Nothing is more stressful and exciting than being a first-year student at Columbia University! Enjoy this comprehensive bucket list of fun activities, places, and vibes from the Bwog Staff. Go wild, but not too wild, please.

Campus fun

• JOIN BWOG!
• It’s nerdy, but go to a guest lecture, there are some cool speakers that come to campus!
• Go to a CU dance performance.
  • Join a dance group!
• Mandatory College Walk photoshoot
  • Bonus points if it’s during the tree lighting
• Join a club but only go to the parties they throw.
• Go to every library on campus.
• Postcrypt.
• Cut and/ or dye your hair in your dorm bathroom.
• Go to a Columbia jazz performance.
• Diana smoothies.
• Make it to your 8:40 am on time.
• Do the Columbia ticket lottery and get to see a Broadway show for free!
• Go to a student improv show.
• Audition for student performing arts! 
  • A few groups cast everyone who auditions
• Watch Latenite.
• Watch the Varsity Show.
• Go to CUMB open rehearsal. Just do it.
• Have a Hewitt brunch with friends
• Go to Orgo Night.
• Go to one (1) student government meeting, even if it’s not for your own college.
• Go to some kind of guest lecture.
  • Bonus points if it’s an astronomy one!
• Find the one or two clubs you vibe with.
• Go to some kind of sporting event, homecoming especially.
• Vibe in the Barnard greenhouse.
• Go to Snock!! 
  • Stay til the end for the dance parties/moshes.

Exploring New York

• Visit each borough at least once.
• Get on the 1 train and see where it takes you.
• The little part of Riverside north of Grant’s Tomb >>>>
• Take advantage of getting into museums for free/lower costs with your CUID.
• Research restaurants in entirely different parts of the city. Get dressed up with your friends and treat yourself!
• Do something very touristy with your friends. Laugh at tourists together.
• Go to HamDel and Appletree.
• Eat bagels at both Absolute AND Wu & Nuss.
• Buy something from the Farmer’s Market!!
• Go to Koronet’s.
• Picnic in the garden on the cathedral grounds with the peacocks.
• Pet Poncho (Samad’s Gourmet cat) and let him sit on your lap. If Poncho is unavailable Johnny is also very cute (he lives in the pet store at 109th & Bway)
• Hang out on swings in Riverside at 111th.
• Bike down the Hudson River Greenway all the way to Battery Park
• Go to a free NYPL reading! They get so many good authors!!
• Ride the subway into Brooklyn/Queens and get off at every stop.
• Try ethnic food near NYU, get addicted, start going on weekdays to feel something.
• Take the train north and out of the city to hike Breakneck Ridge (one of the best and most popular hikes near NYC).
• Visit the NYC public library
• Visit the Strand
• Do a lap around all of Central Park and/or have a picnic there
• Take the ferry to Governor’s Island 
  • Bike around!

Just ~vibes~

• Realize that your first year is never going to be all good and all bad. It’ll be a mix of both and that’s ok!
• Go out on a school night.
  • Bonus points if it’s an exam night!
• Get into a semi-serious fight about which dining hall is best.
• Get stuck in an elevator.
• Push open doors and see where they lead.
  • Best decisions I have ever made!
• Attend random graduate school events because you can.
• Fall in love with a friend. 
• Skip your homework to go to a popup, rush a Broadway show, etc. Be spontaneous!
• Have a mental breakdown and get the RA called on you.
• Bask in the sun like a lizard on Low Beach or Futter Field.
• Date an NYU kid and get your heart inevitably broken.
• Be able to fully recite the stations the 1 stops at without looking at a map or schedule.
• Be brave and shoot your friendship shot with anyone you think is cool!!!! Chances are they are also looking for new friends .:)))
• Walk to Petco on 92nd and pretend you want to buy a guinea pig so they let you hold one.
  • Save this one for a day you need some major stress relief.

It looks scary now, but it will soon become your best friend via Bwog Archive.