<p>well... just what the title says. I'm a junior, I know I'll be applying to columbia in the fall. hopefully visiting the campus this summer. but I just wanted to know what makes columbia great (or perhaps not so great... ><) I realize my reaons for wanting to go are pretty generic ones. :(</p>
<p>New York City isn't enough reason?</p>
<p>becuse it like nyu.</p>
<p>NYC, Core Curriculum, beautiful but small campus,</p>
<p>NEW YORK F*KIN CITY... lol, greatest city ever...
oh yea... the campus is good too....
nah, lol, im just kidding, the campus is INSANE, picturesque
and columbia is an ivyleague... but eh... who cares about that part :-p</p>
<p>haha NYC, definitely.
is the campus really that good? I've passed by it, never really been though. I really wanna go =( ahhh hopefully this summer.
yeah. who cares that it's an ivy league.
is that all? the reason people love it is the same for everyone?</p>
<p>Harlem? That's hot.</p>
<p>i love it for completely different reasons.</p>
<p>These are the main reasons, since they apply to most Columbia students. They can be related to other advantages that Columbia has, such as NYC = opportunities, internships, real-world experiences; the Core = intellectual student body, liberal artsy education, etc etc</p>
<p>NYC is great (that is, if you take a subway away from the Columbia area), but it totally kills campus life. Yes, there are a couple of restaurants, bars and stores near Columbia but most people will choose to ditch the campus when they want to go somewhere, and take a subway ride into what most people think of as "the city." There's no reason to hang out in Morningside Heights, unless you're a Manhattan College student from the Bronx and already are taking the subway pretty far just to get into Manhattan. So the long and short of it is, students leave the area and that deadens things in terms of interaction between students. Also, the subway is overrated. It's nice at first but it gets old after a while, and never runs as frequently as anyone would like, particularly later at night. Unfortunately, Columbia is not located right on one of the great "express" line stops like the 4/5, N/R/Q/W or A trains which come very often in other parts of the city. You would think NYCT would get better service for it, but it doesn't. Professors leave the area too, as very few choose to live near the campus and therefore they have exceedingly long commutes to other parts of NYC or to the suburbs. This really reduces your chances of hanging out with a prof after class, serendipitously meeting and hanging out with one, or being invited over for dinner, which are some of the great features of colleges that are located in more compactly-developed areas or "college towns".</p>
<p>Also, although NYC is great, it is too large and competitive for undergraduates to get involved with in any meaningful way. The NYC government excludes students and so do major corporations in the area. Also, the most prestigious jobs that government and major corporations in the area do have for college students - e.g., financial internships and urban fellows - usually go to HYP students. Of course, if you graduate with good grades Columbia is a well-respected school and it can open doors for you just like with any top-20 university.</p>
<p>Some of the pluses of Columbia include a generally open-minded student body and a good amount of political views represented on the campus (as with other urban Ivies), good resources including exciting departments in some areas such as history, art history and political science, great library systems especially the Avery collection for architecture and art, the possibility of "real world" experiences as well as research opportunities if you ditch campus (as with any urban school), a level of diversity among the students appropriate for an urban campus, and a very cool nearby church. It is more intellectual than most private universities, but when compared with HYP the students are just not of the same caliber in terms of intellectual and academic achievement. Just look at the % of the class consisting of National Merit Scholars, or the % of students who go on for Ph.D.s or to the top graduate schools if you want proof of that. Some negatives include dorms that relatively speaking are not very attractive or cohesive, large class sizes, crime in the immediate areas near campus, air, noise and light pollution, low student-faculty interaction, and the lack of campus life that I mentioned above which is primarily due to the location. The "Core" is either a positive or a negative, depending on who you talk to.</p>
<p>Uh. Your first point about campus life I do not feel is completely true. Columbia students tend to go off campus, yes. But that does not mean they don't have a campus life. Go there on a good, sunny day, and I guarantee you'll see people all over the library steps, and playing all sorts of sports on the grass. It depends on what school you're comparing Columbia to on this criterion; it would not have as much as campus life as, say, Stanford, but it DOES have a campus life. Columbia not having a campus life is 1) sometimes a subjective thing, and 2) a stereotype many people make about it. Moreover, this is one of those things you have to choose for yourself based on your prefereces. Do you want to go to a school that is relatively isolated, is in a rather boring town, and therefore has a great "campus life," or a school like Columbia which has everything you could ever want in the neighborhood? Again, this is personal preference.</p>
<p>Have you even attended Columbia, posterX? From the current Columbia students I have talked to, your second point is utterly false. People attend Columbia exactly because they are able to take advantage of NYC's opportunities. It is by no means hard for a Columbia student to do so. In particular, NYC financial internships that you mentioned, I am not familiar with how many of them HYP students get (these can only be in the sumemr), but Columbia students get a heck lot of them. Many and many of them have internships with business companies on Fridays, when they don't have class. They can do this for four years and get the real job experience, and sustain that connection after graduation. Again, it is utterly false that NYC "is too large and competitive for undergraduates to get involved with it in any meaningful way."</p>
<p>I have not seen those stats as compared to HYP, but I assure you, there are a number of people at Columbia who chose it over HYP, though most likely less than the number the other way around, yes. Judge for yourself, is the fact that Columbia's % of National Merit Scholars is less than HYP a reason not to go there? If you want to talk stats, Columbia has had the second most number of Nobel Laureates among the schools in the US (and the most in the Ivy Leage I believe). Columbia's academics are world-class, and are in no way inferior. HYP do however have even better academics and academic reputation. But you probably can't make the claim that Columbia cannot compare with them in terms of academics.</p>
<p>Columbia's dorm rooms are actually not small. And for Carman Hall (freshman residence), you have suite bathrooms that you share with three others, instead of floor bathrooms. I don't know anything about HYP.</p>
<p>Columbia is the smallest of the Ivies I believe. How can it have large class sizes and low student-faculty interaction?</p>
<p>This is the response from a person who has false information about Columbia, and is biased in favor of HYP obviously. Again, I do not know anything about HYP, so I have not answered for them.</p>
<p>I have spent more time at Columbia than almost anyone else I know. My opinions are based on spending a lot of time there and talking to a lot of students and professors there. Of course there are people with other opinions, but I'm just telling you what I've observed. Sure, there are students throwing frisbees around during a warm day but that's not what I mean by campus life. Campus life is much more intimate than that, involving running into everyone you know almost every day, even on winter days, at any hour of the day or night, and being involved with lots of activities on the campus just by walking a block or two. Unfortunately, relative to other places I have spent time, I believe Columbia is seriously lacking in this regard. </p>
<p>Also, Columbia's academics are excellent and that is obviously a reason why it holds such a high reputation. You can look at that for yourself when it comes down to choosing a college - visit each choice for a few days, sit in on classes and talk with professors. This is the best way to find out for yourself. However, having spent time on a number of campuses I stand by my claim that faculty at Columbia tend to be much more distant and less accessible than their counterparts at an HYP or liberal arts college, and in no small way is this due to the location and resultant commuting times away from campus. Unfortunately I believe the same factor comes into play in hurting student life. But, there are students who thrive on not having any campus life, especially ones that have a group of friends that they end up spending all of their time with, throwing private dinner parties or going to restaurants with, etc. Just remember that despite the glamour of this kind of lifestyle, I would assert that a great number of students feel excluded when most of the student social life ends up being so private. It's much different when you have a campus where there is more of a central area where all of the students (not just the ones who can't afford to go off and hang out in the Meatpacking district) spend time interacting, going to dining halls and the like.</p>
<p>Columbia does have many club activities and campus parties. They are not a central part of the students' social and leisure life precisely because they all have acccess to NYC and the many opportunities and fun it provides. Back to the Stanford example which I am relatively more familiar with, people may claim Stanford rocks because it has an awesome campus life, while others may claim it sucks because it is in its own "bubble," having a good campus life precisely because Palo Alto is boring and there is not much there. Yes, this is an opinion thing, depending on how you take it, and depends on your personal preference.</p>
<p>How can you not run into people you know on campus frequently? The campus is tiny. People go into NYC a lot (especially upperclassmen), but there are still a lot of people on campus and in the library. Plus, in Carman, which I am more familiar with, there is constant interaction and visiting-your-friends-on-the-other-side-of-hallway going on. I was actually worried about not being able to meet people at Columbia easily, because I read on CC posts about that. But when I visited Columbia and talked to the current students there, no one agreed with this. Many of their attitudes were "Hey Bill, come over here. This guy's worried that it's hard to meet people at Columbia!" Another example from Carman, the whole floor may sometimes crowd in the hall way at 1am and discuss a current issue. There is still campus life and community. But again, it depends on which school you're comparing it to, and on your personal preference.</p>
<p>I have not had first-hand experience with Columbia professors, but as I pointed out, Columbia's student body is relatively small, and so its students are bound to get more attention and opportunities. I even read somewhere that "Columbia spoils its undergrads," but have never looked into the validity of this.</p>
<p>I agree that there are people who feel/would feel excluded at Columbia. But, again, this depends on who you speak to too. Penn students? They may wholeheartedly agree with this and say that it's the reason they didn't pick Columbia. Columbia students? Most likely they will tell you they're loving their time there and could not imagine themselves anywhere else.</p>
<p>So I totally agree too that you should visit and see for yourself. Take our views and experiences at Columbia with a grain of salt, because I for one was pleasantly surprised the first time I visited Columbia.</p>
<p>It's nice to hear your very positive perspective on the school.</p>
<p>Just for clarification, do you or do you not attend Columbia University?</p>
<p>I am a prefrosh</p>
<p>Er, I was asking posterX but thanks (I'm also a prefrosh). In any situation though, I'm always a bit wary of grand statements about a campus made from someone who "really knows a lot about the campus" from "firsthand experience," yet does not attend the school.</p>
<p>I see. I'm in so cal btw</p>
<p>The weather there can be pretty darn cold for us</p>
<p>oh man. nearly have a debate going on there.</p>
<p>so how excited are you about going to columbia? :D btw are you CC or SEAS?</p>
<p>how much can you tell from a school when you actually visit it? won't your guides or whoever be biased and portray the school really well?</p>