Wellesley vs Columbia (w/some catches)

Hi all,

What would better position me for IBD — graduating from Wellesley with junior year abroad and roughly half of my courses (and unofficial second major) at MIT Sloan, or three years at a low tier LAC followed by two years and a degree at Columbia?

I’m on a gap year right now and already have a spot at Wellesley, but I’m worried I underestimated the power of an Ivy League degree when deciding where to commit and I’m reconsidering Columbia’s 3/2 program.

With Wellesley I’d have consistent access to Wellesley and MIT’s resources for four years, which are quite substantial, but in the end, while MIT’s courses are on my transcript, I’d still graduate with a Wellesley diploma.

The 3/2, on the other hand, I’d be at a guaranteed non-target/finance desert for three years and I’ll have to really hustle during those last two years at Columbia. But it’s still a BS from Columbia.

In addition, I’m down to trying to transfer to a better target after two years at Wellesley but that’s definitely not guaranteed.

Thoughts? Thanks!

 
Best Response

So you haven't applied to any of the schools you'd need to go to for the 3/2 program, correct? If you're going to apply to more places, why limit yourself to the Columbia feeders?

There are some very good schools on the affiliate list (Georgetown and Williams, and more than a others) that will place just as well as Columbia, but if you got into Wellesley it should be easy enough to get into some of the other ones.

I just think it would be a very shitty 3 years if you're only going through the motions of going somewhere in order to be able to go to Columbia afterwards. Do you even want to do engineering? It looks like you commit to doing engineering at Columbia if you do this program.

I know people who went to Wellesley who ended up at great banks, so I feel like if you know you're gunning for it from day one it should be doable if you're very diligent about using alumnae, diversity programs, etc.

 

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