Columbia is NOT in a bad section of New York City. People who say that have never been to New York.
@merc81 Uh okay, thanks:-) it seems that I do have a lot of choices.
@simba9 My friend told me the campus of OSU is way off the city, is that true? Yeah VISA will be a problem but it’s something in the far future.
@tk21769 Thanks for the ranking and information you post here, that will help.
@circuitrider What about Harlem? I heard that it’s not safe to go out alone at night. Also, is Harlem far from Manhattan?
Now, what else can I do to improve my chances of being accepted? Should I take SAT again in October or should I try to work on my ECs? I’ve signed up for an advanced mathematics competition so I don’t have much time left this summer for volunteering or internship…
Considering my resources and time are limited(For example, I’ll have to take the SAT in HongKong, which means I must skip several days of school), the issue is what is the best strategy.
It’s a little late to do much to improve admission chances at tip-top schools, other than to keep doing the good things you’re doing. You can’t turn yourself into a champion athlete or concert pianist between now and December. So do your best in that math competition. Keep your grades up. Apply to a balanced mix of reach-match-safety schools. Have someone with good English skills proofread your essays. Submit all materials on time. In other words, you’ve already charted a good course, now just stick with it to completion.
1510 is a good enough SAT result that, in my opinion, you don’t need to skip several days of school to retake it. Some students’ scores go down on a second try; the average increase is not very great. A ~25 point improvement is unlikely to make/break your chances at super selective schools.
Harlem covers a swath of Manhattan’s northern tip where the island begins to narrow and that brings me to the first thing you need to know about Manhattan: It is a very narrow island. No part of it completely closed off from the possibility of bad things happening. New Yorkers nevertheless manage to raise children to adulthood, care for elderly parents and enjoy the excitement of being in one of the world’s truly international cities - by using a little common sense.
There are definitely parts of Harlem it I would not care to walk alone and at night. Those parts are generally east of Fifth Avenue and are separated from Columbia University both geographically and by transportation (for example, someone wishing to go to East Harlem would not take the same subway in order to visit Columbia.)
Columbia’s (main) campus is on Broadway and the neighborhood is indistinguishable from Hamilton Heights, Washington Heights, Inwood and other parts of the Upper West Side.There is foot traffic virtually 24 hours a day. I would have no problem walking anywhere on Broadway late at night.
The Ohio State University campus is only about 3 miles from downtown Columbus.
Ohio University in Athens is in a rural area about 2 hours away from Columbus.
I’m wondering if your friend is confusing the two schools.
“New York in general registers as being among the safest big cities in the world, as well as the safest in the U.S.”
I don’t think that I would trust that report as definitive. It should however be possible to find crime rates on-line.
If you are going to live in a large US city for four years you are going to need to find out about where you can safely go at what times. However, I and many others have managed to survive four years in schools in big cities in the US without major incident (I was pickpocketed once as an undergraduate, but that was a long time ago and there wasn’t much in my wallet for me to lose).
@BestGenjiEver , Columbia Univ is in a fairly safe area of Manhattan (Upper West/Morningside Heights). I live there. This is not the same as it was in the 70s or 80s. In fact, Columbia has gone beyond 125th Street with the Jerome Greene Science Center, into the area geographically termed Harlem. And I work in Palo Alto. I feel as safe walking on Univ Ave (in Palo Alto… Stanford country) as on Broadway/Amsterdam Ave late at night!
^^ That’s a long commute!
Thank you for your information 