Remember Tania “Boobilicious Bartender and Greek Life Spy, Official Party Animal #1” Harsono? Well she’s baaack… Bwogger Lucy Tang delves again into the seedy side of 2011.

During Bwog’s first glimpse into the class of 2011, many people accused me of singling out, mocking, hazing, and humiliating Tania (which is completely fair, but it was all in jest). Not surprisingly, the number of willing victims for the Freshmen Profile dwindled down after that spectacle.

Fortunately Tania’s got a sense of humor, not to mention courage, and she was willing to talk to me again to jumpstart Bwog’s Freshmen Profile series.

This time we get a fuller picture of Tania, more subdued. After all, no one is drunk 24/7…

Hometown: Vancouver BC

Prospective major: Double in Economics and Political Science

Dorm: JJ floor 11

How long do you think it’ll take you to lose your…

  • Dignity? I already have (thanks Lucy!!)
  • Moral compass? I never will – I’ve mapped the moral waters
  • Sanity? 1 day – first day of NSOP, I’ll finally meet all the Facebook friends and be sorely embarrassed when I can’t identify most of them, so I’ll put in extra effort to remember names, and my head will implode and become the size of the universe before the Big Bang.

Speaking of Facebook, you’re one of the more “notorious” figures, are you worried that people have the wrong impression?

My photos are 100% authentic. Whatever I do, I’m not ashamed of having done, and I’m not unwilling to have documented. Wrong impressions can always be righted, but trying to fix what impression was given online with another persona fabricated online is not the path I’d like to walk. I’ll wait till I arrive on campus to set the record straight.

While 2010 went nuts with the myspace, 2011 is the first official class to actually meet each other over the internet. Do you think you’re missing out on part of the college experience?

Yes and no. Yes: there are a select few individuals who are extremely active on the Class of 2011 group board. For those of us who browse the discussions but do not participate, we are able to see our classmates’ thoughts, interests, and even writing style, without having ever interacted with them. That’s unfair. Meeting people is all about ‘meeting’ people. With the rise of Facebook, I’m afraid that some people may subconsciously find themselves filtering their friends even before they arrive on campus. No: all of those discussion boards you see up on our Facebook group are simulations of what we would’ve been talking about during the first few days of NSOP. Why not speed along the process and arrive on campus, comforted knowing that we have established friendly relations with 3 or more of our floor mates?

How do you choose your Facebook friends?

If I’ve hung out with them, I friend them. If I’ve met them once AND taken a picture with them or of them, I friend them – so I can tag them. If I’ve never met them, it’s either because they’re my fellow Columbia pre-freshmen or program pre-participants, or it could be that they’re just pretty people.

What are you doing with your last pre-college summer?

I’m spending a month in Indonesia working at the national high school basketball reporting office, visiting with my grandparents, touring Borobudur – one of the Wonders of the man-made World, and relaxing in Bali – one of the truest paradises I’ve encountered. Then I’m meeting up with my ex-boyfriend and his family in Croatia. After that, I have a week to say farewell to my Vancouver friends and family before I take off to New York!! My last pre-college summer is very low-stress, un-intellectual, and sociable, quite unlike my past 4 summers!

What did you think when you first stepped on campus?

“I’m living here without air conditioning?” The first time I saw the campus was during the summer program in 2006 – July, smack in the heat of New York‘s notoriously and disgustingly muggy weather.



What aspect of Columbia are you most excited about?


I think most people would expect me to say “the parties”, but they’re actually not what I’m most looking forward to. I’ve had enough parties during my senior year to dull the luster of similar events during my first few semesters. Rather, I’m thrilled about finally being in an academic environment where the students are treated as adults – not as un-opinionated automatons who need to be spoon-fed notes and concepts, as we were treated in my high school – and where the atmosphere is rife with knowledge that knows no bounds.