What do you like most/least about Columbia?

<p>The title speaks for itself.
Please share your thoughts and impressions :)</p>

<p>like most: Core & Campus
least: how freaking expensive it is.</p>

<p>Like the most: everything but the acceptance rate
Like the least: the acceptance rate</p>

<p>I think that sums it up nicely.</p>

<p>Most: campus, people, intellectual energy, random occurences, Stuart Firestein</p>

<p>Least: Graduating, the memories that the smell of Butler library evokes (all nighters, not booty calls)</p>

<p>Most: professors, the other students (both grad & undergrad), the location, the layout of the campus, all the old buildings, 20 freaking libraries, my graduate stipend</p>

<p>Least: the medical center campus (really?! you guys tricked me!), the fact that they're only funding me for three years, the Health Sciences library</p>

<p>Most: Core, campus (especially the libraries), intellectual curiosity, the kind & intelligent people I've met (incl. professors and students)</p>

<p>Least: Heel-unfriendly pavement </p>

<p>Cerberus, were you a neuroscience major? Firestein just lectured for bio tonight.</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/347790-helpful-columbia-threads.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/columbia-university/347790-helpful-columbia-threads.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Least: bureaucratic non-sense like booking rooms, going to office of x then office of y then office of z to get sht authorized. Liberal/activist slant to student body. Impersonal feeling when I first walked in. An inability in half the student body to make basic trade-offs when reaching a decision or allocating resources.</p>

<p>Most: Impersonal feeling of campus (I have tons of friends and no stuffy politics to worry about) your network sees no bounds. Core classes. No friday classes. Waking up 10 mins before class and being on time. Frats and athletes are at same footing as every other club. Monumental and frequent speakers. Political debate. Geniuses in every field who are passionate about what they do. Everyone has multiple interests, skills and talents. Go-getters who decide that how much they should do is how much they physically can do. No stereotypical student, you feel as much at home in flip-flops as in a florescent sweater as in a suit. CU eats - sitting in my room and being able to order food from any of ~50 restaurants in the area. Making racial jokes because you're friends with all sorts of people and don't need to treat them like their made of glass. Warm sunny April days when campus erupts with life and everyone is doing their own thing. Biking down riverside to battery park. Singing our fight song after winning a competition.</p>

<p>^^ You just made me cry. A$$</p>

<p>Demeter: I did indeed major in Neuro--don't you love Firestein? I visited campus a couple of weeks ago and randomly ran into him, and ended up going to a seminar he teaches (one that I took last year and loved). I'd forgotten how delightfully purile he can be :P</p>

<p>"Least: Heel-unfriendly pavement"
Yeah, you bet.</p>

<p>Omg confidentialcoll’s post makes me want to go there even more now!</p>

<p>from a parent:</p>

<p>most: how smart, funny, and incredibly impressive my kid’s friends are. the breadth of the education. that it gives me a good reason to visit NYC.</p>

<p>least: the housing is kind of dismal (bad lottery luck every year)</p>

<p>from a prospective student:</p>

<p>most: single dorms!!, NYC, obama went there</p>

<p>least: the light blue school color…it looks icky on a sweatshirt</p>

<p>I feel like I’ve answered this before, so search for my posts if you care what I have to say.</p>

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<p>On that note, I didn’t tell my parents about my idiotic, drunkard, lazy, bigoted, unethical, etc. friends. I just told them about – and had them meet – the smart, funny and impressive ones.</p>

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<p>How is this a good thing? The weather is nice for the first 2-3 weeks of class and then the last couple weeks if you’re lucky (but you’re busy with finals, papers and projects). There’s unambiguously crappy weather for the vast majority of the school year and opportunities to relax on the Low Library steps are rare.</p>

<p>I don’t know, CC02. Some people like Cali weather (always sunny and beach weather, except when it rains), but others appreciate <em>snow</em> and changing seasons. From another prospie:</p>

<p>Most: the students (intellectual curiosity and diversity, personalities, attitudes, etc.), the city and cosmopolitan culture, the Core, Thursday night is the weekend, single frosh dorms</p>

<p>Least: the bureaucracy and sometimes heavy-handed administration, the amount of work, required frosh meal plan (then again, Harvard requires it for all 4 years), the “War on Fun”, self-hating and cynical bwog commenters</p>

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<p>(My emphasis)</p>

<p>You’ve subconsciously acknowledged a point that I was going to make – that any attempt to say east coast weather is preferable to So Cal weather is pure rationalization.</p>

<p>I was going to contest this by invoking a Romantic defense of pain and the sublime to show that better weather is not necessarily preferable, but then I realized you’re probably just right.</p>

<p>A parents view</p>

<p>Most
The fact that my freshman child has professors who actually invited the students to their home and faculty dining hall for dinner and lunch respectively.
The incredible education that my child is getting from the core curriculum. The fact that the core is required and structured as one never does have/take the time to explore it with same passion after graduating from college.
The number of opportunities to attend talks and lectures from renowned guest speakers who are experts in their field.
The fun and exciting time that the students have exploring New York city.
How eager my child was to get back to the very tiny John Jay room after the Christmas holidays.
The excuse to visit New York and have a personal tour guide.</p>

<p>Least
Not being able to find parking or having to pay a fortune for parking when we visit.</p>