Columbia College vs. School of General Studies - Page 7

WindowShopping · 05-03-2005, 11:34 PM

I'm in my reading days (and heading off to Butler in a few seconds...) about to complete my first semester at GS, and have to agree that most CC students won't stand up to a 27 year old GS'er, especially seeing as GS students tend to dominate the discussions of the classes I've taken. They're generally much more motivated and their real-world experience infused with the classroom experience dwarfs those who went through the more standard school-to-college approach who tend to offer nowhere near as much. Someone said to me the other day that GS could be thought of as a "school for transfers" and I think he's right to an extent, but at the end of the day, "Columbia University" goes on the resume. Children, it's Columbia. The openness of our requirements allows us to complete a core fitting our needs, and if we so choose, can go the same direction as the CC kids (which I'm doing). The beauty of the school is that they literally leave it up to us. Another huge plus is that GS students register BEFORE CC/SEAS (because the students have so much going on outside of school, they get first crack at registration to make sure they get classes that fit into their schedule). That helped me considerably a few weeks ago, getting into some of the most highly sought after classes on campus.

Having our own restricted (swipe access) 24-hour study area in Lewisohn Hall is pretty neat too.

Before I forget, I should also add that *as far as I know* professors have no way of knowing to which division students are a part of unless they confront them with that information, or bother to look us up on the directory. Frankly, professors don't care. I don't buy any of the "GS students are second class, second rate" and tend to squash the baseless arguments whenever they arise. My University Writing instructor (a mandatory first semester core class for *everyone* -- CC/SEAS/GS; however the university offers CC/SEAS sections separately from GS due primarily to age and the inclusiveness of the course itself) said that GS students were much more talkative in class and much more motivated to do the work, and generally produced better pieces of writing throughout the semester mostly because they cared about what they were doing as as opposed to the CC/SEAS courses he'd taught in the past who generally trudged through the work more interested in the grade than getting something out of it.

pigeonblood · 05-05-2005, 12:56 AM

Um.. obviously someone is very insecure of him/herself.

Here at Columbia, I have never heard of people mentioning GS in a negative light, ever. No one cares, really. In the end, the people that are complaining are the ones that are jealous that others enjoy the same advantages they do at a higher acceptance rate.

meg1957 · 05-06-2005, 02:07 PM

My daughter is in her first year at Barnard College. She says that all her classes (except first year English, a Barnard-only course) have students from BC, CC and GS. No one cares what school you're from. You can't even tell what school someone is from unless you actually ask them (except some of the older students obviously have to be from GS).

Everyone is doing the same (difficult) work.

My daughter really admires the GS students because she says they bring so much to the class discussions. They're more interesting and more grounded than some of their younger classmates - less apt to get crazy and stressed-out over grades.

She loves the diversity of Columbia classes. Age and experience is another type of diversity.

AMILkita · 05-07-2005, 08:37 PM

I just thought I post this link to a page with feedback from Columbia students: http://www.**************.com/pdftmp...f_New_York.pdf

I am amazed at the mix, mostly negative comments about the school.

tega · 05-07-2005, 09:16 PM

I did not sense a lot of negative sentiments from the students about columbia. From the review,I felt that columbia is not for everybody. A sample of 40 students is too small to infer any significant opinion of the entire population. I also think that there are good side and bad side and you should make you decision base on your intended area of studies, the core and new york.

mdx49 · 03-05-2006, 03:59 AM

General Studies is like Extension School at Harvard University
or
General Studies program at University of Pennsylvania

Shraf · 03-05-2006, 04:04 AM

from what he/she posted in another thread about this, mdx49 is wrong

jaek99 · 03-26-2006, 03:06 AM

mdx49 is clearly an idiot. The general studies students at both penn and columbia fulfill the same exact requirements as their traditional arts and sciences counterparts.

mdx49 · 03-26-2006, 09:15 AM

Can you show me the web site which shows General Studies reqirements are same as traditional arts & sciences requirements ?

khorsani · 03-26-2006, 03:49 PM

I go to GS. We take all our classes with the Columbia College kids. The only difference is the mandatory writing workshop known as University writing which GS students take together.

click on this:

http://www.gs.columbia.edu/index.htm

mdx49 · 03-26-2006, 04:55 PM

Can GS students take following Columbia College Core Curriculum courses ?

Humanities C1001-C1002: Masterpieces of Western literature and philosophy

Contemporary Civilization C1101-C1102: Introduction to contemporary civilization

IloveCC2 · 03-30-2006, 06:40 PM

I think GS students can take any courses they want to.

sarahshakesphere · 03-31-2006, 10:07 PM

I hope this question hasn't been asked before. I was wondering if anyone has stats on the success of transferring from GS to the College? Or even from GS to any other Ivy League if you'd be under 25 yrs? Thanks.

Shraf · 04-01-2006, 04:21 AM

my guess would be very very little chance

khorsani · 04-01-2006, 09:39 AM

Hi Leo, Yes I am a student at GS right now. I am in my second semester. My essay was 6 pages long double-spaced but some of my friends wrote only four pages. (This is the most important part of your application, make sure you don't have any grammatical errors or spelling mistakes. Make it a solid essay). It is very important to put what you plan to get out of GS. Do some research on the school.

Interviews are not needed but they will conduct interviews on the phone if there is something on your application that the selection committeee cannot understand.

I transferred from a Community College so I didn't have a break between CC and GS. I had a 3.8 GPA at CC and I took the relatively easy General Studies Entrance Examination as I had taken the SAT around 13 years ago.

Most GS students live in Campus housing shared apartments and dorm rooms but I chose to live in Brooklyn.

And finally the acceptance rate for my class was 57%. Yes, 57%. So, if you turn in an error free application with a decent essay and if you have around a 3.5 or even slightly less you will get in for sure.

But I must warn you about the work here: its hard, around 100 pages to read per class for any liberal arts classes. The grading is stiff. You have to really work for an A- and put in a herculean effort for A's.

Hope this helps.