Columbia University in the City of New York Top Questions

And then there's New York... simply amazing. You will not get the opportunities that the City offers at university of comparable excellence. There are so many restaurants, museums, clubs, concerts, political functions, and other events that it's impossible to see it all.

New York is amazing and offers more opportunities and fun things to do than any other U.S. college location. Morningside and Columbia serves as relatively calm home bases (certainly more leafy and not as dense as downtown), and the subway and cabs will take you anywhere you want to go. There are museums, concerts, restaurants, bars, historical sites, and stores on par with the those of greatest cities in the world, and you can enjoy so much of that even without spending a ton of money.

When you go to school in New York City, you have a lot of options if you have the money. If you don't have a lot of money, it's a good idea to get involved around campus. I don't think there's one big thing everyone gets involved in. Athletics are important, but our teams never do well (except for our fencing team, which regularly produces Olympic competitors). The theater groups are a little insular, and actors and writers generally float between groups. We have two improv comedy groups, as well as a sketch comedy group. Sometimes the humor is a little esoteric, but they manage to keep it fresh. There are a lot of parties, but people often have trouble deciding when to host them, and as a result, there can be three parties going on the same night. Fraternities and sororities aren't really important. And only one has good parties. Incidentally, the one with good parties is one of the few co-ed Greek organizations in the country (Alpha Delta Phi). Very social campus, very kind, lots of drinking, some other things, lots of fun. If you're not into any of that, you can easily leave and explore New York City. Chinatown is a personal favorite.

Can't comment as I don't tend to go to them. Why would you stay around campus when the real NYC is just a subway ride away?

The social scene on Columbia's campus is notoriously bad, the frats are awful as are the bars in the immediate surrounding area. Parties in dorms routinely get shut down. However, like I said, Columbia's best feature is its location in Manhattan, and all the fantastic social opportunities it provides. Columbia is split between people who party a lot, and nerdy engineering students who don't leave their rooms (not to stereotype...).

the school is too fractured and does not have a centralized campus really and so the most vocal events include student council, cudm, greek organizations, varsity show, and cupal, and bachanal. athletic events should be more popular and there isnt a great way to advertise events on campus.

Columbia athletics isn't too big on campus--our best sports are archery and fencing. Columbia is more famous for the arts (theater/dance/music groups) and for politics and bringing guest speakers. Greek life is maybe 15{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the population, so not huge, but it's fun and there are multicultural Greek organizations which add extra flavor. Columbia has bars near campus, but it's also easy to move throughout the city in search of something more exotic like karaoke or a jazz club.

greek life is not very big on campus but those who are active in it get a lot out of it, there are always events on campus by some organization, and there are lots of events where you can meet new people

Orchesis is a Barnard-Columbia dance group that's a lot of fun. The dating scene is about hooking up. I met my closest friends through classes and through my sorority. People party at least once a week in their first years, but as they get to be upper classmen it's less important. The sororities are fantastic because they aren't filled with stereotypical "sorority girls" -- the girls in sororities are smart, involved, passionate, compassionate, intelligent, politically and socially aware students working to improve the campus and the world around them.

The dating scene is awful. Hook up at bars or date from day one of freshman year. Other than that you're pretty much out. Greek life doesn't affect most students, but I'm involved in it and therefore it seems like a big part of life.