kaylanl

I'm not sure where to go! I know Brown is AWESOME for many areas of study, but Columbia SEAS is generally held in higher regard that Brown Engineering. However I think the overall Brown vibe might suit me better.
What is Brown's past performance in terms of admittances to grad schools in Engineering? Might I be selling myself short by attending Brown instead? The industry connections from SEAS seems better as well.

On the flip side... if Brown eng is a little less grueling (and I'm not saying easy by any means) and I have a shot at a better GPA, perhaps that's better in the long run.
Rather than taking basic courses at SEAS or ending up with (what I hear) an avg GPA of 3.0

I know the whole "what's better for grad school and the future" perspective is a slightly superficial part of the college experience to look at, but I have looked at other location/student life criteria. This last bit is pretty important though.

dcircle

much of my wife's family went to SEAS at Columbia and i went to brown.
they are very different places. between the columbia core and engineering requirements you will have very little freedom to explore. at brown, you will have a lot more discretion over courses that interest you.

both schools will set you up well for grad school or jobs. the most important factor for postgraduate options will be your grades, not where you went.

my advice would be to visit both and pick the place you feel will give you the best college experience

kaylanl

thanks so much for the advice!
i will be visiting

modestmelody

This thread has been asked ____________ engineering vs. Brown engineering like six times in the past week.

There is plenty of advice in the other threads that apply equally to your question.

afan

If you contact Admissions and the Department/School of Engineering at each place they can probably give you actual facts on grad school and job placement from both institutions.

Columbia engineering is much larger and better known. I don't know how much difference that makes for career for graduates.

Engineering curricula tend to vary across colleges much less than in other majors due to ABET requirements. Except for the Core, I would not assume that the academic experience would be that different, let alone easier, at Brown vs Columbia.