On my freshman floor, I lived with four students from other countries, a few classmates who could commute home every weekend, and others from all over the United States. As a collective, we could have checked off every race on a typical questionnaire. As for religious diversity, I didn't have to go beyond my floor to talk to Islamic, Hindi, Jewish or Christian students.

How does a school with such a range of students give you a sense of community? Columbia's Core Curriculum does the trick quite nicely. The Core consists of a series of intense and intimate seminar courses that every undergraduate at the College must take. Most Core courses are taken during the first two years, forcing students to interact with peers of different backgrounds, perspectives and intellectual interests. Because it's an experience that every Columbia student has in common, if you're ever stuck with an attractive guy in an elevator and searching for a topic of conversation, you can always ask him how he likes Plato's Republic.

The other great thing about the Core is that it incorporates one of Columbia's greatest assets: New York City. For example, one Core course called Music Humanities requires that students go to a concert (you can get student discount seats) and write a paper about it. As Columbia students get into most of New York's museums for free, Art History classes are often held in the museums themselves. Why bother looking at slides when you have the real thing a subway ride away?