How to pick between Columbia, Cornell or Princeton?

[Anonymous]

Their schools. I guess your DC needs to go with what seems to feel right. Great choices congrats.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I have degrees from both Princeton and Columbia and the undergrad experience at Princeton is better, unless you want to be in (and can afford) a big city and are prepared to be more independent.

Same here. The Princeton undergrads really receive a wealth of resources from the university and are pampered in so many ways. Columbia is good too, but definitely for someone who likes the city life and independence. I wouldn’t pick Cornell. It’s not in the same tier of schools.

You are right. For CS (which is what OPs kid will study) Cornell is the clearly the best of the three.

Not according to objective metrics. If you look at us news and world reports rankings, Princeton is #15 for undergraduate computer science (worldwide), Columbia is #50 and Cornell is tied for #89.

This certainly cannot be correct. Based on this ranking of research papers published by department, Cornell is #7 in the US and have 75 faculty members in CS alone.:
http://csrankings.org/#/index?all

Columbia is 13th with 49 faculty members and Princeton is 20th with 42 faculty members.

Now of course this is not an exact mapping onto undergraduate and I'd still argue Princeton provides the best CS education and has the most post-college opportunities for undergraduates. But there is no way Columbia and Cornell are that far behind Princeton for graduate school.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:DS recently graduated from Princeton. One of his main gripes was that he wanted to get to know other college students besides those at his school and he wished that he would've went to Penn instead. So keep in mind that Cornell and Princeton are kind of in their own island so to speak. He did visit NYC often as it's a train ride away, but it's not the same as knowing kids in a closer area. He liked Cornell also, but it's a bit more rural than he was looking for

I'm not sure why your son thinks he would have met kids from other colleges if he'd gone to Penn instead. Most kids at most colleges stick to themselves and Penn is no different. It's also a bigger school. They're not hanging out with Drexel or Temple students.

Colleges isolated in rural/suburban areas can get extremely monotonous and being stuck around the same crowd and culture for 4 years sucks.

Boston has 8+ colleges in the city and right next door. I can certainly understand the want to be around other colleges and city life.

The Ivies really have a tremendous amount going on at their own campuses and most of the kids are busy enough working that they aren’t regretting not meeting kids from other schools. Even the smallest - Dartmouth - has almost 4500 undergraduates.

Sure, but being around the same crowd and culture for four years sucks. There might be a lot going on on campus but it will be among the same crowd and culture. Starts to feel like boarding school.

My experience at Harvard was that for the first two years most people were satisfied by campus life but by junior or senior year most people started branching out and doing stuff off campus, hanging out with non-Harvard friends, etc.

Yup, small towns and colleges can get old, but if you are in an urban environment with other colleges nearby, you can branch out to other activities.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:DS recently graduated from Princeton. One of his main gripes was that he wanted to get to know other college students besides those at his school and he wished that he would've went to Penn instead. So keep in mind that Cornell and Princeton are kind of in their own island so to speak. He did visit NYC often as it's a train ride away, but it's not the same as knowing kids in a closer area. He liked Cornell also, but it's a bit more rural than he was looking for

I'm not sure why your son thinks he would have met kids from other colleges if he'd gone to Penn instead. Most kids at most colleges stick to themselves and Penn is no different. It's also a bigger school. They're not hanging out with Drexel or Temple students.

Colleges isolated in rural/suburban areas can get extremely monotonous and being stuck around the same crowd and culture for 4 years sucks.

Boston has 8+ colleges in the city and right next door. I can certainly understand the want to be around other colleges and city life.

The Ivies really have a tremendous amount going on at their own campuses and most of the kids are busy enough working that they aren’t regretting not meeting kids from other schools. Even the smallest - Dartmouth - has almost 4500 undergraduates.

Sure, but being around the same crowd and culture for four years sucks. There might be a lot going on on campus but it will be among the same crowd and culture. Starts to feel like boarding school.

What an odd perspective. No one at a school with 4500-8000 undergraduates needs to hang out with the “same crowd” for four years. These aren’t New England boarding schools with a few hundred kids.

Not odd, you simply lack reading comprehension. I specifically stated being around the same crowd and culture for four years sucks. That does not mean they are hanging out with the exact same people for 4 years, although that does happen - small colleges in rural areas tend to have very immobile social groups and there's not much of making friends outside of that set social group.
Perhaps you need to get an understanding of what 'culture' means. And schools of 4,000-6,000 do tend to have a uniform culture among their undergraduates, and even more so for colleges in rural areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PRINCETON! My brother and SIL met there. They have such a robust group of friends and they all really seemed to love college more than any group of friends I know.

Bonus if you're in the DC area that Princeton is such an easy road or train trip.

When did they attend?

[Anonymous]

Princeton has a more attractive student body as well

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:DS recently graduated from Princeton. One of his main gripes was that he wanted to get to know other college students besides those at his school and he wished that he would've went to Penn instead. So keep in mind that Cornell and Princeton are kind of in their own island so to speak. He did visit NYC often as it's a train ride away, but it's not the same as knowing kids in a closer area. He liked Cornell also, but it's a bit more rural than he was looking for

I'm not sure why your son thinks he would have met kids from other colleges if he'd gone to Penn instead. Most kids at most colleges stick to themselves and Penn is no different. It's also a bigger school. They're not hanging out with Drexel or Temple students.

Colleges isolated in rural/suburban areas can get extremely monotonous and being stuck around the same crowd and culture for 4 years sucks.

Boston has 8+ colleges in the city and right next door. I can certainly understand the want to be around other colleges and city life.

The Ivies really have a tremendous amount going on at their own campuses and most of the kids are busy enough working that they aren’t regretting not meeting kids from other schools. Even the smallest - Dartmouth - has almost 4500 undergraduates.

Sure, but being around the same crowd and culture for four years sucks. There might be a lot going on on campus but it will be among the same crowd and culture. Starts to feel like boarding school.

What an odd perspective. No one at a school with 4500-8000 undergraduates needs to hang out with the “same crowd” for four years. These aren’t New England boarding schools with a few hundred kids.

Not odd, you simply lack reading comprehension. I specifically stated being around the same crowd and culture for four years sucks. That does not mean they are hanging out with the exact same people for 4 years, although that does happen - small colleges in rural areas tend to have very immobile social groups and there's not much of making friends outside of that set social group.
Perhaps you need to get an understanding of what 'culture' means. And schools of 4,000-6,000 do tend to have a uniform culture among their undergraduates, and even more so for colleges in rural areas.

You’ve come up with quite the make-weight argument there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:DS recently graduated from Princeton. One of his main gripes was that he wanted to get to know other college students besides those at his school and he wished that he would've went to Penn instead. So keep in mind that Cornell and Princeton are kind of in their own island so to speak. He did visit NYC often as it's a train ride away, but it's not the same as knowing kids in a closer area. He liked Cornell also, but it's a bit more rural than he was looking for

I'm not sure why your son thinks he would have met kids from other colleges if he'd gone to Penn instead. Most kids at most colleges stick to themselves and Penn is no different. It's also a bigger school. They're not hanging out with Drexel or Temple students.

Colleges isolated in rural/suburban areas can get extremely monotonous and being stuck around the same crowd and culture for 4 years sucks.

Boston has 8+ colleges in the city and right next door. I can certainly understand the want to be around other colleges and city life.

The Ivies really have a tremendous amount going on at their own campuses and most of the kids are busy enough working that they aren’t regretting not meeting kids from other schools. Even the smallest - Dartmouth - has almost 4500 undergraduates.

Sure, but being around the same crowd and culture for four years sucks. There might be a lot going on on campus but it will be among the same crowd and culture. Starts to feel like boarding school.

What an odd perspective. No one at a school with 4500-8000 undergraduates needs to hang out with the “same crowd” for four years. These aren’t New England boarding schools with a few hundred kids.

Not odd, you simply lack reading comprehension. I specifically stated being around the same crowd and culture for four years sucks. That does not mean they are hanging out with the exact same people for 4 years, although that does happen - small colleges in rural areas tend to have very immobile social groups and there's not much of making friends outside of that set social group.
Perhaps you need to get an understanding of what 'culture' means. And schools of 4,000-6,000 do tend to have a uniform culture among their undergraduates, and even more so for colleges in rural areas.

You’ve come up with quite the make-weight argument there.

Or you simply lack intelligence to analyze meta relationships within a university

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS recently graduated from Princeton. One of his main gripes was that he wanted to get to know other college students besides those at his school and he wished that he would've went to Penn instead. So keep in mind that Cornell and Princeton are kind of in their own island so to speak. He did visit NYC often as it's a train ride away, but it's not the same as knowing kids in a closer area. He liked Cornell also, but it's a bit more rural than he was looking for

I'm not sure why your son thinks he would have met kids from other colleges if he'd gone to Penn instead. Most kids at most colleges stick to themselves and Penn is no different. It's also a bigger school. They're not hanging out with Drexel or Temple students.

Colleges isolated in rural/suburban areas can get extremely monotonous and being stuck around the same crowd and culture for 4 years sucks.

Boston has 8+ colleges in the city and right next door. I can certainly understand the want to be around other colleges and city life.

The Ivies really have a tremendous amount going on at their own campuses and most of the kids are busy enough working that they aren’t regretting not meeting kids from other schools. Even the smallest - Dartmouth - has almost 4500 undergraduates.

Sure, but being around the same crowd and culture for four years sucks. There might be a lot going on on campus but it will be among the same crowd and culture. Starts to feel like boarding school.

What an odd perspective. No one at a school with 4500-8000 undergraduates needs to hang out with the “same crowd” for four years. These aren’t New England boarding schools with a few hundred kids.

Not odd, you simply lack reading comprehension. I specifically stated being around the same crowd and culture for four years sucks. That does not mean they are hanging out with the exact same people for 4 years, although that does happen - small colleges in rural areas tend to have very immobile social groups and there's not much of making friends outside of that set social group.
Perhaps you need to get an understanding of what 'culture' means. And schools of 4,000-6,000 do tend to have a uniform culture among their undergraduates, and even more so for colleges in rural areas.

I am not following this disagreement. Perhaps time to let it die.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I have degrees from both Princeton and Columbia and the undergrad experience at Princeton is better, unless you want to be in (and can afford) a big city and are prepared to be more independent.

Same here. The Princeton undergrads really receive a wealth of resources from the university and are pampered in so many ways. Columbia is good too, but definitely for someone who likes the city life and independence. I wouldn’t pick Cornell. It’s not in the same tier of schools.

You are right. For CS (which is what OPs kid will study) Cornell is the clearly the best of the three.

Not according to objective metrics. If you look at us news and world reports rankings, Princeton is #15 for undergraduate computer science (worldwide), Columbia is #50 and Cornell is tied for #89.

This seems really off. Are you looking at some weird global ranking? Also, Cornell offers CS in the School of Arts and Sciences and also in the Engineering school. Same with Columbia I think. Who knows what you looked at?

[Anonymous]

I would never turn down Princeton for Columbia or Cornell, but it would make someone on a wait list hoping to attend the country's top-ranked national university happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:DS recently graduated from Princeton. One of his main gripes was that he wanted to get to know other college students besides those at his school and he wished that he would've went to Penn instead. So keep in mind that Cornell and Princeton are kind of in their own island so to speak. He did visit NYC often as it's a train ride away, but it's not the same as knowing kids in a closer area. He liked Cornell also, but it's a bit more rural than he was looking for

I'm not sure why your son thinks he would have met kids from other colleges if he'd gone to Penn instead. Most kids at most colleges stick to themselves and Penn is no different. It's also a bigger school. They're not hanging out with Drexel or Temple students.

Not sure about Philly but my kid’s in Boston and he had friends from lots of different schools.

That wasn’t really my experience. I had some high school friends at other schools in Boston and would occasionally get together with them and their friends, but otherwise I mostly hung out with folks from my own school. Once in a blue moon there would be someone from elsewhere at a party, but it wasn’t wildly common.

Everyone has different experiences.

I'm sure they do. But as someone who went to two Ivies (undergrad, and a resident adviser while grad student at another) I probably have a pretty good understanding of how common it is for students to hang out with students from other universities in the same vicinity. And that it is not common at all. It does happen but it is not common.

First of all, how exactly would you meet students from other colleges to develop friendships where you saw each other on a regular basis? You might get a friend of a friend who comes to visit you for a day or a weekend. But rarely are you going to parties or activities at other campuses. Why would you when there's enough stuff going on at your own campus. Most Ivies are residential with most students living on campus or very close by, it's a bubble unto itself. And there's the pedigree factor too, insomuch as one would like to pretend it doesn't exist - Penn students did not consider Drexel or Temple students "equivalents." Between the heavy workload, the gravity towards your own campus factor, your own set of friends on campus, and the pedigree aspect, there's little incentive to look further afield.

[Anonymous]

DD has a friend in CS at Cornell. Very difficult classes and she feels lonely. One person’s experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have degrees from both Princeton and Columbia and the undergrad experience at Princeton is better, unless you want to be in (and can afford) a big city and are prepared to be more independent.

Same here. The Princeton undergrads really receive a wealth of resources from the university and are pampered in so many ways. Columbia is good too, but definitely for someone who likes the city life and independence. I wouldn’t pick Cornell. It’s not in the same tier of schools.

You are right. For CS (which is what OPs kid will study) Cornell is the clearly the best of the three.

Not according to objective metrics. If you look at us news and world reports rankings, Princeton is #15 for undergraduate computer science (worldwide), Columbia is #50 and Cornell is tied for #89.

This seems really off. Are you looking at some weird global ranking? Also, Cornell offers CS in the School of Arts and Sciences and also in the Engineering school. Same with Columbia I think. Who knows what you looked at?

Is that still true? I thought they reorganized a bit and have a new department for all CS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:DS recently graduated from Princeton. One of his main gripes was that he wanted to get to know other college students besides those at his school and he wished that he would've went to Penn instead. So keep in mind that Cornell and Princeton are kind of in their own island so to speak. He did visit NYC often as it's a train ride away, but it's not the same as knowing kids in a closer area. He liked Cornell also, but it's a bit more rural than he was looking for

I'm not sure why your son thinks he would have met kids from other colleges if he'd gone to Penn instead. Most kids at most colleges stick to themselves and Penn is no different. It's also a bigger school. They're not hanging out with Drexel or Temple students.

Colleges isolated in rural/suburban areas can get extremely monotonous and being stuck around the same crowd and culture for 4 years sucks.

Boston has 8+ colleges in the city and right next door. I can certainly understand the want to be around other colleges and city life.

The Ivies really have a tremendous amount going on at their own campuses and most of the kids are busy enough working that they aren’t regretting not meeting kids from other schools. Even the smallest - Dartmouth - has almost 4500 undergraduates.

Sure, but being around the same crowd and culture for four years sucks. There might be a lot going on on campus but it will be among the same crowd and culture. Starts to feel like boarding school.

What an odd perspective. No one at a school with 4500-8000 undergraduates needs to hang out with the “same crowd” for four years. These aren’t New England boarding schools with a few hundred kids.

Not odd, you simply lack reading comprehension. I specifically stated being around the same crowd and culture for four years sucks. That does not mean they are hanging out with the exact same people for 4 years, although that does happen - small colleges in rural areas tend to have very immobile social groups and there's not much of making friends outside of that set social group.
Perhaps you need to get an understanding of what 'culture' means. And schools of 4,000-6,000 do tend to have a uniform culture among their undergraduates, and even more so for colleges in rural areas.

I am not following this disagreement. Perhaps time to let it die.

The other poster does not understand that private colleges of size 4,500-6,000 tend to have a homogenous student body in terms of wealth and upbringing and therefore can have a similar culture.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS recently graduated from Princeton. One of his main gripes was that he wanted to get to know other college students besides those at his school and he wished that he would've went to Penn instead. So keep in mind that Cornell and Princeton are kind of in their own island so to speak. He did visit NYC often as it's a train ride away, but it's not the same as knowing kids in a closer area. He liked Cornell also, but it's a bit more rural than he was looking for

I'm not sure why your son thinks he would have met kids from other colleges if he'd gone to Penn instead. Most kids at most colleges stick to themselves and Penn is no different. It's also a bigger school. They're not hanging out with Drexel or Temple students.

Not sure about Philly but my kid’s in Boston and he had friends from lots of different schools.

That wasn’t really my experience. I had some high school friends at other schools in Boston and would occasionally get together with them and their friends, but otherwise I mostly hung out with folks from my own school. Once in a blue moon there would be someone from elsewhere at a party, but it wasn’t wildly common.

Everyone has different experiences.

I'm sure they do. But as someone who went to two Ivies (undergrad, and a resident adviser while grad student at another) I probably have a pretty good understanding of how common it is for students to hang out with students from other universities in the same vicinity. And that it is not common at all. It does happen but it is not common.

First of all, how exactly would you meet students from other colleges to develop friendships where you saw each other on a regular basis? You might get a friend of a friend who comes to visit you for a day or a weekend. But rarely are you going to parties or activities at other campuses. Why would you when there's enough stuff going on at your own campus. Most Ivies are residential with most students living on campus or very close by, it's a bubble unto itself. And there's the pedigree factor too, insomuch as one would like to pretend it doesn't exist - Penn students did not consider Drexel or Temple students "equivalents." Between the heavy workload, the gravity towards your own campus factor, your own set of friends on campus, and the pedigree aspect, there's little incentive to look further afield.

Those that don't fit into the culture of the campus certainly want to meet students from other schools. And regarding pedigree- not everyone is as close-minded as you think. There are certainly those that will hang out with their own small friend group and look down on those from other universities. But there are many that want novelty, diversity and dynamics in their life, especially during college. College was once just an extension of boarding school, but no one wants that anymore.