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Columbia University

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Columbia University

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Columbia University Reviews

Updated May 25, 2023

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Found 4,133 of over 5K reviews
4.1
77% Recommend to a Friend
Columbia University President and Trustee Lee C. Bollinger
71% Approve of CEO

Found 4,128 of over 5K reviews

4.1
77%
Recommend to a Friend
71%
Approve of CEO
Columbia University President and Trustee Lee C. Bollinger
Lee C. Bollinger
1,214 Ratings

What people are saying about Columbia University

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Career Advice for Students

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Columbia University

Hi all, I just graduated with my masters in Public Health from Columbia University and offered a Business Analyst at McKinsey with a salary of 105K. I also have 2 years of industry experience in Life Science’s prior to my graduate degree. With my education and work experience, could I attempt making a case for a Senior BA position instead (given that I lack a business school/work background) and/or also push for higher starting salary? I don’t have any other offers to leverage McKinsey & Company

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Top Review Highlights by Sentiment

Pros
Cons
  • "Salaries in the teaching and research tracks are low compared to private industry; many positions depend on grant funding.(in 223 reviews)
  • "The pay can be low and slow(in 199 reviews)
  • "extremely low on pay and poor management(in 85 reviews)
  • "I have seen on more than one occasion, staff members completely stop doing their jobs with no serious repercussions (b/c the managers don't want to deal with the strenuous process of terminating someone).(in 31 reviews)
  • "If you end up in a bad department with bad leadership not much you can do except apply for another position in a differ department.(in 24 reviews)
Pros & Cons are excerpts from user reviews. They are not authored by Glassdoor.

Ratings by Demographics

This rating reflects the overall rating of Columbia University and is not affected by filters.

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  1. 5.0
    Former Employee

    Excellent

    May 25, 2023 - Director in New York, NY
    Recommend
    CEO Approval
    Business Outlook

    Pros

    Excellent experience in all ways

    Cons

    No cons to report back

    Be the first to find this review helpful
  2. 2.0
    Former Employee, more than 1 year

    Pay attention to the red flags

    Mar 20, 2023 - Systems Administrator in New York, NY
    Recommend
    CEO Approval
    Business Outlook

    Pros

    Great people in general, an amazing University, and some of the most state of the art research being done in academia.

    Cons

    Co-workers who are uninformed, don't listen, or take informed advice about getting tasks accomplished. A strong desire for the heads of Dept. to "get ahead" versus working with their Department cohorts. Absent leadership that "check in" just for the sake of checking a box with zero follow through. An extremely slow on boarding process A network of individuals who don't communicate their expectations or desires inline with what professional tools are made available to work with. An IT department who continually fail to work with other departments. In essence if it doesn't feel right, abort mission, stay away, and avoid at all costs...even if it looks like a "good fit" at first.

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    1 person found this review helpful
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  4. 5.0
    Current Employee, less than 1 year

    Overall strong workplace, but abysmal hiring/payroll processes

    Apr 22, 2023 - Graduate Research Assistant in New York, NY
    Recommend
    CEO Approval
    Business Outlook

    Pros

    Opporrunity to work with amazing faculty/staff (essential for building your network professionally/academically) Chance to work on research, including data collection, analysis, and report writing (maybe even publish a thing or two!) Work on public health topics that are interesting to you/related to your studies bosses are flexible with your work hours/schedule b/c they know you're a student (esp around exams/holidays)

    Cons

    hiring process is abysmal, i knew i had the job on June 2022, submitted my documents on August 2022, wasn't officially on payroll until October or novemeber due to delays. Timesheets are still submitted IN WORD FORMAT, so you manually calculate everything, and you have to estimate what you'll work on week2 of your timesheet, because you have to submit before you finish working for that week, so can get annoying if you go under or over what you estimate.

    1 person found this review helpful
  5. 3.0
    Current Employee, less than 1 year

    House of Cards

    May 11, 2023 - HR Specialist in New York, NY
    Recommend
    CEO Approval
    Business Outlook

    Pros

    Competitive salary and benefits compared to other places in NYC.

    Cons

    Administration is rigid and unwilling to be open to new ideas. Expect every new hire to be a unicorn and rather burn out staff than to adequately train them. Guidance is rarely consistently applied and you have to tolerate a fair amount of emotional abuse.

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    1 person found this review helpful
  6. 2.0
    Current Employee

    Ivy League image, decentralized realilty

    Apr 23, 2023 - Senior Manager 
    Recommend
    CEO Approval
    Business Outlook

    Pros

    Treats employees with respect for the most part

    Cons

    Salaries are on the low side. Benefits are not competitive. Academics are treated like the only visible human resources whereas administrators bear heavy work loads and make things work. The university and medical center are decentralized in the extreme and you rise and fall by the quality of the network you are able to build. If you are good at finding work colleagues who will help you get your answers and the resources to complete your work, you will do well in this environment.

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    1 person found this review helpful
  7. 5.0
    Current Employee

    Great staff and very interesting projects

    May 24, 2023 - Research Assistant 
    Recommend
    CEO Approval
    Business Outlook

    Pros

    CGEP (Columbia University) is an excellent place to work. The staff is fantastic and the projects are very engaging and timely.

    Cons

    HR is very approachable but sometimes limited in the ways it can help you.

    Be the first to find this review helpful
  8. 3.0
    Current Employee

    Adjunctification is killing higher education

    May 12, 2023 - University Lecturer 
    Recommend
    CEO Approval
    Business Outlook

    Pros

    Amazing students, world-class institution, decent benefits, pay for lecturers is more or less livable. Good research budget.

    Cons

    University is an administrative nightmare, no paths to advancement, the job is framed as like a *favor* done to you by the administration to buy you more time in higher education before you inevitably do a hard career reset. Little to no oversight because the university does not care about teaching. No guaranteed office space so you end up doing student meetings in a cafe like you're a TA.

    Continue reading
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  9. 4.0
    Current Employee

    Education fundraising leader

    May 14, 2023 - Senior Associate Director 
    Recommend
    CEO Approval
    Business Outlook

    Pros

    Colleagues believe in mission of institution. Fairly secure job and industry. Surrounded by some of most cutting edge research, smartest individuals, and inspiring stories. Fairly good work/life balance. Fantastic vacation policy with unlimited sick time and tuition benefits.

    Cons

    Siloed work environment even between departments within a division - can come out as lack of collaboration. Too many competing priorities. Many managers focused on own success and not growth of direct reports so you'll need to be a big advocate for yourself.

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  10. 4.0
    Current Employee, more than 3 years

    Great place to work

    May 25, 2023 - Assistant Manager CUIT in New York, NY
    Recommend
    CEO Approval
    Business Outlook

    Pros

    Plenty of learning experiences plenty of time off free education after a couple of years fair salary and retirement benefits

    Cons

    some management decisions are confusing

    Be the first to find this review helpful
  11. 5.0
    Current Employee

    Great place to work

    May 22, 2023 - Postdoctoral Research Associate in New York, NY
    Recommend
    CEO Approval
    Business Outlook

    Pros

    Good health coverage, lots of green space in the neighborhood

    Cons

    Low salary making it hard to find an apartment in NYC without roommates (annual salary must be 40x monthly rent)

    Be the first to find this review helpful
Viewing 1 - 10 of 4,128 Reviews
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Columbia University Reviews FAQs

Columbia University has an overall rating of 4.1 out of 5, based on over 4,642 reviews left anonymously by employees. 77% of employees would recommend working at Columbia University to a friend and 63% have a positive outlook for the business. This rating has decreased by -1% over the last 12 months.

According to anonymously submitted Glassdoor reviews, Columbia University employees rate their compensation and benefits as 3.6 out of 5. Find out more about salaries and benefits at Columbia University. This rating has decreased by -1% over the last 12 months.

77% of Columbia University employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews. Employees also rated Columbia University 3.8 out of 5 for work life balance, 3.9 for culture and values and 3.8 for career opportunities.

According to reviews on Glassdoor, employees commonly mention the pros of working at Columbia University to be career development, coworkers, benefits and the cons to be culture, management, compensation.

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Glassdoor has 4,642 Columbia University reviews submitted anonymously by Columbia University employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Columbia University is right for you.