Princeton vs Columbia vs Brown for CS

tigerslionsbears
Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:14:52 +0000

I was incredibly lucky to get into many of my top choice schools… and I have narrowed down my acceptances to 3 top choices. I currently plan to study computer science and have applied to Engineering where applicable.

I have visited all three schools however I know the least about Princeton since I never considered myself a viable applicant. Hopefully I’ll be able to visit the schools again soon.

I care about a social scene, I care about academics, I care about location. Most of my family and friends tell me to go for Princeton since it’s apparently hailed as “THE undergraduate experience” But Brown was the first school I ‘loved’ (although I visited years ago) and I relish over the idea of living in NYC at Columbia. I was worried about the social scene at Princeton compared to these two schools, but at the same time I know that anything is better than my high school situation (ultra strict parents).

Then there’s academics. As far as I know Princeton has the best CS of these schools, while Columbia and Brown are relatively close to each other. All three are great. Not super pumped about the idea of a core curriculum but for NYC I feel like I’d get over it. Brown’s open curriculum sounds like a less stressful environment (although I get the feeling that it’ll have little effect on CS)

Thanks in advance for any help.