NYU and Columbia

<p>How is the atmosphere between Columbia and NYU. Do columbia people usually look down on NYU? is there any tension or is the city too big so that the two schools dont care about each other. from what you've heard, what are the pros and cons of each college when you compare the two?</p>

<p>nyu is huge and doesnt really have a campus...</p>

<p>I don't think many people who have the option to go to Columbia will give serious consideration to NYU. I don't think Columbia really cares about NYU; it's not really a considered a "peer school" or a competitor. A lot of Columbia students will have friends at NYU, so there's not really any hostility towards NYU.</p>

<p>They're in entirely different parts of the City. And they generally attract very different types of kids. It's not an issue at all.</p>

<p>There are definitely a good number of people who will scoff dismissively at any mention of NYU, particularly with regard to academic quality, campus, and so forth. Beyond that, there's the implicit recognition that NYU is in a far ore interesting, fun part of the city. Many people have friends/significant others at NYU, and will have spent at least some time in the vicinity.</p>

<p>there are hardly tension btw NYU and Columbia. And plus NYU is downtown and columbia is uptown. Also, they are really different schools, but 2 great colleges as well.</p>

<p>Is Columbia walking distance to downtown?</p>

<p>No way. I think it is on 116th street? and NYU (which is pretty much in the middle of the action) is on 30 something street. Subway.</p>

<p>NYU is concentrated downtown... more like 4th St. (about 20 blocks per mile) It's walkable, but it'd take you the whole day, lol.</p>

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It's walkable, but it'd take you the whole day, lol.

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<p>More like 1.5-2 hours.</p>

<p>If you take the subway, it will be about 1hr. And that not really long because I do it every morning to get to school. But at night on the weekend after a party or something, it will be bad.</p>

<p>It does not take 1 hr to get downtown from Columbia on the subway??? You can get to the village from 116th Street in as little as 15 - 20 minutes if you take the express trains. </p>

<p>Anyway, I graduated from Columbia and my wife graduated from NYU and I would say that there is no hostility between the schools (there is really no need). There seems to be a rivalry moreso between the law schools since they are more closely related in terms of academic reputations, but not so much at the college level. Over the last decade, NYU's profile has increased so that besides NYU, there really isn't another local school that has national name recognition academically. I think this is a good phenomenon because competition tends to be a good thing for improving institutions. </p>

<p>Each school has its strengths, and in the case of Columbia, I think there are far more strengths than weaknesses. Based on my visits to NYU and speaking with my wife, there seems to be more cohesiveness at Columbia and students tend to interact more frequently with others and professors. Columbia also has greater resources and a more prestigious name--if that is important to you. Since NYU doesn't have a traditional campus, the students there might feel more integrated with NYC life since not everyone you see on your way to class will be affiliated with NYU, unlike the case of CU where pretty much anyone on campus is affiliated with CU.</p>

<p>In NYC, 20 blocks = 1 mile. Yes, NYU is down on 4th Street, and Columbia is up on 116 Street. So that's like five+ miles, which you're welcome to walk anytime you like. But yeah, the subway would take 15 or 20 minutes. No biggie.</p>

<p>college grad, it take me 35 min every morning on the B or D train to get from broadway on houston to 86 and central park west. so it will take about 45min or a bit longer. And at nite(like tonight) it takes alot longer because their usually constrution on 59st station so the 1 train takes longer and it a weekend, so it is worst!</p>

<p>transferring takes up time, but if you take the 1 from 116th, switch to the express at 96th, and get off at 14th street, it takes 15-20 minutes. coming back at night is obnoxious, though.</p>

<p>I just got back from visiting my daughter at Barnard -- we went down to the village (NYU vicinity) on a Saturday afternoon and it took us at least 45 minutes -- but basically there was a hassle with the subways. The express train would have been faster but an express train did not come where & when it was expected -- and I saw signs plastered all over the subway stations about how such-and-such numbered trains would not be running at such-and-such days & times. (Ran into the same issue the last time I was in NY 6 years ago). Plus we visited a friend who was griping about it taking more than an hour to get somewhere the day before because the trains weren't running because of water on the tracks (it had been raining). </p>

<p>So I have no doubt that when the gods are smiling, and all the trains you want to take arrive when you expect to see them... that it is a 20 minute trip from 116th down to the village. But late nights, weekends & holidays are probably less predictable... so if you are trying to make an appointment or go to an event where time of arrival was critical, I think you'd want to leave at least 40 minutes for the trip. My daughter did gripe a lot about how long it took us to get down there, and she was particularly miffed because one of the trains we took stopped between stations and just sat on the tracks for awhile -- so I figure that most of the time the trip is faster. On the other hand, I don't think it is all that likely that things go wrong with the subway only on the rare occasions when I am in town.... so again, it makes sense to anticipate problems even if they are fairly rare.</p>

<p>OK, the issue isn't how long it takes to get downtown. Obviously that will vary depending on time of day and construction status.</p>

<p>The more important point is that both schools are close to a lot of different and interesting parts of the city, and it doesn't take much to get anywhere. There are more bars in the NYU area, and maybe more late-night joints, but the Columbia area isn't hurting for either one. It's easier to get a cheap apartment close to campus at Columbia, and NYU doesn't have enough dorms to house all of its students, so they only guarantee housing for your first year (Columbia guarantees all 4 years as long as you stay in their system).</p>

<p>There are a number of differences, but short of specific questions, it's hard to describe them. The Village feels very different than any other part of manhattan, and morningside heights feels almost like a suburb-within-a-city sometimes. The list of pros and cons for each would run very long. So, what do you want to know? Hint: on this board, we all know a lot more about columbia.</p>

<p>According to the NYU housing website, NYU DOES guarantee housing for all undergraduates provided they meet some set guidelines such as acceptance of a housing contract for freshman year, meeting re-application and payment deadlines, and not breaking the contract for any reason other than study abroad, medical leave or something else approved by NYU housing. This is more or less the same policy as Columbia.</p>

<p>More information on that can be found at <a href="http://www.nyu.edu/housing/policies/rights-guarantee.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nyu.edu/housing/policies/rights-guarantee.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Just wanted to clear that up</p>

<p>our lax teams hate each other :D</p>

<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs-JSd-Rq98%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs-JSd-Rq98&lt;/a> <-- made by the NYU team (although all the footage is against CCNY and not columbia....)</p>

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OK, the issue isn't how long it takes to get downtown. Obviously that will vary depending on time of day and construction status.

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Thak You...</p>