help

It’s a week before finals and you are swamped with work: Essays need to be written; tests need preparing for; and labs need to be done. Speaking from personal experience, the hardest part of the week isn’t the excessive coffee-drinking or the all-nighters––it’s the helpless feeling of simply not knowing how to solve a problem or structure an essay. In those moments, the best solution is to reach out and get help. Detailed below is a series of Columbia’s undergraduate resources that one should make the most of.

It’s that time of the year again—along with the chill of October, hints of yellow and red are starting to tint the greenery of Morningside Heights—and maybe your dorm room is starting to feel a little dingy. Maybe those $8 posters from the poster man on the corner of 116th and Broadway aren’t enough to lift the gloom of your suite. Do not fear! A simple solution will do the trick: a low-maintenance plant is the magical touch your living space needs.

As midterms are approaching and your daily treks to Butler are starting to turn into all-nighters, you’re probably wondering why you hadn’t started studying or tried reaching out for help earlier in the semester. Before you break down under the overwhelming amount of stress you’re under, there might still be time to redeem yourself and your semester grades (and plan out your next semester more efficiently!) by using the tutoring services offered across colleges here at Columbia.

The Columbia Daily Spectator is excited to announce the introduction of our new advice column, Ask Alma. Columbia is not only a notoriously unfriendly place (see any of these op-eds), but also a place that does not necessarily teach us how to ask for help. Alma is not a substitute for a mental health professional, emergency resources, or even an extremely devoted friend, but she is a safe space where readers can solicit advice for personal or academic problems big and small. She is, to put it simply, here to help.

Though we’re delving deeper into the semester, know that it’s never too late to start forming good habits and making resolutions for your best year yet. Whether it’s to improve your GPA, try out new clubs, or meet more people, one strategy to become your best self is to be more organized. Spectrum has compiled a list of tips to help you along the way!

As I follow Barnard sophomore Sara Morales around Ferris Booth Commons, she chats in Spanish with the dining staff, calling them by name. She later tells me that she relates more to the hourly employees who serve her food, swipe her ID, and clean her dorm at Barnard than she relates to most of her fellow students.

Discouraging, draining, and endless. No, I'm not talking about this past election—I'm talking about the Butler Seat Search.

When I got into Columbia, it felt like people were willing to sell body parts to get into Gulati's Principles of Economics class.

I had a weird summer with caffeine. When I first got back home, I started getting headaches every morning, not realizing until a few days later it was because of the change in caffeine intake. Toward the end of last semester, I was going to Oren's three times a day to stay awake during finals—which didn't seem bad, until I realized three medium coffees is 48 ounces, or six cups.