Columbia MBA - where do most students live / hang out?
Am interested in getting my MBA at Columbia and am a bit concerned about Columbia reputation as a "commuter school", wherein the sense of community is weak and those from NYC will just stay within their own friend groups from pre-business school. Am curious on the following:
- Where do most MBA students live? Do most of them reside close to campus in Morningside Heights or do they commute from more central Manhattan? In your opinion, would you say you'd highly recommend living close to campus or is commuting from central Manhattan (i.e. Midtown) not a big deal?
- In terms of hangout spots, do MBAs typically hang out near campus, or do they make the trek down to central Manhattan?
Any additional insight in terms of Columbia school community would be greatly appreciated!
CBS is huge - 700 per class.
About half of people live near campus, some don't. Partying is downtown at clubs like Ph.d. There are school organized events but most people party in large groups together - it is actually quite similar to the 20-something life outside of MBA. Dinner with buds, pre-game, club. There's just far less "hand-holding" when it comes to social life (as opposed to say Tuck where everyone is together for most social events). Sure, some people do their own thing - it is NYC after all - but many many others are all-in on the school.
Plus, once spring semester hits, many people are traveling with friends constantly. So, you find your niche.
I would recommend living on the west side/123 somewhere, to make your life easy getting to 116.
Agree with everything Jackstack said. If you want a close community feel, it's there. If you want to do your own thing with an existing friend group, that's there too. Not mutually exclusive since the classes are so large. Anywhere on the 1/2/3 works - plenty of existing New Yorkers stay in their apartments in Chelsea/WV and commute up for the day. It's really not that bad. If anything it's helpful since you're around campus all day and not back in your dorm/on-campus housing.
I agree with everything the above posters said--for context I looked quite seriously at CBS and like it a lot but will be going to another M7; I have a lot of friends there currently/recently graduated as well.
Yes, the "commuter vibe" is present relative to say Tuck, Kellogg, or Haas, but it's really no different from a Booth or Wharton in that respect. You find your niche in any school, and the NYC advantage is real. My suggestion is to ask these questions of current students via Hermes or personal connections as they'll generally give you a pretty candid response and you can be more targeted/real-time.
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