While Columbia is undoubtedly an amazing and prestigious school, I have heard complaints about the administration (mainly from the enrolled students). Among these have been that professors are harder to contact reliably, thus making it harder to involve oneself, and that there is a preference for the graduate schools and their students. I expect that many of the students have enjoyed their time there, but nonetheless, are there any negative impacts on undergraduates and if so, how have they affected your undergraduate career?
I don’t mean to bash Columbia in any way, but I’m applying this winter and was just wondering about the conditions present and whether Columbia should be my first choice to attend.
Less accessible professors are not due to the “administration”. As a major research university it is common to be focused on graduate students and research.
The professors probably don’t answer every email that every student sends, because the professor is really really busy. They have their research, their teaching, their grad students to mentor, grants to write and report on, committee work, administrative positions to fill (chair of the department, dean of this or that), meetings to attend, books and papers writing, world travel – esp at that level – and the like.
They probably offer office hours and ways to contact them, but answering every little email would be daunting.
I have a feeling that students wish that a professor would drop everything to have long discussions by emails or to conduct business better conducted during office hours, via email. But the professor has set up other methods of communication that allow him or her to lead such a high-level research position. Students are sometimes a little entitled and want instant email gratification.