<p>why did you guys choose columbia? Any special reason?</p>
<p>1) Big urban center. Lots of opportunities, variety of experiences, round-the-clock availability, and everything at our fingertips - and sometimes at our doorstep. Life is more intense and things are open all night.</p>
<p>2) The core is a recurring promise to the students, that the University actually cares about its undergraduates, spends lots of resources refining a carefully selected curriculum, and brags about it. It's a sign that, unlike (say) Harvard, the graduate schools are not priorities 1-10 on the university scale. We get lots of attention as a result.</p>
<p>3) The students don't take themselves as seriously as some peer institutions. This is a qualitative observation I made during campus visits, your mileage may vary.</p>
<p>4) Absolutely zero jock culture. While other institutions of supposedly higher learning sell out their priorities for a few extra bucks of football income, Columbia has such a history of students not caring about school 'pride' (in that sense anyway) and athletics that it's clear everyone's priorities are academics-first. That's not to say that a large percentage of the student body doesn't do some sort of sport, just that big-ticket teams are not front-and-center in the university's consciousness.</p>
<p>5) Just far enough away from the place I grew up (Boston) that I wouldn't feel like my parents were looking over my shoulder, but close enough that I could go home for the weekend if I wanted, at reasonable cost. I imagine the same would be true for those from the Philly or DC area.</p>
<p>I chose it for the protests. For further clarification, see Denzera's third point.</p>
<p>how many core classes do you have to take as a freshman? what sort of classes are these? are they burdensome at all in terms of taking up space for other classes you want to take?</p>
<p>You have to take Lit Hum first and second semester, and either frontiers of science or university writing first semester and which ever you don't take first you take second. Most people really like lit hum, although I'm not going to make any judgements about it yet. I'm not in university writing until next semester, so I won't say much about that either, although some of my floormates aren't too fond of it. As for frontiers of science, it can be quite a bit of work, and I have heard that quite a few people don't like it, but I'm really enjoying most of it. Last week in lecture we learned that there was water (and quite possibly life) on one of Saturn's moons. Everything depends on who your professor is for a class, and the thing with the core (for freshmen year, at least) is that you can't choose your professors.</p>