Brown vs Columbia vs Princeton

PennCAS2014
Sat, 01 Apr 2017 00:11:26 +0000

Hi there- i don’t have too much to add here because I chose Penn over all of these schools. But the reason I’m commenting is to say that you should not fear choosing either Columbia or Brown over Princeton if you prefer them. Yes, it’s true that Princeton is more “prestigious” than Brown, though I think you would be surprised how similar Columbia and Princeton are in terms of prestige while still acknowledging that Princeton has the edge. Columbia’s Nobel list and world renowned graduate and professional schools, however, do quite a bit to nearly equalize Columbia with Princeton in a lot of circles- though, not all. But the only area in which the difference in prestige in these schools will matter is with family and friends. I was getting a lot of pressure when choosing colleges to go to Yale because it was the “most prestigious” school I got into. But at the end of the day I knew it wouldn’t have been as good a fit for me as Penn and so I went with my gut and it really paid off. At this level of school, law schools and jobs will not care at all which school you went to as long as you thrive there. And you’re most likely to thrive where you feel excited, happy, supported and able to pursue your interests while getting the highest GPA possible. If you’ll feel those things most at Princeton then I say go for it! But if you’ll feel them more at Brown or Columbia, then going to Princeton just for the marginal improvement in name recognition will probably be ultimately unsatisfying.

I will also add that I had a preference for city schools too and I cannot express how greatly living in a city affected my college education in the best way possible. If you think you’re made to go to college in a city, I wold think long and hard before matriculating to a school in one of the quietest (and most beautiful- but still quiet) suburbs in America.