Help Me Convince Myself?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
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<p>I know this thread sounds stupid, but please bear with me. </p>

<p>Early on, I planned on applying to Columbia because it has an awesome business/economics program and all of my friends who went there had positive reviews about it. Anyway, I've had some doubts.</p>

<p>Whenever I think of CU, I think of going to classes in skyscrapers with noisy traffic in the background. (Somewhat random, I know, but I can't help it.) Also, the annoying non-common application and the fact that they make me pay first is somewhat irritating, albeit not a big problem. </p>

<p>I suppose the big thing is that I can't really feel what CU is all about. For example, Yale, my first choice, felt like an extremely fun, peaceful, and warm place with its residential college system (even though New Haven often receives bad reviews.) </p>

<p>Could you guys help me figure out what CU is best known for / what it feels like to you (including pros/cons if you have time)?</p>

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<p>Columbia doesn’t have an undergraduate business program.</p>

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<p>1) columbia asks you to pay so that you are serious about applying.
2) the questions are similar to the common app, but you don’t need to wait for a secondary app - plus things get lost with less frequency than the common app online system. consider it better.
3) have you been to columbia’s campus? it is quite different than your imagination. its a pristine urban campus, with lawns and people sitting around. the neighborhood it is in is directed toward the university, so a lot of great (cheapish) places to eat, services, etc., it is far different than the hustle and bustle of midtown. it recently won the award for the best urban campus for its landscaping.<br>
4) yale is crap compared to columbia
5) columbia offers intense intimacy for all undergrads. you will mostly live within 1 sq mile of each other, run into each other, talk to each other, it becomes very difficult to not engage with the folks around you; and yet you have the city at your doorstep with the subway right outside campus and everything that entails.</p>

<p>the reason to apply to columbia is that it is an unparalleled experience. to have an incredibly intimate liberal arts feel (even in engineering), with a very pronounced academic culture; and to have the glory and the opportunity of new york city abound. there are certainly other schools with great academic cultures (the ivies, chicago, stanford, berkeley, mit), but none have new york. and there are great schools in new york (nyu, fordham, the new school, cuny), but they don’t have as rigorous and intimate an academic life.</p>

<p>so read up on these threads. if the evidence doesn’t convince you, its because you haven’t read it all up. cu is a pretty amazing place.</p>

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<p>Columbia classes are not in midtown/skyscrapers. It’s a gorgeous campus with equally gorgeous architecture. That said…my D and I got a bit of a “cold” feeling from the initial informational meeting, and it didn’t get much better as we started touring. We ended up not even finishig the tour with the group. BUT…D has had very extreme 2nd thoughts. It offers SO much. So maybe don’t let it go just yet. Have you toured? I’d think, if you have friends who you KNOW, who like it there, that says a LOT.</p>

<p>And PLEASE don’t place your decision on where you’ll live for the next 4 years of your life…on the fact that you have to fill out ANOTHER application or pay for it up front. That’s crazy talk.</p>

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<p>Right, it’s just that I couldn’t really get a feel for it, that the first things that came to mind were the small things that annoyed me. Thank you admissionsgeek & R124687 for giving me a better idea. </p>

<p>I actually like the idea of CU’s Core, but I’m worried about the social life. I suppose after sacrificing so much time getting into college, I might be placing too much emphasis on a social life in college, but from reading some of the dislikes about CU, apparently it’s disjointed socially (low school spirit, small parties, very few intramural activities…)</p>

<p>What was your social life like at CU?</p>

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<p>OP, Columbia doesn’t have an undergraduat business program. Sure, you can major in Econ, but I don’t think that’s what you want. If you go to Columbia College, you’ll have to take the Core Curriculum, with a heavy focus on the liberal arts (English, philosophy, art/music, etc.) If you’re more of a pre-MBA kind of guy, I’m not sure Columbia is the best fit for you.</p>

<p>That said, you’re absolutely wrong about the campus feel. The campus is beautiful, and it really doesn’t feel like you’re in the middle of the city. All of the dorms and classes are on campus; this isn’t NYU. That said, Columbia doesn’t have a residential college system (which I consider a GOOD thing). The closest thing would be the “Living Learning Center” which tries to promote community, but isn’t really taken seriously. Most freshmen will be living in singles and suites. So if you really prize that warm sense of community (which I personally dislike) that you get from Yale, then Columbia might not be the best fit for you.</p>

<p>It’s a great school if it’s a good fit, but I’m not convinced you are. I encourage you to talk to current Columbians and do more research before you make your final decision.</p>

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<p>so your big question is social life - </p>

<p>and i get this a lot, i think i might make a post just on social life. so here is a short version for a longer one. </p>

<p>i had an absolute ball at columbia in any every sense of the word, and i definitely treated the city as my playground, but had a great time on campus. so i guess to break up social life into three categories - the everyday, the party/events life and the city life, in each i felt pretty complete. </p>

<p>so your everyday will depend on where you live of course. if you live in John Jay or Carman frosh year, it will be your floor. if you live in the LLC it is usually your suite. i was an LLCer, and so my everyday usually consisted of watching tv in the lounge while doing homework, joking with friends, playing videogames, cooking dinner with friends (or more accurately, buying groceries and having a friend cook for me). it gave me a really tight knit family, people i relied on, that taught me things i never knew, and also opened up opportunities for me because they were part of this activity, or knew a senior doing something. </p>

<p>so early on, i got involved because of a suitemate with CSE (Special Events, it is now by some other name) that threw parties on campus, and it was fun to be on the party side because you got to play with money, and just put on events to make people have a good time. i joined a fraternity, though can’t say i am the most likely candidate to join one, it was a great experience and introduced me to other groups of people, and close friends that i still have today. every wednesday i would go to the house and play pool or watch tv, just hang out and get away from classes. many of my weekends were spent with folks from the LLC as we would hang out making music, and challenging kids in Carman for southfield supremacy (so there is your residential college competition for you, it does exist). pwoods is right that it is not precisely the same thing, but there is a great degree of dorm-affinity.</p>

<p>i stayed really involved on campus life and went to many of the big events that would go on promoted by the school, or some organization. there is something going on it feels like every good weekend, so it is pretty easy to find something to do. and as the semesters went by i ended up developing more social networks of people doing everything from going to Orchesis to cheer on a friend who is dancing, to hanging out with the Russian club (RIA) at their off-campus wicked mixers. drinking (as my preferred medium of fun) was very accessible. i went out easily 3-4 times a week in some capacity by senior year - and managed to do everything else that came with being a senior (thesis, maintain gpa, be very involved). in my opinion, i don’t think i could have a crazier time anywhere, the availability of events and opportunities - as i said before, are unparalleled.</p>

<p>now the city is the X-factor. how much you use it depends on you, of course. i used it sparingly, but it was always a worthy venture. whether it was going to go dancing, try out a new place to eat, a comedy club, a grungy house party in brooklyn, a fancy dinner you are invited to by a columbia alum, the city really is pretty incredible with regard to your social life.</p>

<p>so i guess you have multiple things to think about - and here is just one perspective of course. i can’t imagine ever having a better time in which i shared the experience not just with columbians, but with average nyers, with other college students in the city, with big wigs and with the guys at 109 deli. and i did it all without breaking my bank, without feeling the pinch. it was also unpredictable - it was not stale in the sense that i knew what i would do every friday night, i had a choice, i could do something i had never done before (the night that started out at SOBs and ended at a small east village hookah bar), or the date that involved burning food in an LLC kitchen. i felt i was able to do everything i could imagine doing, without it ever feeling stale. that i developed friends that are still my best friends today (and will probably be for the rest of my life - we just had a mini-gathering the other night and it was as if things had never changed). so in a sense there is no artificial construction of community, but as a friend of mine put, columbia is a lattice of individual networks in which the richness of your own individual experience is magnified by the fact that you will find tons of people to share it with you. columbia has a fantastic community in the most real sense. it isn’t easy to grasp it by appealing to a concept or an idea, it is something to be experienced. </p>

<p>like any place you will feel some bad days and i think we all know it. you may be one who dislikes campus life and wants to spend more time in the city. but perhaps as an anecdote of the possible, i think when truly harnessed and a good balanced between the academic and social life - columbia can be an incredible time. i have no regrets. i only wish more people knew about how great columbia’s social experiences are.</p>

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<p>well-said admissionsgeek, you make me pumped for next year!</p>

<p>ps thanks for all the help you gave me through pm’s and post. im sure everyone here appreciates them as much as i do</p>