WindowShopping

I think there's a lot of misinformation in this thread, so I'll take the next few minutes that should be spent studying for a big exam to reply to this thread.

I'm a student in General Studies at Columbia. My academics are no different from Columbia College if I choose to follow a particular path. Other than University Writing, which GS students take amongst fellow GS kids, as the course is meant not only to serve as a standard English 101, but also as a first-semester course of sorts, so the university feels it important for students with such unique backgrounds, coming in with an average age of 29, to share those amongst the group. The class itself is taught no differently than the College version, and many of the professors alternate between College and GS sections. The other courses that offer GS sections -- LitHum, CC (I think), and at least a few foreign language sections -- are NOT mandatory. If students with to pursue the more traditional College track toward the BA, they can, and can easily appeal to take the courses through the College. The requirements toward the degree are more distributive than restrictive and allow for more independence, but are, at the end of the day, quite analogous to the College.

I think it's fairly safe to say that some students throughout the university make you scratch your head, so to speak, as to how they actually got there. There are quite a few students in the College that this can be said for, as are I'm sure there are comparable students at GS, SEAS, Barnard, etc. At the same time, I've been able to share some fascinating dialect with some of the brightest people I've ever met, specifically at GS. These students, for one reason or another, decided to come back and complete their education at Columbia through a school that allows them a level of academic freedom that's not entirely offered through some of the other schools. We go about as full-fledged members of the Columbia community, and if we didn't tell you, you'd have a difficult time distinguishing us from the College, SEAS, etc. We can partake in every club open to undergraduate students throughout the university, including varsity sports (see gocolumbialions.com if you believe this to be incorrect).

Though the average age of GS is 29, there are students as young as 17 and as old as 70 in the school. In terms of age, I'm right on track with a traditional college student, but for a multitude of reasons, my path to Columbia was outside the norm of a traditional student. Getting in was anything but easy. For me, part of it included busting my ass for a few years to consecutive semesters of 4.0 college work. GS was really my only gateway to the university, and I'm grateful for its existence. It's so far fulfilling everything I've expected out of a unique school within a fantastic university. Rarely do I see myself as "second class" to the other undergraduate divisions. In terms of advising alone, I sometimes believe that GS students have an advantage. In time, we'll probably get our giving rate up a little higher, and our acceptance "rate" will go down (though there's no pre-determined figure that GS enrolls -- if you meet a particular criteria, you're in -- unlike other divisions, you're not at competition with everyone else). Much of this has to do with the esoteric nature of the school. I wouldn't be surprised if this changes at a point in the near future.

You have to take a step back to understand that 99% of the time, we're all students at Columbia University, each of us part of the Columbia community, and, in own ways, working toward the same degree. It's difficult to put an elitist or prestige tag on each individual division once you're actually here. From an outsider's perspective, GS is seen as the continuing division (which it is not), meant for adults (which is also not correct), and the "lesser" of Columbia's undergraduate schools (which is hard to fathom once you're enrolled). Regardless of the path, once you're in, you're in. Why not just appreciate that fact and take the most you can from the university?