Compare and Contrast Analysis of Columbia University and New York University

As a senior in Highschool it is overwhelming to go ahead and start applying or finalizing your thoughts for college. This moment is crucial since this will define your future. Knowing what one wants to pursue as a career is what will help your narrow college selections. As for a future architect or an engineer (preferably civil) there is a handful of colleges to pick from. Many are in or near New York while others are outside the state. This compare and contrast essay gives analysis of Columbia University College and New York University (NYU) College as they are two of the many that are in my radar.

NYU is a college that is located in New York which offers many majors and one point of interest is Civil Engineering which is crucial. According to College Board students who have received their bachelor's degree have gone to different places of their intrest such as, Law field (2%), Business field (1%), Medical field (3%) or other (10%), (here). NYU is a very competitive college since it ranks at top 30 colleges.

NYU is known for having very diverse environment with students from all over the globe. The classes are challenging depending on what point of interest you pick. Its student teacher ratio isn't much of a claustrophobic though, being a 9:1 student teacher ratio. Most of the classes aren’t surpassing 20 students per class. If one was to ask for individual help or schedule a meeting it shouldn’t be too hard and be flexible. 94% of the students from freshman year return for sophomore year and 85% of those students that return to graduate in a course of 6 years.

From a glance NYU is seen as a dream college to many but it does come attached with a price tag of $76,000. Not many have money like that and rely on having to apply for scholarships and/or financial aid, >$3500 are given out by NYU in form of scholarships. Alongside the scholarships there are opportunities to also be granted with a financial aid package which is an additional $40,000 for first year students. It would be nice if everyone qualified for such help but the truth is that only 45% of freshmen receive some sort of financial aid assistance.

NYU offers many programs from physical activities to work studies such as Accelerated programs, Cooperative Education, Distance Learning, Extensive evening or early morning class as well as Saturday classes to accommodate the students need. NYU also offers a program called HEOP(Higher Education Opportunity Program) this is a program in which students with low-income to be able to obtain admission as well as academic and financial support. In addition to financial aid, students in HEOP receive supportive services such as counseling and tutoring to help ensure their success.

Transportation is a major factor that one has to decide whether or not to apply for a dormitory or use public/ individual commute services. It comes out to be a solid $1,200 alone to transportation and books are around a $800 price point. For me- a must have is sports in order to keep my sanity and have something to look forward to after a long day/week/month. Sports such as Volleyball, soccer or school groups such as Student Government Association to keep myself up to date in what is happening.

To continue comparison and contrast essay, Columbia University is also a school that is located in New York and this college has a more of a large selection of majors in which one can change over time. In my case there is Civil Engineering and Architecture which are two of my main attractions. Columbia's reputation is that their students excel beyond the above average thus the reason why they were “ranked joint 18th in the world this year, Columbia has been a consistent presence near the top of the world rankings over the past decade.”(link here).

Unlike NYU, there is a 99% chance that students will return for their sophomore year and the graduation rate at Columbia is 96% out of those 10,000+ students who enrolled graduate after 6 years. According to the Columbia University website “ 90% of Columbia College and Columbia Engineering - Undergrad degree earners are employed or in grad school”(here). The student-faculty ratio is 6:1 which is smaller than NYU’s, as a result there will be more ease to try to communicate with your faculty if there are any concerns.

Columbia is a very diverse college, people from all over the world compete to try to get into a top notch college like this, our competition is within the United States but it's somewhere outside the borders of the U.S. One needs a 1450- 1560 SAT score, which is nearly a perfect score, in order to have a some type of chance to be accepted or even eligible.

There is one aspect that both colleges share is that they have a pricey price tag, coming out to be $64,00(living off campus)- $81,000(living on campus). This is where financial assistance and scholarships come in handy. 52% of incoming freshmen receive financial aid upto $60,000( not including scholarships). Columbia offers work study programs such as Accelerated Program, Independent Study,ROTC(Navy),and nevertheless extensive evening or early morning classes to help freshmen feel at ease. Columbia also offers HEOP but there are certain requirements that have to be met in order to be considered for an interview(here).

The price points for books and supplies remain the same all the way from on campus to off campus, in state or out of state, which is roughly around $1,300 in books and supplies together. If I live on campus I won’t have to more than $500(gas money) on personal/private transportation. But if one lives outside campus, renting an apartment, living with parents then transportation will have a dramatic increase and will come out to a price of around $1,300, this is all depends on how close one is to campus. Food is an essential and cant be avoided and depending on what and how much one eats the price for food will be around $630- $1,300 per semester.

Some activities that would be a time passer and stress reliever will be sports such as soccer, football and/or volleyball. Columbia offers ⅔ of the stated sports, there is only a female volleyball team. Another program that catches my interest is ROTC, in Columbia the only form of ROTC that is offered is Navy field.

Financially wise the college that will be best fit is Columbia since the grant/scholarship/financial aid is roughly $60,000 and the pay out of my pocket will be around $8,000(using the net price calculator on Columbia's page). NYU after all grants and financial assistance and whatnot will come out to a total of $15,000 that I will have to pay.

In the academic point of few, I will still go for Columbia since it offers both my point of interest, architecture and civil engineer, whilst NYU just offers me one of them and I would rather have more than 1 path to go down on. Columbia also offers me an ROTC program and I am very interested in joining since I believe it will teach me discipline. Even though there are many sports on both sides the one that one has that the other lacks is football, if there is one thing thatIi would like to learn to play or intent its football at Columbia. The college that I have decided to start is Columbia University because of how much more it offers than NYU in my perspective, more opportunities, more activities and nevertheless more flexibility.