Claim to fame: I’ve been involved with various theater organizations, Fruit Paunch, play banjo and guitar in The Kitchen Cabinet, and was the Bwog commenter known as “anti-rjt.”
Where are you going? Living in Nolita where I will be writing my robot screenplay and looking for a job in the entertainment industry. Mostly just writing about robots though.
Three things you learned at Columbia:
1. Finding the balance between New York and Columbia. I went to school in the best city in the world and I also know I went to college.
2. Professor Erik Gray melts hearts. He could seduce anything. Ever.
3. My best friends are the ones I find myself being happily bored with.
Justify your existence in 30 words or fewer: I was conceived in an airplane bathroom over Canada. Fact.
Any war stories from the War on Fun? My suite’s parties have never been broken up so I’m pretty sure this is an outdated question. Either that or our parties suck. And they don’t. Regardless, here’s an awesome account of a party Columbia students threw in the 1940s as recorded in “Minor Characters” by Joyce Johnson: “the previous spring, thirty [Columbia] students had sold pints of blood to finance a May Wine Festival at the swanky Essex House — on whose neon sign that night the E and the first S had been totally blacked out, according to later legend. Blood and wine — there was something about the decadent absurdity of that party that captured my imagination. Never had I imagined that pleasure could be pursued with such seriousness.”
Would you rather give up oral sex or cheese? I’m lactose intolerant. It’s awful. It also seems like every free food event is just filled with pizza and cheese and dairy-flavored oral sex. Weird.
Any advice for the Class of 2014? “Invincible Inertia.” My freshman year I hitchhiked to a cabin in the woods with my friend Peter and wrote my first screenplay. The summer before junior year I flew to Spain and produced a movie. I couldn’t have done this without a mixture of blind luck and the willingness to accept the ebb and flow of inevitability. What I mean is, if you believe you can do something, then do your best to do it. You may fail and, like me, find yourself stranded at a bus station in the middle of nowhere (twice). But everything will work out if you push hard enough and keep moving. Things will fall apart – that’s a guarantee. Just don’t let that stop you from trying to do whatever the hell your ambitious brain comes up with. The results may not be what you expect, but the experience will be worth it. Also, don’t ever try and hitchhike to a cabin in the woods.
Any regrets? A few. 4th of July 2008: I was naked and fell down a hill into a row of pricker bushes. Fall 2008: I went mud sliding in Riverside Park one rainy evening only to discover the next morning that my friends and I had been rolling around in shards of glass. Halloween 2009: I was dressed as a centaur, it was raining, and I barfed all the way down W. 114th. Hi, mom!
115 Comments
@sue Molina, thank you for bringing about many laughs. Heavens knows we need more folks like you here to keep things real and make it…dare I say it…fun. Rock on, friend, rock on \m/
@Happy student Molina is a great guy and this senior wisdom, while hilarious, doesn’t begin to capture how funny and intelligent he really is. Nice choice blog, and fellow Columbians, just stop hating and enjoy the nice weather.
@I'm sorry, but... …isn’t getting a top-flight liberal arts education an end in itself? Isn’t being taught to think critically a laudable goal? Isn’t being exposed to great writers, great teachers, the history of our civilization, something that will enrich you as a person? Why does it have to be a ticket to anything more than making you a more clear-sighted, intellectually curious, rational individual?
Who knows what any of you will do in 1, 5, 10, 20 years. Not all people need to make $100K/year at the age of 22. But being a rational member of society is something no one can put a price on.
@Anonymous here here! well said.
@umm you dont have to pay 200K to get this. for example, check out univ of michigan, UVA, berkeley, UCLA, UT-Austin among others for exemplary schools that do exactly this for much less. Columbias added benefit is in its access to recruiting. if you dont take advantage of that, you have wasted a ton of money.
@one thing is for sure columbians need to stop humming “Empire State of Mind” and I really wish this asshole behind me here would stop tapping on his notebook whenever the HIGH-TREBLE sound through his headphones go:
“Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,
There’s nothing you can’t do,
Now you’re in New York!!!”
Because honestly guys, none of you are ambitious enough for dreams made in “concrete jungles”. You all just want the laid-back life. After reading this thread, it seems like Jay Z’s druggies are more ambitious than you.
So please Columbia, next time I’m on College Walk, turn down the headphones when you’re blasting “Empire State of Mind.” Feel free to play another song about NYC that doesnt have to do with ambition.
Thanks.
@... Dude. You’ve posted like fifteen comments on a bwog post. That’s really what you want to do with your time? How much ambition do you have again…?
@rjt MMMMIIIIIIIIKKKKKE MMMOOOOLLLIIIIIINNNNNNAA OOOOOOWWWWWWNS
Anti-rjt that you son of a bitch.
@100th comment Chicka yeah
@senior wow – this comment section has served as a potent reminder of how chock-full this school is with pschyoes. glad i’m off to where people are sane!
ps: mike knows what he’s doing.
@Anonymous Mike is awesome AND ambitious. Just because he hasn’t revealed all of his talents in this tiny little survey doesn’t mean they don’t exist. I know him and some of work he’s done and I know that he will make it big some day (very soon).
So in 5 years, when he’s making it big in the entertainment world, and walking the red carpets, think again before saying he \wasted\ his time here.
@2150 mike has 4 roommates! I AM ONE OF THEM!
@How is he paying his share of the rent? must come from his parents. grow up and get a job
@sentiment seconded.
@... Actually, he has saved up money to allow him to wait for the right job to come around rather than having to settle and start working right away. Your assumption is understandable, but not the case. How he has saved that money I cannot say. But, I know he has worked and is at least not solely dependent on his family.
@ok serious count who has made out with mike molina?
@How in the world is he going to afford a Norita apartment? He must be a trust-fund baby…. those go for atleast 2k a month for a studio and it appears his income will be….0
@oy vey! Mike is from the west side of cleveland. anyone from cleveland knows all the trust-fund babies are from the EAST side. jeeezzzus.
@umm... …it’s called roommates.
also mike is awesome, YAY!
@we get it you’ve been hating on Mike since the 4th comment to this post (Track this schmuck to see…he’s all over the page). Enough! You think everyone who goes to Columbia should go into something ‘productive’ like law, business, or finance. He wants to act and perform. Guess what? You can go to Columbia and do either of those things! Isn’t that neat?
@Vesal Yazdi First off, Mike is a genuinely awesome, friendly guy.
One can only attribute the above negative comments to pure and utter jealousy. Why? Because unlike Molina, you haven’t pursued what you wanted to pursue, you didn’t take the risks necessary to discover what you were passionate about, and you probably didn’t give a damn enough to try. Now, you’re stuck with whatever degree you have, whatever prospects you have ahead of you, and years and years of insecurity and unhappiness.
Enjoy your life — I know Mike will.
Mike — all the best and I wish you as much success as you could ever hope for, my friend. And keep in touch.
@Vesal.. are you fucking retarded? The point is this dude is not pursuing ANYTHING. any idiot can see that… give us senior wisdoms to be proud of please.
@Anonymous i think you are having a crisis of representation
@AMEN THANK YOU.
And please refer to comment: http://bwog.net/2010/05/05/senior-wisdom-michael-molina#comment-201051
@The International Drew If anything, the people who live in the library seem to never be studying.
@... Fact: Mike Molina has a great ass.
@blah Enough with the bitching already. Why does everyone at this school bitch about everything? Who cares about other people, and who cares what they do with their degree? Columbians can be such bratty teenagers, it’s fucking ridiculous. Sadly, bwog comments exemplify the negative and cut throat atmosphere of this university, and I think that’s why most seniors are happy to get the fuck out of Morningside. It’s like graduating from high school all over again.
Mike Molina is a great person, and aside from this public persona that he has on campus, he actually is a genuine friend, who makes time for those he cares about. Let him do whatever the fuck he wants, and stop hating. Because I assure you, Mike will do great things, and he won’t get bogged down by judgmental douches.
@cc'10 whatever. I LOVE MIKE MOLINA although i’m pretty sure he doesn’t know it and would be weirded out that i’m such a fan of his. he can do whatever the hell he wants with his columbia experience and i’m sure the world will be a happier place because of it. yayyyyy im a mike cheerleader! mike! mike! mike!
ps i may also have a crush on him.
@Senior Wisdom Does it always have to be either A)Class Presidents or B) Off the beat hipster artist types. Why dont you profile someone that IS going to finance? they are human too you know and have a number of interesting things to share as well. Bwog is being way too partial now a days.
RECAPATCHA: TAN HE
@Eliza We have no idea what the seniors we ask to do senior wisdom are planning to do with the rest of their lives when we give them this survey. That said, if you have any suggestions about who to send the senior wisdom survey that you believe would reflect a more diverse senior class, please do send them along with an explanation of why you think they’re senior-wisdom-worthy to tips@bwog.net. Thanks!
@... actually i’m not so sure about them being human…
@ACTUALLY Why don’t you profile:
1. This really cute girl in my biology class who’s working on an awesome research project with the NIH involving cancer cell suicide. (Would be more of an contribution than the last 20 Senior Wisdoms combined). Oh and she’s in a sorority and is very social/outgoing too. Did I mention cute?
2. A guy on my floor going on to work as an analyst for GASP…Citibank. He spent one academic semester in Africa teaching 4th grade English, living in dismal conditions. If you know who I’m talking about, view his FB album from that year. Contribution?
3. 6 Guys in the Engineering Dept who got (at least I heard) millions of dollars for an online startup they did and will be graduating to their first year developing it.
4. A girl going on to UPenn Medical School, had nearly perfect MCAT scores, and did a photoshoot for one issue of ‘Cosmopolitan’ magazine.
5. A girl who won got entered into a Harvard entreprenuership competition and made semi-finals for her business idea.
6. 3 guys in SEAS who got $600,000 in seed capital to work on their startup business involving a new type of FexEx mailing process.
i cant think of anymore. perhaps some of you know who im talking about? also, none of the people look like “geeks” and are well rounded.
@ps. one guy up there is in my fraternity and one is in my bio class if you want more info. i feel those people deserve some recognition for once!
@Eliza If you can send me (eliza@bwog.net) their contact info, I can send them surveys.
@God how entitled are you? Your specific interests do not represent those of the population at large, asswipe. You want to get to know these people- talk to them.
It’s nice that BWOG diversifies and includes -gasp- people who aren’t in the 4% that already have the next 6 years of their lives planned (not to underplay the hard work and admiration I have for those that do).
@unbelievable. I cannot believe this is coming out of the mouth of someone who fought their way back in HS to get to a place like Columbia. Seeing this attitude, I guess Obama would be the last Columbia Alum President! WE ought to cherish this Presidency like our last days on earth.
@Re: Dude, if you equal performing/excelling in HS with performing in College then you’ve been doing something -really- wrong.
@WHERE DID THE FIRE GO?!??????????????????? What happened to all of the ambition you all had in HS? Remember back the we’d fight to the death for that Student Govt. position, fight to the death to become the founder of the Debate Team, wished everyone running for Editor-In-Chief of the HS paper were all dead, send in 50 kinds of supplements to Harvard and Columbia, etc… And in AP Lit, whenever we heard a classmate say they got a phone call from Yale telling them they got accepted, we sit straight up and a chill ran down our backs thinkign “How come I haven’t heard back from Yale yet?” And when we got waitlisted at Princeton, we got 50 teachers to write extra recs, got our employers to send in recs, produced music CDs to hopefully boost our chances of coming off a 1000 person waitlist.
Where did that fire go?! Hoenstly I really don’t care what you all do with your lives post-Columbia or if you move to France and do nothing for the rest of your lives, as long as you’re all happy. But it’s just disappointing to see ambition disappear like that in people like you. If I hadn’t known you were all Columbians, seeing you now, I’d never guess you were the ultra-competitive assholes I knew back in HS who had HUGE DREAMS and unbelievable goals. I mean, shit, some of my classmates logged 5000 hours of community service. You’re all doing worse than your HS selves!
@really? Wow. I can’t imagine doing all of that to get into a school. Sounds like a prep school. Remind me never to send my kids to one.
@are you serious? I went to a large public. But I know tons of guys with 800/800/800 SATs who got rejected from Columbia.
If you didnt do any of the above, are not an athlete, and not a legacy, how the fuck did you get into Columbia then?
@see I was never one of those hypercompetitive people. I tried to do my best, but if I hadn’t gotten in here I would have found something else to make me happy. I didn’t fret about my acceptance to an Ivy. And I’m glad Columbia recognizes that being someone who fights “to the death” isn’t the only way to be good at something.
In any case, Columbia wouldn’t be interesting if everyone here had the same attitude towards work or if everyone wanted to pursue office careers – that’s why we have students looking to pursue professional athletic careers, or who want to be actors and singers, just like we have people who want to be doctors and lawyers and others who want to build bridges and plan cities and other who want to dream up an effective nonprofit and hey, some who want to write books or sit around. I really don’t understand the argument going on in this thread right now – the world has had writers and artists and even really lazy people for a long time and it hasn’t fallen apart because they’re not “contributing.” Trying to fit everyone into the same category of productivity in a society that is this highly specialized seems like a mistake to me.
You also need to stop conflating a lack of your type of ambition, which is not always healthy for everyone, and does not make everyone happy, even if it gives *you* a rush, with a lack of any ambition whatsoever.
@well Most people I know here who are actually tolerable to be around did not behave this way in high school as far as I can tell–they genuinely pursued their passions, rather than hyper-competitively going after every possible position and title merely to fill up their resume.
@Same poster as before Not legacy or an athelete. I just did what everyone should do, IMO, which is good, interesting, passionate work in HS. I never worried about grades, I did research, I programmed cool apps (some of which became kinda popular) and I had some topics I was really passionate about. I took hard classes in high school and did decently. I graduated high school with a mediocre GPA (3.5ish maybe?). I followed the same strategy in college (taking ~18 credits a semester with both a science and humanities major) and I’ve done some really interesting things that have been recognized. I suspect I would have done just as well at Harvard as at some state school.
I guess the take away is that it’s not really about how hard you work: it’s about what you do. Go do things you find interesting and you can be passionate about and people will recognize that.
This is from someone who is applying to grad schools of the highest caliber—despite having a relatively low GPA compared to his competition. And guess what? I’m not worried at all. I think I’ll stand out because my competition are all people like you describe.
@How many times does this have to be said? Every time you talk about SAT scores after you step foot on the columbia campus as a freshman, a baby dies. You’re killing babies. Babies, man. Think about that.
@Anonymous Dude if you did all of that in high school, you need to take a Valium. Life is about more than that stuff. Here’s to hoping your post was satirical.
@how pray tell, does one fight to be the “founder” of the debate team. you did it, or you didn’t. end.
@Paul What the fuck is wrong with you? Anyone who would CLAW their way to Columbia is probably sufficiently hypercompetitive that they would end up at Harvard or Yale, not the comparatively chill Columbia. Obviously, the admissions process was selective, and we all worked hard and did well in high school. But working hard in high school and even having leadership positions does not necessarily mean that we warred against out classmates. Moreover, we’re not fucking freshmen anymore. One of the nice things about Columbia is that after the first semester of freshman year, no one cares what you did to get admitted. Columbia is not hyper-competitive. We’re college students and though we work hard, the majority of us just focus on having a good time and doing well in class. I don’t know how you’ve survived here with your “fuck the world” misplaced hyper-competitive ambition, but the rest of us are not like you.
@lol how did I survive here? It’s called “people skills.” Do you honestly believe I call out some kid who didn’t happen to become Class President back in HS, then jump his ass with a pistol whip at our frat parties or when I’m at 1020? I’m ambitious on the inside and when I’m not around friends, I work my ass off. It’s called work-balance. You can be ambitious and have lives you know — the only difference is that my longterm goals are more intense.
@really? I’d like to hear about these “6 Guys in the Engineering Dept” who got paid millions for an online startup they “did.”
You don’t just “do” an online start up. And investors don’t toss millions at you when it’s not even “done.”
They probably received a few thousand from an angel and will work their asses off the first year in a cramped office with few windows trying for a space amongst the likes of 30million other versions of Foursquare.
@name's jake one of their names is Jake…no idea what hes majoring in…comp eng or some shit? heard he leaving on a plane soon to gtfo out of here so you better catch him quick bozos
@Ummm... maybe bwog profiles people like Mike Molina, who is in an improv troupe, because they’re more likely to be funny. I mean, the survey asks a question about oral sex and cheese. I’m pretty sure some comedy is expected. Also, the idea, I think, is to profile notable campus personalities, and a notable/interesting/well-known campus personality is not always the same as who has the most ambition or is the most successful.
Anyway, good senior wisdom! Keep ’em coming, bwog! Thanks for putting these out.
@wowww mike is hot.
@u tell it like it is exactly, my man. I couldnt have put this better. except one slight modification – this guy has no college loans, his daddy and mommy paid for all of it, obviously. people that have taken out enormous loans to be here understand the responsibility that comes along with being at such a tremendous institution. this individual, clearly does not.
@THANK YOU unfortunately, you’re probably a biology major going to med school. People will start calling you a Wall St. asshole soon.
Responsibility (for yourself, your parents’ tuition payments, and your future family). Hard Work (to get there). and Ambition (to help you get there).
These are great virtues to have.
@The International Drew It’s strange that you base a brutal judgement of a guy on a 500 word profile on a blog. Obviously, he poured his heart and soul into this and it is conclusive proof that people interested in the entertainment industry are lazy and worthless.
And it’s telling that you don’t include “thinking for yourself” in your list of virtues.
@well for me, at least, my rants have absolutely nothing to do with the guy featured in this Senior Wisdom…i have nothing against him. It’s more about the bigger picture — all the people who are not against doing absolutely nothing their entire lives despite having paid over $150k for an undergrad degree.
@The International Drew So it’s only a coincidence that the strawman you’re whining about is a caricature of a character sketch of the gentleman under discussion.
@Anonymous did it ever occur to you that different people have different ideas of what “doing something” with their lives entails?
mike is one of the last people i’d expect to do nothing with his life, and i have a sneaking suspicion that all the people bashing him for being lazy, entitled, whatever – are simply jealous and resentful of a guy who clearly had fun during college and didn’t buckle under the crushing pressure to “do something” – which obviously means a profession that is acceptable in the eyes of society – with his life, and chose to pursue something that he really enjoyed doing instead. GOD FORBID PEOPLE DO WHAT MAKES THEM HAPPY.
@Hi Mike Molina You’re awesome. I’m sad I never knew thee.
@HAHAHAH While I encourage the Wall Street bashing, I do have to say: Unambitious people like this, even at places like Columbia, are the reason hardworking cuthroat interationals from India and China are beating the shit out of us in business, math, and the sciences. They’re taking our jobs (yes, even the international indians taking the American indians’ jobs) because they’re more qualified in terms of knowledge and experience while the American youth in their early 20s party away, write screenplays, and do absolutely nothing after graduation. And don’t blame the economy when those loan repayments hit you 6 months later..
@... grow up – just because he isn’t pursuing a career in the hard sciences doesn’t mean that he is unambitious. i suspect that he is rather being modest bout his future plans because he realizes it is arrogant and silly to trumpet your ambitions (or, more likely, delusions) of grandeur.
perhaps you who are so quick to criticize are just jealous that your only memories of columbia are of butler library?
@lmao okay okay. you win. so now not only are ambitious people = Wall Street scum, but ambitious people who are NOT wall street scum happen to be the slogs who leave their shit in butler 24/7 and practically live there.
awesome.
@um your comment is a complete logic fail. She didn’t say that all ambitious people were Wall Street scum, she said that just because you’re NOT doing something like that doesn’t mean that you’re not also ambitious.
I think that most of us here are pretty ambitious. Just because your future plans don’t involve slaving away in medical, law or business school (or at a grueling job in a related field) doesn’t mean there’s no ambition there. It just means that your aspirations are somewhat different. The entertainment business requires a whole lot of hard work and ambition too.
So really, just stop it.
@um How do you it’s a she?
probably that expert use of the –
Correct punctuation use is such a turn on.
Oh and Mike’s awesome
@no, more like 27 types of awesome
@Anonymous more senior wisdoms bwog! it can’t be that hard to email people a form.
@Eliza Indeed, we’ve emailed over 35 people forms, and these are the ones that got back to us after several rounds of prodding. We’ll still be posting one or two a day every day until the end of school, and possibly after, as we’ve done for the past four years.
@YEAH ELIZA HAS CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME FROM ANSWERING YOUR STUPID ASS QUESTIONS 500 TIMES IN A ROW SO IF YOU’RE THAT OBSESSED WITH REFRESHING BWOG LOOKING FOR A SILLY SENIOR WISDOM YOU’VE PROBABLY READ HER ANSWER TO THIS SAME QUESTION BEFORE. sorry I just really like Eliza.
also EVERYBODY STOP POSTING YOUR CAPTCHAS THEY’RE ALL SILLY NON SEQUITORS THAT ARE KINDA RELATED TO THE POST YOU’RE READING RIGHT NOW MINE IS “KENNY RESULTS’ THAT’S FUNNY I GUESS.
@Eliza sounds hot I’ve never met her but I kind of want to fuck her like a screen door in a hurricane.
@Anonymous umm keep it to yourself, please. and dude above needs to calm down with the caps.
@Mike Molina is from Cleveland And this pretty much sums him up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmLA5TqbIY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM&feature=related
@lololololol I AM CRYINGGGG IN THE LIBRARY!!! THIS WAS FUCKING AWESOMEEE.. THANK YOU!!!!
@clg, fellow cleveland native how did i know that would get posted?
@yay mike molina is 10 types of awesome
@this guy's hilarious I like the responses to Regrets.
@agreed The part about the glass shards is a fun image.
@Yes do more senior wisdoms like this: interesting and funny people. the others are boring.
@Hypocritical much? “I hate people like you. Bashing on people who don’t justify their entire existence by studying economics, going into finance, and aspiring to be a wall street / law school douche. Yeah sure you might make a lot of money later, and what are you going to spend some of that money on? Oh right, entertainment. I guess people like Mike do make some sort of contribution to the world. More than you’ll ever prob ably really make.”
U tell people not to bash this guy but then you turn around and bash someone for wanting to make money on Wall Street and actually contribute social value to the world
I find that pretty hypocritical that you lash out someone to tell someone else to stop criticizing him
@lol at the idea make money on wall street == contribute social value to the world
@== computer science student?
@Anonymous LIKE
@you know they have a button for that now.
@lawlz go on wall street and make $5,000,000 in bounses per year. but dont live under the misguided assumption that selling credit default swaps adds any value to the world.
BUT ENOUGH ABOUT WALL STREET. mike molina is awesome and extraordinarily nice
@Whooa You know nothing about CDS. How about in a very basic form…an airline who wants to protect against the risk of skyrocketing jet fuel prices. So, he buys credit protection in a way that pays off in the event of an oil price spike. Even speculative uses of CDS bring price-discovery benefits…the real issue is putting them on a clearinghouse so that firms have to post collateral when entering these deals. The problem with CDS in the financial crisis was AIG didn’t have the money to pay out companies like Goldman Sachs, which created a lot of turmoil. I know this is simplistic, but it’s a very surface level way of saying that just getting rid of CDS isn’t the answer.
@Adam Nobler I once met Michael Molina. He told me to “keep on keeping on.” I have not slept since. Little known fact: anti-anti-rjt has nothing to do with rjt.
@Anonymous What a stupid trustafarian. People like you don’t belong on this campus.
@but living in bourgeois bohemia is tough
@mike has killed a man
@Amen to Erik Gray. He is the cream in my pants.
@Anonymous Erik Gray can swoon anyone, alright.
@Anonymous bumming around in an apartment in Nolita? jealous…
@This kid tries so hard to be funny. but isn’t…I hope he realizes this some day
@alum Why hate like that? Does it make you feel better about yourself? It’s just not nice…
@Pro-anti-rjt Have you seen Fruit Paunch? This man’s genius can only be quantified through laugh-induced hernias.
@Wrong If you know him, you wouldn’t be saying that. Molina is just a great, all-around nice, chill, decent, and yes very funny guy. He’s gonna do great things, and all the haters are gonna be begging him for either money, jobs, or signed pictures for their tween daughters one day.
@2150 this is my favorite senior wisdom!
@going nowhere after paying 200,000K for college….unbelieveable.
@Lucky You’ve only paid 5o,000K so far…you still have a chance to drop out and lead a productive life as an accountant.
@Anonymous I hate people like you. Bashing on people who don’t justify their entire existence by studying economics, going into finance, and aspiring to be a wall street / law school douche. Yeah sure you might make a lot of money later, and what are you going to spend some of that money on? Oh right, entertainment. I guess people like Mike do make some sort of contribution to the world. More than you’ll ever probably really make.
@Anonymous not to defend the person above, but it’s stupid to say that douchiness is synonymous with an aspiration for a finance or legal career. some people might in fact “justify their existence” through this kind of aspiration, but you’re coming dangerously close to justifying *your* existence through an opposition to this kind of aspiration. we’re talking about people here, not categories, notwithstanding the horror you may have experienced when you accidentally walked into that pre-law society meeting (been there, done that!).
@Anonymous no, douchiness is synonymous with a finance career
@Anonymous because all douches are in finance? if you’re going to hew to the lame i-bankers are douches line, at least get the part-whole relationship right.
@heyyy no reason to start bashing pre law society now. i was with you until then
@Anonymous hey, i did pre-law society and i did the undergrad law review for a short time. unless it’s improved from a couple years ago, i stick by my bashing.
@Ambitious People = Wall Street Douches? woah woah, wait a minute. Since when are all ambitious guys Wall Street douches? I hate wall street douches. Me? I’m a grad wanting to become a spine surgeon. I’d call that a ‘contribution’ huh?
And I would have said exactly what the OP had said, (minus the incorrect tuition amount as noted below)
Ps. What contribution to the world does waking up every day feeling unambitious, walking around your apartment, grab a drink at the bar later with some unambitious guys, then coming back and having unambitious dreams? A lazy man who does nothing to help society is EQUAL to a hardworking asshole on Wall Street who steals.
@why wouldnt u just go to a public state school for nearly free if this is what you wanted to do after college? seriously what a waste of money. a large, large amount of money for almost everybody on earth.
@youre right it would have been a waste of money if after $200k in undergrad debt, I cant even pay it off. So now you say everyone who attends CU ought to be rich?
What about those of us who come from lower-middle class families and need a good job to pay off our loans? I can only imagine someone graduating CU with $200k in debt and not have a decent job and NOT WORRY about expenses if they belong to a wealthy family.
@Um... I’m probably going to graduate with under $20,000 worth of debt. Where I not taking summer classes, I would graduate with under $10,000 worth of debt.
Have we forgotten that Columbia meets 100% of demonstrated need? That there is no family contribution for families making under $60,000 a year?
Sure, maybe this guy did just spent $200,000 on his education – through loans or family financing – but it is entirely possible to be both poor and debt free at graduation.
(I could do so, but I’d rather take out the loans and focus on classes than work off campus to make up the difference)
Also, does this mean you think that all writers are wasting their lives? Or just science fiction writers?
@yeah, columbia USED TO! As of now, the only schools in the Ivy League that do not require it’s graduates living in households under a $65k income to take on ANY debt, are Harvard and Yale. Dartmouth cancelled their program recently.
Federal loans only let you borrow $4000-6000 per academic year. I cannot get private loans without asking my parents to cosign. That’s a lot of debt burden on my family. Now, I still want to learn from the best of the best and meet nobel prize winning professors. So my family take on my debt, and I will work my ass off for a decent paying job and hopefully all of this would have been financially worth it.
Otherwise, I wouldve been better off with a full scholarship at UVA.
@not true just for the record, columbia still does meet need without requiring loans — I’m a graduating senior and i have ZERO debt, my fin aid was just grants and work study
AND I’m a film major
GO MIKE. You’ll be big one day
@Anonymous 200,000K = 200,000,000.
@Anonymous hahahaha yes!
@Anonymous i have a crush on him.
@Surfin' UWS Seems like a pleasant enough guy….GET HIS ASS, BWOG!
@This is clearly the best senior wisdom piece yet (though there have only been two others…jeesh Bwog). They’ll probably go downhill from here. Great job, Michael!