Yale vs. Columbia (Environmental Studies/Science)

College Search & Selection
1

Hi everyone!
I was wondering if anyone could give me some insight on choosing a college. I am an ENVS major who has interests in sustainable agriculture and public health.

Yale:
More financial aid (big factor for me)
Residential college system
Yale Farm
Access to Yale School of Forestry
Never visited
Some concerns over how they only offer environmental studies not sciences (I am a more science focused person)
Heard it is very conservative (I am more liberal)

Columbia:
I love NYC and think the campus is beautiful
Always wanted to live in a very urban area
Not sure how I feel about the Core Curriculum
Less financial aid (Do you guys know if they would match financial aid with Yale?)
Always felt the program was more focused on the Earthy/geology side of ENVS, not very interested in that

Thanks!! I’ll be visiting both schools again in about two weeks, but it would be nice to hear from some people who might have made the same decision before or know people that attend both schools. I don’t know too much about the ENVS programs there but have been doing my research online. I would appreciate anyone’s advice. :slight_smile:

2

Hey there @beetsme! Congrats on having two great choices! I can’t speak to the environmental studies/sciences programs at these two schools, but I wanted to address your concern about the politics at Yale. Yale is certainly not a very conservative school; it has what I’d call a diversity of political leanings (generalizing from interactions going on in the Class of 2020 Admitted Students’ Facebook group as well as the presence of the Yale Political Union), but ultimately is quite liberal-leaning like most colleges & universities in its peer group.

I don’t think you’ll find many social conservatives at the school, however, or at least not many who are too outspoken, but there is likely a sizable group of fiscal conservatives. They don’t call Yale the Gay Ivy for no reason. As the old saying goes, one in four, maybe more (not sure the proportion of LGBTQ+ people at Yale is quite that high, but it goes to show that Yale has been one of the most accepting of LGBTQ+ students for a relatively long time.