(upbeat jazz music)
- I'm Sam Clark with Crimson Education and we are here
at Columbia University in the city of New York.
And we're here to ask some big questions.
Check out this library.
It used to be a library but actually they discovered
after they built it that they hadn't built it able
to hold books so now it's an administrative building
but it still says The Library of Columbia University on it.
The real library is over here.
It's also a very very beautiful building.
(upbeat jazz music)
So what is the best thing about Columbia?
- It's like about the location and the resources
at the campus 'cause it's located in New York
and there are a lot of exciting things going on
like events and student clubs and activities.
- The official answer is the core.
- The official answer, what's the unofficial answer?
- For me, it's probably JJ's Place,
that's a 24 hour dining hall where you can get junk food.
- That sounds awesome.
- I love the campus, I love the community
within the special interest groups, usually.
- It's a great education, it's got a beautiful campus
and it's right in the middle of the city.
- I think the best thing is, the location's pretty good
and having this kind of campus, good environment
within New York City is a really good experience.
- Overall, I like the people here.
I think once you come to Columbia, like your friends,
it's on a different level and you meet intelligent people
and I like to be surrounded by enlightened people.
- Does that include him?
- Hmm, partly. (laughs)
- And in contrast, what's the worst thing
you'd say about Columbia?
- For me, currently, my issue is
that there aren't enough cubicles to study in.
- The elevators, if you try to take the elevators
in the engineering building which is where I just came from,
it takes like 10 minutes, to go up 10 floors
just because it's so crowded.
- It feels like that shouldn't happen
in the engineering building, specifically.
- Yeah. (laughs)
- They gotta work on that.
- I guess the worst thing is the real big school.
So a lot of things you cannot,
because there are a lot of department schools
within the school, so, for example,
you wanted to attend a career fair in another school,
they don't allow you to do it.
Sometimes you have to apply for different things
and there's a lot of things going on.
You may take a lot of time
which it's just a very simple thing.
It would just take five or 10 minutes, I guess,
so that will need several days to process it.
So I thought that's really bad.
- The air of competition you kinda sense walking around,
it's intimidating sometimes.
- I'd say walking, I'm not a walker.
- Maybe, firstly traffic
'cause New York Metro is just terrible.
- I would say the pretty professional culture
'cause I feel like at Columbia
just because it's also, again, in New York City,
there's a lot of pressure of people getting jobs.
Like, I'm a freshman but I'm attending finance major,
already been to a couple networking events and everything.
I just feel like people focus too much on finding a job
rather than just being in college environment.
- And what do you tend to do on weekends here?
- Sometimes, I go to Soho and do some shopping
and foods in New York City is pretty good
so I hang out with my friends and go eating.
- Besides study, I'll hang out with friends
and just find something fun in the city.
- Sometimes I go into the city,
it's only like 20, 30 minute subway ride.
So, sometimes we'll go to museums, we'll go get dinner.
Sometimes, I just stay on campus.
There's definitely some stuff at night in dorms,
in fraternities or just in various locations off-campus.
- Study and then just hang out with friends.
Enjoy myself that way.
- Yeah, same thing, jazz hall, just hang out.
- And last question, what did you write
your applications essays about?
- I think I mostly wrote about my experience
in undergrad 'cause I'm a grad student.
Yeah, about my work experience and what I studied in grad.
- I wrote about basically where I came from.
A coastal village in China, then how I came to,
'cause my grandpa was a carpenter
and how that gave me the incentive
to learn more about mechanics in general
and like how that made me an engineering major.
- Well, I'm a grad student here
and I had to write a statement of purpose about why
I wanted to study at the graduate program that I'm in
which is actuarial science.
And I basically wrote my essay
about how I want to be in a collaborative community
and getting my certifications with people
who are all in the same boat,
striving towards the same goal.
- So, I'm part French but I went to an American high school
and so I kinda wrote about, the different perspectives
that I had on French culture and French history,
and even though I didn't necessarily agree with everything
that French people had to say about,
say like relations with Arab immigrants,
I understood where they were coming from.
And so I just wrote about the difference between,
but combining American and French culture.
- I wrote about my brother
and about my relationship with him.
- And I wrote it about growing up
as a first generation kid in America.
- Anything to add?
- Roar, Lion, Roar.
- Uh, (stammers) nothing to add.
- (laughs) Perfect, thank you guys so much.
(upbeat jazz music)
If you like this video and want to learn more
about top colleges and universities.
Don't forget to like and subscribe.
And click the link below to connect up
with our academic experts at Crimson Education
who can help you get into your dream universities.
I'm Sam Clark with Crimson Education.
It's been real, signing off.
Ka-Pow!
(upbeat jazz music)
What, so you're both engineering students?
- Yeah.
- That means you don't have to do the swimming test,
is that right?
- Yeah, that's right.
- Do you know the logic behind that
and why all the other students have to do a swimming test?
- From what I heard, I think it's probably not accurate
but like it was during some sort of nuclear threat period.
They want people to be able to swim
across the Hudson River when things happen,
so I heard the length you have to swim to pass the test
is close to the width of the Hudson River.
That's what I heard.
- But then you don't have to do it 'cause you're engineers.
- I heard it's because yeah, I heard because engineers,
we can build bridges and boats,
so we don't need to actually pass the swim test
because we have better ways to do it.
- Perfect, that's very smart.
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