Columbia College vs. School of General Studies - Page 2

deferredman · 02-05-2005, 09:02 PM

But GS does not have their own academic departments AT ALL. There is no such thing as cross-registering because they are part of Columbia University. Yes there is one University Writing course that all Columbia students have to take during the first semester of matriculation. More than writing, this course helps students to adjust and prepare for life at Columbia by bringing in deans and other speakers. It is only this one course that GS students need to register seperately from CC (who also have to take the exact same course.)

There are NO other courses.. This talk of music, foreign language, or literature courses that are only GS is entirely false which would make this belief of cross-registering only in your mind. Ask any Columbia student and they will tell you the exact same thing. Yes, you can cross-register into some barnard courses because it is affiliated with Columbia. It is not a matter of semantics.

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/bulletin/uwb/
Just name me all these courses you talk about.. actually, name one.

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/04/0...l_studies.html
"Founded in 1947, GS is the only Ivy League institution to admit nontraditional students into the regular curriculum with other undergraduates"
Therefore there is no such thing as cross-registering in your own school!! Sigh..

menunno · 02-08-2005, 12:07 AM

"GS is also decidedly not as prestigious as CC."

By WHO??? You????

Umm...GS students are not inferior to Columbia College students (those who know who this is directed to, no need to respond)....we are Columbia too! That's why we attend courses with other CC students...I transferred from Yale and some of my GS friends have transferred from Harvard and MIT...please don't attempt to degrade people who took an alternative path to acheiving their BA...you don't need to put down others to feel better about yourself...ahem....unless you're a weak individual...sorry, just sick of GS being viewed as the "illegitimate child" of Columbia....

CC2005 · 02-08-2005, 02:33 AM

LOL. no harm intended menunno, i was just trying to advise the one who did not know where to apply. and i have better ways of making myself feel better than coming to an ANONYMOUS message board for HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS! LOL. So please do not make assumptions about anyone being a "weak individual", particularly after your last post.

anyways, a couple of my closest friends are in fact GS students so it is not as if i have anything against the school. trust me.

in response to your question "By WHO??? You????" -- no, not me, just in general. GS does not share the history that the college does and it is not as hard to gain admission into the school. it is just the way it is. but so what. it is obviously not just me if you say "just sick of GS being viewed as the "illegitimate child" of Columbia....". look, you'll have a columbia degree too and have access to the same recruiting resources, etc. You also take the same courses, so cheers.

What is your major? maybe i know you.

One last point: come on. if you came from yale, then you must know what i am talking about. there are some guys in GS who just make you ask yourself how the hell did they get in here and why do they have to be here (ie giving us a bad name). that being said, one of my best friends in GS is like a management guru and i respect the guy more than anyone else at columbia.

vladimir · 02-08-2005, 10:35 AM

Wow--the arrogance among some Ivy League students is incredibly annoying. Why would anyone find issue with GS pulling down the standards of the university. My understanding is that GS students take the same rigorous class loads as do regular college kids. I also understand that most of them are more mature then the typical 18 year old and have much to bring to the table.

Unfortunately, we live in strange times, where kids begin preparing for college entrance at age 5 and are obessed with status and power. Maybe a little humility is in order. I suspect that we are raising a generation of elitist club members--doesn't bode well for our country.

menunno · 02-08-2005, 11:39 AM

"there are some guys in GS who just make you ask yourself how the hell did they get in here and why do they have to be here (ie giving us a bad name)"

I really haven't come across this, but I'm sure there are CC students who are capable of giving Columbia a bad name...it depends on the individual. I take courses with CC/SEAS students and I am doing better than most.
I understand that GS does have a higher acceptance rate in admissions, but I feel that is because many of the applicants are extremely qualified, almost a self-selecting group - they are older, so they are more focused on the task at hand, focused on academics and not the social scene...many have life experiences that you cannot obtain just from graduating straight out of high school...so what if some people attended a com. coll. and transferred in? The perspectives and insights that these people have are just as valuable as someone who went to an Ivy, someone who got a 1600 SAT etc...if anything, I think it is admirable that someone attending a com coll has a goal to transfer to a great school like Columbia - it shows me that they have the drive and determination to make the most out of the educational opportunities accessible to them.

Sorry, for the "weak" comment...just p.o'd...

menunno · 02-08-2005, 11:45 AM

I agree Vlad. I'm biased, but I think if anything, GS students bring a richer dynamic to Columbia. I can see that when I compare my experience at Columbia to Yale. I'm surprised to see that some CC students feel that GS students are bringing down their college community, instead of strengthening it.

vladimir · 02-08-2005, 01:23 PM

Could analysis menunno.

CC2005 · 02-08-2005, 01:45 PM

sorry, no harm intended. i did not mean to come off as arrogant and if i did i apologize, seriously. did not mean to hit a nerve.

Vlad:

I am very normal and middle class and if you met me you would not think i was arrogant -- i was just making some stupid comments. you don't need to take everything so seriously. i am one tiny opinion in a huge universe and i just say what comes to mind. and i am actually a very nice guy.

"I suspect that we are raising a generation of elitist club members--doesn't bode well for our country"

seems like top institutions are actually becoming a lot LESS elitist than before. (columbia used to be only male and i don't think there were many minorities at all) also, you're dealing with a extremely small percentage of the overall population when referring to those in top schools. a whole generation of elitists? hmm... and now that i think of it, weren't george w and kerry both members of skull and bones? elitism can't be that new.

"I'm sure there are CC students who are capable of giving Columbia a bad name...it depends on the individual"

you're totally right. i think i just had some bad experiences and i was extending it. apologies. menunno -- please disregard my comments.

GaussGodden · 02-08-2005, 03:58 PM

i believe GS overall has a smaller undergrad class than CC

the only reason why GS has higher acceptance rate because there are fewer admission to begin with..

8 years ago columbia graduate school of business has acceptance rate over 45%
and now it's only 9%.. that's only because more people apply...

same with GS, if there are the same load of admission as CC and SEAS, it is very likely that the acceptance rate for GS will go down...

and how can you really say it is easier to get in to GS than CC?

there are fewer GS students than CC students... out of the same given population..
doesnt that mean that there are more requirements to be a GS student than CC student?

CC2005 · 02-08-2005, 05:49 PM

"there are fewer GS students than CC students... out of the same given population..doesnt that mean that there are more requirements to be a GS student than CC student?"

well if i follow the logic correctly then...necessarily YES! GS must have more stringent admissions criteria than CC!

CC2005 · 02-08-2005, 05:53 PM

and in a given population since there are fewer homeless people than there are lawyers, there must be more requirements to be a homeless person than to be a lawyer!

vladimir · 02-08-2005, 11:01 PM

GS is much easier to get into then CC---the requirments are an elementary admissions test in both math and English. Once accepted the drop out rate at GS is huge because the academics are as rigorous as CC. By the way, I believe that you have to be a certain age to apply to GS--not sure though--its been many years--I graduated GS in 1982, and I am currently a physician at a major hospital. Great education but very difficult.

WindowShopping · 02-10-2005, 06:23 AM

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?

Kyong Hun - Stacey · 02-15-2005, 05:20 PM

Please forgive my ignorance on the topic..

So, is there absolutely no difference bw going to GS and CC???
(Then, how come the columbia adcom only evaluates the apps for CC and SEAS?? how come more ppl are driven to go to CC, but not GS?)

In other words, people who get their columbia degrees from GS and CC are considered the same?? (in terms of getting a job and applying for grad schools..etc)

Sorry about my lack of knowledge/common sense.. =)

As someone who really wants to go to columbia, I thought I'd ask..lol thanks

zetsui · 02-15-2005, 05:41 PM

GS is not looked upon as highly as CC, and the idiots in this thread who say CC looks at them equally are totally wrong. This goes the same with GS in NYU as well, when they have all the rankings, you'll notice GS NEVER gets added into these gpa or sat averages, that's why they are a whole different program