<p>I am hoping you all can give me an idea if there is a real campus life at Columbia or if everybody feels like they go to classes but really live in NYC and not really a campus? I want to stay in NYC for college, but I don't want to miss a campus experience.</p>
<p>There’s definitely a campus experience, as Columbia has a “real” campus where it’s essentially closed off from the city, and a few blocks of college town around it. There definitely is a campus feel, you’ll see people having a catch and playing frisbee on the quad in the fall/spring, and Columbia definitely does have a campus feel (unlike NYU and most other city schools). However, it’s obviously different from a big state school out in Northwest Bumblef***, where the entire town revolves around the campus.</p>
<p>The social/cultural scene certainly isn’t as restricted to campus as Brown, let alone Hamilton (a tiny upstate LAC), but if you want to stay in the city for college, it’s certainly better than any alternative. NYU has the feel that you fear; Columbia doesn’t.</p>