<p>Need helpful comments:
To study science-maybe biology science for medschool. Which college is better, Yale or Columbia? Pay $8K less for Columbia than Yale.
Thanks.</p>
<p>Y-C-dad.</p>
<p>Have you checked with Yale fin aid to see if they would match your offer? Normally Yale’s aid is better than at Columbia.</p>
<p>“Which college is better?”</p>
<p>There is no such thing. Yale is not better than Columbia or vice-versa. The schools are very different; some students might like one school more than than another, but there is no such thing as “better.”</p>
<p>Both Yale and Columbia offer a Liberal Arts Education to all students. Each school takes a different approach. At Columbia, every student, regardless of major MUST take the same basic set of “core” courses during their freshman and sophomore years, which include: </p>
<ul>
<li>Contemporary Civilization</li>
<li>Literature Humanities</li>
<li>University Writing</li>
<li>Art Humanities</li>
<li>Music Humanities</li>
<li>Frontiers of Science</li>
</ul>
<p>Columbia prides itself on it’s core-curriculum, which gives every student from the 1930’s to present-day the same commonality. For some students though, it’s very much like high school – you must taking those specific courses; there is no deviation. For more info, see: [The</a> Core Curriculum](<a href=“http://www.college.columbia.edu/core/]The”>The Core Curriculum) </p>
<p>Yale’s Liberal Arts requirements are met by selecting courses from a broad range of electives that include writing, quantitative reasoning, foreign language, humanities and arts, sciences and social sciences. Unlike Columbia, Yale does not dictate which courses a student must take. Students that like Yale’s approach generally hate Columbia, and those students that love Columbia, tend to not like Yale, as it gives them too many choices. See: [Distributional</a> Requirements by Year | Yale College](<a href=“http://yalecollege.yale.edu/content/distributional-requirements-year]Distributional”>http://yalecollege.yale.edu/content/distributional-requirements-year)</p>
<p>It’s an individual choice – one that can best be made by re-visiting the schools and asking questions of each administration and their students. And As Kdog suggested, if you talk to Yale’s Financial Aid Office and fax them Columbia’s offer, they might match it!</p>
<p>I did send the C offer to Y. Here is the answer:</p>
<p>“Im sorry to inform you that no further adjustments can be made with the exception of the request below. Although Yale and Columbia are both Ivy League schools, we use different methodologies in calculating the parent contribution. The Financial Aid Committee reviewed the letter of financial aid offered your son from Columbia and was able to determine the allowances used in the Columbia calculation. Those allowances are not consistent with Yales financial aid policy. Our goal is to insure that students from families with comparable financial resources receive comparable financial aid awards. We understand the dilemma you face in making a decision based on two very different financial aid offers, but it would be unfair to other students and their families if we deviated from our policy for students who applied to Columbia and received offers based on a different methodology.”</p>
<p>What should I do? Help please…</p>
<p>Well, that was certainly a nicely worded kiss-off! (Sorry.) </p>
<p>For my family, an 8k difference per year would be a big deal – one that we could not stomach without taking out loans. So, given our family’s financial situation, if we were in your shoes, my kid would be going to Columbia (and I say that with a child at Yale). The education your child will receive at either school will be top-notch. If FA is not an issue for your family, then go with the school that feels more like home to your kid. If you have to take out a loan to go to Yale, then send him/her to Columbia.</p>
<p>The choice is up to my son now and he is going to NYC this weekend for so called “Class 2017” celebration and tours in Columbia. Hopefully to get more information and then decide…</p>
<p>He has been invited to attend YES-w(Yale engineer and science weekend) two months ago, he likes it.</p>
<p>I like the comments Gibby made in her comparison of the Columbia Core vs. Yale’s distribution. Another major difference in these institutions would be the number of students that stay on campus on a given weekend vs. head out to the surrounding city. Obviously NYC is a much more integral part of the Columbia experience than New Haven is to Yale. I think Yale would foster a tighter residential collegiate experience while Columbia would give easier access to world class opera, theater, museums, and internships. I suspect that Columbia has a smaller percentage of students living in its dormitories and using its meal plan. Some might like that better but I figure you can always live in NYC and experience its cultural treasures (especially when you have more money) but you can only be an undergraduate once.</p>
<p>RE: YaleGradandDad’s comparison of Columbia’s vs Yale’s undergraduate experiences: “number of students that stay on campus on a given weekend [Yale] vs. head out to the surrounding city [Columbia]…I suspect that Columbia has a smaller percentage of students living in its dormitories and using its meal plan.” One could interpret his comments to mean that the environments have significant impacts on the possible undergraduate community and bonding experience, with Yale offering a more intimate, “traditional” (satisfying?) undergraduate experience by comparison with Columbia, where your child may feel (by implication) less connected.</p>
<p>As someone with a “little one” at Columbia let me rejoin, here. Our expectation WAS that “little one” would do as YaleGradandDad has suggested Columbia students do: spend so much time absorbing the culture of NY that she would have less time than your typical Yalie to forge those tight bonds in dormitories and dining halls that contribute to a more traditional campus-bound undergraduate experience. </p>
<p>Fact: despite her intentions to spend significant time soaking up the culture of greater NY, she very rarely goes into New York because she has NO TIME!!! She is campus-bound to the extent that she wants to spend three weeks after classes end in May specifically and exclusively to tour and absorb New York. Columbia students tend to discover after matriculation that they spend far less time off campus than they expected because of (a) the workload and (b) the vibrancy of the Morningside Heights campus. She is having a more traditional, deeply-bonding undergraduate campus experience, though not a traditional YALE experience.</p>
<p>I believe almost all Columbia undergrads live all four years ON campus, as that is the university’s expectation. And, really, WHO can afford to live in NYC??? </p>
<p>As Gibby has cogently argued, the two schools are very different, but neither is BETTER than the other. Your decision will ultimately need to be a financial decision, as your child will receive an exceptional education at either Yale or Columbia. He or she will not be intellectually, or personally, DEPRIVED by choosing one over the other, and that is the crucial point to be made here. You need to make the wisest FINANCIAL decision for your family. </p>
<p>However, if you have made your own peace with the finances, then, whatever campus feels like home to your child. At any rate, what a great decision to be “forced” to make. Congratulations to your child!</p>
<p>Well, I think Yale is better, but I don’t think it’s necessarily $8000 a year better, particularly if you have to take out loans. Tell your kid to go to Columbia and give him an extra $1000 in spending money each year.</p>
<p>dont have to take loan but life will be easier with 8k dollars in hands as i have two more kids to take care.</p>
<p>Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using CC</p>
<p>dont have to take loan but life will be easier with 8k dollars in hands as i have two more kids to take care.</p>