Columbia

College Search & Selection
21

<p>Slipper, we were talking about the areas, surrounding, and campus anyways.
Before I begin, how does JHU get the bad area award as if it were Temple or Morris Brown. If JHU has a bad area, then I'd say exactly the same for Tufts, but I wont b/c that over-cruelty. And really, if she is looking at Columbia, with its location, I wouldn't hasten to call JHU bad in comparititve location.</p>

<h1>1) It's unfair to judge JHU as all around competitive based on the pre-med program, aside from that the rest is pretty lax. What is cut-throat but pre-med? The most all-around competitive school of the bunch is Harvard, without question.</h1>

<h1>2)JHU gets a not fun vote, when Harvard undergrad constantly has reports of least happy students. In Boston Globe report, Harvard rank 3rd to bottom for students most disappointed with campus life.</h1>

<h1>3) Really, when people label JHU, Duke, and Emory as sciency and competitive solely in reference to their medical centers, I want to shoot them. Subtract the medical center from all three schools and you still have three very academic institutions with many strengths that were previously overshadowed by their top program, though JHU is great for all humanities and social sciences (i.e. International Relations, History, Philosophy)</h1>

<h1>4) Again, who has parties? Friday and Saturday nights at Harvard...what? No comment, if I was a party-goer, which I'm not, atleast not the beer keg type, I wouldn't complain about JHU's small frat scene, Friday & Saturday nights could be a lot more depressing.</h1>

<h1>5) Last, why do you label Harvrad elite in comparison to two other elite institutions (one of which is another Ivy)? I know it's Harvard, but really, come on. In terms of what school feels elitest, that award goes to Princeton, I'd still like to believe (unless things have changed overnight) that, Harvard and Yale have not reached the level of pompousness that Princeton radiates.</h1>

22

<p>Creative I have a tremendous amount of exposure to these schools. I think lumping Brown in with Harvard is also a bit off, but JHU completely off. </p>

<p>The Harvard experience (I have many amny Harvard friends and visited a bunch of times) is elite WITHIN the school. Whether its hasty pudding, finals clubs, the lampoon, (insert X group) Harvard students tend to seperate off into further elite groups within the school. Its not as apparent as Princeton's eating clubs, but just as intimidating.</p>

<p>JHU isn't Compton but its nothing like the other two schools areas, east Providence and Cambridge which are trendy and student oriented. JHU has a campus killing almost bi-annually these days. My roommates while in B-school both went to JHU and they asserted the lack of camraderie quite often. Its nothing like Brown, which is the opposite of this. JHU is much more like Columbia in its student body than Brown and is nothing like Duke or emory. Have you heard of the hopkins 500? Its the 500 out of the 4500 students who like to hang out, at Brown I would say you'll see over 50% of the student body out on a Friday night.</p>

23

<p>It sounds like the number one misconception about Columbia is that it's in a dangerous location. Whoever believes this needs to visit and alter their perception of Morningside Heights (or realize there is such a place and that Columbia is not in the midst of central Harlem); not only is it completely safe, it's almost always been a relatively safe part of New York. Harlem proper is a world away, down thickly wooded cliffs. </p>

<p>And just as New York is the safest major city in the country (far outstripping Philadelphia and New Haven), Columbia is the safest Ivy. More sketchy stuff goes down on Harvard Yard at night than on Columbia's gated and closely watched campus.</p>

24

<p>"Columbia is the safest Ivy"</p>

<p>-Nothing like spreading a little fear to get your point across, huh? :)</p>

25

<p>How is Columbia's financial aid?</p>

26

<p>
[quote]

5) Last, why do you label Harvrad elite in comparison to two other elite institutions (one of which is another Ivy)? I know it's Harvard, but really, come on. In terms of what school feels elitest, that award goes to Princeton, I'd still like to believe (unless things have changed overnight) that, Harvard and Yale have not reached the level of pompousness that Princeton radiates.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Cre8tive1, it's a little funny that in the same post where you defended JHU from popular stereotypes, you went ahead and assumed a popular stereotype for another school.
I realize this is a bit off topic, and I apologize, but what are you basing Princeton's elitism on?
Socioeconomic backgrounds? From what I've heard, Princeton actually has the highest percentage of students on financial aid in the Ivy League. If that's incorrect, the difference between Princeton and Harvard and Yale is insignificant--no more than 5-10% at most.
Eating clubs? Student body? I'm not entirely sure where you're getting this view of Princeton from. This hasn't changed overnight...Princeton's been changing constantly, just people haven't been noticing.</p>

<p>The fact that you willing to defend JHU from (unwarranted?) accusations is admirable, and getting the truth out will only help the OP. Please, though, don't resort to using the same stereotypes you were disputing.</p>

27

<p>Back to the OP's questions about Columbia.</p>

<p>My son is a rising junior at Columbia and is enjoying it very much. He did explore the core curriculum before applying, and it was an attraction rather than a turn-off for him. He loves the campus and its compactness. He can roll out of bed and be in class in ten minutes. He runs into his friends all the time. He can withdraw into the campus when he feels like not dealing with the city. And, he goes all over the city when he does feels like it -- whether it's to clubs, restaurants, museums, or to bartend at parties, or to make money tutoring, or for internships. So, for him, it is the best of combinations.</p>

<p>If you don't like a core curriculum, then Columbia is not for you. (My son didn't apply to Brown, for example, though he has friends there who love it.) If you don't like cities, then obviously Columbia is not for you. (My son didn't apply to Princeton, for example, because it felt too suburban to him, and he wouldn't consider a school in the middle of nowhere even though he has friends who thrive at some of those schools.) But Columbia is, indeed , safer than other Ivies according to crime statistics. A lot of images of Morningside Heights as dangerous stem back to the 1970s and 1980s, when New York City was much more dangerous than it is now. Being in a major city, Columbia also takes security seriously. People don't just wander into dorms. </p>

<p>Whenever we visit, it strikes me that the Morningside Heights neighborhood has a lot of aspects of a college town, except that it's a city neighborhood. Undergrads and graduate students and professors live and work and eat there. It's not a cozy place, or a quiet place, but it is an exciting place. And, like every school, not for everyone but great for some.</p>

28

<p>How is Columbia safer than Dartmouth, Cornell, Princeton?</p>

<p>I would have to agree with slipper on the fun aspect of JHU vs Harvard, at least from the people I know who have spoken of their experiences at both. Johns Hopkins seems like the least fun top 50 academic school outside of University of Chicago, although I do get the impression that they realize this and are trying to do things to improve it.</p>

29

<p>I think the judgment that Columbia is "safer" is based on the reported crime rates at the different universities.</p>

<p>Just because a campus is in a suburban or rural location doesn't guarantee safety. There was a stabbing at Cornell last year, right outside a dormitory (the person with the knife was a student; the victim was a visitor from another college). Such an incident could just as easily happen at Dartmouth or Princeton, too.</p>

30

<p>"There was a stabbing at Cornell last year, right outside a dormitory (the person with the knife was a student; the victim was a visitor from another college). Such an incident could just as easily happen at Dartmouth or Princeton, too"</p>

<p>Or at any school.... The question is about the relative safety in the area around Columbia, not about crimes committed by university students. The fact of the matter is, most college campuses are "safe", but ALL have incidents.</p>

31

<p>Yeah, but that is a random incident involving a student that is just as likely to happen anywhere. I'm talking around the surrounding environment. Maybe, Columbia would win on crimes per capita, but absolute number is what is at issue here and just can't imagine that New York comes close to beating out Hanover, Ithaca, Princeton.</p>

32

<p>Except that Columbia isn't in a neighborhood that compares to far-flung crime-ridden low-income neighborhoods of Brooklyn or the Bronx. New York is vast, and indeed has pockets of comparable safety to Hanover, Ithaca, and Princeton.</p>

<p>Not that the area would be dangerous without it, but security in Morningside Heights is zealous. In addition to Columbia's security patrolling the neighborhood and watching from observation posts along darker residential streets like Morningside Drive and Claremont Ave., as well as watching the doors to every dorm, the Morningside Security Alliance has a patrol of little white SUVs that roam the neighborhood constantly. In additon, the NYPD always has cars parked near Broadway to keep an eye on students at night, and the fact that the NYPD is a fan of a local Chinese restaurant (Columbia Cottage) does not hurt either. Local retailers with red lion logos on their windows serve as refuges for Columbia students who feel they see something suspicious. There are escort services that operate in the neighborhood like those that exist on any other campus. Finally, doormen in upper-end apartment houses off Broadway, on Riverside Drive, and on 110th Street keep an eye on whatever happens on the street. </p>

<p>The most dangerous parts of the neighborhood are Riverside and Morningside Parks, but who with any common sense would wander into heavily wooded, dark parks at night in any city? </p>

<p>My parents are suburban paranoiacs who would not have sent me to Columbia if it were in an even sightly marginal area like Fordham's or included the weird characters of the sort that stalk NYU's Washington Square. My mother breathed a sigh of relief when the cab that first took her to Columbia arrived in Morningside Heights, which she considers an oasis. The term "Columbia bubble" is thrown around for a reason. </p>

<p>And it's very unlikely that anything like the murder of two Dartmouth professors in their home several years ago could have happened in a doorman watched New York apartment building such as that in which the Columbia faculty generally reside. Keep in mind that at rural and suburban campuses, dangerous elements like drug dealers are usually invited nearby, whereas rich kids at Columbia who want to buy illegal substances from shady characters generally go out of the neighborhood. And if none of these reassurances sway you, rest assured that if one chooses not to, one rarely has to leave the indisputably safe campus for anything.</p>