Philip kicks off our Senior Wisdoms for spring 2021!

Name, School, Major, Hometown: Philip, CC, Math-Stats with a concentration in Econ, Long Island, NY

Claim to fame: Unhealthy sleep patterns, a handful of moderately successful posts on Buy Sell, throwing up outside of Butler during Forties on Forty, and running around campus screaming.

Where are you going? Probably somewhere downtown where the cocktails are twice the price, the portions are half the size, the rent is sky-high, and the dogs fit in handbags.

What are three things you learned at Columbia and would like to share with the Class of 2025? 

  1. Your experience will be most clearly defined by the people around you – people are going to tell you a lot of things about what you should do with your time here, but above and all, nothing will be worth it if you don’t have great people who make you feel your best and be your best person to celebrate and experience life at Columbia with. There isn’t one thing that will guarantee a worthwhile or happy fulfilling time at Columbia, but you won’t make the most out of your time here without seriously investing time in surrounding yourself with good people.
  2. Never be afraid to take things slow and explore new things – it’s kind of cliché, but there are a lot of people here who feel they have to hurdle over milestones in their college life at light speed. Falling behind isn’t real, do things at your own pace and make college the experience that works best for you. 
  3. For the love of god, please learn the difference between reply and reply all.

“Back in my day…” Bacchanal was in-person, Surf and Turf was better, TikTok wasn’t a thing, and Facebook was still relevant but the grad students are still striking. On the weekends, freshmen used to line up to get into EC, but now nobody can get in. Frozen margs at The Heights used to be cheaper and the Asian mart was m2m, not H Mart. And how could I forget the nervous underclassmen lining up shoulder to shoulder giving out sweaty handshakes at networking events? 

Favorite Columbia controversy? Every single one, but highlights include the Marching Band getting broken up and the halal cart on 115th raising their prices.

What was your favorite class at Columbia? Colloquium in Major East Asian Texts, John Pham; University Writing and Calc IV because my prof let me retake my final.

Would you rather give up oral sex or cheese? Spending ten months at home during the pandemic taught me I can go a lot longer without oral sex than cheese. 

Whom would you like to thank? I’d like to thank my family, none of whom I hope are reading this but are proud of me for making it through. After family comes friends and thank you to everyone who made my time here so great. A special thank you to my suitemates in H705 for putting up with me this semester and for all of our shared years at Columbia – Sue, Claire, and Brendan and to Kelvin for your frying pan and introducing me to Attack on Titan. Thank you to the profs who made class worth going to in the rare case I went and for the ones who gave me extensions when things got a bit much. Thanks to KSA for being my first family on campus and thank you to my day one and my first roommate at Columbia, Matt – I’ll be seeing you soon buddy. To my friends in the years below, I’ll miss you all very much and will remember you well and promise to keep in touch and visit when I can. Oh, and thanks Columbia, I guess, cuz as hard as you tried to stop me, I’m still graduating. 

One thing to do before graduating: Pull an all-nighter, play darts at 1020, run away from Public Safety, sneak onto a rooftop, and set off the fire alarm.

Any regrets? Never checking out the tunnels or ding dong ditching PrezBo’s house.

Image via Philip