<h2>I'm copying this thread from College Search to Columbia so that it could get more readers and perhaps more replies</h2>
<p>I've read from various posts that Columbia has a weak school spirit and weak collaborative(?) atmosphere, since most of the students there are the perfect-scorers and everybody wants to be ahead of everyone else. As a consequence, the network isn't that good either. This seems to be the prevalent opinion about Columbian students, although I'm pretty sure not all people are like this. </p>
<p>I wouldn't be too surprised since it's situated in NY, but I just want to confirm.. are people in COlumbia generally "unfriendly"?</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard, people aren’t unfriendly, exactly, but they are pretty competitive (not surprising, considering Columbia draws students from THE most selective pools in the US/world) - so people are bound to be pretty intense. And I’ve also heard too, that the fact that the entire city of NYC is your campus makes it less appealing for a lot of people to confine themselves to just the Columbia grounds, so logically, it does seem sense that it might have less of a school spirit than a place where the city isn’t such a big part of campus life- like Yale, for example. But I could be wrong :P</p>
<p>This post is clearly flamebait. OP seems to be more concerned with ranting against Columbia and passing on nonsensical statements than getting an answer to a bogus “question.”</p>
<p>As the parent of a very happy first-year Columbia student, I find the frequent recounting of this reputation fascinating. My son is a social beast, a party animal, a frat member and rugby player. In a word, he has described his Columbia experience as “perfect.” He has ventured “into the city” less than a handful of times, although he applied ED to Columbia because of the city and the core (not necessarily, but perhaps, in that order). He simply can’t find the time to explore the city. He finds tremendous school spirit among his various crowds, and sees no competition (in the pejorative sense of the word). I suspect the overwhelming majority (all?) of Columbia students seek to be all they can be. In that sense, they are most certainly competitive. One can maximize one’s own performance without treading on another’s. Perhaps it’s because he’s a suburban kid from several thousand miles away (i.e., naive?), but my son has not experienced the negative stereotype–at all.</p>
<p>I don’t know what Columbia used to be, but it’s pretty great today, and the stereotypes are either outdated or propagated by people with an axe to grind or people who have a fleeting negative experience for whatever reason.</p>
<p>The is school is definitely not competitive in a negative sense, people help others out all the time, and it is absolutely the norm, I usually study and work with others about 75% of the time. Heck I’ve taught entire classes to my friends for nothing.</p>
<p>The city does not detract from school spirit and there actually is quite a bit of school spirit around. In all my 3.5 years at Columbia the city has never once seemed to detract from campus life. Our sports teams aren’t great and that hurts the rah-rah school spirit which you’d have at Duke or Stanford. But we are proud of our school, virtually no one wants to transfer out (freshman retention is close to 99%, second only to yale). There are loyal groups of kids cheering at basketball games (our first game of the season was sold out)</p>
<p>Columbia is a place for the independent initiative taker, if you do not leave your comfort zone, you will left behind by everyone else making friends, rising in clubs, doing internships etc. This makes people unhappy, because no one holds your hand. For the initiative taker, opportunities to succeed in many dimensions are abound, and they are usually the ones who are satisfied and pretty proud of their college experience, this is valid of college in general but more emphasized for Columbia, with endless opportunity and noone really babying you.</p>
<p>@Columbia2002: I apologize if this thread seemed “anti-Columbia”. The thread I posted from College Search is my own thread and I reposted it here because it didn’t seem to be getting as many replies and opinions as I had hoped for. The reputation I got about Columbia was from several threads where people listed what they like/dislike about Columbia, and out of the cons list, what i mentioned above seemed to be prevalent so I just got curious about the degree to which that was true. I’m one of the many RD applicants anxiously waiting for decisions from Columbia and as the decisions date nears, I’m starting to ponder more and more about the actual atmosphere at each school I applied to.</p>
<p>@fuzzyfirebunny: I never considered the fact that the many things to do in NYC could be drawing students out of campus most of the time and contributing to the “lack” of school spirit…lol. I’ve never lived in NY before and I guess i just got carried away with focusing just on what goes on in the campus </p>
<p>@pbr: Thanks for your post…it sure cleared a lot of doubts i was starting to have about the atmosphere there(based on what i read in other threads). It’s good to hear your son really enjoys it there!I’m probably not as social/outgoing as he is, but I’m from the suburbs too and if he’s enjoying it, then it’ll probably be right for me too</p>
<p>lyl - its a good question, and a lot of people have covered it well. read through some of the threads on here to gain a good sense. </p>
<p>in the end it is important not to try and compare columbia too directly with other schools because what you have here is pretty unique. and i think there are a lot of rumors that try to place columbia within other boxes. the reality is that i didn’t have time to think about what other students were doing, i had way too much else going on. maybe if i lived in ithaca, ny, i’d be brutal and competitive. but you’re in nyc, worrying about a test score is kind of petty when you could be interning anywhere, attending any show, seeing fashion, sports, culture up close.</p>
<p>its about the incredible opportunity here, it opens your horizon, and doesn’t close it. that’s what makes columbia special and different. as a friend once described it - columbia is a lattice of different people doing different things, but the sum total of all the individual expectations are lines and connections that form incredibly strong bonds, in the end the community of columbia is made up of you doing your own thing, but coming back to your dorm room and sharing your experiences with your friends. its about majoring in something, and sharing that with friends in your core class. its about sharing the small things of living in the same place at the same time in one of the most vibrant, chaotic and exciting places on earth. its about being privy to one of the greatest experiences that anyone 18-22 could have, and trust us - we are grateful for it. if anything, we are a bit too modest when it comes to showing it.</p>
<p>not only do we receive one of the most complete intellectual and academic experience out there, we get to do it in a non-competitive atmosphere, and whenever we are having a tough day, we can unwind in central park, times square, or just stare at the paintings at the MoMA and realize just how lucky we are to be young, adventurous and alive. it’s absolutely amazing.</p>