What do u like and hate about Columbia?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
141

<p>Hey, so was it hard to make friends at Columbia? Is there stereotypical personalities that Columbia students have, and whoever else doesn’t have it is sort of an “out-cast”?
e.g. Rich fashionistas, huge nerds, etc.</p>

<p>Also, I know this is more related to dorms, but I want to ask it here:</p>

<p>When choosing dorms, if I like to socialize, make friends, go out, have self-contained small parties, etc, but still be serious about studying, would Carman Hall or JJ be a good fit? Or must I lean towards Furnald? I’m worried that Carman is for drinkers, and that even being social, you would have to be the type of kid who doesn’t mind being hung over ever weekend…</p>

142

<p>^no such generalization can be made about our undergrad student body, it is one of the most diverse in terms of family income and probably the most diverse of any top private university in terms of race. It is also diverse in terms of interest, and personality. I would recommend against furnald, it tends to be the “nice” dorm but also anti-social, when you come to college, most prioritize social scene over comfort.</p>

<p>I think you’ll be fine anywhere between Carman, JJ and LLC. Carman can be pretty wild, so can certain floors of John Jay. While the LLC is not a party dorm, it is a highly social environment with sophs and frosh who make friends and form a community very quickly. Columbia 2002 and a few others might have had bad anecdotal experiences with their respective suite mates, but the general trend is the opposite. C2002 also was a freshman 11 years ago (wow!). Carman (and JJ if you’re unlucky) can be quite a ■■■ show, carman with it’s crazy parties can also be quite alienating and depressing at times, it could also be one of the most exhilarating experiences you have in your college time, so depends who and where you are.</p>

143

<p>“Columbia is roughly 50-50 M-F. Barnard is 100% women. The two, for all intents and purposes, share the same neighborhood, the same parties, the same campus area, and many classes too. Add the two together and you get an almost 2-1 ratio in favor of les hommes. At least, the straight ones.”</p>

<p>great. all possibilities of getting a boyfriend there = gone.</p>

144

<p>^ That’s just a tad pessimistic.</p>

145

<p>eh but a bit realistic. especially because it seems that it’s probable that barnard girls are dying to get the hookup with columbia boys.</p>

146

<p>Why can’t everyone just be happy?</p>

<p>So girls want to hook up with guys and guys want to hook up with girls? What else is new?</p>

<p>As for the CC students viewing other students as inferior, they’re simply acting in ways that they’ve been conditioned to act in all their youthful exhuberance. I was one of these kids, once upon a time, and have been treated to a more than healthy serving of crow pie. Most of them will learn over time, with experience, to be more open minded about things about age/credentials etc, but they are young and simply don’t have the experience to have broadened how they view the world. Again, I was one of these types of people, and it was all due to a number of factors.</p>

<p>I hope to be a GS’er for the fall semester, but to those existing and prospective GS’ers, please keep in mind that they <em>are</em> young and in time will surely realize the importance of being open minded. Some may not, true, but I imagine most of them will.</p>

<p>Patience.</p>

147

<p>I’d like to add that one of civilization’s biggest problems is the need to segregate, the need to feel better than someone else. We need to understand that we all come together to, at least try, have our respective societies work in unison, which means being respectful of each others capabilities, regardless of IQ levels. The only time I get upset is if I see a very intelligent person wasting their abilities. That’s it. In that case, even then, it’s not up to me to decide what makes this person happy, but I do feel a sense of loss to the world at large.</p>

<p>At the end of the day, everyone should feel very happy and privileged to be students at Columbia. Learn from each other.</p>

148

<p>Well, it’s pretty inevitable to have a superiority complex (?), but it’s easy to tame if you just think that everyone has something special about them and something about them that’s better than you, and that there’s always something you can learn from someone. </p>

<p>Hopeful Columbia '16!</p>

149

<p>Way to revive a dead thread.</p>

150

<p>Not “dead,” but “old”! ;)</p>

151

<p>Very tiny aesthetically ugly campus in one of the most disgusting cities in America. Columbia borders on an extremely dangerous neighborhood, where muggings, rapes and murders occur. Last year, a Columbia student was murdered one block form campus. The administration could care less about students, is completely unethical and inaccessible. Majors and entire departments are eliminated without any regard to the students who are enrolled in them. The four colleges making up the school are hierarchically ranked, which is disgraceful, with CC getting virtually everything and GS getting nothing. Grading is subjective and does not reflect anything. Graduation ceremonies that play Dixie Ragtime have nothing to do with NYC or the school, are shameful. Sorry I went there, and would NEVER do it again! I’m looking at ways to renounce my degree just so I can not be associated with that dump.</p>

152

<p>^^probably got rejected and attended NYU.</p>

153

<p>Yeah, that post was hilarious. I’m pretty sure there is not one factual assertion he made that is true.</p>

<p>I don’t mind seeing old threads revived from time to time, though. Just seeing my exchange with WindowShopping was worthwhile. WS, by the way, just sold his first tech startup business last year, to Google, and did real well for himself. Count one for GS!</p>

154

<p>Columbia Alumni may be scarce, but even though they are few they are also devoted. I mean, the school is literally run by the alumni and the board of trusties. (although that is in part due to the fact that the director of the school does their bidding like he’s their servant or something…) Also, just because there is no rah rah school spirit school wise, that doesn’t mean that the students aren’t dedicated to the school itself. The spirit is more academic than sports, which if you ask some people is actually a plus.
also, despite the fact that the sports teams themselves are weak, the gym has a ton of clubs and stuff that you can participate it, so it’s not like there are no sports at CU either.
and my favorite part of columbia is the butler library. it’s gargantuan and beautiful and despite the common memories of studying all night or cramming, it’s honestly book heaven on earth. also, a place not very noticed my some is the french dept. which is the only remaining building from before the campus was built. it’s honestly a charming building, and i’m quite fond of it.
a con is that there are a lot of classics teachers (latin, greek) but the other linguistics teachers (Sanskrit for instance) are scarce. I guess that comes with the domain though.
all in all though columbia is the BEST. SCHOOL. EVER.
wow that comment was really badly written… sorry it’s 12 AM -_-</p>

155

<p>Merry Berry is perhaps a Columbia admissions officer. I actually go here, do not take the fake cheer as truth. Columbia sucks. It sucks worse than anything possible. Don’t believe me? There have been three suicides in the first month of school. Do not come here. I’m a sophomore and I am already counting down the days to my deliverance.</p>

156

<p>^Okay, just to elaborate. One of those suicides was a freshman on the first day of orientation with previous attempts and issues. While I’m not saying going to Columbia had no role in that, the fact that she wasn’t even here 24 hours definitely points to other causes.</p>

<p>The second one was a grad student living off campus, who definitely did not have the same Columbia experience as the majority of the CC population (prospective undergrads).</p>

<p>Didn’t hear about a third one. Was it a recent graduate? Either way, while it has been a sad year for Columbia, as a whole I’ve enjoyed my time here so far (big disclaimer: I’m a freshman, so I haven’t probably been “shafted” enough). Some cons I can think of so far are:</p>

<p>-Unless you’re outgoing and social, you may find yourself isolated outside classes and clubs, especially if you don’t live in Carman or John Jay. Even if you’re in one of these though, if you don’t have many common interests with your randomly assigned floormates and you don’t find a common group of friends during NSOP it will be harder later.</p>

<p>-Maintenance requests take a while. I had the pleasure of being put on a floor that missed renovations in a dorm by one, meaning the crew did a fair bit of collateral damage (several missing lights, holes and cracks in the wall, some paint splatter, no lights in one of the bathroom stalls, and a broken dishwasher) to renovate the floor above. Even after the floor filled requests, housing refused on the grounds that it was getting renovated next year anyway.
In another instance, my key (ID, like a hotel) stopped working and it took a full 36 hours to fix, having to go to the hospitality desk every time I needed to get in my room, since they wouldn’t give me a physical key. So yeah, not a lot of faith in housing.
-Fire alarms. And for that matter, the blaring of sirens from St. Lukes if I decide to open my window at night.</p>

<p>These were all pretty localized issues though, none of which were enough to dampen the experience. It’s still a hell of a lot better than high school, and living away from home is great (don’t commute if you’re from the city, it’s miserable). So come here if you get in, but visit first so at least you know what to expect.</p>

157

<p>It is cool that Colombia and Barnard are so connected so a person can take classes from both schools.</p>