This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Columbia Barnard chapter.
Name: Nimra Khan
School: Columbia College
Major: Psychology
1. What made you decide to come to Columbia?
I actually transferred here from Georgetown! What made me really want to go to Columbia was the core and the fact that Columbia was in the city (I was born here, and my older sister went to NYU!).
2. Thoughts on the core?
Although I admittedly hated the Core while I was taking Core classes (except for music hum, I loved music hum!), I sort of understand the point of it. I think it is a cool bond that all Columbia alum share. When I working at Birchbox a couple of summers ago, my team leader was a Columbia graduate. It was pretty cool to bond with him over our mutual distaste for the core (I was still in Core classes at the time). So even though we both didn’t LOVE the Core, we were still able to bond over the shared experiences. One thing I will say is that I do always wish that they would diversify the Core to make it less focused on the Western canon.
3. What are some of the extracurriculars in which you have been most involved over the last few years?
The two main things I have been involved in on campus are Residential Life and my sorority, Sigma Delta Tau. I am currently a second year RA in Carman, and being an RA has simply been one of the highlights of the Columbia experience. I was driven to build a community that people felt proud to be a part of. I wanted to get to know my residents really well and have them feel as though they could come to me for anything and everything. I think I was able to do that this year and last year. My Carman 10 and Carman 7 residents have become some of my closest friends, and I am truly honored to know all of them! In addition to my residents, the rest of the Carman staff are some of the greatest people I will ever have the pleasure of knowing, and I am so lucky to work with such amazing people!
Additionally, I have been super involved in my sorority. I have held a number of positions (e board secretary, vice president, and most recently vp new member education). In my role as new member educator, I got to welcome our amazing pledge class of 52 lovely women to the sorority! It was a wonderful role that allowed me to bond with so many of our new sisdters.
4. What is your favorite study spot on campus?
My room, duh. I almost never leave it!
5. What’s the best class you’ve taken thus far and why?
I am currently pass-failing Java with Adam Cannon, and I am truly obsessed with the class. Even though I am pass-failing it, I put a lot of work into it because I find it so rewarding to be able to type up a code that looks like gibberish to everyone else and have it actually run properly. There is truly no more satisfying feeling…sorry if that makes me sound like a super nerd. Also Cannon is hilarious and makes me excited to go to class every Tuesday and Thursday!
6. Who is your hero here at school?
Sir Mike, easy. Sir Mike is one of the security guards at the front desk in Carman. He is simply one of the best men I have ever met. On a given weekday night, you will surely see Mike in Carman giving people handshakes or fist bumps or just singing along with his CDs. Seeing him truly always puts a smile on my face. I hope he knows how much joy he brings to all the Carman residents!
7. Where do you see yourself in 5 years from now?
Oh man, this is a tough question. I truly don’t know. As of right now, I am working for Bloomingdale’s corporate after I graduate, but I truly have no idea what is to come for me. I really would love to pursue a higher degree, I just don’t know in what yet. I could realistically see myself going to business school, med school (most underrated fact about me: I am pre-med), or even law school. Truth be told, I am terrified for what is to come after I graduate in 51 days, but I am also excited. In a perfect world, I would be able to try everything out for a couple months, and then decide what I wanted to do in the end, but I am pretty sure the world doesn’t work like that, unfortunately!
All I am sure about is that 5 years from now I want to be happy more than anything else. I don’t know exactly what that will look like yet, but I am waiting anxiously/excitedly to find out!
8. If you had to give one piece of advice to the incoming freshmen, what would it be?
I wrote a whole article about this, but my advice would be to learn to love yourself. It is so easy to be so wrapped up in drama and the problems of others while in school. And while it is great being there for friends, it is also so important to learn how to be there for yourself, to figure out who you are and what you love. I spent the last 4 years of college insisting on being there for everyone in my life whenever they had any issues, and while I wouldn’t change even a second of it, I realized I was no longer comfortable being alone with myself and my thoughts. I got to the point where I found it hard to think of even one thing that made me happy besides being there for others. So for the last year, I have been trying to work on myself. Before I graduate, I am trying to figure out who I am and what I enjoy because I don’t know where I will be in the next year or two. And if I find myself on my own, I have to know how to make myself happy independent of others. I think this is something most people don’t think about until it’s almost graduation and the reality sets in that they are almost out of the Columbia bubble–on their own. So I would say to all the incoming freshmen: get to know and love yourself because you ARE great and because there will come a time where depending on others for your happiness unfortunately won’t work anymore.