an overall yield of 62% last year. Considering Princeton had a yield of 69% and Yale 72%, it isn't that low at all. Last year's Prniceton RD yield was 55% and Columbia's was 47%. And finally, I'd argue that Columbia probably has more cross-admits with HYP than any other of the Ivies which results in a lower yield. Princeton's yield is lower than 70% for precisely that reason. </p>
<p>Okay and as for Endowment it brings me up to my last and final point. Columbia lags significantly behind HYP in endowment. But Columbia realizes this and has started it's $4billion endowment campaign with $1.6+bln already raised. The point is however, that Columbia recognizes the gap that has been wedged between itself and HYP. But historically, before the 1960's Columbia had the largest endowment in the country.</p>
<p>Red&Blue, I respect some of your points. The point on this thread is not to demean other Ivies- rather many of us prospective, incoming, and graduated Columbia alumni would want to see Columbia finally reclaim the prestige it's name once commanded. Indeed, as is well documented if you take a look in the periodicals of that age, before the 1960's Columbia and Harvard were the two most respected institutional in America- a cut beyond Yale and significantly more prestigious than Princeton. This thread is meant to reaffirm ourselves once again, through this record-low admit rate of any Ivy, that Columbia is indeed rising in the ranks and becoming more and more respected as it was previously. As history dictates, lower selectivity mirrors an increase in prestige (rightly or wrongly). Everyone wants what they can't have. Columbia becoming more selective will result in a higher caliber student body and will inevitably attract a stronger student body. Again- I for one am sorry if this thread offended any other schools- but I, as I believe many of the people on this thread believe, that in the relatively near future (1-2 decades), if Columbia continues on this trend as we believe it is doing (M'htan ville expansion, endowment growth, selectivity increase), it will one day be among HYP again. Does our "obsession" over wanting to be HYP define us? Of course not. We are Columbians. But still, having one's school recognized and respected as where I at least believe it should be never hurt anyone.</p>
<p>But in the end, who the hell knows what'll happen. There's no need however, to just come onto this thread and rain on our parade because it in no ways affects Penn (which I presume you are advocating for).</p>