Columbia and Uchicago

tk89
Sun, 27 May 2007 13:34:52 +0000

I did my undergrad at UChicago years back and grad school at Columbia not so many years ago and the difference between the two schools was eye-opening, to say the least.

Columbia Univ. is run much like the NYC Dep’t of Motor Vehicles; it is a vast bureaucracy filled with separate academic fiefdoms and academically detached students. I taught and t/a’d undergrad classes at Columbia and was generally underwhelmed by the quality and attitude of the students in my classes. They were mostly pre-professional types with little true interest in the subject matter at hand. They dressed well and spoke quite charmingly, but the college felt more like an extension of an east coast prep school than an academic institution of higher learning. The atmosphere at the school reminded me eerily of a John Hughes movie set and I was sorely disappointed at the lack of academic seriousness among the students. From the early library closing hours (11 pm!) to the attitude among my students and undergraduate friends, there was a palpable anti-intellectual feeling in the campus that literally shocked me. Needless to say, I was not impressed by the college and especially disappointed by the attitude of the administration towards its undergraduates.