<p>Columbia and Brown have similar grad placement rates, acceptance rates, and recruiters on campus. Generally I would say they are about equal. Cornell is behind them, but not by far in these areas. WashU seems to lag them all in these areas.</p>
<p>I would only consider applying to Columbia. Cornell and Brown seem to be arguably on par with WashU. But it seems that your friend only wants bragging right which is probably the reason why she's thinking of applying to only the ivies.</p>
<p>"Wash U is tied with Columbia in the USNews rankings"</p>
<p>8) Columbia
12) Wash U
14) Cornell
17) Brown</p>
<p>Um...honestly US News Rankings are BS...sorry...</p>
<p>If you want an opinion that is a bit more neutral, I'd say all are equal...each, however has it's unique aspects, and strengths/weaknesses...for example, of the four, while Cornell might not rank highest, it's engineering program is nearly undoubtedly better...and this is coming from someone who is a Class of 2013 of Columbia's Engineering Program...while I knew of Cornell's strong program, I happened to like Columbia's highly liberal Core...Wash U is a great medical school and offers many interesting programs...each school is great in it's own right...rankings don't express anything, but numbers plugged into a formula...meaningless numbers in my opinion...if you want to figure out a true comparison of the four schools you mentioned, visit each schools respective website and do the research yourself...really the only way to decide which is better for you, is to do the work yourself...because every person really has a college that will eventually truly suit them and their future interests</p>
<p>Hope this helps...and good luck with Columbia!</p>
<p>Just to clarify a few things...my friend isn't applying as a transfer for the name (which are all about equal I would say, with the slight edge to Columbia). She wants a more diverse school and a school closer to home (we're both from NY). Given her college choices in high school (she did not apply to Columbia or Cornell), Wash u was the clear choice but it is not a perfect fit by any means.</p>
<p>Also, thanks for the responses!!</p>
<p>
[quote]
Um...honestly US News Rankings are BS...sorry...</p>
<p>If you want an opinion that is a bit more neutral, I'd say all are equal
[/quote]
</p>
<p>yes, the US news ranks are so close that they hardly matter, they are also BS.</p>
<p>However, saying the schools are all equal is politically correct and has no other foundation. Columbia is overall a slightly better school imo, with a slightly more qualified student body, slightly better professors and better grad placements, brown comes close [here see slippers' post]. The differences overall are not huge.</p>
<p>Now for international relations columbia definitely trumps the others. Studying poli sci with a focus on international politics is perhaps the best way to get into international relations of any program in the country (and is possibly the strongest such program). NYC plays a part in this. Our world leaders forum gets more impressive international speakers than any academic institution on the planet. </p>
<p>I think we might even beat them on environmental science, there is a massive amount of resources devoted to it, we have the earth institute and tons of professors who focus their research on climate change / enviromental science. In engineering for example, I know of several profs in earth and environmental eng, mech E, chem E, civil E and even applied math who devote their research to it. Put the two interests together and we're unbeatable, last year we hosted The Economist debates on climate change and international relations, that says something, Kofi Annan i believe delivered the inaugural address.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Cornell might not rank highest, it's engineering program is nearly undoubtedly better
[/quote]
</p>
<p>this is only true if you are sure you want to get into typical engineering, the student bodies are comparable (columbia seas might actually be more difficult to get into than cornell eng - columbia possibly has a lower acceptance rate and higher sat scores). For traditional mech E, electrical, and engineering physics, there's no doubt that cornell is a better school. For BME, comp sci, chem E they'd be comparable. If you plan to apply an engineering degree to a non-engineering field - say wall street, law or medicine - columbia has the edge.</p>
<p>Definitely Columbia, no question. New York City. UN. Opportunities?</p>
<p>In terms of prestige, Columbia is arguably above Cornell and Brown. Chances are that you'll eventually stop caring about prestige.</p>
<p>They're very different schools. Do some more research.</p>
<p>It's all about opportunities, and assuming academics are roughly equal, Columbia is probably a better choice for most. Being in NYC has its advantages.</p>
<p>Still, college is what you make of it, and Wash/Brown/Cornell are all excellent schools. You would not be making a "bad" choice to attend any one of them.</p>
<p>I went to Cornell, and I found its sheer size to be a drawback. Classes were totally jammed packed with students. If I had chosen another major, things might have been different, but I wasn't thinking that way back then.</p>
<p>Bottom line: Ignore the rankings, and go where you think you can get the most attention from the best teachers. And have some fun, too.</p>
<p>It's all about opportunities, and assuming academics are roughly equal, Columbia is probably a better choice for most. Being in NYC has its advantages.</p>
<p>Still, college is what you make of it, and Wash/Brown/Cornell are all excellent schools. You would not be making a "bad" choice to attend any one of them.</p>
<p>I went to Cornell, and I found its sheer size to be a drawback. Classes were totally jammed packed with students. If I had chosen another major, things might have been different, but I wasn't thinking that way back then.</p>
<p>Bottom line: Ignore the rankings, and go where you think you can get the most attention from the best teachers. And have some fun, too.</p>
<p>I would like to add this: Let's try to avoid negative feedback and look at the positives of each. I think its petty to be putting down other schools, especially those with many talented faculty and students.</p>
<p>^negative criticism is essential in any comparative evaluation. Negative comments don't detract from a schools excellence, they embrace that the schools aren't perfect and points out deficiencies. Saying something like Brown is full of stupid kids, is a derogatory, factually inaccurate and counter-productive statement. Saying Brown's free curriculum makes it easier to survive through and allows some kids to slack off more, is a fair statement and doesn't mean Brown is filled with idiots or is a low caliber school, you'll be kept more on your toes at Cornell for example.</p>
<p>Yes, constructive criticism is good. I was referring to the generic "Brown sucks" posts, but to the credit of the people on this board, they pointed out the foolishness of such comments.</p>
<p>Generally speaking the longtime members of this board are fairly mature about any comparisons to peer schools.</p>
<p>Just as it is policy within the Admissions department to never compare themselves directly to any specific peer school nor to talk negatively about any specific peer school, I think we all benefit from roughly doing the same around here. It's much easier to talk about what makes Columbia great (having attended the place) than to talk out of our butts about places we've never studied.</p>
<p>if you want an urban environment, consider Penn as well as Columbia. brown is more like a small LAC. Cornell is a big school in a rural environment. these school are all really different. to be honest, it seems like you're just trying to get into an ivy league school and you don't care which one it is.</p>
<p>"Columbia is in an entirely different league from the other schools you mention."</p>
<p>Get over yourself. Of students accepted to both Brown and Columbia, 56% choose Brown and 44% choose Columbia. Maybe they don't read US News?</p>
<p>The</a> New York Times > Week in Review > Image > Collegiate Matchups: Predicting Student Choices</p>
<p>Now that's interesting, I'm curious how they collected that data. Now, you know I previously said Brown is an excellent school, but the numbers brown threw up don't really coincide with that school's academic standing. </p>
<p>For instance, more than 1/10 claimed they turned down Harvard for Brown. 1/5 for Yale, 1/4 for MIT, 1/4 turned down Stanford for Brown. It doesn't seem to add up. Although, this is pure speculation because I have no statistics to back up my skepticism. These stats just seem odd.</p>
<p>It's pretty old data. Also, Brown's open curriculum is pretty attractive to some people.</p>
<p>"Get over yourself. Of students accepted to both Brown and Columbia, 56% choose Brown and 44% choose Columbia. Maybe they don't read US News?"</p>
<p>yes brown is great, but this statistic by itself doesn't necessarily put brown over columbia or equal to it, pre-frosh preferences are hardly a measure of school quality. But brown is definitely a popular school and attracts top talent, I wouldn't severely put down brown with respect to any other school.</p>