Seeing the campus of Columbia University it was everything that I thought that an ivy league school would be. A big beautiful campus with big marble buildings and perfectly cut grass. Students who are smart and academic that carry their books everywhere to stay on top of their class. Their minds not even on class but making plans to changing the world. Seeing the gates that allows you to enter the university it felt like I was seeing the gates of heaven or something greater and higher than myself. I felt even unworthy to even be near or look at the campus. I was a peasant looking at the heavens. Looking at Columbia law school across the street on the other hand was a different story. The school didn’t match the grandeur as the undergraduate school people are familiar with and picture when they think of Columbia University. The building is completely bare and minimalistic in design that it looks like a giant copper colored cube. I would have never thought that the building was apart of Columbia university if it didn’t have the sign Columbia Law School created by metal letterings on the side of the building. Even then the lettering blended in with the walls were almost invisible since the letterings had no shing or polish to it. If it wasn’t for the stopwalk no one would see the sign since they would just pass it by.
Seeing the university and knowing that it is a few blocks away from the City College of New York it was quite astounding to see the stark contrasts between both places. Comparing both campuses is like night and day. It is a perfect representation of the wealth gap between the rich and poor. In a sense the contrast between both schools represent New York City since it has some of the wealthiest people in the world and at the same time has a high rate of poverty. It showed how much money can make a difference to a place. The campus at Columbia looked shiney and new. Well cared for and clean with no garbage on the street. So was the entire neighborhood around it as well. You can tell how much wealth and power Columbia brought to the community by just looking at the stores around them. The grocery store next to the shake shack near Columbia was like an upscale whole foods. Everything there sold was organic and very expensive.
The irony that I am admitting is that the only reason that I liked Columbia was because if it’s name and reputation. Actually not even that I liked it. I liked it since it was an ivy league school that is in New York City. If I got into a school like Columbia I feel like it would validate me as a person. Like I’m an actually smart person since I feel like I need something to prove that I am an actual smart person. I wanted proof that would be indisputable and getting to an ivy league school would do the trick. Since everyone knows how notoriously hard it is to get into an ivy league school. It would be something that I could brag about to others and feel like I actually achieved something. It would show that I actually accomplished something worthwhile since I’ve existed on this earth.
Going to an Ivy would open doors that normally most people can’t open. Such as the connections that I would get to make by meeting other alumni who are powerful. People who are influential in the fields that they work in. I would have felt like I was following in the footsteps of people who have made history if I had actually applied. I never applied since I knew that I would never get in. Not only because I wasn’t the smartest person to have ever lived, parents who were alumni or had a ton of money, or anything particular skills that made me special, but simply because I knew that I was not hungry enough. There are so many people that worked hard in high school and that were willing to put in the work to make something happen. That wasn’t me since I didn’t have the will to do so.
Hence why I felt unworthy seeing and being near Columbia University. All I could think about seeing the students going through the gate was how hard the people had worked and how special they must be since Ivy league schools are shrouded in mystery and mystique. The people entering the gate they seemed to know what they were doing and so confident of themselves. Like people that have everything in their life all under control and are seemly perfect. In some ways they are like demigods since they managed to get through the trials and tribulations of the college admissions process. The people who won the hunger games and made it. I tell myself that college is my second chance to go to an ivy league school for law school. It would be my redemption but I have no idea if I’m going to make it. I wish I could understand how those students in ivy league schools are able to handle the pressure of having to succeed and be perfect.
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