You haven’t even started yet, and you are already ‘disillusioned’. In some of your other threads you were struggling with deciding between CMU & Columbia. By any chance, are you second-guessing your choice?
Know that looking up the outcomes of 60 alums is…extreme. And, as an aside, you don’t know what any of them came in looking for- which leads to the main point:
You have to run your own race. Somebody on another of your threads told the story of a race s/he dropped out of b/c they let other people get in their heads. Other people have to run their own races: you run yours. It’s the only one you can win.
There are ways in which Columbia will surprise and delight you- and ways in which it will disappoint you, for that is the nature of things. You will learn to navigate Columbia’s systems and pathways and (to borrow the motto of one of the schools my collegekids went to), you will ‘find a way or make one’ to get what you want from your university experience.
ps, I saw your thread about ‘did they only take me because…’. I have heard the same anxiety from so many students from so many backgrounds (seriously: 'because of… race, ethnicity, place of origin, cultural group, novel back story, physical handicap, etc), from students at multiple selective universities, in 3 countries. In almost every case the student has fretted about it and had moments of ‘imposter syndrome’ well into their second year of university. But, usually around then, most of them come to realize and genuinely accept that they actually do belong, that they are cleverer than some of their classmates, and not as clever as others, but they are definitely peers. Please do everything you can to believe that in your heart as soon as possible- the biggest regret those students have had about their university experience is all the time and emotion they wasted on worrying about that aspect of it. Hand on heart, no matter what ‘minority’ group, the university will have had multiple options to ‘tick that box’ (IF that’s what they were looking to do- a very big IF, especially for a relatively big ‘minority’ group,), and they chose you. I promise, they turned down many, many black applicants with good stats. They chose you, and they are confident that you can not only do the work, but that you will add to the community now and in the future. <3
pss, on the doing the work part- my usual advice on that is to get ahead of the game- find out the who/what/where of all the academic supports that are available- there are lots- and use them shamelessly from day 1, especially in the first 2 terms. The biggest way that first year college students- of any background- get in trouble academically is letting small issues go, thinking they can sort it out themselves and being embarrassed to ask for help. College moves fast and there are fewer assessments. 100% the new student orientation will outline a lot of the places to get help- because LOTS of students need support in making the leap from HS to college- it won’t be just you!- so, find them and use them. Use TA/Prof office hours. Do the reading for class before class, and plan your long term assignments out in advance (the due dates all cluster, and you will have nothing due for weeks and suddenly 2 term papers and 3 mid-term exams- planning is crucial). If you haven’t done much essay writing, make best friends with the folks in the writing center. You may have some study skills to catch up, some essay writing muscles to develop, but it is absolutely do-able-, no matter how bad your old school was- because you are smart and determined!
And I think of the 60 I looked up from the last three years - most of them are working in finance or retail or management and I think maybe 5-6 are working in music (but mainly indirectly as like a manager at the met or music editor etc).