With college grads facing at least $25,000 in debt after graduation, some prospective students are opting to turn down expensive, prestigious institutions. For instance, there's Daniel Schwartz, who was accepted to Cornell but decided to go to CUNY's Macaulay Honors College: The Wall Street Journal reports, "Mr. Schwartz says his family could have afforded Cornell's tuition, with help from scholarships and loans. But he wants to be a doctor and thinks medical school, which could easily cost upward of $45,000 a year for a private institution, is a more important investment. It wasn't 'worth it to spend $50,000-plus a year for a bachelor's degree,' he says." But isn't it worth $50,000/year to see Vinny at Columbia or to name drop Cornell like the Nard Dog? more ›

It's yet another Ivy League drug case! Proving that the pressure to pay student loans has become absolutely unbearable, a Dartmouth graduate was charged with attempted manufacture of methamphetamine after police raided his apartment and found what they believe to be a meth lab. 28-year-old chemistry student (were you expecting medieval literature?) Randy Lambreghts was narced out by his roommate who "feared" for his "mental and physical health," the Daily News reports. Everybody knows that when there's a sock on the doorknob, that means "cooking crystal meth," and you must leave them be. more ›

Tiger Mom, is that you? Manhattan mother Nicole Imprescia has filed a lawsuit against the $19,000/year York Avenue Preschool for allegedly ruining her toddler's chances of getting into an Ivy League school. The suit claims, "At age four, [York Avenue Preschool] was still teaching [Imprescia's] daughter about shapes and colors - a two year old's learning environment." She's lucky to get that! Most private schools now consider shapes too "stultifying." more ›

The NY Times has broken this very important story about our former hooker-loving governor: Eliot Spitzer's application to join the Harvard Club of New York City was rejected: "This year, the Midtown club turned down Mr. Spitzer’s application for membership — a rare snub by the club — because officials there did not want to be associated with Mr. Spitzer and the prostitution scandal that forced him from the governorship of New York in 2008, according to a person told of the decision by Harvard officials." Maybe the club thought Client No. 9 would enjoy the reasonable rates for a Midtown hotel room! more ›

Glenn Beck needs to get his house in order. Only a day after the Fox News Channel host identified President Barack Obama as a white people-hating racist who doesn't not like white people (got that?), he confesses in a YouTube video promoting his latest book that his daughter hopes to attend that august institution of radical Islam and communism, Columbia University. Admits Beck in the video: "My middle daughter, she wants to go to Columbia. Do you have any idea the price of Columbia? Please, buy the book! Buy two! Buy three!" And it gets worse—not only does Beck's daughter want to matriculate at the same school that launched arch-superliberals like Eric Foner, Eric Holder, and Barack Obama, she is also a devoted follower of pagan lit! Says Beck: "My daughter is a huge reader—Harry Potter changed her life." So let this be a lesson to all you parents out there: letting your children read books about godless, spell-casting teen wizards will convert them into snobbish intellectuals with effete Ivy League aspirations. It's almost enough to make you cry. FWIW, one notable Republican's daughter attended Columbia—gay marriage-supporting Meghan McCain. more ›

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a burn victim on East 3rd St. and Beverly Rd. in Brooklyn, a shooting on Francis Lewis Blvd. in Queens, and a burn victim on 103rd St. and Park Ave. in Manhattan. Reps for the New York Philharmonic are investigating a planned appearance of the symphony in North Korea. Those excited by news of a George Clooney sighting in Brooklyn Heights yesterday can just go ahead and get giddy... more ›

We've written a few pieces about the Khalil Gibran International Academy's attempt to find a physical home. The dual-language Arabic public school that has declared itself non-religious is, nonetheless, having trouble finding and sharing space with educational neighbors, who fear that they'll be hosting a terrorist academy. The fact that Khalil Gibran was an American-educated Christian poet seems to have drifted off into the ether of historical irrlevancy. more ›

Those music know-it-alls over at The L Magazine have declared the Top 8 NYC Bands to watch for this year. Who's in the class of '07? Here's our Top 4 of their Top 8 (we sort of wish they'd put a rock show on with all of them): more ›

The conflicting interests of Columbia University and the West Harlem community continue to spawn new polemics from both sides, as the university inches ahead with its proposed 17-acre, $7 billion expansion. As the land-use contest heats up, so has the quest to find the perfect metaphor. The high-stakes name game begins with the conflicting designations of the territory in question. While Columbia has used the term "Manhattanville" to describe the area, which lies between 125th and 133rd Streets, many community advocates resolutely refer to it as "West Harlem," emphasizing its connection to nearby residential and commercial districts. The Times recently called on Columbia to drop the archaic name and face up to the neighborhood's true character. more ›

Haverford graduate, Parks Department project manager, and Greenpoint resident David Langlieb is under fire for writing an essay about his neighborhood in his alumni magazine. According to the Daily News, the essay, ripe with complaints about the old-school Polish residents and self-deprecation about not being an Ivy League graduate, has incensed the Polish American Congress and Councilman David Yassky, who said, "my eyes pretty much popped out of my head when I read this." more ›

And you thought they spent all of their time ranking the colleges you just had to go to and then spent the next 4 years doing everything but studying and now remember nothing. But the folks at U.S. News and World Report also like to make cute little lists of other things - and this time its hospitals! This week the magazine named 7 New York City hospitals in several Top 10 lists in its red hot "America's Best Hospitals" issue. The Ivy League pedigreed behemoth love child of Columbia and Cornell, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, won the most accolades (shocking) as the 6th best medical center in the country. Other notable list-makers include Memorial Sloan-Kettering as #1 in the nation for cancer care and The Hospital for Special Surgery as #2 for orthopedics. The full list is available here. more ›

Forget arguing over whether uptown or downtown Manhattan is better - the new fighting is about what's better, Williamsburg or Park Slope. There's a hilarious Observer article about the psychological divide between residents of hipper, edgier enclaves like Williamsburg and Greenpoint and those of Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, and Boerum Hill. Yes, hipsters may lives in South (Gentrified) Brooklyn and yuppies may have condos in North (Gentrified) Brooklyn, but that doesn't matter - it's all about the state of mind - and a state of dress and other stuff. You're vintage-clothes wearing, kickball-playing, getting-drunk-all-the-time, crunchier liberal arts shools-graduates if you live in Williamsburg, you're a stroller-pushing, contemporary-literary-fiction-reading, $200-jean-wearing, Ivy League graduate if you live in Park Slope. It all makes so much sense now! Maybe if the G train ran better, maybe there wouldn't be such hostility. But we can't wait for the remake of the Warriors, where it'll be a gang running from the cooler-than-thou types in one nabe into the young-settled-couples in another. more ›

Sofia Quintero, Author, Divas Don't Yield, Activist, Co-Founder, Chica Luna more ›

Here's an amusing video of an Ivy League kid copying some subway breakdancers-- his entrance comes about a minute into the video, and then the professionals dance with him for a little bit. Hilarious! more ›

We hope you like change, because there's sure a lot of it when it comes to who's writing the music picks. Now, on to the picks...while we'll be down in Austin for SXSW this week, we aren't taking every band with us. There will be plenty to rock out to in the city, and as an added bonus, it's St. Patrick's Day this weekend...so your rock will be mixed with green beer. more ›

The fifth "amazing bestest yet ever most ridiculous [insert other stupid and/or hyperbolic descriptor here]" season of the Apprentice premiered last night, and boy, do the contestants get dumber and dumber! Maybe not totally dumber, because Lord knows what Gothamist would be doing if we had to work with other people handpicked by Donald Trump and Mark Burnett, but you'd think that people who apply to be on the show would have seen previous episodes and learn from past fired Apprentices' mistakes. That said, The Donald displayed his usual weaknesses of being a sucker for anything that has to do with the Ivy League, brainiac organizations (Mensa), or accents (two new foreign-born contestants - it really is a global village) - and coming up with lame rewards (we think having a chat with Mayor Bloomberg at Gracie Mansion is better than the Wharton Club prize, but whatever!). The team captains were Tarek "Call Me Mensa" and Allie, a former U. Florida Gators cheerleader and Harvard Business School grad, and give them a Good Year Blimp challenge to drive memberships at a Sam's Club, they'll give you cruciating reality show drama! more ›

Yesterday, Columbia University introduced Norries Wilson as head coach for their football program after the firing of Bob Shoop last month. Wilson goes to Columbia after seven years with the University of Connecticut and four as the offensive coordinator for the Huskies. In 2003, the Huskies offense ranked 8th in the nation in yardage. In 2004, UConn's first year in the Big East, Wilson's offense led the league in total offense and scoring. Wilson's offensive expertise will be needed as he joins a Columbia team that was last in total points scored (and allowed) in the Ivy League. Wilson will be the first black head coach in the Ivy League. more ›

Apologies to Salt-N-Pepa, but it's clear that Columbia University was not happy with the Lions' head football coach, Bob Shoop. Shoop was fired Sunday morning after a dreadful 2-8 season (Hey, they have the same record as the Jets!). Columbia University's athletic director M. Dianne Murphy said that it was "necessary and appropriate to make a change in leadership at this time." Shoop's team was also last in total points scored and allowed in the Ivy League this year. more ›

Miriam Datskovsky, Sex Columnist, The Columbia Spectator more ›

While Ivy League universities are hardly known for their athletic programs, there are some schools with teams that are on the national scene. Princeton has its basketball team and all have their rowing teams, but for Columbia, losing in some sports has become a tradition. The football team is 1-7 this season and their last winning season was in 1996. From 1983-1988, they lost 44 games in a row. Since 1979, the men's basketball team has only four winning seasons. All told, the Lions have won 13 NCAA titles, all in fencing. more ›

There’s this woman in my book club. She seemed nice enough at first, but lately she’s gotten really annoying. She flaunts her ivy league MFA and turns every discussion into a lecture on the finer points of Faulkner and Hemmingway. This group started off as just a social meeting of who wanted to talk casually about books, not an English class. What used to be a fun Thursday night gathering has now turned into something I kind of dread. Can we get rid of this woman? more ›

The Lyric Benson murder
Gothamist was disturbed by news this morning about the murder of Lyric Benson by her ex-boyfriend, Robert Ambrosino who then killed himself. more ›

The upcoming release of Better Luck Tomorrow has critics and cultural scholars buzzing. A drama wealthy, Ivy League-poised Asian American teenagers who descend into crime, the film is sparking debate about how Asian Americans are supposed to be perceived. Some feel it's great, finally a way to get people seeing Asians as something else besides the model minority, while others are offended that Asians are being shown in an unflattering matter. At 2002's Sundance Film Festival, there was a heated argument about the film. Roger Ebert wrote about it and his participation: more ›