AtlChic said:
Hey...I never applied to Columbia b/c I missed the deadline. But I really regretted not applying afterward. So I'm just curious--what did you not like about the program???
Hihi!
Well, let's see... there were many things I didn't like about my visit, and I'll list them off.
1) The campus was very ugly - it was a collection of old brick buildings in a part of New York City that was virtually off in the middle of nowhere (and not a great neighborhood either).
2) The students didn't seem very happy - I talked to about half a dozen, and of those, half of them seemed pretty unhappy about being at Columbia.
3) The dorms were awful - literally a mouse-hole room with a bed, desk and closet, nothing else. They weren't very nice at all, and for someone who is coming from out of state, it's a major problem.
4) I don't think the cirriculum for my department is as strong as Michigan's - since HPM is only 3 semesters long. I didn't feel like I'd learn enough in that much time.
5) The career fair wasn't impressive - there were maybe 20 recruiters there, and I don't know how that can possibly service the entire graduting class across ALL departments.
6) I didn't like New York City very much... although I am a city person, I found the place to be over-crowded, expensive, and the people were often very rude (not the school people, but the general public). I got fed up quickly with waiting for 2 hours in traffic to only go 20 miles. It's something I'd rather not deal with again.
7) Career services was not very developed - they had 2 people supposedly in charge of that, but when I went to the "career services office" - it was basically a room full of books, and was told it was always empty and you had to look everything up yourself.
8) The whole event was very disorganized. People seemed to be more impressed with the name of Columbia and New York City than of the actual school and programs itself, which I thought was pathetic. Many people there were pre-meds who failed and were hungry for prestige and/or redemption (in my opinion), and many others were totally aimless and directionless being admitted but with no real goals for the future (which was also pathetic to see at the grad school level). Many of them had no idea what they wanted to do, and many were asking to switch to other departments blindly without thinking.
If you want any elaboration on any of the above points, respond or PM me and I'll be happy to tell you more.
