living off campus

pwoods
Sun, 03 Jul 2011 09:38:55 +0000

I’m pretty sure BigBoi’s post is spam. In general, I think it’s safe to say that anyone who says MiMa unironically is a real-estate spammer.

To answer the OP, essentially no one in undergrad lives off campus. Even many grad students live in Columbia housing. As a freshman, you have to live in a freshman dorm. And as an upperclassman, why the **** would you want to pay money for a Manhattan apartment when you can live in Columbia housing?

As far as the parks, your mileage may vary. In general, it’s a bad idea to go into Morningside Park after dark. Central park is probably safe, and Riverside is a little dicey, but not as bad as Morningside. That said, it’s not like everyone who goes east of Morningside Drive (i.e. Morningside Park and central Harlem) gets mugged. Last year, only a few Columbians were mugged. Some of those happened in parks, but one happened in broad daylight outside a dorm (which is insane, but still). Be careful and take obvious precautions, but don’t act like a terrified tourist every time you leave campus.