Oh the Places You’ll Go...

Was it really one year ago that I packed up my sleeping bag, my favorite outfits, my dreams of college, and my Columbia-funded Amtrak ticket to come to campus knowing, for the first time, that I could actually go here?

The sweet Days on Campus. The first Columbia right of passage. For me, it was a day filled with uncontainable excitement (Oh my god, college is real!), unbelievable nerves (What if they realize I shouldn’t have gotten in here?), and a lot of sweat (It was 110 degrees in every Carman double packed with 400 pre-frosh trying to get a free Natty Ice). The days and night were magical—as every person in the admissions office hopes they will be. But maybe, just a little too magical.

So, for you accepted students arriving for your Days on Campus this Sunday, I offer you your first bit of Columbia-bred advice. I hope that it helps you keep your feet on the ground and your head on your shoulders as disillusionment descends.
If you should decide to come to fair Alma Mater, you will be inundated with advice about which frats to go to (and more importantly which never to go to), which professors to take a class with, and which local eateries to make your home-away-from-home. But right now, try to forget about all those things. You have something way more important to think about.

As it might be the case for many of you, once my stack of big and small envelopes from colleges last April was complete, my choice seemed obvious. Columbia was the best school I had been accepted to, so, duh, I would go there. Wasn’t that what this whole crazy application process had been about? Getting into the best school I could? But, nearly two semesters into college, and safely on the other side of prefrosh idealism, I have the perspective to say with confidence that this is no way to choose a college. I personally don’t regret my choice at all. But, I look back skeptically on the way I made it.

Of course everyone will tell you that “rank” is no way to choose a school—it sounds obvious. But the thing is, I mean it, even if it means not coming to Columbia. Once the days of excitement and nerves have passed, about five months from now, you are going to want to be in a school that continues to keep you bubbly inside—and I can guarantee you that a number on Newsweek’s college rankings will not give you that feeling. What will is a place that fits you—a place where the atmosphere created by the student body, administration, faculty, and location are conducive to your ability to learn, be creative, and maybe most importantly, have fun.

Try to let go of your own pre-existing notions of what you want in a college. If you come to Columbia, you’ll learn from Montaigne in Literature Humanities that people’s understandings of themselves and the world around them changes moment to moment, so be open to the idea that though you may have only ever been interested in rural schools, or huge schools, or schools with business programs, it might be a school with none of these things where you feel most at home. And in the end, it’s that feeling—not those “material” things—that will make you love your school. During this critical month, don’t judge yourself and what you want. Be open to your own transient nature.

At the end of this overwhelming application process—it’s incredibly hard to do, I know—but while you’re here this weekend and at every other college you visit this month, you have to try to dig beyond the pre-existing impressions you, your friends, parents, teachers, and every other person whose opinion matters to you have. You have to look for the things on the campus or in the classrooms or among the student body that will keep you happy when you are far away from those people. Because here’s another promise I can make you—once you’re away from them, your new reality is going to start hitting you in the head in a way you had no idea it could. It’s going to be all about what you think about things, how you feel about things. And when you’re having an off day, or week, or semester, your college’s prestige or the notion you got set on at age six to go there is not what is going to get you through. But when you’re at the right school and have those down days (because everyone does, everywhere), you’ll know that a feeling of fulfillment and security is just a good night’s sleep away.

If you really put your mind to it, you’ll be able to break down the preexisting notions you have of every school you’re considering. Once you’ve done that, use every second, every chance you have from now until you mail your response card on May 1 to figure what will make you happiest, not tomorrow when you wear your college sweatshirt to school, but in two or three or four years from now when the school you choose has become an integrated part of your identity. Have fun, take advantage of free stuff, free parties, and new friends—but through it all, be that one high-schooler who has the maturity and confidence to make your decision based on much more than those things.

This being said—ROAR LIONS ROAR!

Ariel Hudes is a Columbia College first-year. Undeclared runs alternate Fridays.
Opinion@columbiaspectator.com