Nancy- I just ordered the College Prowler: Columbia University from collegeprowler.com just for fun and to get a feel of the school......

It gives the school, in general, the following grades:
Academics: A-
Athletics: F (huh?)
Campus Dining: D+
Campus Housing: C+
Campus Strictness: A+ (most open-minded administration)
Computers: B
Diversity: A-
Drug Scene: B-
Facilities: B-
Girls: C+
Greek Life: C-
Guys: B-
Local Atmosphere: A-
Nightlife: A (ohh yeaaah)
Off Campus Dining: A+ (I can smell ethnic here)
Off Campus Housing: F (ouch!)
Parking: F (duh!)
Safety: B
Transportation: A+ (metro card here I come)
Weather: B- (not bad, considering cornell gets a D here)

now this was entertaining!

Girls, C+?!?

Man, looks like housing is going to be a problem.

but yes, very entertaining! =) by the way, you're going, right?

i'm also doing msaad. look forward to meeting you guys. :)
i applied for university housing, won't have any idea how that's working till next week though.
definitely apply for university housing, the prices for rent are not much cheaper than what you'd be looking for off campus, but still cheaper than it would be to live that close to campus if not through uah. if that doesn't work out, then i'm hitting rent.com, apartments.com, and craigslist.com to see what's available. best bet for finding a place is within thirty days of moving there.
lets keep this thread alive, we could all use as much info as possible as we try to attack the nyc housing beast...
barbaric: that's a pretty cool site.

gotta say, i thought the girls were a little better than c+... :)

i think i've posted this before, but inwood and hudson heights are good solutions for columbia students. the neighborhoods are safe, less expensive, but not exactly 'fun'. thr rule of thumb is to stay north of the gw bridge, and west of broadway.
also, you might look at astoria queens. at first glance it looks like a non-starter, but its actually easily accessible via the m6 bus over the tri-boro bridge. and astoria is kind of fun.
if columbia girls are unacceptable, take the subway to nyu. you won't be disappointed.

oh, and everybody knows about craigslist, right?

www.craigslist.org

its a crap-shoot, but you really can find no-fee apartments.

my 2 cents, crossing the river might not be practical, especially the GWB and any other bridges….considering you always stay up, and wake up late, you will get trapped by those traffic, EVERYDAY….....And spending almost one hour from 1,9 train to N,W train, and plus, once a while, the Queens bound subway has always this and that to make you delay.............you dont want to do that.....trust me.....

i am finishing up my msaad right now, and i might be able to help, let me know if you are interested

never mind

about the C+ girls got, ice9 is right. After all, if it exists, it's in NYC (it being anything)!

Important to note how college prowler grades girls, and I quote:

"How We Rank Girls
A high grade for girls implies not only that the girls on campus are attractive, friendly, and approachable, but that there’s at least a reasonable ratio of girls to guys at the college. After all, what good does it do you if the girls are beautiful but there are exactly three of them?"

guys didn't fair that much better anyways.............

ohhh and Nancy, I'm 80% going. No I'm not waiting on UCLA (by the way, the guys and girls there scored straight As on college prowler for looks). I've coined the word INacceptable on another thread while describing their admissions process. I'm waiting on Yale for the waitlist. But I started my Visa application for columbia because there's no time (these things take weeks if you're lucky-today they told me 2 weeks and it's ready).

if Yale says yes, then I will have to seriously consider both excellent schools. Either one would be a good compliment to a Cornell (draw/think damn it! process), with Columbia's emphasis on the 'state-of-the-art' digital representations barely touched upon at cornell, while yale seems to be theory/history based........

girls c+? another reason to hit the big 10 where the gorgeious corn fed girls are everywhere. who do thinks in all those girls gone wild videos???

hey raji, can you tell us where most students live? how many actually do university housing?

oh and barbaric, did you get an extension with columbia's april 15th deadline? if yale ends up taking me after all, i might be in a similar situation

nancy,
most students in the aad program are international, and for the summer, they sublet apartments around the school, and come august, the university housing begins and they get those apartments.

anyone interested in rooming with me? (females only!)

females only?! i never would have taken you for a sexist... :)

hey, if we're sharing the same bedroom! (dude, i'm not sexist!) (yeah, some guys! really, thinking they can get with any chick they want!) =)

This could be an option, if you don't mind being with law students.

http://www2.law.columbia.edu/lenfest/htmls/description.shtml

hey now.. i'm not sharing a bedroom with anyone! or at least it was my last choice on the uah application. :)

Hmmm, nancy wants girls only, heterarchy wants no one.....I my friends, am much more accepting..........as long as you don't smell you are fine by me........ohhh, and if you're good at cooking that's surely a bonus.......

send all enquiries to me with your resume and 3 reccomendation letters from past roommates (relatives don't count!) by may 15th.....

hehehehe

nancy- lenfer looks nice (from the outside, no interior shots), but is MUCHO EXPENSIVO!

I'm pretty sure I'll end up living somewhere in summer and somewhere else in fall. I am sure that I'll find something nicer than whatever I rushed to find for summer.

het- how does the housing application work? are you at their mercy pretty much?

raji and all alumni- where do you guys live or suggest living?

ouch! I typed in craiglist.com instead of .org and was surprised with the result! I was like "what the?!?!"

"nancy wants girls only"--geez, give me a break =)

bar: yep. completelely at their mercy. not sure if its first come first serve, or exactly what percentage of applicants they can house though. the one decent thing about it is that you can give preferences about what kind of place you want to live in (apt share/1 person dorm/2 person dorm). which is why i said that sharing a room (2 person dorm) was my last choice on the application :) i was sort of kidding even then, because i suspect i'll be plenty desparate to just find any place to stay that i can afford. :)

haven't you guys all applied for university housing yet? it can't hurt but it certainly could help.

i don't think i'll check out craigslist.com then... ;)

i've just submitted the uah application. It says that even if approved, you can still choose to not accept...so yeah, it can't hurt. But it sounds like from the website that they usually are able to accomodate most applicants.

but not for the summer... at least it's less likely. but looking in to their off campus housing help service briefly, it seems like another good starting point, at least for summer, if not for the whole year.

guys, how much do they charge/ask for deposit for the housing application?

there's no charge for applying, i suspect that if you take one of their offers, then the deposit is probably one month's rent or something. haven't gotten that far yet though..
check http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ire/

ok, try this:
uah website

I did the summer studio last summer and commuted from the UES-- nightmarish, not recommended. Go to ardorny.com-- and find yourself a sublet as close as possible to campus!

Also, I heard we'll find out about Fall housing in June.

het+nancy- sorry for not warning you, but I've decided on Yale. I mentioned before on posts from last week in this topic discussion that if a yes would come from them that I would have to re-consider everything. I am lucky to have had to decide between 2 excellent schools, and my decision was not easy. I just believe that Yale's program is better suited for me. Most of the posts on Yale here at archinect have been negative, pointing out that the school has no direction and all. I find no problem in having very balanced design studios. I know what I'm going against, as choosing New Haven over NYC is crazy, but atleast I'll be 1.5 hours away!

Having said that, the topic is columbia housing, and so, I must mention that too. Has anyone considered the I-House? It's the International House in New York City. They are actually not affiliated with Columbia (common misconception) and are only 2 blocks from Avery Hall. The rent is affordable I think, especially if you choose the south tower (north tower is nicer I think). I forgot the website, but I think it's easily found on goog, er, search engines...... I'm not sure why you need to file a housing application to Columbia AND one to the I-house, but the prospect of living in an miniature international community would be awesome!

really CHEAP and close!!!

hells yes! don't worry about that box folks, i already reserved it.

maybe we all should start a business making high-end box housings. i bet the local media will give us a rave review - "architecture students formulating a progressive solution to ny's housing problems" :-)

jieunybug: i like the way you think. :)
i'm currently working on finding a place through columbia's sublet service and through craigslist. so far it's working well, but i haven't clinched anything yet.

anyone find their place yet? where you at? :)

I finally clinched a place on 116th and 8th (Harlem). It's fairly close to the school and I hear the area is pretty decent. Maybe a 15 min. walk to school. I just sent in my deposit last week for the MSAUD program begining on the 31st of May. Coming from San Diego I know I'm going to be in for a big lifestyle change... I am only subleting for the summer and plan to live in Columbia housing for the Fall and Spring semesters.

anthny680: same plan here. columbia uah better come through for the fall though! :) as for lifestyle changes, i'm coming from indiana, so no one's got anything on me...

by the way rent is $800. Sharing 2 bed 1 bath.

Has anyone tried OCHA, Columbia's Off Campus Housing Assistance. I hope I get housing with Columbia because it would be easier for me, but I am not sure how likely it is going to be. I am curious how well OCHA works and if there is a formal/informal listserv of students from Columbia seeking housing, roommates, etc.

anthny680

i'm attending the msaud program as well

hey

hope to see you all soon... msaad

the tricky part is that i'm still trying to resolve the money question... coming from canada, there are no scholarship breaks or funky grants; whats' your experience? ; would you have any tips... ways to get a bit of a break from gsapp... less known grants... or any other lead!?

cool to see your posts :) ciao

sorry sini, i've tried a couple of times now to get them to give me a bit of a break too.. apparently it doesn't matter if you're from canada, the us, or anywhere else in the world. it's still friggin expensive.
still, i too look forward to meeting all of you. what do you all think about setting up a night to party before classes start? i suppose that would only apply to the folks who will be starting in the summer, but that's still several of us.

hey heterarchy, sounds great, EXCEPT, I have graduation on the 29th, so yeah, I need to get down to nyc, move in, and get ready for may 31st. Anyway, i'll see you all soon =)!

did they send a letter saying who is teaching studios this summer? if they did, who is teaching?

Nancy et al: I'm at Columbia's GSAP now (and will be next year) and LOVE living in Harlem. You're not going to find a better deal on a lot of space anywhere else near campus. University housing is still cheaper, but definitely smaller. Anthny: you've got a great location, with a MSUP student at the NW corner.

hells yes! got my place lined up tonight. W 118th st & amsterdam. just a summer sublet, but that's what i needed. great location, about 2 blocks from avery. eggsellent.
we'll miss you nancy. though i too may be moving in pretty close to the 29th, well, more like the 26th... still sort of up in the air. whatevs, lets just put something together. a lot less time to party once class starts, and it would be cool to get the 'nect people together before the ball starts rolling.
i did get a letter saying who was teaching summer studios a little while ago, will post tomorrow or soon.

is this letter referring to the e-mail that was sent?

Congrats Heterarchy! Dude, 118 and amsterdam is like across the street from avery. I'm looking into 120 and amsterdam, and that's about a couple of blocks. Actually, I will be down for registration, so maybe we can all get to know each other then! Wow, i'm so excited!