Question for current Columbia students or those who have been accepted.

Colleges & Universities Columbia University
1

<p>How far away are you from home? (give an estimate of miles and your state please)</p>

<p>If your a current student, how has the distance effected you? (emotionally,financially?)</p>

<p>If you’ve recently been accepted, what do your parents think about the distance and how do you think you will be effected? (emotionally, financially?)</p>

<p>What do people say when you tell them you go/your going to Columbia? (only answer if your not from the Northeast)</p>

<p>I’m interested in Columbia and I’ve always wondered how much the distance affects the students. I live really far away and here we don’t get a drop of snow.</p>

2

<p>As a parent, I can safely say that neither of my college kids nor their parents ever paid much attention to distance. If you don’t live within several miles of your college, it really doesn’t matter. One son goes to college a couple thousand miles away (in the midwest), the other almost 3,000 miles away (Columbia). The difference in plane fares is nominal; the emotional difference seems non-existent. In my neck of the woods, Columbia is considered awesome and exotic. My Columbia son is ecstatic with his choice (as is the other), and comes “home” with the same frequency as his buddies who attend college a hundred miles away (i.e., Thanksgiving, winter break, and spring break).</p>

<p>I really would not allow miles to affect your choice. You will, in essence, create a second “home,” regardless of the geographic distance from your family and pre-college friends.</p>

3

<p>Thanks pbr for the response! I can see how it wouldn’t really have that much of an effect financially compared to other schools far away from home.
To me distance will not be a factor in choosing a college. (But then again I have awhile before I have to make that choice.)
I was wondering more so about the personal experiences that came with going to a school so far away.
For example: was the weather shocking, political opinions of New Yorkers, atmosphere, financially meaning do you think you spend much more money being in New York or are you still able to be frugal, etc.?</p>

4

<p>I’m from Houston and transferred to Columbia for this year from Vanderbilt. (sophomore year).</p>

<p>It is cold, which does kind of suck, being from the south. However, it’s not so cold you can’t go outside - the lows so far have been around 20, which makes it unpleasant but not impossible to go outside. New york is more expensive than houston/nashville but not unbearably so. I would say a meal that would cost $10-$12 (basic restaurant) probably costs $12-$15 here. Drinks at bars range from $3-$5 for a beer generally, and it’s definitely possible to have a lot of fun in the city without spending much money at all.</p>

<p>There was definitely a little bit of culture shock, but I like new york city much more than I expected (I’d never been prior to move-in). The people on campus are generally fairly friendly, and new yorkers aren’t as bad as their made out to be. Restaurants and stores are much more cramped, but once you’ve gotten used to the subway nothing else is really that different.</p>

<p>I geuss new yorkers are more liberal than those in the south, but it doesn’t really make a difference in your day to day life.</p>

5

<p>Thanks karbin!</p>

<p>If you don’t mind answering
Why did you transfer from Vanderbilt? And I guess this is off topic from the original location question, but what do you think of Columbia and how does it compare with Vanderbilt? Considering that you’ve been to both you can probably compare the two pretty well. How is Columbia stronger?</p>

6

<p>I actually liked Vanderbilt quite a bit. The academics there are exellent, and the social scene isn’t bad. I transferred because I didn’t like how much of the good old boy’s southern country club atmosphere it still had. While I’m from the south, I thought it was kind of shocking that there were fraternities with cannons in the yard pointing north (KA). I also felt like that since Greek life was essentially mandatory for a social life, it gave the fraternities / sororities too much power. I have nothing against Greeks - I joined Psi Upsilon (Owl house, c’mon by if you end up here) at Columbia, but when there are few other options for parties it gets old.</p>

<p>Academically, I’d say the quality of teaching at Vanderbilt is probably 95% as good as the quality of teaching at Columbia. The difference is in the quality of the students. At Vanderbilt, there’s still what you’ve probably experienced in high school - a significant percentage of the kids that aren’t engaged with the professor and don’t do the work. At Columbia, everybody does the work. You don’t have to worry about someone in your group not doing anything, because most people have really good work ethics and will pull their weight. </p>

<p>I felt like at Vanderbilt, when you talked to someone you could often identify the one thing they wrote about in their admissions essay that got them in. My roommate wanted to write novels, a friend was a stellar debater. I feel like at Columbia people have more than one quality that makes them stand out, that people are more multifaceted. </p>

<p>I’d say the top 10-30% of the people at each school are equally motivated and intelligent, but Vanderbilt has a much higher drop off towards the people at the bottom of the class. </p>

<p>If you have any other questions I’d love to answer them - PM me and I can talk to you on instant messenger/skype/etc if you’d like</p>

<p>Sorry for rambling</p>

7

<p>Lol. Thanks for the rambling.</p>

<p>I’ve read a lot about different colleges and the atmosphere that you described about Vanderbilt seemed right on from what I’ve heard. Many people however say that the “southern” feel is only as strong as you make it. In reality we all know that there is a dominant culture no matter how much you try to tune it out. </p>

<p>I’m glad that you gave an honest view of the school and didn’t try to sugar coat the negatives.</p>

<p>Greek life=social life isn’t what I’m looking for in my school, but I’m only a sophomore in high school so I have awhile. It’s just important for me to research colleges and see what’s out there now because my brother is in college and I saw how the process went for him and it didn’t seem like he nor my parents were quite ready, so I want to be as prepared as possible. </p>

<p>Last questions: Was transefering into Columbia easy? And I know this is random but does the food really suck at John Jay? </p>

<p>I might pm you in two years, lol, so don’t forget me.</p>

8

<p>I’ve lived in suburban CT my whole life, though I commute to Manhattan for high school. I didn’t want to go too far away for 2 reasons: 1) I just like the hectic pace of life and culture of the Northeast and 2) I didn’t want to have to pay for plane fare. I could never survive at Vandy (even Princeton is too southern for me!)</p>

9

<p>I live in Texas. The distance doesn’t bother me at all. I mean, wherever I was going to go to college, it was going to be somewhere that was at the least a 4 hour drive from home, which meant I wasn’t going home much anyway. So since I wasn’t going to see my parents very often wherever I went to school, there wasn’t much difference between 4 hours and 24 hours.</p>

<p>The only way I was affected financially was not in worrying about higher costs due to distance, but rather, the speed with which my parents could get money to me. Luckily, we worked a system where I could get money from my parents fairly quickly, but if you’re relying on transfers that can take two to three business days or more, or, heaven forbid, checks, you’re gonna want to make sure you have your expenses planned in advance and know specifically when/if your parents are sending you money.</p>

<p>My dad was all for me going far away (getting in the world, away from the parents, making it on my own, independence, etc.). My mom was intellectually all for it, because she loves NYC and knew I would love it just as much, but she did have a fairly hard time with it for a while. I think it helped her to go up to the school with me and hang out for a day or two before/after moving me in.</p>

<p>People who know what Columbia is are very impressed, people who don’t aren’t (sometimes they think it’s Columbia College Chicago, which perplexes me). They’re all happy for me. Occasionally I get the “don’t let new york change you” business, but that’s just typical texas.</p>

<p>Anyway, the distance really doesn’t affect me overall. The only other thing I would say is that I do have contacts in New York (an aunt in White Plains, some family friends in the city proper), so that if I’m ever in a dire emergency or something, there are adults who can help me until my parents can get there. So, from that angle, I guess it’s nice (especially for your parents) to know that you have some degree of support in and around the city in case of emergency. But yeah, distance = no big deal, in my opinion.</p>