<p>How safe is columbia, since its in Harlem NY..? My parents dont want me to even apply here, because they think that i will like die or something.....Is it really that bad? Is it safe at all at night? day?</p>
<p>If you are going out of the campus, and like headed south to new jersey or something, is there a safe road?</p>
<p>yes, columbias fine. it might be a change for a little bit because youre probably froma sheltered burb. but you wont get killed.</p>
<p>neelesh, you and your family should visit Columbia if you're truly interested in applying there. It's a wonderful school with an absolutely beautiful campus. The surrounding area is not nearly as awful as a lot of people expect. While it's true that you'll be in NYC, for the most part it is a safe city, if you act responsibly and intelligently. There are areas of the city that should be avoided but most areas are safe during the day and many, at night. I have a D at NYU, which is in generally more safe area than Columbia but I know that she and her friends routinely travel the city after dark and none has ever had a problem.</p>
<p>WHEN in doubt I always say check the facts. NYC is the nation's safest large city, though you need to remember it is a city so of course there is more crime in the city itself than there is lets say in Cornell's rolling hills. Columbia is very meticulous when it comes to safty. It has the safest environment for an ivy next to Princeton. My father a long resident of the South Bronx was telling me that it is in Harlem. IT IS IN MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS!!!! If you have ever watched Seinfeld you would note that the neighborhood almost seems as if it is a mere Manhattan suburb. Morningside hights is filled with cafes and is, in my opionion the best and only environment for a college student to speak of. Columbia is safe just check the facts. Check their website.</p>
<p>Columbia is actually quite safe. Much of the campus is gated, so access is more limited than on wide-open urban campuses. There's a good security presence, lots of call boxes, and security check-in at each dorm. There's lots of activity on Broadway (and Amsterdam, to a lesser degree), too. It seems that most people who are fearful of New York City haven't spent much time there. Most students seem to exercise common sense about how to behave in an urban environment and have no encounters whatsoever with crime. Best bet: talk to some students who have been there for a year or two - they can give you the straight story. If Columbia seemed like the right school for a student, I wouldn't give a second thought to safety issues as a significant problem.</p>
<p>I don't know exact statistics for comparison, but differences between NYU and Columbia must be negligible, because the Morningside precinct is one of the city's safest.</p>
<p>As far as driving out, no way is unsafe, but for convenience, we find that the easiest thing is to take the Henry Hudson north and cross the GWB. Even though you're going North to go south, it's faster than working your way down to the Lincoln Tunnel.</p>
<p>(Mr. Dooley: you've commented here several times; are you by any chance a Columbia grad?)</p>
<p>Actually if you go by the police Reports, Columbia's precinct is safer than NYU's, and is the second safest in Manhattan ( by the numbers). Columbia has been ranked the safest Urban school in the country 2 years in a row now and has the second highest safety rating in the Ivy League next to Princeton</p>
<p>No you won't get stabbed. I am sick and tired of this thread, almost every Ivy League school is in a bad neighborhood, so you're screwed no matter what, why don't you be a man and suck it up.</p>
<p>i (pretty) much agree with diesel, no where is 100% safe, or even close, and if your parents are so doubtful I would encourage you to visit to relieve some of their fears</p>
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<blockquote> <p>are you by any chance a Columbia grad?<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>No, although after reading Denby's book about the Core Curriculum I found myself wanting to enroll. I'm actually a Columbia-grad dad. :)</p>
<p>I read the book last summer after my S was accepted, and felt the same way. Actually, I probably would've applied (my Dad went there), but they took too long to go co-ed!</p>
<p>I think I read Great Books shortly after my daughter's acceptance, too, mostly as a way of learning more about the school.</p>
<p>At our Prospective Weekend, we sat with a family who were absolutely convinced that their daughter's life would be in continual danger at Columbia. (Like us, they were from the Midwest.) The perception of New York as a place where muggers and rabid rats lurk around every corner is all too common among those who haven't spent any time there. Fortunately, the staff there is very familiar with this question, and can provide plenty of info and reassurance that should satisfy even the most fearful parent. :)</p>
<p>Neither my daughter nor any of her friends were crime victims in their time at CU; the only incident I recall her mentioning was someone who decided to visit an ATM alone, on a side street, at 3 AM, who got robbed. I can't name many cities where I'd think that was a good idea.</p>
<p>One safety plus is that almost all Columbia undergrads live in campus housing. The housing is quite secure, with real security people checking IDs. This not only keeps out intruders, but probably curtails much of the student-on-student theft that occurs on some campuses.</p>
<p>I loved David Denby's book. You wonder a lot about how much hype is involved in Columbia's devotion to the core, but reading that book you can really see how central the core is to the Columbia experience. The book should be required reading for any student who is only applying because it's an Ivy League school and in New York City.</p>
<p>We came back recently from parents weekend and found security on campus extremely good. In order to get into our son's dorm room, he had to get his card swiped, sign us in, AND we had to leave our drivers licenses at the desk. The hustle and bustle on campus and in the neighborhood at night as well as during the day feels much safer to me than the dark, deserted stretches of some campuses I've been on that are much more isolated. On the Amsterdam Avenue side of campus, new restaurants and businesses are going in. I think the university probably does a good job in orientation talking about safety issues when kids spread out into the city. It's up to students at urban schools to use some common sense, of course.</p>
<p>if you are scared to walk at night you can always call for escorts, and they'll send some football players your way, and you'll even look pretty intimidating yourself</p>
<p>I hate when people have this discussion and it comes up often. I grew up in manhattan and though i have lived in Westchester for the past several years, I've worked there and specifically at Columbia throughout. Morningside Heights is NOT a bad neighborhood at all. Granted, i wouldnt walk too far north (125th) but that area there is fine. The entire community there is centered around Columbia. In general, the rap about NYC being a haven for criminals etc is completely ridiculous. Yes I live in snotty, affluent westchester, the suburbs, with all the famous rich families, but there is no where i feel safer than in the city (manhattan, people from NYC generally refer to "the city" as manhattan fyi). There are always people around and provided you avoid a handful of neighborhoods, there is no better place to live.</p>
<p>Sac: Out of curiosity, are you a faculty member at UC Berkeley? If you'd rather not say that here, I can completely understand. The only reason I ask is because that really seems to be the only reason why I would justify living in the City of Berkeley.</p>
<p>Btw, for all the people talking about NYU's district, how can u do that, NYU is spread out over the entire city. Yeah, a large portion of it is way down town by Washington Square (if i remember correclty), but there is also a dorm on like 55th and lex, which is a couple miles from the downtown area.</p>
<p>PrivateJoker06: I have been a faculty member, but it was a while ago. I'm also an alumn. I'm not sure what to make about your comment about living in Berkeley. I love living here, and I suspect there are even a few people in town who do not live here because they're on the faculty at Cal. Maybe we should start a "But will I be stabbed ..." thread about Berkeley. (On second thought, no, let's not.)</p>
<p>I can definitely understand why you would like living in Berkeley. The city has a great university, great restaurants, a vibrant, intellectual atmosphere, and more bookstores and coffee shops than anyone could ever ask for. However, Berkeley really isn't my cup of tea. I'm from Los Angeles and most of the other students I know from southern California really can't stand living here considering how dirty it is, the constant influx of homeless people and random street people, and the depressing weather from the months of November-March. I love the university because of its stellar faculty, research opportunities, and excellent curriculum. I just am not a big fan of the city that surrounds the school. In retrospect, I might've been happier had I chosen to attend one of the other schools I was admitted to back in senior year of high school (Cornell and Northwestern). </p>
<p>On a brighter note, I visited Columbia over the summer and absolutely loved everything about the campus and New York City in general. I stayed with a friend in an apartment in Greenwich Village and I really enjoyed my stay in the area. I'll be applying to graduate school at Columbia next year. I wish your son the best of luck at the school. </p>
<p>If you don't mind my asking, did you earn a bachelors or a graduate degree from Berkeley? Also, did your son attend a private school in the Bay Area? Outside of Lowell High School in San Francisco, the public schools in the Bay Area seem worse than the public schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The only decent public secondary schools I can think of in the area are James Logan High and Monte-Vista Danville. San Ramon Valley also seems to do pretty well. I work with an outreach group on campus and we do college admissions seminars at Berkeley High School, Oakland Tech, Oakland High and Skyline High School.</p>
<p>Good luck getting into Columbia. When my son was looking at colleges, he kept saying he wanted to go somewhere like Berkeley only farther from home. So, there are some things that Columbia and Berkeley seemed to have in common for him -- including the fact that there is always a lot happening, the way restaurants and other businesses are right there around the campus, and maybe also some aspects of the student body. Unfortunately, I think you will find some of the same dirtiness and some of the same mentally ill street people in New York City that you find around Berkeley, though I didn't see them on the Columbia campus, which is small and much more enclosed than the Berkeley campus. Still, homelessness is part of urban America. As for weather in the Bay Area, my daughter went to UCLA and complained that she grew to hate the constant sunshine and longed for rain. She ran back to Northern California as soon as she graduated. My son is already missing Berkeley weather in NYC, and it isn't even winter yet! (I wonder if you would really have liked the weather better at either Cornell or Northwestern? Brrrr....) </p>
<p>I received both undergrad and grad degrees from Berkeley. My daughter graduated from Berkeley High, but my son went to a private high school. He did get a better education, but it is also possible -- though it takes a lot more effort on the part of both parents and kids -- to find your way to a good education at Berkeley High. As you probably know, Berkeley High sends a lot of students on to Cal as well as to top private colleges and universities, including Columbia.</p>