<p>I need to know now. I'm possibly committing in a few hours and don't want to make a mistake. I've already heard of the good points from AG, so I'm looking for the worst points about Columbia. Please, DON'T HOLD BACK.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>i guess you are committing to columbia then haha</p>
<ol>
<li><p>complete and utter lack of community</p></li>
<li><p>student advising is somewhere between dysfunctional and non-existent</p></li>
<li><p>lack of community space to have large-scale gatherings on a regular basis</p></li>
<li><p>more difficult to get to know / develop relationships with professors than some peer schools</p></li>
<li><p>in bigger departments (e.g. econ/poli-sci), even upper-level classes tend to be huge (50-100 people)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>6.social life is extremely cliquish and almost exclusively revolves around who you meet freshman year through activities / where you live</p>
<p>^ Thanks for that.</p>
<p>I also hate that GS is a back-door to Columbia. Ugh. I’m leaning away from Columbia right now.</p>
<p>1) Students are critical a lot of the time, and sometimes this makes them spend more time dwelling on problems than doing something to improve it.</p>
<p>2) Too many activists / idealistic kids, it’s nice to be passionate about what you do, but sometimes students just lose touch with reality, ignore fundamental economics and get caught up in the Columbia bubble.</p>
<p>3) Columbia requires you to leave your comfort zone, take risks and take initiative and too many kids are still cookie-cutter, focus on academics, stick with what is comfortable and don’t take advantage of all Columbia has to offer. </p>
<p>Truazn is definitely entitled to his views, but I do want to say that I had the opposite experiences.</p>
<p>1) I found a strong and intimate community quite quickly</p>
<p>2) I had a very smart junior-senior adviser who actually passed down great advice on classes / majors (frosh-soph was friendly but not very helpful).</p>
<p>3) I went to my share of large campus events, but didn’t feel this point made or broke my campus or my sense of campus community.</p>
<p>4) Professors are very receptive when you show interest in their classes and work. I worked closely with a big-shot engineering professor in my freshman and sophomore year. I was doing research for him with his phd students and was invited over to his place for small group dinners often.</p>
<p>5) Econ and poli sci have large intro classes, but small advanced classes. I took many higher level econ electives, they ranged from 15-40 people, if you spoke up a few times, the professor definitely got to know you. Columbia has a low proportion of classes over 50 and among the highest proportion of classes under 20, even lower than Dartmouth or Princeton.</p>
<p>6) I met almost all of my friends outside of freshman year. I developed close friends, and never ever felt I was part of a small or exclusive group. I was always part of big and inclusive groups. There were cliques on campus, and that didn’t bother me in the least.</p>
<p>I’m ready to criticize Columbia, because Columbia is far from perfect. But I had an amazing 4 years, that I cherish and wouldn’t trade for anything. You’ll find other posters here who have had / are having similar experiences (like adgeek, pbr’s son, slicedbread). There are also people who criticize Columbia, but you have a spectrum. When I put in the initial effort to have a great experience, the great experience came quite organically after.</p>
<p>Do a pro and con list. If the pros outweigh the con then go to Columbia. That’s what I’m going to do when I’m a senior</p>
<p>Coming home to your old high school friends who haven’t had nearly as interesting a year as you have.</p>
<p>What did you end up deciding? I hope to God not Columbia, because if you wanted a nice college experience then too bad! Going to Columbia is more like studying in various office buildings vs an actual close-nit college campus. It is open to all of the craziness of the city and you can hardly distinguish between what is campus and what is new york city. You will not develop a connection with many people. The worst of all is that you don’t really get that ivy league feel. I mean the caliber of the students and staff is sub-par to say the least. Hell, you’d feel more like in ivy leaguer at Vanderbilt or even Boston College. The teachers aren’t that great either.</p>
<p>^lol k bro</p>
<p>troddle: close-knit campus. we may have not studied at one, but we at least know how to spell it.</p>
<p>my man troddle , why you hatin’ on columbia ?</p>
<p>Don’t be a player hater.
Stay cool dude. stay cool.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p><a href=“Columbia Need Based Financial Aid - Columbia University - College Confidential Forums”>Columbia Need Based Financial Aid - Columbia University - College Confidential Forums;
<p>Lol, troddle you’re wait-listed at Columbia, aren’t you? :)</p>
<p>P.S: From the looks of the FB group, I wouldn’t rate your chances of getting off the wait-list as too high. Sorry, bro.</p>
<p>^lol pwned</p>
<p>Celloman369, you stole that line from College *******.com</p>
<p>College Prrrroooowwwwler.com</p>
<p>@ iamanapp
WHAT THE F@#K! You ask a question and now your denigrating me for answering? You asked for the absolute worst things about columbia so that’s what I provided. Obviously, you must really like cu if your defending them this much, so starting this thread in the first place was stupid. I did apply there, but that was when I didn’t know much about it. The only reason I would even go to cu would be for financial aid. And who the hell looks up someone else’s posts? Just because your stalking from behind your computer doesn’t mean your any less of a freak. I bet your a common fat, ugly, oily, video game creep who can only be bold from the confines of your filthy, musty room. The next time you ask a question be prepared for a God damned answer you wussy (I meant that with a P instead of W)!</p>
<p>^it’s not good to talk down a college that you are waitlisted to, people will naturally assume that your intentions are not genuine. It’s especially fruitless after the response deadline has passed.</p>
<p>@troddle: i misinterpreted your response. my bad. </p>
<p>i really hope you get off the wait-list, because columbia’s financial aid is pretty great. i, and so many other admitted kids i know, will be $0 in debt when we graduate. 
[compare this to my state flagship, which would put me at least 20k under by grdauation]</p>
<p>big pile of trash in the courtyard between schermerhorn and mudd.</p>
<p>The Columbia bureaucracy is like something out of a Douglas Adams book.</p>