Physics: Chicago vs. Columbia vs. Cornell

momoffive
Fri, 07 Apr 2006 11:47:12 +0000

I’ve read some discussion about physics at Cornell and Columbia and I think the general concensus is Cornell is a bit better, but there’s no reason not to go to Columbia if you want the Core Curriculum and to live in NYC. What if University of Chicago is one of your other choices for physics? How would you rank between Chicago, Cornell and Columbia? He’ll be visiting Cornell and Columbia next week and Chicago later in the month.

Cost-wise, for us, Columbia and Chicago are the same. We’re still waiting on Cornell’s financial aid letter but I haven’t been encouraged by what I’ve read here at CC (everybody pretty much saying Cornell is the worst offer). The cost of Columbia and Chicago are a stretch for us and we couldn’t pay much more to attend Cornell (if, in fact, they offer a higher out-of-pocket cost to us)

Some info I dug up off the university web pages:

Columbia:40 faculty (their term, I assume it means professors), 20 undergrads, 100 grad students
Cornell: 47 professors, 200 graduate students, ??? undergrads
Chicago: couldn’t find any numbers

Any input? Thanks, momoffive