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As I said above, there are places like downtown Ann Arbor, New Haven, Madison or Charlottesville with tons of things to do within a radius of a few blocks, and then there are places like outer Harlem or suburban NJ wasteland that are honestly pretty dead, even though there might be exciting areas 30 or 40 minutes away.
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<p>what is there to do in new haven???? name me 10 things in all of new haven (downtown and not) that doesnt come directly from yale. i'll give you 1: toads. go ahead and count the 3 or 4 clubs on college st and that little area. would love to see what else you have to list.</p>
<p>edit: just for the record, all those clubs in that area suck. crappy music with crappy beer watching wrestling on tv does not count as cool to me.</p>
<p>Show me one bar in New Haven that's as fun as 1020 or The Heights, or a restaurant that's as much fun as Mama Mexico on Cinco de Mayo. No, Morningside is not the East Village--it's more of an academic neighborhood--but there's enough going on that the vast majority of Columbia students enjoy spending time here. Personally, I'd take the greatest city in the U.S. over industrial New England any day.</p>
<p>And one more thing: Morningside is distinct from both the Upper West Side and Harlem (obviously, it's between the two) because of its large student/professor population and the ever-present forces of gentrification (we can debate the merits of that another time). There's nothing wrong with Harlem (I've had a lot of fun there), but Morningside is a bit of a different beast. It's an awesome place to go to school, and anyone who presents himself as qualified to sum up the character of Columbia and its neighborhood without being a student here is simply a tool. Ignore the advice of someone who wants to seem like an expert on an internet message board to validate his inflated sense of self-worth, and come experience Columbia for yourself. If you like great cities and culture, you won't be disappointed.</p>
<p>This thread badly needs pictures of a dirt pile, or a train wreck. It is an absolute disaster.</p>
<p>Suffice to say that I, along with every columbia student on this board I believe, strongly disagree with posterX's characterization of this place. Any reader out there curious about Columbia's Atmosphere is invited to post their questions and will get much more thorough - and knowledgeable - answers.</p>
<p>Rat-infested subway stations? Really? Are you trapped in the 1970s? No discussions-until-4am with fellow students? Really? Have you ever been a part of a social circle of CU students? People have been known to have discussions about Dostoevsky at dinner, myself included. You're going to sit here and try to argue with statistics that show that people would rather live in New Haven than New York? Really? Do you have the first clue about what those stats actually reflect? You're going to try and convince students that a certain place is better for them to go to college based on what the average income level is, which is probably determined by the middle-aged and elderly people in that area, not college-aged people?</p>
<p>When people start the Dostoevsky talk, that's when I put on my headphones. Creeeeeepy. Much of what Denzera said, however, is true. It's silly to compare the off-campus opportunities in New Haven with New York. One looks better in the dark while the other looks best when it's dark. Or something.</p>
<p>As someone who's spent a great deal of time at a lot of different colleges, it's pretty clear to me that the social life at Yale (and many other colleges that have better campuses and are located in more student-centered college town areas, with hundreds of stores, bars, restaurants, cafes,clubs, theaters, etc. in the immediate vicinity) is incredibly vibrant on a 24/7 basis, while that at Columbia is mostly dead by comparison. That was my only point, and as I said before, it's great to have other opinions.</p>
<p>1) morningside heights is the safest precinct in the city, you will only run into trouble if you go into the parks at night but that is a) you're fault and b) a problem in every city everywhere</p>
<p>HOWEVER, it should be noted that the numbers come from each school's security. This alone should set off warning bells since schools tend to under-report things (tho the survey justifies giving harvard a lower crime rate because it says the HUPD over-reports...i call bs on that). Also, take a look at note 2: "All forcible sex offenses reported as having taken place within an on-campus residence hall are excluded, on account of gross differences in reporting rates among universities with different victim-support policies." dont even get me started on that....</p>
<p>Also, I have to question what "non campus" means. I'm assuming that is what takes into account those students who live off campus in apartments? If that is the case, do they still count it if the case is taken care of by the boston, new haven, chicago, etc PD's as opposed to the school's PD?</p>
<p>Skraylor: My numbers are exactly identical, they just use different denominators for students --i.e. using undergraduates, the ones who actually live by campus, instead of grad students and P/T students who commute in from a much wider area.</p>