Columbia University in the City of New York Top Questions

School is their only priority and they are very unsocial.

we are super liberal and super smart

Rich and preppy

Columbia has been painted as politically ultra-liberal and full of elitist, entitled students from upper class upbringings who live off their trust funds.

I believe some of the stereotypes are that we are anti-social or not interested in making friends on campus. Another common stereotype is that Columbia students spend all of our time in Butler studying, even weekends.

Rich and pompous.

Nerdy, not hard partiers, obsessed with school work, jaded.

Perhaps the stereotype of Columbia students is that they are highly intelligent, competitive, ambitious, and hard-working.

extremely liberal, stuck up, very narcissistic

The students only study, and there is no fun. Since the school is in New York, you don't really get a feel for campus. Lame part scene.

I don't think too many stereotypes exist. There is the Ivy-League, Rich Kid, Really Smart Nerd with perfect SATs, or the stellar student on scholarship from Compton, CA. There is a lot of diversity and I have friends who fit all sorts of stereotypes. Columbia really attracts a wide-range of cool, passionate people -- whether their passions are athletics, shopping on 5th ave, political activism, S&M, band junkies, or sustainability. I would say the common thread is that columbia students want to make a difference and NYC gives them a great opportunity to do just that.

I would say that the stereotypes that I have heard the most about Columbia students is that they are relatively unattractive, very studious, and that we stay on columbia campus only and don't venture elsewhere. about columbia in general i think that it is stereotypical to hear that columbia is one of the "safety" ivies

Since this is an Ivy League school, a lot of people assume that students here study all the time and that we don't have a lot of fun. There are also stereotypes that everyone who goes to a school like Columbia is rich and pretentious and snobby.

One stereotype is that we are all wealthy and spoiled idealists. There is also a stereotype that we are elitists with a devil-may-care attitude towards the world's problems--we are just here to make money.

A stereotype about Columbia and Columbia students is that they are diverse not only in terms of ethnicity but also in every other way possible.

The guys are not cute and the girls are even uglier.

...that students are always busy, hard-working, motivated and independent, scholarly, well-rounded, open-minded, but that they can be snobby, nerdy, and overtly affluent. We're known to be very liberal.

Most Columbia students are considered loud, liberal, and over-zealous. Meaning, there are protests every other day--every day when the Republicans control the legislature--and that they're impossible to miss, because who can ignore a girl with blue dreads screaming about the government's poor handling of [insert obscure issue here]. Columbia as a university is basically summed up by the word controversial. Whether you're talking about invitations to questionable speakers or less-than-graceful handling of awkward situations, there is probably always going to be a little bit of ideological conflict between Columbia and the people.

There's no campus life, everyone goes off-campus in their free time.

Very liberal, activists, large population of students going into finance & consulting, creative.

Columbia is thought of as a school that doesn't generally take into account the needs of the student body and there is a huge disconnect between the administration and students. Columbia students are thought of as extreme liberals and pretentious for the most part.