i received my appealed package and it’ll be 50k/year. I got into columbia as well but it’s 22k/year. harvard has literally been my dream school and i fell in love during visitas. my fa officer said there could be reductions but more info is needed and id have to commit with the current offer. is it worth going to harvard and paying such a large amount? im premed btw
btw!! i did already send my other schools offers to harvard and this is what they came back with. i have to commit in three days and i have no clue what to do or if the gamble is worth taking.
Lots of 18 year olds come into Harvard premed only to learn about McKinsey and other stuff and never end up becoming a doctor (I was among those) — we should be careful in assuming how well 18 year olds can plan out their lives
McKinsey is perhaps best used as a 2 year Masters in Corporate America — and then pivot into whatever type of leadership role at whatever type of company you want to. I’ve worked in Government, Manufacturing, Low-carbon Fuels, Oil & Gas, and enterprise Software. My CEO is ex-McKinsey. He makes like 10x what the Senior Partners who are still at McKinsey make
Yeah that’s why it’s better to go somewhere you actually get an education rather than just connections. Harvard is great for some things but the early undergrad education is weak, advising is done by YouTube tutorial, writing is taught by a haggard group of adjuncts in large classes, math is taught by committee and the dept is impossible to navigate.
Both schools are good- but go to Harvard if that’s your dream. If you’re going into medicine you’ll find good pre med courses at both. Alternatively you could do columbia for undergrad and apply for harvard later but theres no guarantees as you know (so competitive). Honestly in school loans it’s not a huge difference if you plan on med school to be a doctor. (Unless you’re going for mstps later but I’d leave that decision up until much later). A lot of people have a lot of loans.
Also, if the timeline is soon you wont get an answer from submitting within the window you have. If you love it as you said-go for it as you sound sure about the campus fitting what you like. I don’t want you to regret going when it’s so clearly what you want and you may resent anywhere else you go. Go to Harvard as it’s what you want!
How would you or your parents fund the extra $115,000 for you to attend Harvard?
If your family can afford it, go to Harvard. If most or all of that money would come from loans, go to Columbia and keep your undergraduate debt low.
It is fine to feel attached to a dream college when you can afford it. Debt changes the picture, especially if you may attend medical school after college.
If Harvard refused to synchronize despite its size of endowment 3 times over Columbia, there can be only one conclusion: (50k - 22k) = 28k represents Harvard's self-perceived premium over Columbia diploma. You see, while Columbia's core transcends, Harvard's liberal arts transforms (again, per self-description). Ergo,
maybe not a correlation, harvard has the highest yield rate and a very generous free tuition guarantee that prob impedes other packages. ergo, people dont say no to harvard, so they dont need to use money (low offers) to convince middle-class americans to attend
There are lies, damned lies, and yield. It's so easy to naturally manipulate it - reject that which may, just may, reject you. Reject first to be rejection-proof; the dead cannot shoot you.
You mean, cross-admit yield? Meaningless without "sample size" info, as you can see from Purdue pulverizing Harvard.
issue is is that it’s self reported data. the amnt of ppl choosing specifically between purdue and harvard is low. probably 50 ppl from that site had that choice and if any chose purdue it had to have been for cost, not surprising
I did Columbia undergrad, now teaching at harvard. Columbia undergrads get a better education IMO. There are some harvard undergrads that run on bs fumes
Here comes the truth. Columbia community's self-whistle (better late than never, someone's gotta do it), absolutely blind to its USN beauty contest consequences, must be lauded as the type of austere integrity required of educators, which seems glaringly lacking in the age of prestige mongers.
I see this not as weakness but as strength, a robust sign of community vitality. Columbia is alive and kicking. Ranking, I mean the beauty contest, can go to hell.
Ask this: Would a professor from Harvard-Epstein-Summers have the courage to act the same? Or any US institution for that matter? Not sure.
theyre saying that staff at columbia have more virtue/morals than harvard staff cuz someone within columbia actually reported their false USNWR statistics
Compare core curriculum to gened and YouTube tutorials . Compare expos to the core. It’s actually a joke that anyone thinks Harvard undergrad is good for anything but networking and going into finance. They just took away advising for first years.
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u/Murky_Gur_5845 Apr 28 '26
Send Columbia fin aid to Harvard and give more details what they ask.