Best major at columbia

twisterf5 · 01-23-2007, 12:35 AM

what major at columbia is most prestigious like wharton at upenn?

davidng1 · 01-23-2007, 12:58 AM

Wharton is the name of a school, not a major. All of Columbia's schools are prestigious.

truazn8948532 · 01-23-2007, 01:07 AM

Lol yea Wharton is a school.

In terms of schools, Columbia College and Fu Foundation (Engineering) are both very prestigious. Fu is slightly newer though, and as a result perhaps a little less well known but as evinced through this year's 20.6% rise in apps for Fu, definitely is becoming more and more prestigious.

In terms of graduate programs, Columbia perhaps ranks with Harvard as one of the most comprehensively prestigious Universities. The reason is that it's Law School, Business School, Medical School, International Affairs, and Journalism School (only one in the Ivy League) consistently ALL rank in the top 5 or 10. This is not the case with many other Ivies such as Princeton, Penn, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth. Yale may be arguably as competitive as Columbia in this respect. Harvard is probably more well recognized in everything from Law to Business to Medicine though but honestly, the difference at that point is negligible and easily surmountable through a little extra hard work.

In terms of majors. Columbia Economics, Political Science, and pure sciences consistently are some of the best in the nation. But what truly sets Columbia apart is the "worldliness" of it's students due to the much boasted Core Corriculum. The idea is that students will be able to engage in a dialectical battle ranging from Einstein's Special Relativity, to Plato's Republic, to Picasso's masterpieces. Whether this truly works or not I can't really say. But it's definitely what attracted me to Columbia.

If you KNOW 100% you want to do Finance, you'll probably be better of at Wharton, MIT Sloan, or even Michigan Ross. But if you have any slightest doubt whatsoever, Columbia can easily grant you similar access to top finance jobs IN ADDITION to numerous possibilities in law, medicine, politics, etc. if you decide later on you really don't wanna do finance.

biggyboy · 01-23-2007, 01:56 AM

well put. i hear english is pretty smokin as well.

Denzera · 01-23-2007, 11:20 AM

Harvard's Med School has plummeted in the rankings ever since they overhauled their teaching methodology. It's basically a "teach yourself whatever you want" policy over there now, and guess what, when it's time for the board exams, you're in deep trouble. I'd put Columbia Med ahead of HMS pretty easily.

As for "best majors", the best major will be the one that whoever you're talking to did or is doing. It will also be the one you decide to do. Take a few classes, try some things out, and decide late in your sophomore year. Columbia is a great place to explore a bunch of things, because everyone is forced to, so there's no competitive disadvantage to trying things out of your comfort zone.

columbia2007 · 01-23-2007, 12:05 PM

Well, some departments are better than others. I've generally enjoyed classes in the History, German, MEALAC, Music, and Art History departments. I've heard Econ is excellent as well. Political Science, for all its high rankings and research credentials, is probably not the most exciting department for undergrads, although it's certainly among the most popular.

Shraf · 01-23-2007, 01:59 PM

Quote:

As for "best majors", the best major will be the one that whoever you're talking to did or is doing.

wrong...I and a good number of my BME friends will be the first to point out that BME is a pretty bad choice.

Skraylor · 01-23-2007, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Fu is slightly newer though

Fu is still over 100 years old. the only thing "newer" about it is that it had a name change after Fu donated some insane amount of money (even tho he never went there) even with that though, SEAS has always been in the top tier of eng schools.

Denzera · 01-23-2007, 02:46 PM

if by "top tier" you mean ranked in the 20s. as an engineering program preparing you to work for Boeing or 3M, it's decent but not the greatest. As a general education that happens to focus on math, science and engineering while giving you access to one of the brightest and most dynamic communities and great jobs, it happens to be one of the very best. But the two are not equivalent.

js23 · 01-23-2007, 05:24 PM

Shraf,

Why is that so? (BME)

Shraf · 01-23-2007, 06:35 PM

i'll write something and PM u when i have time.

Columbiahoper · 01-23-2007, 07:08 PM

how abt biomedical enggineering?

also, does the core curriculum also apply to SEAS?

biggyboy · 01-23-2007, 08:24 PM

no tctctctc

Shraf · 01-23-2007, 10:37 PM

Quote:

how abt biomedical enggineering?

again, not gonna answer that in a public forum

WindowShopping · 01-23-2007, 11:14 PM

MEALAC is one of the more underrated and even more so esoteric departments at Columbia. Last semester, realizing I knew nothing at all about arabic literature, I enrolled in a small graduate level seminar on the topic with one of the most well known scholars in the field. In the end, I actually ended up getting a lot out of the course while simultaneously fulfilling a major cultures requirement. To the extent that the requirement propelled me into unchartered territority, I agree with Denzera -- if it weren't for Columbia, I never would've taken a course like that. I can't speak to majoring in the area, but it's perhaps equally important to become exposed to as many areas as possible as long as you can.