Columbia Campus Visit Recap

It has been a couple weeks, but I wanted to share the experience I had during my campus visit and info session at Columbia.  First,  I have to say that it was night and day vs. the campus visit I had at Wharton.   Some of it had to do with the sun-shining and me being prepared (i.e. not forgetting my wallet and being 10 minutes late!) but also there was such a great vibe that really dispelled a lot of my preconceived notions about Columbia.

First of all,  the neighborhood was awesome!  For some reason, I thought Morningside Heights was going to be kind of run down.  I could really picture myself living right there , a couple of blocks from campus.   The campus was also gorgeous, really breathtaking.  Its what an Ivy League campus SHOULD look like.

(The Library – I snuck in and looked around, so beautiful)

Aside from that, I really enjoyed the class visit and I actually learned something while sitting in.  The professor was engaging and the students participated.  During the class I watched the students and listened to what they said (a lot more participation in this class vs. Wharton) to try to get a feel about the kind of students that go there.  I definitely didn’t get the ultra-competitive vibe from them that for some reason is part of Columbia’s reputation.

(Uris Hall) 

A little later, we spent some time speaking with a current student.  He was very nice and I feel like he was pretty candid about his experience at Columbia so far.   After, we went to the info session (which was packed) and listened to two women from admissions who gave an overview about the program and answered questions.   The info session consisted of a lot of what you can read on the internet but I still found some value in getting a feel for the admissions department and hearing about the international opportunities.