<p>I understand that Columbia students have three days free of classes, Friday through Sunday. What do they do typically on these days? My son is a freshman .</p>
<p>Some or all of the following: study, sleep, activities in NYC (eating, museums, plays, etc.), drink, do drugs, recover from drinking or doing drugs, visit friends at other schools, jobs.</p>
<p>Emphasis on the sleep and study. And on their own extracurricular activities. My weekend would normally be filled with sports practices, my a cappella group, side projects, and occasionally being proactive (gasp) about my classwork.</p>
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<p>Why don’t you ask him?</p>
<p>I have asked him; didn’t want to seed your responses.</p>
<p>Then you have your answers. Unless you don’t believe your son.</p>
<p>Why are you interested?</p>
<p>No. I am not prying on my son. The question was innocent, to gather the full gamut of opportunities available, no more, no less. Please do not read meaning into this.</p>
<p>Confuciannemesis, my son can only give one kid’s view. He studies, gets sleep, occasionally goes out with a few friends, meets TAs for assistance with work, weekends before tests he comes home so he can study without distraction. He said dorms were distracting and had difficulty finding place in the library especially around exam time.</p>
<p>He wanted to continue playing tennis at a strong level but has not found too many partners. Says that there are the athletic college teams but below that, if you are not on the college team, people are not too athletically inclined. Also finds going to the tennis center cumbersome.</p>
<p>He is not too EC minded but I didn’t get the sense there were cohesive weekend clubs/groups/social life. It was a casual question to understand the context of his college life. I did not go to undergrad college in this country and it is a mystery to me and I am vicariously trying to decipher it.</p>
<p>I apologize for stirring a hornet’s nest.</p>
<p>i do research all friday, problem sets all sunday, usually sleep/visit gf/museum on saturday.</p>
<p>if he wants to play tennis, i could be a hitting partner, as i’ve been trying to start up again after i stopped sophomore year in hs.</p>
<p>No worries. My parents didn’t go to college here either. I had a harder time understanding what I was supposed to get out of college academically than socially in part because of my background.</p>
<p>Don’t worry too much about the mystery of american college. It fits into a larger social context that’s sometimes hard to relate to parents from different cultures (I speak from experiences. I presume you’re south asian?)</p>
<p>It sounds like he’s having a normal experience. The one suggestion I would make to him is to look into indoor racquet sports. It’s hard to pursue athletic inclinations at Columbia in part because there’s so little space. However there are still squash/racquetball courts at the gym (though there are only a few and you have to reserve them from well ahead of time), so he might want to look into checking out those sports. He can also sign up for PE classes. I took a class after I’d fulfilled my requirement just so I’d get to the gym at least twice a week.</p>
<p>I second the suggestion about squash. My S meets a friend once or twice a week at a set time to play, though he never tried the game till college. It might be a good idea for your S to take a pe class this year. If he took squash, he’d probably meet others interested in continuing to play. My S took weight lifting his first semester so that he’d learn the equipment, and that’s something else he’s continued on a regular basis. There are tons of pe options.</p>
<p>As for studying spaces, your S might check out some of the smaller libraries in departments or graduate schools. At least that’s a trick that worked for me in college. Students on here might offer other suggestions, though that’s probably like asking someone to divulge his favorite fishing hole.</p>
<p>Going home some weekends the first year seems to me a standard part of the college adjustment, if a kid comes from close by. I’m sure he’ll get involved in more as time goes on. My S’s weekends seem, like most, pretty much divided between social life, studying, and rehearsal time with a music group that he got involved with towards the end of freshman year.</p>
<p>This weekend for me involved the library, yoga and pilates, extracurricular meetings, frat party, museum (Met), going out to dinner, and Carnegie Hall.</p>
<p>Edited to add:
Oh yes, and every weekend is a three day weekend for most everyone.</p>
<p>viva, which year are you?</p>
<p>sac, I will recommend squash. Thanks. He comes home most weekends and that worried me a bit. We are 1 hour away and he did say many CT, NJ kids go home, also being vegetarian he misses home cooking, finds it easier to study, all this may be part of first year transition. We will wait and see.</p>
<p>DAD. I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU WOULD COME ON HERE.</p>
<p>You don’t call for weeks. You don’t speak to me when I’m home on weekends. Nothing. Then, suddenly, my roommate sees your AOL username on here, alerts me, and there you are. I hate you. I’m sick of you in my life. Get out already!</p>
<p>For your information, I’m doing REALLY WELL at Columbia. I have lots of great friends and I’ve already met my Barnard wife and you’re not invited to the wedding (her parents are paying!). Oh, and you know what, I smoke and drink. Smoke and drink. And I eat MEAT. That’s right. I’m a MEAT EATER. Everyone here does it.</p>
<p>Screw you and your pre-med expectations. Screw what mom thinks. One day you’ll get over the fact that I’m not going to be a doctor.</p>
<p>juniorswami, son, haven’t I urged you to try, just try a ham sandwich, to drop that premed course, I am disappointed in your gf, I thought that Tibetan hermaphrodite really cute, …</p>
<p>very very funny.</p>
<p>If that’s a parody account created specifically to drive ramaswami bonkers, it is absolutely the funniest thing i’ve seen on this message board ever. Flat-out brilliant. Although some of the language reminds me of someone I know…</p>
<p>If it’s actually legit, that’s kind of scary.</p>
<p>Anyway,
At least i’m not the only one who adopted that very Columbia-specific disease that causes us to think that anything more than 2 blocks away is just too damn much effort. Sure, there’s only two outdoor tennis courts on the campus itself. And god forbid if you want to take the 15-minute subway ride to Baker Field. But there are a bunch of courts in riverside park and dozens in central park. Get a bike and a DAMN GOOD bike lock (security sells them for cheap!), and you can be at the central park courts at about 96th st in 5-10 mins. If you’re looking for exercise, sometimes you gotta burn a few calories i’m afraid. I know. Shocker.</p>
<p>■■■■■ 
Some of the language was a bit strong, but overall…■■■■■</p>
<p>They do what any other college student in a city does on the weekends: sleeps, studies, parties, drinks, goes to the park, goes out to eat, dates, has sex, plays sports, does research, works at a job, goes to the library, participates in on-campus activities…honestly, the answers run the gamut and really depend on the student!</p>
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<p>Getting to the Baker clay courts is very cumbersome, I agree. It could be a 15 minute wait for the 1. Then another 15 minutes on the 1. And then the courts are a 5-10 minute walk from the station. Double that, and you’re looking at an hour-and-a-half transportation just to play an hour of tennis. </p>
<p>The courts in Riverside/Central Parks are hard to get during prime times.</p>