<p>haha I figured the article wasn't truth down to the letter, but I had heard about the hooking up thing from several sources, and was curious as to the validity of it.</p>
<p>And as far as the sexuality thing, I'm not offended by that at all. believe me, I may not live there, but I'm a New York girl at heart :).</p>
<p>How come I missed out on all this? I wonder if they had this all 5 years ago ;)</p>
<p>Seriously though, the "no dating, just hookups" thing is true at many colleges (and high schools), and this trend has been noticed by major newspapers and sex researcher types.</p>
<p><em>shrug</em> the best thing that ever happened to me was a two-year dating relationship I had while at columbia. and by spring of my senior year, of my maybe 25 male friends at columbia, only 3 didn't have some sort of girlfriend.</p>
<p>Maybe i'm a freak, but I doubt it.</p>
<p>When I went for my overnight stay my host told me that New York City is very conducive to dating because you can actually go out and do different things in the city.</p>
<p>And Denzera, I am VERY happy to hear that. I'm definitely looking for a dating type relationship at Columbia (if I get in)</p>
<p>It actually became a bit of a problem when I needed a wingman and nobody was single. But that's another discussion entirely =P</p>
<p>Hahaha, double edged sword.</p>
<p>buffysmg - while there is a good amount of "just hooking up" going on here, there is also a good amount of "serious" dating as well. The article is BS.</p>
<p>To all else - many people have already hit the nail on the head when it comes to the social scene here. There's lots going on, but it's not like at other ivies (or other schools in general) where there is a definitive place to be on a given weekend night. We have fraternities which tend to throw big parties at the beginning of each semester, but for the rest of the semester tend to cater only to themselves and the greek community. I'm a brother in one of the fraternities here on campus and we throw our doors open at the beginning of each year mostly so we can meet people and see if there are guys we want to join. Other than that, you need to be a brother to enjoy the social benefits that the fraternity offers.</p>
<p>There are plenty of bars around campus and, of course, New York City has plenty going on.</p>
<p>The student councils try to throw "parties" on campus every so often but, in my experience, these aren't very good. If you like to have lots of options in terms of social life, Columbia is a good place to be. If prefer to have nightlife laid out for you and go to huge parties where all of campus can be found, you may do well to look elsewhere.</p>
<p>Achilles is right. The lack of a common social scene is why I transferred, but of course some people prefer this.</p>
<p>Personally, when I meet Columbia classmates or alums I feel gratified our Columbia connection is Plato or the Decameron rather than the Spring Fling or whatever other schools have.</p>
<p>Of course, Columbians also bond by complaining about the food/facilities/professors/bureaucracy/workload, etc. (jadedness and sardonic complaint, rather than protest, is a defining feature of the student body, I think) But all that fades with nostalgia...</p>
<p>I really don't understand why people think Columbia is so bureaucratic. I have no complaints in that regard. Housing was missing a form from me (which I had no idea I had to fill out), so they e-mailed me and I filled out the form. You want bureaucratic, go to Drexel. You have to go to 3 offices just to get a transcript. People at CU who think it's bureaucratic have no idea how good they have it. I consider this university incredibly efficient.</p>
<p>You're a freshman, right? They've made some improvements in that department recently (Mark Chatoor has been doing a good job at housing), though free cookies and cider in the registrar's office are more of a band-aid solution to its characteristic rudeness than anything. Trying to get the History Dept., my mysterious adviser, and the registrar's office to coordinate when I can't drop a seminar the department takes it upon itself to register me for is always a tiresome pain in the ass. Oh, and the people in Woodbridge whose roof caved in and can't get Facilities to call them back anymore are not necessarily an exception, either. </p>
<p>Yes, it's getting better rather than worse, but the administration here will always keep a certain surprisingly stand-offish distance from students, I think.</p>
<p>I'm a sophomore transfer, which is why I referenced Drexel. This is significantly better than Drexel, count your blessings.</p>
<p>I just tried to get my alumni email forwarded and had to go through a ton of hoops over the phone (3 offices) only to be re-directed to a website which didn't address the problem after I got the relevant person. Its a UNIVERSITY not a college, and that means red tape. For example, at most liberal arts schools you get an alumni email account for life. At Columbia you get email FORWARDING for life, somehow its just not the same.</p>
<p>Compared to my other school Columbia is full of red-tape. But its all relative I guess.</p>
<p>Columbia's red-tape is awful. Layla, you probably haven't been there long enough to experience its full force.</p>
<p>
[quote]
For example, at most liberal arts schools you get an alumni email account for life. At Columbia you get email FORWARDING for life, somehow its just not the same.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>At least you get to keep your actual columbia.edu email address. At Stanford, you get stuck with some stupid "stanfordalumni.org" address.</p>
<p>.............</p>
<p>.............</p>
<p>Em...so when I graduate I'll get to keep my Columbia address but I just won't have access to CubMail or something?</p>
<p>Not a terrible loss, there...</p>
<p>You give CU another email address to forward the mail to (gmail, yahoo, etc.). You can't send mail from columbia.edu, but you can give the address to others for their use.</p>