<p>I need some advice on how to decide where to apply early! I had narrowed it down to Columbia, UPenn, & Cornell, but I decided to leave Cornell for regular decision because I really want to go to a city school. I live in a suburb of Albany, NY and so I've always wanted to go somewhere urban for college. A big campus isn't really a top priority issue for me, but I want to definitely get a college feel. Obviously I can't expect the same kind of experience as I'd get with a place like Cornell, but I want to feel like part of a student body and that the school does more for me than just give me classes.</p>
<p>I'm majoring in Biomedical Engineering and I plan to pursue a Ph.D after undergraduate. I know the standings are super close so I wasn't sure if the prestige was a factor for when I'm applying to graduate school, for which I'd hope to go somewhere really good also. I'm pretty math/science and research oriented, but I love history and like reading, so I'm not worried about Core or no Core.</p>
<p>I have visited all three of these schools, and I honestly liked all of them. I was kinda leaning towards Upenn because of its half campus half city feel, but I went to NYC again this past weekend and I thought about how cool it would be to be there, even though I can easily visit whenever.
As a side note, my gf is applying ED to Barnard. She has a good shot, but its far from definite. Also, if we dont go to the same place, then were gonna have to break things off. And honestly I don't wanna base my decision off her.</p>
<p>I can post my stats or more information or whatever else if that helps. Please tell me what you think!</p>
<p>As far as prestige goes for graduate schools, I don’t believe there will be any substantial difference between UPenn and Columbia. However, I think it is pretty safe to safe to say that Columbia is better well known than UPenn to the average person. Since you really seem to be having a difficult time choosing which school to apply ED to, it would probably be best to not apply ED at all.</p>
<p>Yeah save ED for a school you REALLY REALLY want to go to without a shadow of a doubt. If you’re just using ED to play the statistics/chances game colleges might see that and it may not necessarily help your chances.</p>
<p>@OP “I thought about how cool it would be to be there, even though I can easily visit whenever.”</p>
<p>I’ve known students that have said that and never made a trip in or only one. Nothing beats rolling out of bed and being on the 1 train headed downtown 15-20 minutes later. Granted, most Columbia students will tell you that they didn’t/haven’t taken advantage of the city as much as they’d like but it sure as hell beats having to take trains/planes/automobiles into the city and trying to cram in all you can in 2 of 3 days.</p>
<p>Have you considered Duke or johns Hopkins? Both have AMAZING biomedical engineering programs, so you might want to look into that :)</p>
<p>If you’re on the fence now, don’t apply. You don’t want to be on the off-chance of getting in and regretting that there might be a better school for you.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! Sorry for the late reply! But I decided to read through all the specific programs and opportunities there are for biomed students at each school, and settled on Columbia for sure, and I visited again just to be positive! I didn’t like Baltimore or Johns Hopkins when I visited, but I am applying RD to duke. It’s just that I would prefer to be closer to home (I live in Albany)</p>