At the beginning of 2016 I left my job at Kimco, a company with the largest portfolio of shopping centers in the United States. I had spent two years there, having dipped my toes in the lucrative field of property tax assessment. Kimco paid 300 million dollars a year to jurisdictions in every state of the Union, and our job was to contest assessments to save the company tens of millions annually. Our department was phenomenally successful.

But it wasn’t for me. I adored my boss and my coworkers, but didn’t see myself in the field going forward into my late twenties. I yearned for more intellectually stimulating work, as opposed to the elaborate paper-pushing (with occasionally interesting asides in policy and law) I did at Kimco. A thirst for something that would put food in my mouth while providing my mind daily challenges led me to leave Kimco and embark on a course of study at Hunter College.

At Hunter, I was given access to a thorough education in Comp Sci for a shockingly low price. CUNY and SUNY are absolute gems of schools in my opinion - though they are constrained by their relative penuriousness and the sheer number of students that attend their constituent colleges. Several of my fellow Hunter Students have gone on to do impressive things in Tech. Some have headed to Google, others to IBM Watson, and at least one friend of mine is beginning graduate CS study at MIT. CUNY Students are a motley bunch. Some struggle with basic reading and writing skills, having been underserved by their previous schools - others could easily give Ivy Leaguers a run for their money, but elect not to attend for financial or other reasons.

So there was ample evidence that if I stayed at CUNY-Hunter, and worked diligently while amassing side projects, I could find work in Tech. So why did I decide in January of 2017 to transfer to Columbia University - a much more expensive institution? Isn’t Tech and CS famously meritocratic, where high school dropouts can circumvent academia and dazzle the big four with their brilliant autodidacticism? Wasn’t I being foolish in spending orders of magnitude more money for a ritzy education at a top school?

Perhaps I am a fool. And time may show that my choice was unwise. But sitting here, at the end of my first semester at Columbia, I feel that I may have made the best decision of my life. Here’s why I feel the way I do.

First, let me state plainly that I did not have to go to Columbia. If Columbia had rejected me, I would have remained at Hunter, working as diligently as I could to advance my career in tech. But Columbia offered several things I found enticing:

1). An engaged and enthusiastic student body: Though there are hard working, exceptionally talented students at Hunter, they comprised the minority. Unfortunately many of my fellow students didn’t seem especially engaged with their coursework. It was hugely deflating to look around at students in my Discrete Math class and see such a deep disinterest with something they had elected to make their major. Many students also neglected basic academic duties, like doing homework or completing projects. I don’t necessarily blame them for their laxity - they’re young, not entirely sure if they’re committed to CS, and may not even know if academia is for them - but it wasn’t the company I wanted to keep.

I wanted to be surrounded by other driven students, students animated by the subject of computer science, spurred to excellence by their passion. There are downsides to such intense company - something I’ll make the subject of another blog post - but for the most part, I feel energized knowing so many of my fellow students at Columbia care as deeply as they do about CS.

2). Access to an exceptional alumni network: It’s no secret Columbia students tend to be movers and shakers. Columbia is an ivy, and it has a deep alumni network in virtually every industry. Given that I’m a gregarious person, I knew that I would be able to make connections with classmates and alumni, people who are shaping the future of CS and Technology, and that those connections would reap dividends for the rest of my life.

3). The company of other bright people: Columbia students are driven and bright, as a rule. I’ve made such nourishing friendships here, with people who are deeply, authoritatively geeky about the most random subjects. It feels good to be at a place where people tend towards intellectual curiosity. There are also some not so nice people here, as there is at any school (these are known as schmucks, and are to be avoided).

Top schools aren’t just about career prospects - they’re about friendship, about meeting remarkable people who will transmute you with their perspectives, their wisdom, their support. And you’ll hopefully return the favor.

….As you can see, everything I mentioned circles around people. Columbia is exceptional because the people who choose to go there are exceptional, not the other way around.

There are also sizable downsides to Columbia. My next post will list some of the reasons why you should consider not attending a school like Columbia. But I hope this post will illustrate why I decided to transfer. In the end, this was an intensely personal choice that I feel was right for me - but only me. Many others pass on Columbia and opt to save themselves thousands of dollars by attending a CUNY, and it is the right choice for them. A subsection of those students go on to do very well for themselves (though some do founder, especially if they expected to coast on just a CS degree).