Another CLS 1L taking questions Forum

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ask away

[ivantheterbl]

Are you from NYC originally or is this your first time there? I'm not 100% sure I'd like being in NYC, so maybe you could talk about living in the city generally?

[PaperPattern]

I'm from another big east coast city so nyc isn't a huge change. I also went to college in a city. Anyways, Morningside Heights doesn't really have much of a uniquely "New York" feel to it. Its a relatively calm and isolated neighborhood and it really could be in any other northeast or midwestern city. I think the areas around NYU or Fordham would be much more overwhelming. Columbia has a nice campus with a real oasis feel, most students live in university owned buildings around the campus, and the university is up in the north of manhattan away from the busy downtown. Most importantly, the university is in a very small neighborhood. Morningside heights is bounded on one side by the river/Riverside Park and bounded on the other-side by the steep cliffs of Morningside Park. As a result, the school isn't exactly lost in the boundless expanse of a 16 million person metropolis. Instead, the university neighborhood is a rather contained about three blocks wide and ten block long space. It actually feels like a college town. There are about two dozen or so restaurants, a few pharmacies, three super markets, two bookstores, and a bunch of nice old apartment buildings. Also, there are students here from all over the country and world and everyone seems to be doing quite fine. I have a few friends from rural areas in "fly-over country" and they are all having great times. In fact, I think the person who is having the most fun here is a friend who grew up on a Nebraska farm and is still giddy about exploring the city every weekend. Also, if you're planing on attending a top 5 law school chances are you'll end up getting a job in a big city, so you might as well get used to it.

[roranoa]

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started classes mid-august, so I've been here for about 7 weeks now.
its not hard at all to meet people, people are very eager (almost over eager) to get to know one another and make new friends during the first few weeks. everybody is in the same confused boat at first.