Confused: Columbia or NYU in my case?

[MontaukPoint]

Hi all,

 

I've been admitted to Columbia and NYU for their respective Bioethics programs. 

 

I am having a hard time choosing between... I really like Columbia (of course) but their program is in their School of Continuing Education... is that a problem?

 

Also, I really like NYU (their philosophy dept, which is connected to my program, is amazing). I just am conflicted about turning down a school like Columbia.

 

What to do, what to do?

 

Please vote and let me know!

Edited March 3, 2014 by MontaukPoint

[juilletmercredi]

Is there money involved?

 

I go to Columbia and the School of Continuing Ed is just the administrative house of the bioethics program.  The professors are all from other units at Columbia (med school, Mailman, law school, nursing, SIPA, so on and so forth).  The enrollment in your core courses is likely to be mixed - mostly bioethics students but also students from other biomedical sciences and possibly the med school, and also some advanced undergrads since they're listed at the 4000-level.  So basically the fact that it's in SCE doesn't affect it at all.

 

On the other hand, though, don't get starstruck by the Columbia name.  NYU is also a very well-respected school and you need to go somewhere that will support what you want.  The bioethics program here is very much medical, and more administered by professors in applied/professional units and a lot of professors from the medical center campus.  Only one of the full-time faculty members associated with the program are philosophers.  If you want a more philosophy-based bioethics program you may want to go to NYU (although you could certainly take relevant courses in philosophy as a bioethics student at Columbia).  NYU also has some more buy-in, it seems, from professors from more traditional departments like psychology and anthropology.

 

Also, you may want to ask what placement is like from these programs, depending on what you want to do.