<p>I've heard that Columbia's campus is deserted on weekends. It seems like the fact that everyone is scattered into the city may lead to a cold, unfriendly environment where it is hard to meet people. Is there truth to this?</p>
<p>I think there may be some truth to this. I took an overnighter visit on a Thursday and we went barhopping and stuff, but I really didn't see any other Columbians besides the floormates with whom I was hanging out with. I think the lack of a strong community, like you would find in a small-college town, is probably the least appealing thing about Columbia.</p>
<p>or they might have all been in their dorms studying</p>
<p>People rarely study Thursday nights. At least not in Carmen, maybe in John Jay.</p>
<p>I don't think this is accurate. There are quite a few colleges which draw from a regional area and ARE deserted when many of the residents go home on weekends, but Columbia certainly isn't one of them.</p>
<p>In general, though, Columbia students are more outward focused in their social/recreational life. Unlike campuses in rural areas or small towns where just about everything happens on campus, Columbia has the whole city around it. Students do go to clubs, cultural events, etc., though most will find their way back to campus. </p>
<p>One other difference is the relatively high percentage of the population that lives on campus at Columbia. While at many schools upperclassmen tend to live off campus, CU retains quite a few due to the high cost of apartments in Manhattan. I do agree with Welsh213 that there is less of a community feeling at CU than at some other colleges.</p>
<p>So, in short: the campus won't be deserted, but you may find the percent of students doing things off campus higher than on some other campuses.</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry about being abandoned - most of the first-years won't be NYC veterans, and will tend to start exploring in groups. Grouping in dorms and many shared classes help first-years meet each other, too.</p>
<p>Funny, a lot of Columbia students complain that they don't get off campus or beyond Morningside Heights as much as they'd like -- rather than that the campus is deserted.</p>
<p>Like Roger Dooley, the sense I get from my son is that there is plenty of social life on and off campus, and that when students go off campus it is usually in a group of other students. Thursday and Saturday nights are the big ones, while Friday nights seem quieter (recovery time?). So far, I know he's gone to fraternity parties,dance clubs, bars, a student play, poker games, Halloween parade in the village, ice skating, casino night (on campus), off campus plays, restaurants, concerts (on and off campus) and museums on his weekends. I've never been able to figure out this lack of community rep. All I can figure out is that on any given night there are more choices of what to do than a lot of more isolated places and, therefore, students head out in groups in different directions rather than all tromping to the student center to see the one movie or staying in one suite or lounge. (They do seem to congregate at particular restaurants and bars at various points in the evening.) There are also schools with less workload so that the partying happens all week long. But, at least as a first year, there's an overlap between people he's met in his dorm, classes, and extra curriculars. It seems to be the proverbial play hard/study hard kind of place for many students.</p>
<p>I'd recommend reading the Spectator online. You can access it through the Columbia website. Take a look at that for a few weeks, and I think you can get some sense of the student life -- the good, the bad, and the ugly.</p>
<p>So does that mean that Columbians take a break from partying on Fridays???</p>
<p>what's the big deal - if you wanna party on friday, you can party on friday. i dont think that everyone in columbia stays in on a friday night</p>
<p>and if during college, you have a problem finding someone to chill with on a friday night, you should start looking at urself for the answer to that problem</p>
<p>My son's experiences are similar to sac's. He's been all over the city--comedy clubs, plays, concerts, restaurants, bars, etc. He's also been at plenty on-campus events, such as plays, concerts, etc. About a week ago, they lit the lights on the trees on College Walk, and it was a big event with hot chocolate, roasted chestnuts, a cappella groups, etc. His floor is very tight, and they spend a lot of time just hanging out together. All the things he does, he's doing with friends he's met at Columbia. Frankly, I don't know how he gets the time to do so much, and yet is seemingly doing fine in his classes. The one thing I do know is that he sure doesn't feel isolated!</p>
<p>If you're looking for a strong sense of community and expect to see many of the same people on campus a lot - Columbia isn't the place.</p>
<p>I think you just have to find a small group of friends with similar interests and then find stuff to do in the city.</p>