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I am a graduate student at Columbia, but I'm not much older than the average college student (I'm 22).
"What did you think of the commute from the heart of campus to the heart of NYC?"
You get used to it. I'm a graduate student in a joint program at the medical center on 168th and the graduate school at the main campus, so I commute from my apartment on 172nd and Haven to the main campus at 116th and Broadway at least 3 times a week, and whenever we go out (we being students) we always go downtown. It's not a big deal, and you learn to negotiate the subway, hang out in groups, decide whether to trek to the subway or splurge on a cab, etc. And the rich rewards that hanging out in the city gives you is well worth the subway ride!
Beyond that, Columbia IS in the heart of NYC. If by "heart of NYC" you mean Midtown, it's only like 4-5 subway stops. Greenwich Village, Tribeca, Chelsea, Chinatown, the LES, those are obviously farther. The Financial District and Wall Street are obviously much further down, but each area of NYC has it's attractions. Morningside Heights is a beautiful area.
"Were the campus and buildings more modern or classic, Goth, etc.? I haven't yet visited but from the pictures & brochures it looks beautiful."
The brochures are supposed to look beautiful, lol. I used to dream about going to Columbia when I was in undergrad and when I came up to visit for graduate school, it (or at least the main campus lol...don't come to the medical school, it might scare you away!) fulfilled most of my fantasies about what a university was "supposed" to look like. I don't know anything about architectural periods but our buildings are old on the outside and very modern on the inside (sort of). The student center has all these cool breezeway/hallway criss-crossing things, Butler Library awed me (it's so big and so unlike my undergraduate library -- it's actually a good place to study!). Columbia students sometimes complain about their facilities but they have no idea what bad actually is -- I went to a tiny undergraduate college that I loved but had nowhere near the resources Columbia has.
I've never been in the undergrad dorms...the dorms at the medical center suck, but then everything at the medical center compared to the Morningside campus sucks. But most elite universities are like that -- their medical centers are IN the city for real for real.
"I really loved the Columbia campus but I couldnt help by feel a little insecure no matter how good they claimed the security was. After leaving the campus, I walked about a block and i landed right in the middle of Harlem were a heated argument was blocking traffic"
You get used to that, too. NYC is actually one of the safest big cities in the country, and there's little harm posed to Columbia students. I live in the city (and not on campus) and I carry out all my daily activities off-campus -- laundry, shopping, entertainment, etc. Never had a problem. People block traffic all over the city, too; that's not particular to Harlem. I saw it in Washington Heights (where I live), I've seen it in midtown, etc.
And that noodle place hellosail mentioned is really good! I eat there often. There's also a good pizza place across the street and there's a ton of markets up and down Broadway. Most of my friends don't live on campus because we're all grad students, so I've learned more about the city outside.
About the core: I obviously didn't go here for undergrad, but let me tell you, knowing the Western canon is extremely helpful in graduate school. I learned it at my undergrad, too, and that grounding was essential for my introductory theoretical foundations course in my field. We read a lot of the western philosophers/sociologists that you will be introduced to in the Core at Columbia, and they form the theoretical basis on which we conduct our research. So they're not useless!
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