DaRaverLA

What about the job opportunities for GS students? Do they receive discrimination from potential recruiters just because they are the students of "lowere" hierarchy in comparison to CC students?

Or recruiters dont care at all about the perceived difference between GS and CC students since the GS students take the same classes with the CC students in the same environment?

ivyman1

Columbia is columbia is columbia. Trust me. They want Columbia students. If your diploma says Columbia University on it, you are golden.

DaRaverLA

Ok, a question for the one last freaking time. I dont want to waste anyone's valuable time in repeating some of the points already made in this thread or other threads, but I am in a very delicate situation of advisng my student who just received admission from Columbia GS program.

Is there any discrimination against the GS students in the form of superiority complex by the CC students?

In other words, would the demeanor of CC students change instaneously upon hearing from other GS student "confessing" that he/she is a GS student? Would CC students make GS students "outcast" in any kind of way?

I am very curious about the perception by the current CC students. Some of us are older enough to simply disregard such idea as a non-sense since we are dealing with the name tag of Columbia, but some of the young people, especially the freshmen who have not experienced what we have experienced, would feel a little differently, I would venture to guess.

What do you think?

Elleneast

My daughter is finishing up her second year at Columbia College and has never mentioned anything that would lead me to believe that she looks down on or even cares who is from GS. During the course of the past two years numerous Columbia students have spent time at my home and I have never heard anything disparaging said about classmates from the other undergraduate programs.

It is the incoming first year's who seem to get the most worked up about what program a student is from. Once they get on campus and start classes I suspect that it isn't much of a factor.

sambouc

Hi! This is Sambouc' dad. I went to GS. Classes are indeed the same and there were no instances in my experience where CC students looked down upon GS students when I went there. It depends more on how you do in class than where you are registered. If you have spent time out of school, you must register at GS.
I went to the army (French Marine Paratroop) and took about 1 1/2 years out of college.
I came from France after one year of "classes preparatoires", which is one year of study after the French Baccalaureat (12th grade). I took placement tests at Columbia and received 2 years (maximum credit) of credit at Columbia. I started as a junior. I did not have to do one single math course at Columbia. This raises interesting questions about international education in general and the level of maths at colleges in the US. (check TIMSS study on Math and Science achievements in secondary schools, internationally).
As far as the name GS is concerned, it does not raise questions where it really matters (employers, grad schools, etc). The term GS has a somewhat negative connotation but, unlike at other colleges, courses at Columbia are the same and I think the university should look into that.
I went on to pursue an SM at the Sloan School (MIT) and did not have problems with the name GS. I enjoyed a long career in several Wall Street global banks and the distinction between GS and CC never came up during interviews.

ieatglue

If you defer admission for a year is there any way you can enter the college?

jono

Yeah, the FAQ says there is, ieatglue. Check it out.

DaRaverLA

Thank you for the informaiton, Elleneast.

I really hope that your daughter continues to enjoy the benefits of the Columbia education. It is indeed a fabulous school even from a third person viewpoint.

DaRaverLA

Thank you, Mr. Sambouc's father.

And good luck to your son's future endeavors in whatever he may pursue.

I will certainly pass your advice to my student who has just decided to go ahead to pursue the Columbia education by sending the required deposit today.

AMILkita

I took upon the task of "interviewing" a couple GS students on campus hoping that it would help me better understand the relations that CC students have with GS students. Time and time again I kept hearing the same concerns from GS-S. Mainly that they are perceived as inferior by CC-S and even by some Barnard-S. This was the gripe 8 out of 12 GS-S I spoke to had about CC-S in general. To be fair, I ask 9 CC-S what they thought of GS-S and 6 had some rather unpleasant comments. The notion was that GS-S were not up to par with them in wits. 1 did not know what GS was, and the other two had very polite remarks.

I find it disturbing that this is the attitude on campus. And it seems to me that it has always been this way. It’s puzzling why the school does not take measures to clarify the facts; that the entrance requirements are different for CC-S vs GS-S ultimately because they are different types of students. If anything I would probably venture out to say that GS-S could actually teach CC-S a thing or two about the “real world” since that is the main attribute differentiating the two – Experience!

Is time for GS-S to stop walking with their heads down.

DaRaverLA

but the question i am interested to ask is whether such superficial superiority complex by CC students is such that it would induce the CC students to actually discriminate against the GS students in an open manner.

You know, "Oh, you are a GS student....um, no I am sorry, but I have other thing to do on Friday, I cant hang out with you."

We all know that there is a certain degree of superiority complex against others, such as Columbia over NYU, Stanford over Berkeley, and Harvard over Yale, etc. But such complex is so petty that we can just laugh it off instaneously.

thus, compared to these types of "harmless" superiority complex, how is the campus vibe against GS students?

AMILkita

a quick glipmse into the "Faces of GS" site ( http://www.columbia.edu/cu/gssc/faces/ ) reveals just that DaRaverLA - discrimination!
It's an issue that just about every single student on those interviews describes.
It's a true shame.

GaussGodden

i dont really face any discrimination. perhaps because im only 23; however, you do have to take into concern that regular 18 to 19 yrs old will discriminate people that are twice their age

pigeonblood

Um, honestly, who cares? It's all COLUMBIA.

khorsani

Who cares what snotty nosed 18 or 19 year olds think anyway?

How could they really discriminate? By talking amongst themselves?

I don't think any of the CC kids have the moxie to stand up to a 27 year old GS student, not even after 5 drinks.

Youknowwhatimsayin'?