<p>I don't know about Columbia "falling to pieces", but my parents tell me that NYC really was a rough place in the 70's and I can see that as a big factor. Additionally, if my father is any indication, I think that staying single-sex for a few more years while places like Yale and Princeton were going co-ed might also have hurt Columbia. He, for one, would not have applied to a single-sex school that wasn't named Harvard (Yale and Princeton turned co-ed for his freshmen year). Of course, that's just one person, and while there were other reasons why he did not apply (for one, admission as a suburban NY kid was brutal), I would think that if it was true for him, it was true for others, as well.</p>