<p>So who wins? and why?</p>
<p>Also M&T verse Columbia's 4-1 program?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Are we talking full out fist fight here or something a bit more muted?</p>
<p>That's an interesting question. However, it would be difficult to compare Wharton's ugrad B program to Columbia's because the latter doesn't have one.</p>
<p>Are you talking about grad school?</p>
<p>Well, just prep for life in a business world (undergraduate). I am sure being in New York and having a fine overall college that the econ program is superb.</p>
<p>Also, with the 4-1 program it seems that it is comparable to the M&T program at Penn.</p>
<p>^^Columbia prepares you pretty well for the business world.</p>
<p>Wharton's a great school--and their undergraduate program is terrific.</p>
<p>However, I would argue that the best place to learn business is the workplace. You could learn all or most of what you do at Wharton in the span of a few months on Wall Street.</p>
<p>I guess I feel that you should use your undergraduate years to study whatever you want to--econ, english, lit, whatever--and take relevant classes that'll help you in the business world. That's where Columbia comes in. It's got a diversified liberal arts/engineering program that, if you structure your time, will allow you to exercise your analytical skills and take seminars where you'll be debating with your classmates on current affairs, literature, philosophy, and other things that the Core offers. I'm not sure if Wharton offers similar things, it's just that the business focus may be a little narrow this early on in your career.</p>
<p>What people tend to forget is that one of hte most important things in business is networking and building connections, and you don't need to be a business major to be good at it.</p>
<p>That being said, if you like business, and are ok with doing it for 4 years, go for it :) Sounds a little drab to me, but to each his own.</p>
<p>columb and wharton are not really comparable. Both have very smart kids though.</p>
<p>The 4-1 program again isn't comparable to the M&T program, the M&T programs allows you to cut many requirements and get two degrees in 4 years, but it's more like 1.5 degrees worth of work. It's also a combination of business and engineering, which is not the same as the 4-1. The closest thing would be a 4-1 with a BA in econ, but here you have to do the whole engineering and college core, the 4-1 is more like 1.75-2 degrees. Econ is no business degree and vice versa, in terms of getting jobs at wall street I'd say the M&T program better prepares you, whereas the 4-1 is more exclusive, but M&T is still fantastic. </p>
<p>around 50 kids do M&T every year, whereas 5 people do the 4-1 each year, making it much more exclusive, it also probably carries more weight because close to no-one gets two degrees at Columbia, whereas at Penn a couple of hundred kids get 2 degrees every year. </p>
<p>In terms of life prep, I'd say Columbia does a better job than Wharton, while wharton definitely prepares you better to work on wall street. Columbia gives you better all round education, you can hold better non-finance conversations after graduating from the college. In my mind a plain business degree as a first degree is a real waste unless you want to go into quantitative finance. At Wharton the M&T and Huntsman kids take the top jobs, both are awesome programs.</p>
<p>I've always been of the opinion that undergrad was the time to major in something other than business and that after graduation -- either in the workplace, or in a graduate business program, or both -- was the time to hone those business skills. A major in a different field can be very useful to a person in business.</p>
<p>I'd rather have a sociology or psychology major as my management consultant (because they know how to connect with people and get them to accept our ideas, plus there is a research component to those majors and MC is often about researching options) than a business major. I'd rather have a mathematics major as my i-banker...or an engineering, computer science, or physics major as my manager at Google. See what I'm saying?</p>
<p>I'd also argue that Columbia is uniquely placed. During the summer, the Wharton students will have to compete with all the other thousands of students to get an internship in New York (not that they're not competitive! lol!) but Columbia students can intern at those companies during the school year easily.</p>
<p>Personally I think Columbia's better anyway but I'm biased, of course!</p>
<p>Undergraduate business is a bad idea, I think. I'd say go to Columbia College if it were a choice between that and Wharton.</p>
<p>That being said, were it a choice between Columbia College and Penn's College of Arts & Sciences, I'd say go to Penn for a more enjoyable "college-like" undergraduate experience and a faculty of generally equal quality (ahead in some fields, behind in others, overall an A&S toss-up)</p>