Hello, currently I am choosing between Claremont McKenna and a Columbia dual BA program with Sciences Po. I am US public high school student from suburban NY.
To give some info about me, I am interested in international human rights and politics, and have worked at NGOs in Southeast Asia on the Rohingya Crisis for the past two summers. I likely want to work internationally (or at least on international issues), particularly in Asia, and on human rights, but I am not sure if that means being a researcher, consultant, entrepreneur, etc. in the field. In essence, I vaguely know what I want to do but not really.
Claremont McKenna is a small liberal arts school on the same campus and consortium as 4 other undergrad schools, such as Harvey Mudd and Pomona College. The Columbia dual BA program consists of spending 2 years in Le Havre, France on a campus with only about 200 students and getting a degree from Sciences Po (the top French politics university), and the second two years at Columbia school of General Studies in NYC, and getting a degree from there. The Le Havre Sciences Po campus specializes in Euro-Asia politics.
I am leaning towards Claremont McKenna, but I also really love the dual BA program because the student population is extremely international, you get a really diverse and varied experience (2 years on a small isolated and abroad campus, and 2 in a big NYC campus), and it is definitely more prestigious. Both schools in the program are extremely prestigious, and graduates of the program almost always get advantage in hiring due to the uniqueness and prestige of their degree, and going to an ivy league for grad school (if you want to) is almost a guarantee coming out of the program. I would like to go to grad school, hopefully law school and one that is prestigious to help with getting a good job later on. Also, I’ve lived in a sheltered suburb my whole life, and at this program I will be surrounded by people who aren’t like me nor those I’ve been around my whole life, which is something I want. I’ll also be forced to look after myself in France, getting my own apartment and cooking my own meals, which may help accelerate my maturation.
The things I don’t like about the program are that you spend the first two years at such a small place with limited people to befriend, there is no chance for academic exploration outside of social sciences while at Sciences Po, and nobody at Sciences Po forms a relationship with their professor as that is not a French norm. I also don’t like how you are at a networking and extracurricular disadvantage at Columbia, due to the fact that you get there as a junior, so you really don’t make many connections outside of those in the dual BA program. Overall, the academics of this program feel less intimate and more like “going through the motions” of college, with little ingenuity (other than the fact that it’s a dual degree!). Also, when students in the program speak about academics, they almost always speak about Columbia.
To me, while Claremont McKenna may not guarantee me a great grad school and is not quite as academically prestigious and unique, it offers a much more intimate and nurtured learning environment. Everyone is close with their professors, there is much chance for academic exploration outside of your main interests, and the administration there is extremely active in supporting its students. Not to mention, it’s one of the happiest campuses in the US—socially, I’d probably have a much easier time. I do see myself being very happy there and academically nurtured. However, I am worried that it won’t expose me to enough and keep me in a sheltered mindset, due to the fact that many people there will be “like me,” coming from US high schools. I do plan to take a gap year doing internships abroad throughout Asia, and will probably do a semester abroad and abroad internships and research while in college, but I’m not sure if that’s the same international exposure I’d get at the Dual BA program. Also, I likely want to move back to NY after graduation, and I’m sure the alumni network for CMC is much more sparse there.
So, what do you guys think? Where should I go? I have until this Friday to decide.