• There have been few things in my life that I've wanted as bad as admission into an Ivy League school. Many students, especially children of immigrants (like me), conflate the American dream with going to an Ivy. At 17, I was averaging two all-nighters a week, kept alive on a depraved cocktail of Adderall, Percocet, and coffee. The only light at the end of my tunnel was visions of the "Congratulations!" letter from Columbia University, my dream school.

• On average, the Ivies accept about 8 percent of applicants. I still remember the shock I felt when I got into Columbia. In my freshman orientation program, we had a discussion about what it meant to attend an Ivy. The greatest artists, politicians, scientists, and entrepreneurs had walked through these halls. "We're the elite," one girl said. "We're not like other people." She pointed to the passersby outside, visible through the barred windows. "We're going to change the world."

• That was the fall of 2012. Now I'm finishing up my junior year at Columbia and I can't wait to get the hell out of here. Ivy League schools are supposed to be hard, but even back then, I couldn't have imagined the world I was stepping into: a place of unimaginable wealth, privilege, cruelty, pressure, and stress. My first night at Columbia, a girl jumped out of her window. I saw the blood on the pavement. Depression is normal, but here, it's the norm.

• Things at an Ivy League school are not what they seem to be. If you're one of the few who've been chosen to go to an Ivy League school this fall, here's what you're in for. And if you're not, maybe you should be thankful for that.

• 哥大的一些学生很浅薄 - 追求数字，抽烟，炫耀家境。
  

• 随波逐流 - 为了毕业后有一份好工作而不惜放弃自己的理想和兴趣，一窝蜂地学金融。

• 同学是竞争对手，而不是好朋友。

• 睡眠严重不足，压力无处不在。

作者最后总结说，成也萧何败也萧何，藤校会使你的生活更好，可是你会因此而付出极为沉重的代价。你需要不停地奋斗，需要不断地伪装自己，需要长时间熬夜和挑灯夜战。在进入藤校之前就要做好必要的心理准备，要么成功，要么成仁。

当然，最为没劲的还是，就近网上流传的一份2015年哥伦比亚大学的统计系硕士毕业生的名单了：

经清点，这份231人的名单上仅40个名字无法用汉语拼音来辨识，意味着中国学生可能近200人，占总人数的80%以上。