Columbia vs. Cornell for Mathematics and/or Physics

Aviato921
Sat, 01 Apr 2017 03:33:29 +0000

Hello all. I was recently accepted to Columbia CC and Cornell A&S, and I am struggling to come to a decision between the two. I plan to double major in mathematics and physics (as of now I’m not exactly sure which one I like better, but I’m more theory-oriented), with the eventual goal of attending a good graduate school and getting a PhD. Of course these are both great schools, but neither is particularly well-known for its programs in these areas, and they seem to be on approximately equal footing.

Columbia is generally considered to be the more “prestigious” school when it comes to name recognition, but I’m not sure how helpful this would really be for graduate school admissions. Of course, what really stands out about Columbia is the Core curriculum. I’m not exactly thrilled about the Core, but I think I would enjoy it overall; my main worry is that it will get in the way of my major classes, especially if I plan to double major. I would likely only be able to take one course each in mathematics and physics for my first few semesters, but I could potentially take honors courses early on and end up taking a few graduate courses as a senior.

Cornell’s departments are somewhat bigger than Columbia’s, and I suppose this brings its own pros and cons. The core requirements are also far more lenient, which would potentially allow me to take more classes in my major and make double majoring easier. However, I haven’t been able to find as much information regarding a typical sequence for a math/physics major at Cornell, so it’s difficult to say how accurate this assumption really is.

As for financial aid, Columbia would be considerably cheaper, at least as of now. Based on the preliminary aid offers, Columbia would cost me about $16,000-$18,000 per year, while Cornell would cost upwards of $30,000. I imagine this can be negotiated at least to some extent.

As an aside, I was also accepted at UVa as an Echols Scholar, where I would be free from all core requirements, but the cost (in-state!) would be higher than Columbia. I was also wait listed at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, UChicago, and Penn, but I won’t count on getting into any of these.

I would greatly appreciate the input of anyone with experience with either of these two schools or with these fields in general.