Thinking about doing Early Decision to Columbia but concerned about advising and accessibility of professors (not sure to what extent online complaints are true). The Campus and the Core Curriculum are the main draws for me, but I am a bit concerned with the quality of advising and the helpfulness of professors/TA’s at Columbia, which has been the subject of numerous online complaints. I cherish an education that allows for effective instructor-student communication, as I want to build relationships with my professors. Would Columbia be a right fit for this? Similarly in terms of advising, I like to plan attend and stay informed, and I was wondering whether getting help or advice is easily accessible for undergrads.
Strong professor accessibility is a benefit touted by most, if not all top school. Obviously, circumstances depend on the choices of individual professors, but my personal experiences around Columbia and with friends that go to Columbia suggests that the staff is very willing to help out. Granted, probably not as much as you would find at a small liberal arts college, but I wouldn’t let rumors dissuade you from applying ED if you really want to go to Columbia.
I agree with @Tman1005 that rumors shouldn’t dissuade you from applying to Columbia. Granted, I’ve had some difficult professors and incompetent TA’s in my time, but there are many amazing staff here as well. You have to be a little careful and read the reviews before picking your professors (there’s little you can do about TA’s unfortunately), but overall the student-instructor communication isn’t as bad as they make it out to be. Obviously it’ll be difficult to build relationships with professors in your lecture classes in any college, but it’s not impossible.
As for advising, it hasn’t been too bad in my experience and if you end up having a problem with your advisor you can always request a change.
Columbia has endless resources and connections to help students. The core is generally all small seminars taught by professors. The only TAs you will see are in some freshman intro science classes. Most of the professors live in the neighborhood and are very available.