pr2000

Surprisingly Good, but Only for Some.

I came to Columbia not expecting to have anything to do with Greek life - in fact, I think many of the people in the system believed the same. Actually, Greek life is a little bigger than most people imagined. The percentages cited here are wrong, its a bit more like 10-15% now of the total (read CC, SEAS and Barnard) population (smaller for Columbia girls because Barnard girls take up a lot of the spots) due to the war on fun in other areas, such as crackdowns on dorms.

In fact, many (most? probably not) of the most outgoing people are Greek, which creates a nice little community that you always see when out. It's not only meatheads that are Greek here either - while yes, some of the athletes may have slipped by the admissions process somehow, most athletes are nice guys and there are three non-athlete associated fraternities. I'd say a large proportion of the attractive girls here are in sororities (maybe not most, but definitely heavily overrepresented).

Downsides are that its a little shallow at times, and some non-Greek people snort at it but really this is not Animal House - it's still Columbia, and it allows some people to get more of a college experience while still enjoying everything Columbia has to offer.

Housing consists entirely of smallish brownstones that are still large enough to have decent parties at times (mainly in basements etc) which sometimes sprawl several floors. You don't have to live in the house.

DON't LISTEN TO THE MYTH

So many people avoid Columbia because they have the illogical thought process of: Columbia is in New York. Furthermore, it is in Harlem. Harlem is poor. If I go to Columbia I will get stabbed.

New York has improved by leaps and bounds, especially under Bloomberg's tenure, and crime is really not an issue at Columbia. I've never felt unsafe, even at 3 or 4 am around campus. There are a few isolated incidents, a mugging here or there, but these are usually confined to people being unwise with their possessions.

For most people, as long as they aren't idiots about showing off their latest iPod or swinging around their laptop with a big sign saying "Look at me, I'm rich!", crime isn't an issue at all.

Also, campus police are big guys and quick to react for the most part.

Not Very Much at All.

Apart from the odd cocaine snorter (it is an Ivy league school after all), drugs are confined to only a few people. Many smoked weed in high school and might smoke again if they come across people with it, and some really really like weed and get high several times a week, but about 70% of the people I know don't touch drugs and that rises to about 95% when you exclude the part-time and full-time weed smokers. Alcohol, obviously is not included.