#qolumbia

[officialcolumbiauniversity]

I'm currently packing for college and was wondering what kind of clothes New Yorkers wear in September; how hot is it? Is it more like a shorts/skirts kind of weather, or are jeans and a t shirt fine? Ik the hot weather doesn't last very long anyway, so I don't wanna overpack. Thanks!

Depends on where you’re from. Anyone on the east coast or from nearby can just pack as normal, but I definitely recommend packing winter clothes you might want to leave home because it’s a real pain going back home to get winter clothes. Especially because cold weather kinda sneaks up on you here, and you don’t want to be stranded without a good sweater or two. 

If you’re from the west coast or the south, definitely pack for colder weather. For sure, the first three weeks will be absolutely roasting, but then it settles into a comfortable autumn that I’m sure Cali has never seen. And word of warning, you should do your winter coat/parka shopping as early as possible.

Internationals, the same rules apply to you. The moral of the story is that you should pack all of your clothes, because those first two months of school go through all of the temperature changes that you could expect. If you really can’t afford to overpack, and you can afford going back home or having stuff sent to you (or buying it), then pack more hot weather clothes than cold weather clothes. Because it’ll still be shorts season. BUT, you should be prepared for both types of weather. And don’t forget rain boots!

[officialcolumbiauniversity]

Help puhleaasee? I'm on the premed track and deciding between taking spanish, intro to psych, or calc (along with chem and the two core classes), because I only want to take 5 courses

I’m assuming you’re taking chem lab too? I’d recommend taking Calc 3, because calculus is one of those subjects that gets harder the more you forget about it. Spanish is the opposite of a priority right now, and in case you decide to not be premed ever, you won’t have wasted your time on Intro to Psych. Calc, however, is dead useful in many majors.

Actually, I’ll change my answer a bit. If you’re more interested in humanities or “soft sciences” majors, take Intro to Psych. If you’re more interested in STEM majors or are literally in SEAS, then take Calc. Again, Spanish can be done later. The only reason I said Calc off the bat is because I’m a STEM person.

[officialcolumbiauniversity]

Is going to Columbia really as aesthetic as it looks like in photographs?

https://officialcolumbiauniversity.tumblr.com/campus-photographs

You tell me.

(Edit: let me remind you that I took every single one of these pictures myself, on my phone, casually, just because I happened to be walking by and thought it looked pretty.)

[officialcolumbiauniversity]

hello!!!! what do you think is the best way to take notes in class in order to stay organized and on top of the workload/readings? do you suggest cornell notes? will professors ever have a preferred way for you to take notes?

Professors are never going to have a preferred way for you to take notes. They’re never going to look at your notes. I personally stick to outline notes; I’ve never found Cornell notes to be particularly helpful for my studying. I also use mapping from time to time but that’s mostly for classes that are going too quickly for me to jot them logically down. Also definitely a personal preference. Really you’re just going to have to feel it out for yourself once you get here, I can’t really help you in this department. However, if you’re looking for study tips in general to succeed here, check out the post I made about that here. And for tips on acing the core classes, check out the Core in Review series. 

[officialcolumbiauniversity]

Studying tips for an incoming student??

This post might be specific to being at Columbia, and being in the Ivy League. But in general, most of the things listed here are general college study tips.

There’s no such thing as “being done.” College is very different from high school in that you technically always have something to be studying for, whether that be a midterm or a paper that you’ve had the prompt for since the beginning of the semester. There’s no high school-like “once I finish this assignment I’m done for the day.” The biggest transition from high school to college is acknowledging the fact that you will need to know when to prioritize certain activities, and put off other ones. Right now I’m blogging, so I’m not working. But once I finish writing articles, I know exactly what I should be getting done.And quite frankly, I find this setup very relaxing. It means that there’s no sudden spike of stress and anxiety throughout the semester. It’s a constant buzz of “oh this thing’s due in a week,” that eases into “oh finals are in a week” at the end of the semester. Knowing what the semester’s workload is going to look like at the beginning of the semester means that there are no surprises, and every week is a routine. Because of this I think college students are a lot less stressed than high schoolers in many ways. We’re obviously stressed, but in much healthier ways.

If you don’t plan on going to lecture, have a backup. Whether it be going through the textbook, or having a friend record the lecture, or using the slides the professor puts online, you need to know where you can reliably find information that will for sure be on midterms and finals. Attendance is almost never graded in lecture classes here, so people skip all the time, but you need to know before you skip where you’re going to catch up. I personally use the lecturer’s slides.

Know that no one’s going to pressure you to go out if you have something due. Sometimes your friends are better judges of your responsibilities than even you are. If you have good friends, they’re going to dissuade you from going out or checking Facebook if you have a paper due at midnight. If they don’t, your friends are shit and you should get some new ones. The point is, you have no one to blame for your waste of time except yourself. Be careful.

Study in different places. If you study in one place all the time, with the same conditions, you’ll end up being dependent on those exact conditions to do anything productive. I’m not a fan of the “pick your study place and keep it” advice because that means that if, in a test or some other pressured situation, you have something to do but not everything is exactly like you’re used to, you won’t get anything done and your grade will suffer. Don’t always study in dead silence, don’t always study with music playing, don’t always write essays while snacking, etc. It’s very important that as a college student you are as flexible and adaptive as possible.

However, you should find one place that is your reliable study spot, should you not be able to find anywhere else. There’s nothing worse than not having a place to study.

Try signing up for classes with friends. It makes suffering through the class much more tolerable. Although beware that taking classes with friends actually increases your chances of skipping with them. Make sure you have someone else to reliably take notes for you or get you lecture slides if you don’t go.

Also a collaborative tip: always make sure you do problem sets or other homework with friends. If you guys all do it alone you’ll all get worse grades, and by doing it together you can double check answers, get through homework faster, and make the whole process actually bearable.

Some people do well without having to do this, but it’s undeniable that sitting in the front of the class, as tired as the advice is, definitely makes it easier to concentrate. Again, you do you, but it’s only going to help you understand the class more, which means less actual studying for you.

In general, all of the cliched tips you always find on listicles are honestly pretty solid advice. You can only learn through trial and error that it’s better to follow all the advice you hear.

[officialcolumbiauniversity]

Can you speak to the fashion on campus? I'm coming to Columbia from the south, so think a wardrobe with tons of bright colors and patterns. I'm not really willing to give them up, but I also don't want to be a total sore thumb. What do people wear up there?!

I will say that in general there are lots of neutral colors, and dark colors, at least from what I can tell by looking at Low Steps on a nice day. But fashion here, just like fashion anywhere, is less so about colors and more so about how presentable you look. As long as you look good and, what’s more, comfortable in what you’re wearing, you’ll blend in just fine.

In terms of style, if you’re looking for a short description to fall back on when you have no idea what to wear, you can’t go wrong with a general “Ivy league” aesthetic. In 2017 that translates to trendy preppy, with off-the-shoulder frilly tops and high waisted jeans just as popular as cashmere sweaters and salmon shorts. I won’t say that there’s no such thing as casual wear here, but I learned the hard way that wearing unflattering clothing to the dining hall, even if you just woke up and give no fucks (and it’s finals week), can still earn you some stares. As another example, a girl jokingly asked me if it was acceptable to head to Butler at midnight in her pajamas. Her pajamas look presentable, and it was midnight and not during exam season anyway so there wouldn’t be a terrible amount of people, but the fact that she even said that question is an indication that we Columbians like to look our best at all times, and therefore make it seem less acceptable for others to do the same.

Again, general guidelines. I’ve actually heard that this isn’t a thing at other Ivies, so don’t stress too much about it. All you have to focus on is feeling like you look like a million bucks. :)

[officialcolumbiauniversity]

might be a dumb question but I'm curious why do u guys "hate" Cornell and nyu?

lmao

k first things first we obviously do not ~hate~ either school. if there’s any school i have actual aggressive feelings towards it’s Barnard because they take a lot of our resources and give very little back. also barnard girls are super cocky and for some reason think they’re the shit. anyway.

There’s a difference between hate and condescension. The general attitude of ivies in general, not just Columbia, is condescending towards Cornell purely because of its (relatively) high acceptance rate. Like, no offense Cornell, but Barnard had a lower acceptance rate than you this year. It’s just easy to pick on Cornell because of their acceptance rate and the fact that they are in the middle of buttfuck nowhere. They’re also not as well-known as the other Ivies. I mean, come on. If you were to ask some sixth grader or elementary school kid what Harvard was, they’d know. Cornell? Not unless their parents or sibling went there or something. You know? Just a prestige thing. And obviously it’s some bullshit. I’m sure Cornell’s a great school. But it’s not Columbia.

We “hate” NYU because Manhattan’s not big enough for the both of us. No, really. NYU’s the only other really prominent school in Manhattan, and obviously they’re not an ivy. So we win. Again, bullshit prestige. We also like to make fun of their lack of a real campus and their nonexistent finaid. Which are pure facts.

[officialcolumbiauniversity]

What's it like going to school at Columbia and having to get a job whether on or off campus. I'm more lower income and am not relying on my parents to give me money throughout college cause I don't think they'll have it between helping pay tuition and taking care of my many younger siblings still at home so what would you recommend in regards to being in one of the most expensive cities in the world but still being able to afford the things I need/want???

Nice initiative! I’m also low income and yet I’m still relying on my parents (to my ever constant guilt) because I don’t really feel comfortable getting a job yet. But there are plenty of options here.

So I’m pretty sure your financial aid package is going to include something called work study, where instead of making you actually do the student contribution part (something like $4k per semester), they give you a job on-campus and part of your salary goes to that student contribution. Minimum wage on campus is now a healthy $15 per hour, so you make a respectable amount. There are also a ton of other jobs that don’t count for work study but are still $15 per hour, things like swiping people into dorms or working at the gym front desk (where you basically get paid to do your homework). You can also apply for something called the Work Exemption Program, where you can do something like an unpaid internship and then Columbia covers your student contribution because they see that the internship takes about as much time as a job. And then, or course, through our online job finder (LionSHARE) you can get jobs in the city. So a lot of options are here.

What’s it like? I’m not going to lie, it’s a lot. Students who work, on- or off-campus, part-time or full-time, basically schedule their day around when they work, that’s how time-consuming it can get. It’s also definitely significant trying to balance work and school load. But you just have to do it. And most students here are good at doing that. 

If you end up getting a job in the city, you’re going to have to account for both time commuting, and the transportation fee. That, combined with the price of things around here, means that you might not be able to afford everything you want. I know I can’t. But with prioritization, and just general money-managing skills, you’ll be totally fine here.