Why Did You Choose Columbia?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
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<p>This may be a more appropriate question for current Columbia students on CC, as well as those who were accepted through ED '15, but I would definitely appreciate any opinions.</p>

<p>I'm currently having trouble deciding which school is my "number one," if you will. (I haven't gotten into all of the schools I'm about to mention, so I'm trying to avoid considering my favorite as the school I'm surely going to attend...) My top four preferences at this moment are the following: Columbia, Penn, Princeton, and Yale. Thus, I wanted to ask,</p>

<p>Why did you choose Columbia? What was the deciding factor that drew you to sign on the dotted line? And, to those of you who are Engineering students, how did you decide between the amazing Engineering programs present at the institutions you were considering?</p>

<p>Thank you so much!
DR</p>

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<p>hey dr,</p>

<p>here are a few posts that i have written that go at length about what i feel about columbia. i may be its most ardent champion, but i think there is good reason. mostly because i think columbia offers something that the other schools you mention does not - and not just nyc itself, but the way it interacts with the city (i mean philly isn’t a bad city, but penn doesn’t really harness it as well as it could, in my opinion).</p>

<p>i think columbia is the most challenging experience - in the sense that you will at one point or another question yourself, who you are, what you are doing, than at the other schools. you will constantly be pushed by your peers, your professors, but also the realities of the city where interning at a legit place is very possible, by the controversy that undoubtedly will arrive as columbia grows out into the neighborhood and things that are never discussed at other schools to a great extent are daily realities. </p>

<p>i just think from the point of view of ‘living,’ columbia offers more and a more memorable experience. there is a line of thought out here that college is about the social, and i don’t doubt that has a major part of it, and so folks will note that every friday night they go to X party and do Y. to me that sounds comforting, but ultimately dull and boring. columbia is a place of the moment, in which your choices very every week, and to me that is unparalleled. where your degree of euphoria and elation will be unmatched when the most ridiculous of circumstances (sitting next to david stern at a columbia dinner, and having him give you his card) is commonplace. and that is something that at 18 years old will stick with you for a long time.</p>

<p>i think i feel comfortable saying i did far more in my 4 years at columbia than peers did at those schools. and i think it makes me fearless in a way (i’ll talk my way into the most exclusive club), it makes me sensitive (i am wary of saying something that might be misinterpreted so i often couch my statements), and it also means i developed a very acute curiosity toward just about anything. and i know it is because of where i went to school. </p>

<p>maybe that excites you to, maybe it doesn’t. ultimately it depends on your own sensibilities and sense of adventure.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/861406-make-most-out-columbia-serial-no-1-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/861406-make-most-out-columbia-serial-no-1-a.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/836242-down-wire-hard-sell-columbia.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/836242-down-wire-hard-sell-columbia.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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Hey @admissionsgeek! I am an international student and applying to Columbia ED. I have a general sense of what Columbia Core program is, but i would like to find out some more about it. Thank you!