Columbia, What Ivy League Really Means and Other Stuff (like too much food)

*written for April 18th, published today because I fell asleep before I could get all my pictures together*
I went to bed last night at two and got up at eight-thirty to go to an information session at Columbia University. Here's a tip if you've yet to book info sessions: 
1) Book them far in advance (or try to). 
2) You can also book them a couple days before (that's what I did in this case.) People usually book info sessions to hold the spot but may cancel.
3) You don't (always) need to book a tour. The tours are given by students and there isn't a max limit. You can tag along without registering. Do register for an info session. It rolls right into the tour. 
Columbia has amazing architecture, very neoclassical. Originally it was built in 1754 as King's College. It was renamed Columbia after its location was moved to Morningside Heights. Also, here's a fun fact: "Ivy League" refers to a sports division and has nothing to do with the school. Well, that clears up a lot of stuff.

Top/Bottom Left: Lowell Library with the Alma Mater. It's actually not a library anymore. The new library is the Butler Library. There were so many books in Lowell that it started sinking into its foundation. Some engineering students built a conveyer belt from Lowell to Butler to transport all the books. (There were millions!)

The information session was very well presented and the speaker was a really nice woman. She explained that Columbia has a core curriculum and it stresses the liberal arts. Up to this points I had point blank refused mom's suggestion of a liberal arts college, but after listening in at the info session it totally flipped my opinion around. I think I'd like to go to a liberal arts school now. I also really liked how the speaker emphasized that Columbia is not for everyone, and just because you don't get accepted it doesn't mean you are a failure in life. This applies for schools everywhere. You will get in somewhere. Maybe not the one you wanted but you will go to college somewhere. And in the end, you'll end up where you need to be.I think that was good for a lot of kids to hear. Columbia and Georgetown are both liberal arts schools, but I like Columbia better because it's smack-dab in New York City while still being a closed campus. It's the safest of all the NYC college campuses. I also found their core curriculum interesting. (It includes Homer, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Virginia Woolf and Jane Austen.)

We (mom came along) met Padre, Syd, James, Tim and Small Man at Carnegie Deli for lunch. Holy snickerdoodle. Everything there is huge. I don't think the word "small" exists. It was really yummy and the cheesecake blew The Cheesecake Factory out of the water. Like, what is life if there is no cheesecake (or frozen hot chocolate, for that matter)? So what I'm really saying is that you should go to Carnegie Deli and order cheesecake (and latkes and corned beef). Carnivores welcome, vegetarians beware! There is a line (about 30 minutes or so), so make note!

Top L-R: cheesecake (!), latkes, corned beef hash, Carnegie salad, baked potato skins

I was going to go to the Met (and my bros were going to go play baseball) but I was in need of a post lunch nap (and so was Padre) so we went back to the hotel and I fell asleep for an hour. Obviously, I didn't make it to the Met (but I may go tomorrow!) but we did go get cupcakes!

We stopped at Magnolia Bakery first; it's located in Grand Central Terminal. A vanilla cupcake was $3.25. Was it worth it? No. Was it delicious? Yes. Should you buy one? Yes, and once is enough. The recipe is here. *Note: Georgetown Cupcake cupcakes are $2.75.
Baked by Melissa is literally right upstairs (because the metro is underground) so we went there. It's one dollar per mini cupcake and they are like...really really small. Petite. Charming. Only 50 calories (!). I recommend the cinnamon, red velvet, and chocolate peanut butter. They also had two limited-time flavors: lemon cheesecake (yum!) and easter egg (vanilla cake, vanilla frosting, rainbow chocolate bark and chocolate drizzle, stuffed with Bavarian cream. Also yum).

L-R: red velvet & cookies dough, lemon cheesecake, mint chocolate chip & peanut butter and jelly, chocolate fudge & chocolate chip pancake

Grand Central Terminal
It's huge! It connects the subway as well as trains going out of New York. Fairly easy to get lost.

This cupcake tour was on our way to the Staten Island Ferry, which we took to see the Statue of Liberty. (You don't get off and see the statue, you just ride by it.) Personally, I think the statue is a bit dinky, because I expected it to be the size of the World Trade Center. In reality it's probably only one-sixteenth the size? We then split up on the metro so that mom, Syd, Small Man and James could go to the top deck of the Empire State Building (you can buy your tickets online and your ticket gets you in at whatever time you decide to go and you have one year to do it). Small Man, who is finally reading real literature, wanted to chop down the doors at the top of the Empire State with an axe to get to Mount Olympus (Percy Jackson, anyone?) but I don't know if he'll do it. He has a major obstacle: they always check bags for weapons so in theory he wouldn't even make it past the ground floor entrance by my calculations. Good ol' Small Man.