<p>A lightweight rower at my boathouse was recruited by both harvard and columbia but opted to go to columbia instead, and he is looking to study poly science and economics to become a lawyer. Was this a good decision to choose columbia crew and law over wat is more publically viewed as the more prestigious harvard crew and law?</p>
<p>Not everything choice has to be made because of prestige. Maybe he liked NY better than Boston. Maybe he liked the internship opportunities at Columbia more. There are many different reasons why he might have felt Columbia was a better fit for him than Harvard was.</p>
<p>In the end it won’t make much of a difference. Columbia will set him up for whatever he wants.</p>
<p>Columbia is prestige. He hasn’t lost anything, except for middle class (and below) ideas of what is college - (HYPS)</p>
<p>Columbia lightweights > Harvard lightweights. For rowing it was an easier choice than you would think.</p>
<p>Harvard does have an edge, there is no doubt, when it comes to the power of its alumni networks (in all areas, film, entertainment, business). But the difference is not substantial enough for the average student to feel it.</p>
<p>Good for your friend.</p>
<p>ClassicGuitar–</p>
<p>This year, as I’m sure you know, Columbia College had a lower admit rate than any Ivy League school (8.9%). While certainly this isn’t to say that by the metrics of this statistics alone that Columbia > Harvard, it can certainly be used to argue that the average admitted student at Harvard and Columbia are more or less commensurate. </p>
<p>With regard to law school placement— Harvard does place more at H&Y Law schools. But the key to remember that it is a function of the people who choose to go to Harvard & Yale. At H&Y, you will meet hyper competitive gunners gunning for Law/Medical school for the next 4 years. While I’m sure that this exists at Columbia, I have a feeling it’s to a lesser extent. </p>
<p>And finally I think, this is the most important and revealing question. Do you believe that a future employer and/or graduate school, will descriminate between a 4.0 student from Harvard or a 4.0 student from Columbia ceteri paribus simply on the merits that one attended a school that starts with H and the other with C? And let’s not forget, Columbia to the people who matter has much as of a brand name appeal as does Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.</p>
<p>I actually met at my Columbia send-off party, last Thursday, an incoming freshman who got into Harvard from the wait list, but decided to stay with Columbia, partly because Harvard didn’t give him as much financial aid.</p>
<p>The OP’s friend didn’t make such a bad choice. (1) Columbia’s polysci and economics are definitely on par with harvard’s - perhaps not by common reputation, but among their peers and professors. (2) I know many people who preferred columbia law to harvard law, after being admitted to both. To paraphse some of their arguments, HLS is a bit of a factory mentality (much larger), and by several estimates i’ve heard, about 50% of people are totally insufferable and have sticks up their arse - as opposed to about 10-20% at CLS.</p>
<p>in any event, his choice is highly defensible. and as for crew, he probably won’t end up doing crew all 4 years anyway, the average half-life is about 3 semesters before your lower back muscles give out or you find better things to do with your time.</p>
<p>In majors as large and fields as generic as econ and poli sci/government, any perceived prestige difference between Columbia and Harvard does not matter at the undergrad level, especially when the plan is to go on to law school.</p>
<p>There are some departments and futures for which it might make a difference: Someone planning only to do an undergrad degree going into a field that relies on an alumni network, for example. Someone set on a very specific department in which Columbia is lacking (linguistics, say, which doesn’t exist at Columbia) followed by a PhD in that field.</p>
<p>Student satisfaction surveys of Harvard undergrads have found econ and government majors among the least satisfied with their educational experiences. </p>
<p>Econ at Columbia has made a huge leap, rendering rankings from three or four years ago pretty much obsolete. (Let alone National Research Council ratings, which are really the only ones that count and are done every ten years. New ones will probably be out this Fall.) The department has done major hiring, concentrating on productive younger economists. Clearly it’s in the top ten and shooting for the top five. But again, that’s not a difference that matters at the undergrad level. </p>
<p>So, as I said, good for your friend choosing on the basis of what college seems right. It takes guts to turn down Harvard, just because it’s Harvard, and prestige-obsessed people will think that he’s making a stupid decision. But he won’t be the only one to make that choice. And Columbia’s core curriculum offers an outstanding education.</p>
<p>Linguistics totally exists at Columbia. It’s a special concentration though, not a major.</p>
<p><a href=“Department of Slavic Languages”>Department of Slavic Languages;