<p>I know Columbia has an excellent reputation as one of the leading universities in the world, but I been here some disconcerting things about how competitive and "cut-throat" the student body is...</p>
<p>Really, you hear those things about Columbia? Not Yale, Princeton, or Johns Hopkins? I’m surprised.</p>
<p>thats not really surprising that people say that columbia is competitive. the majority of the students there(i would hope, at least) want to excell; besides, i think that the term “cutthroat” could be interpreted differently by other people. Take what you hear, especially about other colleges, with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>i think kids at columbia are aggressive, but not really cut-throat. if anything, the biggest competition is with yourself.</p>
<p>the irony of columbia naysayers is on the one hand they make it seem like columbia is super independent, and then on the other it is very competitive - which one is it!?!?! </p>
<p>neither. columbia is very congenial, you will find folks you can work with, people that will make you better. i think most columbians are more concerned with having a good time - whatever you fancy - than what someone else is doing. sure there are some kids that are hyper competitive (like any top school), but i think most columbians think they are a bit lame. which probably explains antipathy toward student government ;)</p>
<p>To elaborate, I always felt that Columbians were generally intellectuals (while Yalies were overachievers, Harvard was full of those who excelled in narrow fields or ECs, and Princetonians were unrepentant elitists). After visiting campus and speaking with freshmen (who admittedly know nothing, as I’m sure conncoll will remind me), it certainly seemed like everyone at Columbia was very smart, but very chill. I think cut-throat competition is much more likely at a place like Johns Hopkins, where close to 80% of students are pre-med and they know they’re competing with one another for coveted spots in med school.</p>
<p>I’m pre-med here, and while there’s definitely a sense of competition (and much obsessing over grades), I don’t think it’s “cut-throat” most of the time. The people I talk to in my pre-med classes are more than happy to help each other out and to form study groups. Yes, even the postbacs. I’m sure some other pre-med student will disagree with me, though. Outside the pre-med curriculum, most people I meet are driven by intellectual passions. (I don’t mean to imply that pre-meds are not intellectually curiously. I mean that for the most part, the pre-med environment isn’t designed with intellectual curiosity in mind.)</p>
<p>I think Columbia’s a good place to be if you want to be pushed in new directions by not only your professors but also the people around you.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I never knew that! I had always assumed all the ivys were the same but I live in Cali where most apply to stanford so I didn’t know each had personalities!! </p>
<p>I know my college counselor told me that columbia would be “too aggressive for me and my voice would be lost”. I applied anyways, I don’t understand why the students would be more cutthroat or competitive than any of the other ivies? My 2 cents is visit the campus talk to students and teachers and you’ll get a feeling for how cutthroat it is.</p>
<p>^yeah it’s competitive, in that you are at the end of the day competing for those coveted internships, jobs and grad schools, but it’s by no means cut throat. People are actually very happy and many are eager to work together.</p>
<p>I’ve found everyone to be very helpful while still remaining self-motivated. I mostly know kids in the College, but I have yet to find someone who would undermine or refuse to help another person. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about extreme competition and stuff like that if you come here.</p>
<p>I vividly remember one of my AP history teachers telling us that, while enrolled in a top-tier school, particularly competitive students would sneak around in the library stacks destroying books and tearing out passages necessary to complete assignments. For whatever stupid reason, that image stuck with me for the rest of high school. </p>
<p>That said, you shouldn’t expect things be “cut-throat” to that extreme. Your intellectual mettle will be tested, sure. And, according to many, the seeming absence of a better defined undergraduate community can make for a feeling of competition rather than the familial thing that you’d get at, say, a Yale residential college. </p>
<p>My advice is to get involved in something you genuinely care about. You’ll end up falling in with the right people who’ll act as your support system, friends, and micro-community.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say there’s a seeming absence of a defined undergraduate community at all, the competition felt at yale will be just as strong as that at Columbia. Princeton, Cornell and Wharton tend to have a more competitive feel, brown will have a less competitive feel.</p>