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hey,

i just got into SEAS and after doing some research on it i am kinda surprised by its rather low ranking on usnews.com. It is ranked 30th for its undergraduate engineering program. so is seas a bad school or what?

By Mosquito86 (Mosquito86) on Wednesday, April 07, 2004 - 04:13 am: Edit

I wouldn't say it's a bad school. However, it just isn't the most reputed engineering program. I don't think you'll get so much less of an engineering education at Columbia vs top engineering schools like MIT, UIUC, Berk, CMU, etc.

By Homehill (Homehill) on Wednesday, April 07, 2004 - 11:10 am: Edit

I think there is a minunderstanding here. IF you are some sort of genius or driven workaholic, there probably is a difference between Columbia and some of the others. Those few would have the opportunity to work one on one or in small groups with the "greats" of those institutions. For the vast majority, there is little difference between number one and thirty. Altho SEAS is not way up there by employers, it is in large part judged by the umbrella university - you're a Columbia graduate. (Similar to Harvard's engineering school, which is also not top rated. Further, each school has something unique - Columbia has Lamont Doherty across the Hudson. There is nothing else like it for those, like myself, who want to major in environmental engineering.

By Pigeonblood (Pigeonblood) on Wednesday, April 07, 2004 - 11:13 am: Edit

SEAS has the core and the excellent liberal arts component of Columbia College, while having an excellent faculty within the engineering dept. itself. In fact, seas students enjoy a 2:1 student to faculty ratio. They just got a 12 million dollow grant from NSF to build a microelectronics facility. Biomed and other fields are also extremely good. Plus, it's all in NYC and job/internship placement is definitely not a problem with the Columbia name.

HTH
SEAS, C. Prescott Davis Scholar '08

By Rogerevans (Rogerevans) on Wednesday, April 07, 2004 - 01:55 pm: Edit

fyi, USNWR rank of Ivy undergrad engineering schools:

1. Cornell
2. Princeton
3. Penn
4. Harvard/Columbia
6. Brown
7. Yale
8. Dartmouth

Cornell is top 10, Princeton is close. Others trail significantly and are bunched from 25 (Penn)-49 (Dartmouth).

By Mavfosho (Mavfosho) on Saturday, April 10, 2004 - 04:17 am: Edit

wat about finding a job out of lets say.... electrical engineering as opposed to a student from berkeley.

Arent most of the tech/engineering companies on the west coast?

By Luda (Luda) on Sunday, April 11, 2004 - 11:06 am: Edit

Yes Mavfosho, some of the best schools that have high placement in the tech field are:

UC's esp. UC-Berkeley, Caltech, MIT, CMU, UIUC, Gtech, RPI, Cornell, Princeton, CWRU .

By Samantkaustubh (Samantkaustubh) on Tuesday, April 13, 2004 - 04:14 am: Edit

so luda are you saying that it is harder getting a job if u do your undergrad at SEAS?

By Mosquito86 (Mosquito86) on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 06:34 pm: Edit

Well...finding a job in NY or in the realm may not be harder.

I am goin to the Days On Campus for Columbia this weekend. I'll let you guys know what I find out.

By Wgeneral (Wgeneral) on Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 06:41 am: Edit

Oh yes please do!

Any extra advice would be so appreciated because I can't decide between Cornell and Columbia SEAS

By Sakky (Sakky) on Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 12:25 pm: Edit

You just have to understand that, historically speaking, the Ivies have never really emphasized engineering much, relative to the Morrill state land-grant colleges that were mandated to establish engineering departments and were provided the funding to do so. By and large, the top engineering schools of today are public schools like Berkeley, UIUC, or Purdue, that benefitted from Morrill engineering funding, or private schools like Stanford or MIT that made a conscious effort to spearhead the development of engineering. With the important exception of Cornell, the Ivies have never placed much emphasis on engineering.

By Daphne_C (Daphne_C) on Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 11:29 pm: Edit

"With the important exception of Cornell, the Ivies have never placed much emphasis on engineering."

That's not true, actually. Princeton really tries to do well in engineering, as does Harvard, but they are unable to for some reason. Harvard tried to buy out MIT because it realized that its engineering was not good, but MIT didn't agree to the terms of the administration.

The other Ivies honestly try (which school wouldn't), but they don't have those kinds of students/faculty mix.

By Wgeneral (Wgeneral) on Friday, April 16, 2004 - 10:41 am: Edit

So in that sense if:
1) I am 100% positive about studying engineering
2) Absolutely hate humanities & arts
3) Got into Cornell and Columbia SEAS

I should pick Cornell?

By Cooldude (Cooldude) on Friday, April 16, 2004 - 12:50 pm: Edit

yes

at columbia u have to take many classes outside ur major ie, humanities, arts & languages!!

at cornell the no of classes outside the engineering major are less and are basically english classes (which is mandatory even at MIT)

so unless amy financial prob's u should go to cornell

IF u check out their websites u can check the no of credits required outside ur major, and i think at columbia it's twice as many credits

By Cooldude (Cooldude) on Friday, April 16, 2004 - 12:51 pm: Edit

and also its quite evident that cornell is more tech oriented from their involvment in the space program

By Fonne2 (Fonne2) on Friday, April 16, 2004 - 01:34 pm: Edit

u guys know the average gpa at columbia SEAS?

By Sakky (Sakky) on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 04:53 am: Edit

Daphne_c, uh, I don't want to sound flip, but you don't get points for effort, you get points for results. Princeton and Harvard can 'try' to build a good engineering program all they want, but that's not really the point. You either build an elite engineering program, or you didn't, you don't get points for trying.

And the simple fact is, Princeton's and Harvard's engineering simply cannot compare to what we all agree to be the elite engineering program at, say, MIT. Simple as that. You just can't put Harvard engineering and MIT engineering in the same league. And it does come down to priorities, which is what I said. Let's face it. If Harvard put as much resources and effort into its engineering department as it did in, say, its medical school, its engineering department would be elite.