NYU2013

Columbia is more selective than Brown? In what way? Have you sat on the admissions boards of both school? Can you attest, personally, to knowing and understanding these different levels of selectivity and in what ways, exactly Columbia is supposedly more selective than Brown?

In all reality, both Columbia and Brown are equally selective.

swingtime

Calm down NYU2013! The poster who said that Columbia is more selective than Brown is referring, accurately, to admissions statistics. For the past two years Columbia's acceptance rate has been less than 8% (this year it accepted 7.4%, a lower percentage than Princeton; the previous year it accepted 6.9%). Brown's acceptance rate IS indeed higher than Columbia's, though I believe Brown accepted less than 10% of applicants this year. Both schools are superb and both are EXCEPTIONALLY difficult to get into, but in point of fact Columbia is technically more selective based on admissions statistics. Sorry, but that is a fact. "In all reality," NYU 2013, based on admissions statistics alone, which is what the poster was actually referencing, Columbia is more selective than Brown.

RE: Columbia College v. Columbia Engineering? The acceptance rate to Columbia College is lower than the acceptance rate to SEAS. SEAS accepts more applicants than does Columbia College, but as a more specialized school it also receives fewer, more self-selected, applicants.

hzhao2004

Prestige does matter. And Columbia does have a small edge here.

Columbia18

@swingtime
@NYU2013

Yes, I was referring to percentage acceptance rates....

oceanicole

I don't know why everyone is saying Brown is suburban/rural... It's in Providence. It's not nearly as big as NYC, and Brown does have a somewhat more campus-y feel, but it's not rural by any means.

I think we can all agree they're academic peers, and a 0.2% difference or whatever in admissions statistics doesn't matter all that much. I think it will really just come down to where you feel at home.

LakeClouds

Presitige, selectivity, are fine, but how about placement stats and starting salaries? That's the true measure of a great engineering program. Can anyone porvide these data for the two programs?

NYU2013

Acceptance rate is NOT equatable to selectivity. Citing an acceptance rate and saying school A is more selective than school B because school A's acceptance rate is lower is an argument from correlation and assumes, intrinsically, that acceptance rate directly represents selectivity. It does not. Selectivity of a school has to do with A LOT of things, and not just acceptance rates.

So, to everyone who claimed "Columbia has a lower acceptance rate and is therefore more selective", your argument is not valid; and your statements merely go to show that you misunderstand what selectivity actually is.

Again, I reiterate, Columbia and Brown are equally selective.

dblazer

^Agree, Columbia technically had a lower acceptance rate than Princeton this year, but I would not argue that Columbia is more "selective" than Princeton. The differences in the applicant pool make a direct comparison between acceptance rates a little shady.

As everyone had repeated, the schools are quite different - almost opposites in their academic philosophies. I don't think that the difference in prestige is big enough for one to be a clear winner over the other; when choosing between the two, fit is something I would consider more. Brown is the "easier" ivy as they are known for grade inflation and has one of the highest avg. gpas as a result. Columbia's a bit tougher in that regard. If you plan to go to grad school, both schools should set you up fine for that pathway.

Columbia18

@NYU

Again, I will emphasize my meaning for what I cited as "selectivity". I merely based the statement that Columbia is more selective on the fact that the university accepts a smaller percentage of applicants. I am in no way questioning either college's method of acceptance, nor I am I basing my statement on such. Just sharing an admissions statistic on numbers alone.

NYU2013

Then you're using the word "selectivity" incorrectly -- selectivity is how selective a school is when deciding which candidates ought be admitted into the incoming class.

The acceptance rate of Columbia merely tells you the acceptance rate and NOT how selective the school is, in fact, just because the acceptance rate is slightly lower at Columbia does NOT mean that Columbia is more selective, it could be the case that Brown is more selective! Of course, I highly doubt that this is the case, but it's merely to indicate that acceptance rate is not reflective of selectivity.

For example, Princeton has a higher acceptance rate than Harvard -- but Harvard is not more selective than Princeton.

If you meant that Columbia has a lower acceptance rate than Brown, than you should have said "Columbia has a lower acceptance rate than Brown", because your claim that Columbia is more selective than Brown is: (1) Accepted to be false; (2) Based on a false premise.

Please learn the difference between acceptance rates and selectivity -- this is merely a correlational relationship and a lower acceptance rate does not mean a school is more selective -- for example, it could merely just mean that school X receives more applications, but has a limited number of places and therefore accepts only a small number of its total applicants.

happy1

If the OP is still reading this, let us hope he/she understands that the bottom line is that Columbia and Brown are two outstanding universities and at this high level the best thing is to look for the school that is the best personal fit.