.

i couldn't go, so am also interested in people's impressions.

what do you mean by pre-professional? pre corporate? and why were the other admits lame??

the library sucked because it was just low ceilings, dark lighting, dingy looking(really bad carpets in some places). just not a environment i'd like to study in. however, maybe i'm biased because i've been in nyu's law library a bunch of times and it's super nice. also there seems to be many seats in the library now, but i have a feeling that during finals time things are different.

the admits seemed to fit into one of two categories - dorky or douchey. there were a handful of cool people for sure, and the whole thing was mitigated for me by the current students who i talked to and who were super cool and nice.

and i didn't get a pre-corporate vibe, but they might have just been trying to avoid that stereotype.

I don't want to high-jack the thread, but our library is fairly weak and NYU's is much better. There are, however, always good spots to study, even during finals.

The pro-corporate vibe is there, believe me. It's just that we are all normal people here, so we don't spend most of our off-time talking about law. When people do, though, they talk 99% about firms.

i got the same impression. it was interesting to see the difference between admitted students and the current students. to be fair, it seemed like a lot of the dorkiness and douchey-ness stemmed from nervousness and insecurity, respectively. i feel like when people get to know each other and the school, that stuff will dissipate (as evidenced by the current 1L's)

Did anyone stay for Bobbitt's lecture? What did you think? I really liked it, and I thought it was an impressive speech to end the day with.

Also, the free beer was great.

There is free beer???

When I went last month CLS had free wine. Chicago had free vodka, though. Ah ha, THAT'S why I liked Chicago so much more. I couldn't put my finger on it until now.

I thought everybody was super nice, and I met bunches of students who were interested in public service and had great records. Maybe I talked to some of the members from this site without even realizing it. Anyhow, I think that the people who claimed that everyone fit into either a "dorky" or "douchy" category probably didn't socialize very much and thus formed their negative views.

The speakers were interesting. The mock-class was fun. The wine and chocolate-covered strawberries were a great finish. I'm very excited about attending this school.

Yeah, once on Wednesday and then again on Thursday. It attracted a lot of current students who weren't affiliated with the admissions office, so I got some unfiltered perspectives (and free beer).

1. I thought the people who brought parents (not me) fit in fine- their parents didn't hang out at the happy hours, just came to the classes, and they all looked proud. Do whatever you want with your parents. It didn't seem weird when we were there.

2. Agreed with everyone, maybe it's nerves! I liked that current students I talked to way more than the admits (though I definitely met some who I thought were really wonderful- but just sort of, as a group, not a really happy/social seeming bunch).

3. My only story of the one person who most pissed me off was on my tour, where this one guy who obviously thought he was SUPER hot shit compared Columbia to NYU with the following line: "NYU keeps emailing me but I'm like, I got into CLS, 3 extra questions right on the LSAT for you guys. Suck on that, bitches!" (If you're that dude, please don't go wherever I do).

Which made very little sense, but was SUPER douchey. I avoided him the rest of the weekend.

4. Area + Housing arrangements were AMAZING. They may seem expensive, but the apartment shares were BEAUTIFUL and an unbelievable deal for New York. The girl I stayed with was also phenomenal.

I absolutely HATED their living arrangements. I LOVED the people I met (admits). I guess I lucked out in that sense? I have to say though: NYU knew what they were doing.

What is wrong with them?

I don't want to be a dream-crusher. I really don't. But coming from a school where I used to think our living arrangement was only sub-par (I now love my school)...it counted harshly against CLS for me.

I saw two places. One 2-bedroom share and a single studio in Lenfast (sp?). 2 bedroom one was dreary. It looked like those crime-scene apt you see on law and order minus the blood. Elevator dropped slightly the one floor before the final destination floor, and that scared the hell out of me. It's ancient. The room was tiny (the guy was SOOOO nice, but his room wasn't big enough to have the both the bed and the desk; he had to do IKEA bunk style thing). And I think it hardly got any sunlight.

Lenfast, on the other hand, is pretty cool except the rent is around 1850 to 2000 (the word decent comes to mind). Um..yes, people keep saying it's great for NYC. But the reality that most students told me is that you don't go out to the city as often as you think you would. It's law school, not a vacation. Am i willing to pay that much money to be in Morningside Heights in a pretty mediocre place so that I have the potential to go downtown? We will have to see. But really, I am glad the apt. viewing was the first, not the last thing, that was on the day's schedule. It was truly an up-hike from there.

But really, I haven't even decided for myself what I want. And if you can, you should visit, instead of believing my words. I am pretty spoiled living-situation-wise. I am an RA now, and I get a fully furnished apt (living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom) all for free. I wasn't looking for that precisely, but the idea of having to live in a closet for next three years (clearly, Lenfast is too exp.) was dream-crushing for me.

Some of the apartment shares are awful. Many (most?) of them are fairly spacious. They are all old, and creaky, but if you're that much of a prima donna about your living space, you probably shouldn't be living in New York anyway.

For those that attended:
Is the Wednesday daytime program worth attending? (Visiting classes, student org fairs, faculty chat sessions)? The schedule says the "formal program" begins at 5:00pm. I'm not sure if I'll take Wednesday off from work. I'm the most interested in university apartment viewing, but it's scheduled for Thursday as well.

I would go to the Wednesday apt. viewings. You'll have way more time to see a few different places, and won't have to be up as early on Thursday. for what it's worth, i saw four different places (Lenfest studio, 2 and 3-bedroom shares), and was impressed with everything. one girl had a very nice setup for 825/month like 5 blocks from the school

I was also reeeally impressed with the housing (especially compared to NYU...). I only saw the apartment that I stayed in, but it was great- sure, old and creaky, but what do you want for NYC and less than $900/mo? I'd live in a box for that rent, and these are actually nice apartments. My hosts said that their friends were really happy with their own apartments as well; in fact, lots of current students said that the housing was a huge factor in their decision.

Seriously? Where are people finding these amazing rentals? I want one...

Apparently it's not too hard to find apartments at that price if you go through Columbia (since the school subsidizes rent), although the nicer apartments can run up to 1400/mo. The current students I talked to said you can specify on your housing form that price is really important to you, and you should be able to get something for 800-900 if you aren't super picky. The one I saw for under 900 was totally fine, IMO.

To those who've already done Columbia's ASW, which day do you think was more valuable if I'm able to attend only one of the two days?

Thanks!

anyone?




also.....were the wednesday faculty chat sessions useful? it seems that the only thing worthwhile on wednesday is the apartment viewing and possibly the mock classes..

I think Thursday is where the real value is in terms of learning about the school. Wednesday is a fun time with a welcome reception and people going out for drinks and such afterwards, but you can do that on Thursday too if you don't jet out to go to NYU (which I know many people ARE doing so that makes it more of a tradeoff).

Also, I just wanted to say that my experience in terms of the corporate vibe has been different than Trex's. Almost all law related discussions I have are about public interest law with others who are interested in similar topics. Don't get me wrong, public interest students are definitely the minority (as they are everywhere), and I frequently hang out with a lot of "firm kids" but they very rarely talk about law. That might just be the crowd I hang out with.

Thanks, Chris0805!

I was actually planning on attending just Wednesday.

What about Thursday's events make it more conducive to learning about the school?

Hi all-

I'm on Columbia's Hold/Reserve/Waitlist at the moment, and I was just wondering if those people who attended had any pointers for things I might want to mention in my LOCI. Did they really try to emphasize one aspect of the school, etc?

I have somewhat of an international background (speak German, born in Germany, and have spent a lot of time in Europe and have visited some German universities) so I was going to try and emphasize that. Obviously, Columbia's international law program is stellar.