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- Hey, my name's William,
and I'm a sophomore here at Columbia University.
I'm studying Computer Science
and I'm from Auckland, New Zealand.
Outside of class I'm involved in music activities
such as the orchestra.
And I'm also in a few finance groups on campus.
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So at a typical day at Columbia,
I usually wake up around 11 or noon,
and then I go to my first classes.
So Monday, Wednesday, I have my classes all in the afternoon
from midday to about six p.m.
And then on Tuesday, Thursday,
I have my classes a bit earlier.
I start at 10 and then I end at one p.m.
So usually I have my classes first,
and then I have a bit of food, or something.
And then afterwards it will be time for my activities.
So Tuesday I have orchestra,
and a finance club I'm in called Lion Fund.
And then, on Monday
I have day meetings for the private equity group.
And then a lot of the other meetings
for the social groups and other clubs that I'm on
happen on Sundays.
So that leaves Fridays and Saturdays pretty free
for me to go out, or do whatever I want.
Catch up on work, and stuff like that.
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Alright, so I'm heading to my first class of the day.
It's Discrete Math in this building over here.
So generally, Discrete Math is just a class
involving sets and all proofs around set theory.
We have this class twice a week.
The lectures are one hour and fifteen minutes.
And then we have homeworks usually once a week.
So this class isn't actually a lot of work.
It's definitely one of my lighter classes this semester.
I probably say I spend around
three hours a week on the homeworks,
and that's basically
all the work that I need to do for this class.
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- So academics at Columbia.
What is the culture like here?
- So, everyone jokes that there's kind of like a really big
stress culture around campus.
I feel like there definitely is some kind of stress,
just because people here are so high-achieving.
Like, everyone is really trying their best
to get the best grade, and get the best jobs.
But, I feel like there's kind of a really strong
student community here as well, so that kind of
supports you with that.
- So it's not like, cutthroat.
People aren't competing against each other.
They're just like, everyone's trying their best.
- Yeah, because the classes here are, honestly pretty hard.
People would try to overload themselves with work.
Not to compete against each other.
Just because they wanna try and challenge themselves.
And lot of the time you
get this kind of stress built up from that.
- I see.
So, in terms of classes, Columbia's kind of famous
for its Common Core, is that right?
Is that what it's called?
- Yeah, the Core Curriculum.
- Oh, okay.
- So that kind of involves two main classes, I'd say.
So, in Freshman year you do Literature Humanities.
Which, they describe it as
masterpieces of Western literature.
So you go all the way back to Homer, back to ancient Greece.
And then you read 40 books throughout the years
until you get to 20th Century with Virginia Woolf.
And second year, which is the class that I'm doing right now
is called Contemporary Civilization.
And that's masterpieces of Western Lit, Philosophy.
So instead of reading literature,
we read philosophy books.
Same time period.
We start with Plato, Aristotle, that's like, 400 B.C.
All the way up until you're at 20th Century.
- Jeeze! - Yeah.
- And that's just one of the classes.
How many classes do you usually take a semester?
- So students usually take between four or five.
Historically I've taken five classes a semester.
The workload I'd say is definitely quite a lot.
But you always, you're in New York, you always find
time to make free time.
Chill out if you're, like, stressed.
- And in terms of the Computer Science major.
What do you have to achieve in order to get the degree?
- So, here we have concentrations,
which is basically minors, and then the major itself.
So the Computer Science major,
we have the Computer Science Core, which is seven classes.
And then if you finish the Computer Science Core,
then you can get a concentration in Computer Science.
And then the major, you choose one of four tracks
to concentrate further on.
So, the track that I'm planning to go down
is Intelligent Systems.
So I'll be taking classes like Machine Learning,
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing,
and high-level classes like that.
For the Computer Science Core,
which is the classes I'm doing right now,
it's things like Advanced Programming, Discrete Math,
and Intro to Java or Python, or whatever language.
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Over here we have Pupin, which is the Physics Building.
And then, there's an observatory on top of there
which actually works,
and students can use it with permission
to do their Astronomy projects.
And then on the other side,
we have the other Physics or Engineering Building.
It's called Mudd.
And that's where they tested the first prototype
of the Manhattan Project
back in 1943 or 42, or whatever it was.
And actually, they store the original uranium reactor,
down underground somewhere.
It's in the tunnel somewhere.
You can probably access it.
You're probably not allowed to access it,
but you can probably still
go there and see the original uranium reactor.
So that's pretty cool.
Nice bit of history here on campus.
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- So where are we now?
- So this is actually Riverside Park.
It's to the west of Columbia's campus.
It's a probably five minute walk from the center of campus.
So it's actually very close to where
people do most of their work.
And so a lot of people come here
to exercise or just to relax and
take a nice walk to de-stress along the park.
- So what are extracurriculars like at Columbia?
- So, there are actually a lot of clubs at Columbia.
There are clubs like
almost any activity that you can think of.
We even have a butcher's club a cooking club.
- You have a butcher's club?
- Yeah.
- What do they do?
- I'm not really sure.
I guess they just get together
and discuss meat, or whatever they're into.
- Oh, okay.
They're not butchering things.
- I don't think so, yeah.
But there is also wild ones.
You have the normal pre-professional, and the music ones,
and then you have BDSM club,
and whatever the niche interests are.
- So, what clubs are you a part of?
- So, I'm actually in quite a few clubs.
I'm in three finance clubs.
So, I'm in Lion Fund, which is like an investment fund here.
I'm also in the Columbia Private Equity Group.
And then the Columbia China Law and Business Association.
So those are my pre-professional clubs.
And then music-wise,
I'm in the Columbia University Orchestra,
which is actually conducted by someone
who they got up from Juilliard.
So he comes up once a week, Tuesdays to conduct us.
And I'm also in Columbia Pops,
which is a student-run orchestra
that does non-classical music.
So movie soundtracks, TV shows, Anime, thing like that.
- So, how do you balance
your extracurricular and your academics?
Or do they sort of go together?
- I feel like, especially for me,
my extracurriculars aren't really tied in with my academics.
They kind of just are a way for me
to express my other interests apart from academics.
And so that way it's kind of like a cool-down time
from all the coding and math that I do for my classes.
So it's nice to kind of get away from that with music,
and finance, and things like that.
Or in university, it could be at the high school,
a lot more emphasis is placed on extracurriculars
as opposed to academics.
Columbia deliberately leaves us time off
for clubs and extracurriculars.
That's kind of one of the reasons
why they give us Fridays off.
We only have a four day academic week.
So, being in New York is one of my favorite parts
of being at Columbia.
I generally try to get,
go downtown or leave campus,
leave far from campus at least once a week.
I really enjoy the city because I feel like
there's just so much more to do here.
You can just walk around Manhattan and you can find
great places to eat, cool museums or galleries to look at.
And you can just see
interesting things happening on the streets as well.
Yeah, and the whole atmosphere is just very exciting,
and it's also nice to be able to come back
to a place like Columbia which is,
even though it's in New York,
it's kind of very insulated
and much more slower paced and quiet.
And so you kind of have the choice between
do you want some more action
if you're getting bored or stressed,
you can go downtown and get lost in the atmosphere there.
Or if you're just feeling a bit overwhelmed
by the whole concrete jungle of New York,
then you can come back to campus.
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So this is where I live.
It's about a five to 10 minute walk from campus.
This is sophomore housing, so it's a bit further away
than where I lived when I was a freshman.
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- What would you say has been the most surprising thing
about your time at Columbia so far?
- Well, I guess the most surprising thing I'd have to say
is the people here.
Because I kind of expected, coming in, a lot of people
to be very motivated, very ambitious,
but that's that's not in the best way.
Maybe they'd be unfriendly or too concerned with their own
goals to really talk to others or help others.
But I was really pleasantly surprised at that.
Because people here are all very helpful.
They're all willing to share information and help you along
if you have any problems of any type here.
- That's great.
So it's a pretty welcoming community you would say?
- Yeah, definitely.
I feel like that's kind of hard to find in colleges.
Especially with me coming from New Zealand,
or another country.
You're trying to find this new community.
But Columbia provided that for me.
- And how has the transition been
from New Zealand to the States, to New York?
- Yeah, I actually.
Because we're both English-speaking countries,
there's not too much culture shock, to be honest.
People, they behave in similar ways.
There's not anything particularly that stood out to me.
Maybe apart from tipping, the bills are usually higher.
- Yeah, you have to tip.
- Yeah, you're forced to.
- So, what advice would you give to students
who are coming from other countries
to the States for college?
- So, I'd just say definitely do your research
into which college is best for you.
Columbia is very different
from any other school that I've heard of.
Because they're kind of known for their Core Curriculum,
which no other school really has.
So just do a lot more research, I'd say,
into which kind of school you think is best for you.
And it's always nice if you have the ability
to visit the campuses, or talk to people that go there.
Because you really want to find a place
that suits you for the next four years.
That's way more important than your name or brand recognize.
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