<p>I don’t know much about Columbia, but after looking up the [Rabi</a> Scholar Award](<a href=“http://rabi.columbia.edu/"]Rabi”>http://rabi.columbia.edu/) it seems like you have an obligation of doing summer research at least every other year, lest you be dropped from the Rabi Scholars program. Good to know, but you should not count it against Columbia in your thinking unless you think it’s unlikely that you’ll want to do that much research (if that’s the case, you won’t care whether you’re a Rabi Science Scholar or not).</p>
<p>The only difference that I can see between the Rabi Scholars program and regular Caltech students is that the Rabi Scholars might get paid more during the summer (since there’s a housing stipend), and you would be able to do research this coming summer. </p>
<p>Could you please tell us more about what you like about Columbia? If you’re looking at the award as something for your resum?, I think it would be wiser to choose Caltech. However, if you see it as the addition of research opportunities to a school which you’d have liked to attend otherwise, then go for it. I suppose that if I were to make the same decision, I would weigh the schools against each other in the absence of any research whatsoever. </p>
<p>Congratulations on the award!</p>