<p>Some of you may have seen my other thread, in which I, perhaps a bit excessively denigrated my experience here. The following is an exchange between me and someone on the thread who is a Columbia advocate. Unlike the hyperbole on both sides, my response here reflects how I rationally feel. I encourage everyone, prospective students, current students, alumni, administrators to read it - it is only my hope that it provides you some value. This will be my last post on College Confidential, after 7 years. Best of luck to all Columbians, past, present, and future!</p>
<p>"Thank you for the thoughtful reply.</p>
<p>After your explanation, I see better where you are coming from. To an extent, I fully empathize. If what is so conspicuously flawed with this institution is remedied, I suppose many would feel better about our choice of attending, and ultimately the school may be able to enter into a period of a virtuous cycle where more engaged students creates a more engaged community, providing alumni with a more satisfactory experience that leads to more donations, better faculty resources, larger endowment, higher rankings, and perhaps one day, Columbia may be able to rejoin he "Holy Trinity" that it was once a part of.</p>
<p>Before I say anything else, please believe me when I say I was the biggest champion of Columbia University. In part, I grew up engaged with the campus (as both my parents are faculty), and I never imagined attending anywhere else. I first found the Owl on Alma Mater when I was 9 (unfortunately won't be graduating Valedictorian), et cetera. I spent three years of high school, accumulating 1500 posts, like you, trying to convince other people why they should call Columbia their home. I still remember the day I was accepted - it was the happiest day of my life.</p>
<p>The stem of my frustration lies exactly in the disparity between what was promised, and what was delivered. In place of promises of sitting around the fireside with Professors lecturing students about the Classics, I was one among hundreds in huge lecture halls where I effectively learned the content myself. In place of nurturing advisors which were promised, I got a Dean who to this day does not know my name (though I make an effort two see him twice a semester), and who clearly has no idea as to how I should approach my major (if I needed to check the Bulletin, I could do it myself). Instead of the promises of the "traditions and school pride", I found myself huddled, once a year on a cold December night, for approximately one hour watching the Tree Lighting Ceremony - one of the only campus wide events.</p>
<p>The magnitude of my bitterness stems from the fact that I was over-promised, and Columbia under-delivered. I extracted maximum value from this Institution - because that was the only thing I was able to receive. I will leave Columbia with some true friends, a few job offers, and a prestigious degree. But I gave up four of the most impressionable years of my life, in which I desperately wanted to belong to a community (not just make friends), before I get become embittered by the cold-harsh realities of the world. Yes, I wanted to be coddled. Yes, I wanted to live in a bubble - surrounded by people who zealously loved this institution as much as I did. And yes, call it brain-washed or what not - I wanted to be like the Yalies, who identify so much with their Institution that many have banners of the slogan, "For God, for Country, for Yale" hanging on their office walls. I wanted that to be Columbia. And, as you very well know, that is not what any of us received.</p>
<p>My point is here - instead of over-promising the next generation, present them with an accurate picture of what Columbia is. Otherwise, I believe you run the risk of perpetuating the cycle further - engendering disillusion and engendering bitterness and discontent among alumni.</p>
<p>Columbia is what She is. She is not Harvard, not Yale, and not Princeton, and I believe there are deep structural deficiencies within the system. Maybe - this - is, and has always been Columbia's "culture". </p>
<p>Despite my bitterness, Columbia is now a part of me. It equipped me with the skills to engage the real world - perhaps exposing me to her harsh realities earlier than I would have liked. But Columbia does not define me - and it should not define you. Neither of us should feel ashamed of our decision to come to Columbia - but neither should we mindlessly rationalize it. We must simply accept it, and look forward. </p>
<p>Columbia University has, and will always be among the greatest research universities in the world. However, it was not, is not, and will likely never be the undergraduate university experience that defines some of our Ivy peers. This is both the blessing, and curse, of being situated in the middle of New York City."</p>