SCEA Yale or ED Columbia?

dragonflii
Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:10:00 +0000

Hi all, just looking for some advice, please:

I’m trying to decide where I want to apply early in the fall. I am an Asian American female looking to major in engineering (unsure which kind yet)

What I liked about Columbia:

Contained campus, kind of made me think of it like a small, green “haven” inside of New York City. It had a lot of different looking buildings; I liked the marble steps and tall libraries, but also the glass science building.

engineering school was relatively large (compared to Yale), and I also visited their civil engineering building, and saw an ongoing test on bridge cables, their huge centrifuge and other lab rooms. It looked really up to date and impressive, although I will definitely admit I don’t know a lot about equipment and such

I am interested in engineering and science/math stuff, but I still like English, art and humanities, etc. So, the core curriculum would help ensure that I can still take some classes that aren’t engineering

I felt happy and excited there once I put foot on campus

What I liked about Yale:

THE RESIDENTIAL COLLEGE SYSTEM. i loved loved loved it. I really felt the playful college pride when all the tour guides would say, “I’m in Berkeley college, you know, the best one” or “Hi, I’m in Silliman College, the REAL best college” I love the sense of community involved with Master’s Teas and study breaks. I also hear that their dorms are really nice

The campus is gorgeous. It’s relatively spread out and the buildings are so pretty.

As an engineering major, I know that I would have access to awesome liberal arts classes

- unlike at Columbia, I didn’t really realize it at first, but later I remembered Yale and really really liked it

What makes me question Columbia:

Ideally, the college I can go to would have a lot of school spirit. But from what I’ve read here online, sometimes Columbia students do their own thing, which is understandable, what with NYC a step away. The result is that they don’t have as much of a blatant school pride

What makes me question Yale:

Their small engineering school. I know, so many people on collegeconfidential argue for both sides of Yale’s engineering. The small student:faculty ratio could kind of hamper engineering team work, but you also get to know your professors really well. But how up to date is Yale’s engineering? I saw their labs, which were nothing like Columbia’s, and their engineering building seemed kind of neglected and dark

the description on Yale’s website and what I remember from the college tour, to me, portrayed an education that was sometimes geared more towards people who weren’t planning on taking a career in engineering. Doesn’t that affect people who are set on engineering?

So until about yesterday, I had been thinking that I was going to apply Early Decision to Columbia. But I really wished there was a Yale with Columbia Engineering; the only reason I didn’t want to apply to Yale was because their engineering is too small. But now that I’ve read so many different opinions, I’m not really sure on what I think about it anymore.

Now, I’m leaning towards Yale SCEA.

I admit I am a ranking freak. (Yale is ranked among happiest students! I want to be happy while suffering with engineering studies!) Maybe that’s not a good way to look at it, but prestige and rankings matter to me. Both Columbia and Yale are kickbutt schools, and I’d be happy to get into either of them. But I’m afraid that by applying Yale SCEA, I may get rejected and then also get rejected from Columbia regular. Or maybe applying to Columbia ED will tie my hands. There’s also a thread somewhere talking about how Yale SCEA it’s too easy to get lost among Harvard and Princeton applicants, and how you should wait until regular so you can stand out more.

Advice? Thanks so much

Additional info: I plan on going to grad school. I strongly disliked MIT.

Sorry for such a long post! But I hope it helps some people