Jhl- the access to internships during the year is a result of both Columbia's Career Services (from my experiences so far they are very helpful and seem to know what they are doing) and Columbia's location in NYC. I am told that many places are always looking for interns during the year so you can get to intern at places that would be MUCH more competitive during the summer during the year instead. I have been to several information sessions already about internships both coordinated through the Columbia community and within NYC. You have easy access to conferences and sessions which people travel across the country for.
Gatsby- although the core isn't perfect I see a lot of benefits for the prospective student. One of them is small class sizes for particular classes - about 20 in Lit Hum/Frontiers at MOST and less than 15, often even 10 people, in University Writing. Another aspect I really like about the Core is the fact that everyone has to take it. Yes, the Core is important intellectually, but I've found it to be far more important as a common bonding experience between people. I don't believe it would be that easy to recreate the Core experience at other schools. I am honestly not sure if I would have had the self-discipline to take things like lit hum, art hum, and music hum and compete with majors in those subjects without feeling as if I were at a competitive disadvantage.
One thing I forgot- No class Fridays!!
(at least for the vast majority of students)