<p>What specifically interested you guys in Columbia?? Was it just the 'prestige' or what??</p>
<p>My son will be starting in the fall (he was accepted ED). We live 3,000 miles away, but through the college books and having spent a week of his life in New York, he was predisposed to Columbia. Then he visited. When we walked on campus, his eyes lit up. (This was after spending time at Harvard, Brown and Yale on our north-south east coast college trip last spring.) Then he learned about the core, toured the campus, and had an extended lunch with some students. He was sold.</p>
<p>Last week, I again congratulated him on his choice, but expressed surprise that he picked Columbia as his first choice over Yale. (He also did overnights at Chicago and Stanford, outside of the usual east coast suspects.) His response? “Dad, you liked Yale because we had a cute tour guide. (Guilty as charged.) Columbia is way better. The core and the city.”</p>
<p>While it may not be for everyone, Columbia offers a great education pound for pound. Given it’s location, reputation and students, it’s hard to beat.</p>
<ul>
<li>Overall reputation (was my highest factor, regardless)</li>
<li>Location for internships & Employment opportunity; especially in consulting</li>
<li>Location for diversity & Entertainment (“Live in NY at least once in your life but leave before it makes you hard”)</li>
<li>Great financial aid package</li>
<li>Ability to go on to the business/Law school of my choice afterwards (Stanford)</li>
<li>Literature Department (2nd major taken for personal enjoyment)</li>
<li>The fact that I look quite dashing in powder blue</li>
</ul>
<p>i am not one taken for prestige, nor was i applying just because of the city. not your most obvious columbia applicant.</p>
<p>so why columbia? the visit was all i needed. columbia was a place where the profs were true academics, very smart people, impressed me immensely, but were approachable even for me as a prospie and let me ask questions; i talked with them after class and i felt like i could just jump in. they were far better than any similar class visit at another school (even supposedly more academic schools - cough swat, and chi). students have a great balance between the life of the city, the classroom, their own social endeavors. I found there to be an unpretentiousness around most students (not all) and people who chose Columbia because it is the anti-HYP of sorts. the core was initially scary for me, but when i learned more about it, i couldn’t imagine wanting anything else. an education that exists on so many layers and levels. </p>
<p>i eventually chose columbia because i believed that whether it was in or out of the ivy league, whether it was in or out of new york, i still found it to be the most incredible social and academic experience - visiting when it was 75 degrees an the whole world hanging out on the steps certainly was a help. to me its prestige and location were extras thrown in (and boy are they great extras).</p>
<p>after attending, i can say must of what i thought was the same. i would give more credit to the city for what it offers (internships, resources, it is an incredible advantage). but i think that what i have said here often: it really offers the best academic and social experience by my estimation. and it was the only school in the ivy league to lure me because of what it offered as a whole. </p>
<p>i am part of the work hard philosophy of life, and i tend to agree with most that an ivy v. other top flight education is not massively different or greater advantage. a lot depends on how hard you work before-during-and after college. so with all that in mind i think a good measure of where to chose is the place you think is best for you and not for the prestige itself. you could say that princeton would get me further with prestige, but you would have to knock me out to have me consider it as a school (i find it to be terribly disconnected to the world we are living in - read the comments on their newspaper, check out their admission stats). but i fully expect that if i work as hard and with the advantages of the columbia experience in tote (the close proximity to reality, the strong intellectual ethic, the resourcefulness) i will do better than most of those fools and also be more well-rounded and adjusted.</p>
<p>I applied because of the sociology faculty’s reputation for mentoring and nurturing some of the brightest minds in the field. There’s a great amount of support from the University to have undergrads put real work out into the world (undergraduate academic journals are of a really high caliber). The practical experience you can get at Columbia is only compounded by the field of work, summer and post graduation, you get in a city like New York.</p>
<p>There is a prestige factor. Honestly, it doesn’t mean a thing if you can’t perform while there. Admission to a school like CU doesn’t guarantee success in life.</p>
<p>Oh, and I’d like to echo one of the statements above. There seems to be no vibe of pretension anywhere in the university community - obviously, there’ll be anecdotes to the contrary. But, everywhere I went, The Steps especially, people were quick to engage one another in a friendly manner.</p>