Columbia University in the City of New York Review

We visited the college on an invite. It was summer and we were not allowed to see the dorms. This was a worry. I discretely asked a student in an office to rate the dorms for me. Some did not have air-conditioning. Students were not allowed to have their own - could get expelled. First two years you have to sign up for dining dollars. We moved our child's stuff and attend parent - kid day and say good-bye. The dorm room (shared) was old asphault tile floor and very small. There were large cockroaches everywhere. It turned out to be too few showers and bathrooms for the number of students on each floor. Some students wrecked TV's . kitchens, etc, making it difficult for others. Things did not get fixed. Rooms are done by an unfair lottery system., unknown to us til the last year. Dining dollars turned out to be very poor food. For Example, one day they had tator tots, the next day tator tots were disguised in mystery food and the next day they appeared on pizza. We had paid into this for the whole year and had money left over that did not tranfer. Our child just could not stomache the food. Teachers were not available for ? or help. Some purposefully only scheduled time during class so they were never available. One teacher talked too soft for a large room and my child could never hear her and she was never available after classes. All classes were marked on a curve. This made competition rough and so very hard to get an A. This is something imp. that they failed to tell us. After finals my child would fly home. Grades would show up on the computer sometimes 2 wks later. They have strict rules and you can only dispute or find out about your tests the 1st week in person. When you live out-of-state your screwed. People putting grades on can make a mistake. Our child got a "d" for the first time in his life and his project was perfect. Stuck with the D and no explanation even though tried. This killed the grade point carried. If you are out of state you cannot do summer studies or work in school because the dorms close. If you need help getting a job after graduation - forget it. Summer internships. also. If you have lots of money you could find aplace to live. Friendly students? Few and far between. Many students from other countries and rich kids were not friendly. One of my childs roommates lived an hour away and went home every weekend. Never brought food to share. Never invited to their home, when parents came they would meet downstairs and never met or invited our child along to dinner. Airfare costs left our child at school except for Xmas and end of May. It has been 2 years since grad. and our child has yet to find the dream job. One prof. said he would write a letter of recommendation and it never came. When an email was sent the answer was that if he was notified by co's he would give the best ever rec. Other students got letters. My child had a 3.5 and teachers liked work. My child is no longer proud of his college even though being 1 of 300 picked world-wide was an honor. Now we have $26,000 in school loans to pay back with a $10 an hr.job. My husband and I are disabled retired.. Financial aid did help but we were not smart enough to ask for more grant $ right away each year. All in all , it is very difficult to attend a school far away. Talking to alumni did not help. This school has too many secrets that only a few are privy to. Room Lottery the worst. They also kept adding more classes so forcing kids to take 20 credits or more to grad. in 4 years w/o summer.