lightuh

For people who are/were in Columbia and otherwise, what dit you love and HATE the most about Columbia?

I'm debating whether to apply there early...

columbia2007

Pros: wonderful core curriculum with the opportunity to discuss Great Books, artistic works in small classes...beautiful, monumental campus...extraordinary libraries and collections...open, encouraging, enthusiastic professors...major celebrity politicians/academics always visiting and speaking...access to all the educational and other opportunities of New York...safe neighborhood that caters to students...many options with regard to social life (going out on campus or off, staying in, local bars vs. downtown clubs, many varied extracurriculars, fraternities exist but do not dominate scene, etc.)...the concomitant diversity of the student body (there's a kindred spirit for every personality)

Cons: dorms are comfortable but by no means anything like the colleges of Yale or the houses of Harvard...quite a few people here for the wrong reasons (i.e. they enjoy New York but hate our neighborhood and/or the Core and complain incessantly about this)...aggravating understated competition among student body (people essentially trying to outcomplain one another about work)...diversity of personalities can also equal disparateness of a fragmented student body with fewer bases for school/class unity than those at other schools...distant and often frustrating administration that seems set up to impede ECs rather than facilitate them

mikenthemaddog66

Pros: beautiful campus (unlike a certian other New York based school who forgot to put it in its budget), best school colors of the ivy league

Cons: completely restrictive core curriculum, you will take these classes come hell or high water

Ways to avoid the core, go to Grinnel and transfer junior year

Columbia2002

Ick. Columbia's got some of the worst colors in the Ivy league, IMO. Baby blue? See:

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/01/0...s/football.jpg

Columbia2002

See this thread. Same exact thing:

What do u like and hate about Columbia?

mikenthemaddog66

IMO the baby blue columbia sweatshirt is a definite must have.

Columbia2002

I only have a navy one with the baby blue lettering.

lightuh

thanks for the link, columbia

Seaghost527

Would you guys say the Core helps foster a feeling of unity, because everyone is reading the same material at the same time?

slipper1234

Not enough to compensate for the overall lack of community.

columbia2007

Seaghost- it depends. A lot of the people I happened to be living around freshman year were engineers, and most were not taking Lit Hum. Most of those who weren't were athletes with whom I did not want to have a literary conversation (which would have most likely gone like "I didn't read the Symposium, what was that about?" come exam time, when they actually cared). I've heard the experience was much different on the social floors filled with outgoing humanities majors in Carman, or even among those who chose to study nights in certain rooms in Butler.

And speaking of the engineers- one of the distressing things about Columbia is that, in future classes in which you might want to reference a core author- you risk alienating a SEAS or GS student who had not taken the core- and there will always be a few of these, plus some who never read anything on the Lit Hum syllabus out of laziness/principle.

What is a more unifying attribute is the experience of being in a Core class. Everyone will make reference to the stereotypical characters in each section, and at least know the authors generally. And since people tend to at least read the Iliad, Homeric references abound. One critical barometer of this was the Varsity Show (satiric campus musical that everyone sees- one of our true unifying experiences) of two years ago, which was entirely core-oriented. Even then, though, there were complaints about the CC-centricness of the show, and this year's production was oriented far more around interschool conflict as a result.

(edit- see my response to the thread on the pros and cons of the Core for a more positive view)

That said, I think there are enough traditions at Columbia now that one can at least find some common ground with a fellow Columbian. At the very least, he or she will have complaints about the residence halls, the food, the administrators, the landscaping, or some other unavoidable aspect of college life. In fact, Columbians can probably be distinguished by such critical faculties; a Poli Sci professor I had quit because, in his words, "Columbia students ask too many questions, as opposed to Princeton students, who behave". So to a large extent, if you want to be a mere appendage of that large, homogenous organism known as the "student body," you may indeed be served better by another school. There is nurturing here, but this is a place that nurtures individualism, not compliance. Columbians prefer debate to complacent sloganeering. And hence, you will likely come to define Columbia itself for what it means to you- and at least an aspect of that will be that you rarely went unchallenged.

GR Elton

For some reason I doubt that Cameron left Columbia because he thought the students at Princeton would ask easier questions.

columbia2007

Cameron? This was a different guy.

GR Elton

Hmm... I'm only familiar with two poli sci profs switching between Princeton and Columbia in the past few years (Doyle and Cameron). Who else was there?

Edit: Actually, Helen Milner also left Columbia to join Princeton a few years ago.

columbia2007

Stacey, or so he claimed. In my opinion he was too much of a hack to make it at either.