Columbia vs. Yale

Dustyfeathers
Sun, 11 Sep 2016 18:56:37 +0000

While @T26E4 makes a good point about the distractions of the City for Columbia and researching the Yale catalog, CU does have a central campus, activities to create cohesiveness, and the neighborhood that’s set off from many of the distractions. The neighborhood is very neighborhoody. I think that it’s possible to focus at CU as much or as little as you like, while having easy access to NYC. CU looks like it’s completely closed, but it’s not. CU is one of the largest land owners in NYC, like I think second or third largest. There’s that central campus that most people see, but virtually all of the buildings surrounding that campus are associated with CU too. Plus there’s the new campus CU is building at around 125-132 street. There’s the med school at around 168 street. And on the northern end of Manhattan there’s a gorgeous athletic facility. Buses can take you around. Lamont Dougherty is even further north and focuses on earth sciences, and there’s a dedicated bus for that area. The distraction issue I think is much stronger at NYU which doesn’t have a central campus and it’s pretty hard to tell that you’re even on a campus when down there. I’ve felt more cohesion at massive campuses like UWMadison than at NYU. CU is nothing like that. It’s generally delineated between two parks area and the area is really pleasant, especially because of green space and fairly easy access to the Hudson River.

New Haven is on the end of the commuter line into the City and you can make it into NYC for a day trip, if you like. You won’t completely miss out. The college system at Yale is nice, IMO. New Haven itself has pleasant things to offer, like theater that gets developed there, the many museums, the Italian pizza (Sally’s and Pepe’s) and the bakeries, Louie’s lunch, etc. But most things seem to be focused primarily on Yale at its center. Much of the City of New Haven feels like the Mornignside Heights area around Columbia. They’re similar in many ways. But Yale is of course further from the Met Museum, Broadway, Wall Street, the UN or whatever might attract you to NYC. You can still access these things, but there’s a little more effort involved.

Both are great! Tough decision!