Boston

Boston is probably the most exciting city on the East Coast after New York, but that's not saying much. Columbia's admissions officer for the region actually refers to the city as "that little New England fishing village". New Yorkers visiting are advised to be leery of the city's notoriously barbaric baseball fans - and to carefully research nightlife options, lest they find themselves stuck in a ubiquitous Irish pub (one could be mistaken for thinking that Bostonians subsist entirely on a diet of Guiness and Dunkin' Donuts, which is even more proliferous here as Duane Reade is in New York).

Across the Charles River is Cambridge, nest of some insidious Columbia rivals.