University of Richmond:
accepted as a richmond scholar, which covers tutiton, housing, food, and comes with a $5.5k enrichment grant for research, study abroad, etc. | also comes with priority registration for housing and classes
pros:
easy to get opportunities
no debt, job money goes straight to pocket
opportunities funneled more easily to scholars than regular students(big fish small pond)
smaller class sizes
more chill, people know each other better
guaranteed summer research internship for 4 years
many grants available to apply for study abroad/other programs
admin care more; funds readily available for more things
richmond scholars(from my visit) end up at top grad schools for PhD like mit nyu stanford etc
cons:
hard to get internships in tech/finance
not as diverse of a city/college
not super prestigious, hard to get into industry, better suited for academia
less extensive alumni network
richmond is lot less opportunities compared to NYC
cs program is very small, a lot of independent study, missing some resouces
Columbia:
pros:
literally an ivy
unmatched location, pipeline into finance jobs/tech, more internship opportunities(I’m a cs major interested in becoming a quant)
core curcillum
elite cs department
amazing research
cross disciplinary Columbia business school for quant
high earning post graduation
very diverse, global exposure
cons:
hustle culture
very competitive, high academic pressure
large class sizes/student body
feeling overhwmled in large city(I’m from Oregon)
NYC high cost of living
I would be fairly broke, would have to get a job and would be pressed for money maybe 40k in debt idk
ofc I have other offers like johns hopkins pursue cwru UMass amherst etc but these are all around 45k/year range and not that comparable to the first two listed
also on waitlist for penn & dartmouth but these are my top two right now