<p>I'm sure you thought of this, but if he likes the idea of New York City, then NYU might be a safety school for him as an Ivy-level applicant. In some ways, NYU students connect more directly with their neighborhood of Greenwich Village, which is their "sidewalk campus." The only bit of green they have is Washington Park, which lately has been a source of irritation, I read on CC, as regressing into sleazy again after a long revival as a park, but hopefully that's temporary. If S isn't bothered by "no greenery except for Washington Park" then perhaps NYU might go onto his safety list, remembering too that Central Park is just a subway hop away, too. </p>
<p>I'm going to indulge in a description of Columbia U's neighborhood, as a baseline for you when he looks at other East Coast urban campuses. Perhaps it'll help him sift out when some say, "ooh, that's in a dangerous neighborhood" which I've heard and wondered how to interpret when someone compares UCLA to USC for me, and I'm clueless what it looks or feels like, would it matter to me, etc.</p>
<p>Columbia U's neighborhood functions differently than NYU, where the kids immediately "hit the streets" of Greenwich Village as they exit their dorms. Columbia's campus itself is enclosed and quite the Ivy bubble/sanctuary for a few blocks, lovely buildings around a central campus green. Once you exit the gates on either side, he'd find an upscale academic neighborhood (Morningside Heights) characterized by not only Columbia residents but the students, faculty and cafes/bookstores that also serve several venerable graduate schools: Union Theological Seminary (Protestant), and Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative Movement, as compared to Orthodox or Reform), Bank St. Teachers College. These institutions have a wide impact a mile around Columbia in all directions, so it's a bit like Notre Dame in Paris, I always feel, with the gothic architecture and ethnic cafes, etc., along Amsterdam ave. Feels sophisticated to me as I walk around. </p>
<p>Then the next outer ring of neighborhoods is the Hudson River to the west (fish only) and Harlem to the north and east. Harlem, which begins about a half-mile from Columbia's Morningside Heights neighborhood, is NOT the high-crime district as it was in the '60's and '70's, comparative statistics bear this out. It is enjoying a cultural renaissance. My S lives on 125th St, sharing an apt. with 2 women, so that's 2 Caucasians and an Asian college grads now working in the city. They chose Harlem because rents are affordable, the apartment newly renovated and it's right on the great subway stop at 125th which is an express connecting them quickly all over the city (one fare costs $2 anywhere within NYC, it's a great system that pulls every borough together economically). I've stayed with him many times and enjoy 125th St., a main commercial boulevard of Harlem. </p>
<p>This would be a real widening dimension for your S to discover whenever he's not burrowed into his studies. Walking a few blocks onward, he could intersect with MLK Blvd, Malcolm X Blvd, or Adam Clayton Powell Blvd and wave to Bill Clinton's offices there. Eat soul food, take in a show at the Apollo or hear some jazz at a club right where Duke Ellington began. I'm not sure every single Columbia undergrad is open to this experience or even has time for it, but it's another dimension to discover outside the university.</p>
<p>In Harlem, I'm usually right on 125th St. or heading for the subway station, but one year I did a housing swap with a couple, Caucasian, living in a brownstone off a sidestreet. That was a gentrifying neighborhood, which is its own economic story: privately renovated brownstones, one-at-a-time, push out the poorest residents of the neighborhood when rents spike. And yet, as a result, Harlem is now an integrated neighborhood that retains, unquestionably, an African American sensibility, with AA middle/upperclass residents and others who can afford the new higher rents or own the brownstones outright. Remember it was the place, where, in early 20th century, when AA's left farms in the rural South, they were ghettoized to live in the neighborhood north of 120th, so that's where the "Harlem Renaissance" of the 1920's began, with Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes and all the rest. </p>
<p>I indulge in all of this, so that if/when you also consider UPenn or U of Chicago, which I've heard described as "in a rough neighborhood" you'll have a kind of urban-planner's baseline to ask the source what they mean. Obviously, as a struggling actor in NYC, my S chose Harlem as the affordable alternative so he could still live in Manhattan, in smaller quarters than he'd find in Brooklyn where other struggling artists congregate and simply subway into central Manhattan. Obviously, he found roommates with similar think-outside-the-box mentality in search of housing. This summer, when one roommate moves on, they'll register as off-campus housing and anticipate no problem finding a Columbia grad student that way. I'm not suggesting this as housing for a new undergrad, but am just trying to describe what are some questions to ask about urban neighborhoods surrounding East Coast universities. You don't want to feel that you can't step foot beyond the university without getting hurt, but that is absolutely NOT the situation in Harlem, which borders Morningside Heights.</p>
<p>I've never been to UPenn or U of Chicago, so I can't describe those communities. Even now, I feel humbled to go on about Columbia since I've only been there as a visiting Mom to the neighborhood. I'm sure genuine NYC residents or parents of Columbia students could add to this. </p>
<p>NYU is really straightforward; anyone who thinks NYU is "too dangerous because my parents are afraid of NYC" needs to either reeducate/ignore their parents or just not apply, IMO. If a family feels upset to see poor people or people of every race walking down the streets, then definitely stay out of New York City because that attitude just doesn't fit. </p>
<p>Something I've heard said about Columbia is that students think they'll spend more time playing in NYC than they really do, once studies begin! But I'm sure that's a very individual call. The subway beckons...</p>
<p>Your D's comment from Princeton is another approach, to simply go and find those who share perceptions for social equity, through campus organizations and activities for example. Sounds like he's just yearning for a wider lens, here, than the ghettoized upper-middle-class culture. The question might be, for him, whether he seeks it with his feet (go to an urban university) or in the life of the mind (go outside of the cities into Ivies such as Princeton). And I must duck before I go bashing Yale, but it has some of the worst town-gown relations of anyplace, sadly, re: New Haven, which is a poor city in Connecticut. Every other reason to apply to Yale, but don't go expecting a charming interaction with New Haven. Harvard, well, that's heaven in terms of university location in Cambridge so I won't even talk about it, it's heaven.</p>