<br>
<blockquote> <blockquote> <p>i thought people go to college for education</p> </blockquote> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>Wrong. That's only one piece of the puzzle. My schooling has only been a part of my education. The people you meet, the way you shine among your peers, etc all are very important. At my MBA interviews, the resume got you the interview but personality fit got you the job.</p>
<p>listen, most people are at columbia for the education. so, not "wrong." of course they seek social lives too, but education is probably the main piece of the puzzle for c.u. students. you're going to find all kinds of people at columbia. granted, there will be a good number of weirdos. but come on man, it's really not too hard to find something fun to do in the columbia area on a weekend night. maybe you won't find massive frat parties and year-round frisbee-playing on lawns, but there are more than enough bars, room parties, campus events to keep ppl happy.</p>
<p>The point though is that for most cases the education difference between any top 15 is nil (except vocational areas like engineering, film, music, nursing etc - where almost no Ivy is at the top). In fact it can be said that the more LACish schools like Pton, Dartmouth, Amherst, etc are the best at educating undergrads. But the social life differences are dramatic. Choosing one Ivy over another if someone is pre-med, for example, for any reason outside of campus atmosphere is silly.</p>
<p>Thank you all... I just couldnt do it, California was too much for me, COLUMBIA 2010</p>
<p>NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I'm on the Columbia waitlist :(
And I got rejected from Stanford, my first choice. NO a<em>nicte! Preserve my dream and let me have my second-favorite! DON'T TAKE MY SPOT T</em>T</p>
<p>anyway, weirdly, one frat threw a party for pre-frosh when my friend visited a week or two ago. apparently there were huge numbers of people, pre-frosh, frat kids and normal students. do you wait for social life to come to you, slipper? yeah there are cliques at every university. it's what humans do: most people like having friends they feel truly understand them. personally, I am a clique-less fellow. my school is severely cliquish, but the only kids who are *******s about their cliques are the mean-spirited preppy unintelligent kids who I'd rather not be friends with anyway when there's nicer, more intriguing people to hang out with. I have two or three excellent friends, and then rub shoulders with pretty much everyone wonderfully. why not just do that? when I visited columbia, I made a point of talking to lots of students. just because they don't look at you with a smile as they walk by doesn't mean they don't have a good heart- I don't think I talked to a single kid feeling shunned or like he didn't really want to talk to me. some were awfully quiet, some were downright exuberant once you got them going, but maybe, slipper, you have a tendency to assume that if a person doesn't scream hello to you and hug you the moment they see you, it means they don't want to communicate. some kids are more reserved, or more intense, but perfectly friendly if you break into their little world. that's the feeling I got at columbia- no one is going to stop me or anyone else from joining their 'clique': the cliques aren't there for elitist purposes, it's just kids hanging out with kids they feel comfortable with. </p>
<p>and if there were never any big parties, why not instigate some of your own? college is about giving it your all and cutting yourself loose so you can discover yourself. who's stopping you from transforming the face of social life at columbia? you could have started an organization dedicated to forming events that would have concentrated attendance to avoid fragmentation. I've been on the campus and I know how busy it is- you could have gotten people together to stand around handing out flyers to increase your numbers. not only would you have gotten what you wanted, but it'd have been all YOU. I think kids like to party at columbia, and if they had reason to think that your shindigs were going to be more exciting than going to the khyber pass hookah bar in east village with their barnard girlfriends and simpsons fan club buddies, they'd go in a heartbeat. m</p>
<p>sorry already sent my deposit and housing stuff!
but good luck with the wait list</p>
<p>good call a_nicte. Last year I had to make this decision on may 1st. a year later, I am pretty positive I made the right choice in choosing columbia. you have quite a unique stimulating experience ahead of you, not just a typical college experience.</p>
<p>i just chose Columbia over somewhere else tonight too, buddy.
Good luck Falrapax, keep hoping but don't keep your hopes up too high.</p>
<p>I am so happy about my desicion... i loved stanford but I couldnt take california... im an international and the stanford bubble didnt appeal to me... columbia is more innovative, diverse, over all awake and active... right?</p>
<p>That's an impression of mine too. Columbia is, first, at the crossroads of the world as its brochure claims. Second, its student body is the most diverse in the Ivy League; these students somehow give a more intellectual/politically active feel. Furthermore, the Core curriculum adds to this "at the frontiers of the world" feel.</p>
<p>Let's be happy about our decisions together!</p>
<p>hey were you at days on campus?</p>
<p>ya. wanna chat on aim? your inbox is full</p>
<p>i cleaned my box
and i dont have AIM because i dont live in the states... I have msn messenger though</p>
<p>omg everyone is accepting columbia.......I'm never getting in ^_^</p>
<p>that was supposed to be T_T</p>
<p>i'm sorry. i'm sure your other choices are awesome too, if you made the waitlist</p>
<p>Dartmouth doesn't have high # of minorities. The top Ivies, that are more diverse, are Yale = Columbia ~UPenn. Princeton and Harvard are somewhat tied for 3rd. Dartmouth isn't all that close. Stanford probably has a higher percentage of minorities than all the Ivies.</p>
<p>veer: please stop coercing the OP to post this in the Stanford thread if s/he wants to then s/he will. If you want to explain the pros of Stanford, by all means explain it. Don't wait to have your "Stanford crew" behind you so that they'll agree with practically everything you say. -_-</p>
<p>Oh, if you're an international student, than I do feel that you would like Columbia a lot more than Stanford. Just don't forget to make your own opportunities when you get here and know that the friends you originally make might be "re-adjusted."</p>
<p>i'm sorry to bring htis thread back to live, i just have to point out quickly that what bookfreak said was rather funny. the picture of one stanfordian (is that what they are called btw?) leading a mass of cardinals and trees charging down this board to negate every columbian comment is pretty funny. </p>
<p>any way, on all those that picked columbia over stanford, or vice versa, i hope you did because you DID get a rounded opinion---as bookfreak mentioned, i do hope those that choose one over the other also posted on the opposite boards to get opposite perspectives. nonetheless, since it matters little now (10 days after may 1st), congrats on columbia and much luck to the class of 2010. i hope you find that you are satisfied.</p>
<p>Ummm...Dartmouth is more diverse than Princeton, Brown, and Cornell. Nice try though.</p>