is the columbia university school of general studies prestigious? i see their ads in the paper and i wonder?

Question

it seems like it is aimed at older individuals. not sure if it is anywhere as selective as their straight out of high school undergrad program.

Answer 1

The previous answer, made by the poster (Columbia College '60, Grad Fac '64) is incorrect. He/she may be under the impression, due to his/her time spent at Columbia back in the late 50's and early 60's, that the School of General Studies is still in its infancy.

Since those days, the School of General Studies has become fully integrated into the Columbia University undergraduate program. It is not closed to students younger than 21 years old. This inaccuracy in the answer alone reveals that the poster doesn't know what he/she is talking about. A simple look at their admissions requirement shows that the criterion is not a specific age but a "break" of 1 year or more from education or an excellent reason for applying as a nontraditional student.

Because GS has a student body of under than 2,000 and it is very specifically geared towards 'nontraditional' students, the kinds of people applying to GS are from all sorts of backgrounds. Therefore the acceptance rate has been much higher (40%+). One should, however, take into account the people applying to General Studies are most very self-motivated and don't tend to be people who are not utterly dedicated to getting an Ivy League (or equivalent, like Amherst, Stanford, MIT, et cetera) degree. So applying with a 1000 SAT and 2.6 GPA is going to have to be accompanied by a hell of a lifestory (like starting one's on company, or doing extremely unique things outside of academics, or writing a bestselling novel). People going to GS have an average SAT score of 1340 and high GPA's from their times at high school, plus professional careers (like being a chef to government officials and presidents, or dancing in the NY Ballet Company, or being a CEO of a Wall Street company).

While most of the students in GS are 'adults' (29 is the average age), many come in as 17 year-old ballerinas who didn't have time for full-time study, or war veterans who never finished their degrees, et cetera et cetera.

The B.A. and B.S. that the School of General Studies awards its students is no different from the Columbia College degree in that both are Columbia University degrees. Indeed, all courses and majors/minors are the same for CC and GS students; they take same courses with the same faculty and get graded in the same groups. The only difference is that GS students have different advisors and have more room to work their schedules around their work or outside obligations, or to choose to mimic the exact full-time schedule of a regular College student. GS students have the obligation to take ONE GS-specific course, which is a one-semester University Writing course which has analogues for Columbia College students.

Don't count on its being a backdoor into Columbia. A lot of GS students have ended up with 3.5 to 4.0 GPA performances taking the SAME classes and getting the SAME majors and minors as regular Columbia College courses.

Whether one graduates from CC or GS, the prestige of Columbia University is the same. GS students have gone on to Yale Law School (easily one of the most difficult programs of study to gain admittance to in the world; 3.79 GPA and 175 LSAT scorers are regularly turned down), become doctors, won Nobel Prizes, been involved integrally in Hollywood big budget and critically-acclaimed films, become nationally-recognized journalists, or simply gone on to lead great lives with a Columbia University degree.

Let's put it this way... when you graduate from G.S., and you fill out your resume, honestly, and go to interview at top five financial firm or position at a major academic institute, or whatever, and the interviewer asks you about your undergraduate degree, you, like the Columbia College student, will say: "I graduated with a B.A./B.S. from Columbia University."

Answer 2

Columbia General Studies

Answer 3

Columbia School Of General Studies

Answer 4

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
is the columbia university school of general studies prestigious? i see their ads in the paper and i wonder?
it seems like it is aimed at older individuals. not sure if it is anywhere as selective as their straight out of high school undergrad program.

Answer 5

Columbia University is prestigious. Any program from them will look good on your résumé