Columbia College Chicago Top Questions

The worst thing about my school is the financial service building. No matter how much help you need with funding your education their on;y respond is to get a loan. Not every student can receive a student loan. There are some students who depend on scholarships and financial aid to fund their educational needs and goals.

It doesn't seem to be worth the money. I wish I would have stayed in California and went to a state school. I 've been to a state college in the past & I see no difference academically between it & Columbia. Columbia does have good resources for work after graduating but I don't know if it's worth that extra money when with research you can get the same information yourself.

Columbia is a school that, although highly focused on submersing students in their major, is not very challenging academically. I think most art schools have a stigma of being "easy" because they're not as focused on academics, and although I prefer not to go along with that stigma in some aspects I have found that to be very true at Columbia. It was hard for me to be challenged here to the best of my academic capabilities and although my program was very hands-on and offered some extremely interesting courses, overall I did not feel challenged.

The worst thing about my school is that many of the majors are separate. Most of a student's time at Columbia is spent at his or her major so they rarely interact with other majors. So the lack of overall community would be the worst thing.

The cost of living in Chicago is a little harsh. I mean, I know it is Chicago, but moving from Cincinnati, Chicago is definitely more expensive in every sense of living.

Many of the teachers at our school are not known working professionals like the school advertises, but grad students. which is not very reassuring career wise going into creative industries such as film, theater, etc. The dorm rooms at this school are more money than they're worth because they are not kept up very well other than rutine matinence when something breaks. Some of the classes at the school are not needed and seem to be there only to waste the student's money. School concentrates on plder techniques in the industry rather than what they are using today.

There isn't anything that I hate.

I can't think of anything that is bad or needs improvement.

The worst thing about my school is the time space in between classes. Because Columbia uses the city as its campus, the buildings are all over downtown, so you may only have ten minutes to to get to your next class five blocks away.

The social scene -- Columbia attracts a lot of trendy kids who somehow manage to rule the whole social scene.

It is very easy to get accepted, therefore students feel bad about themselves that they aren't good enough for a better school

The advisor's are terrible!! And unfortunately so is the school spirit. Students seem to have problems seeing what Columbia can do for them because the students just expect Columbia to do it for them, and they don't have to do anything, which is totally wrong. (Again Columbia kind of forces students to develop independence and if they don't, they won't be able to get much out of Columbia)

Financial aid is the biggest pain. everyone has a story. our administration is horrible while the teachers and people who are directly in contact with students are amazing - always on top of the work and always chalenging us to do our best.

The school's or different program's lack of communication about events to the students.