<p>I have seen posts on here and some articles in BU’s newspaper. I can see that some people have voiced their opinions on CGS and whether or not it should remain…</p>
<p>Are these opinions usually held on an institutional level or is there a clear anti-CGS students stigma amongst others in the undergrad colleges? Do CGS students socialize with the rest of the student body or is there animosity towards them because of the college they’re in?</p>
<p>I would appreciate any input relating to this.</p>
<p>CGS students are mixed in dorms, in activities, etc. There isn’t a stigma, just some friction with some students. That is natural and would be found anywhere because some kids will believe CGS kids catch a break coming into a college after two years and some will feel BU would have a better rep if there were no CGS. But stigma? That’s an extreme word, kind of like “deflation” attached to grades when the meaning is “rising at a slower rate than some schools which seem to have given up on grading at all.” Stigma implies they wear little stars on armbands or have to salute CAS students. So stigma no, but in any school with this kind of program - like NYU - there will be some tensions with some people. There are also going to be tensions of other kinds - like when CAS students take over COM editing rooms when projects are due, etc. You can’t avoid that kind of tension anywhere.</p>
<p>AS to the institutional level, all I can say is huh? CGS is an important part of BU.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input. What I meant by “institutional level” is that some people are angry with BU for having CGS…I was just curious whether that disdain is projected towards students specifically or BU admin for keeping the college.</p>
<p>And yes, I will concede that “stigma” is a bit extreme.</p>
<p>If you’ve seen any of my posts you very well know my opinion of CGS. I hate it and wish it were gone yesterday. However, as I have maintained, I have nothing against the individual students who attend so in my opinion there is no “stigma” or tension or anything like that. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, for those who actually go to CGS as opposed to not going to BU at all and likely a worse school, it is a great opportunity. I just have issues with why BU continues to fund this thing and resent the gigantic impact it has on BU’s prestige and a few other things</p>
<p>DJglover, I agree with you on almost all points except I dug a little deeper to find out that CGS alumni have actually contributed a pretty hefty endowment thus far.</p>
<p>I’m sure CGS alumni have contributed greatly to BU. In fact, I know this must be the case, because the financial aspect of CGS is the ONLY thing that keeps it afloat. Don’t let anyone kid you when they try and say CGS is a way for people to figure out what they wanna do or get used to the college life. While CGS may indirectly be just that, it is fundamentally bs. CGS exists simply to lure students who may not have otherwise gotten into a school of BU’s caliber and have the funds to pay.</p>
<p>DJglover16: You complain of CGS hurting BU’s prestige/rankings…I don’t know if you are aware of this, but Emory (17th in US NEWS ranking), NYU (34th in US NEWS ranking), UPenn (5th in US NEWS ranking), and Columbia (9th in US NEWS ranking) all have programs similar to CGS. Regardless of their much-higher rankings (than BU), these schools are and have been highly respected and prestigious for years.</p>
<p>While I admit that BU’s ranking is lower than it should be, CGS is not necessarily to blame. Removing it would be very bad for the university, alienating graduates from CGS and therefore plummeting the alumni giving rate. When the alumni giving rate goes down, BU has less money to spend on attracting top students (that in turn, would worsen the rankings). Also, [Boston</a> University Strategic Plan](<a href=“http://www.bu.edu/president/strategic-plan/]Boston”>Strategic Plan) is in the works to make BU more reputable and help in the rankings department.</p>
<p>If the above schools can thrive with a CGS-type program, BU should have no problem. This probably won’t convince you because you clearly have a strong and exceptionally misguided attitude towards the college. It’s important to note though that CGS is really not much of a contributor at all in the low ranking.</p>
<p>Of the ones you mentioned, NYU is the only one that has a similar program (not sure about emory). The program at Penn and Columbia only require GEDs and don’t mention SATs. You also have to be over the age of 21 to be admitted. Basically these students’ statistics are not included in the usnews ranking methodology. If NYU is able to do it, I’m not sure why BU can’t, considering NYU was the yardstick for BU for quite a while.</p>
<p>Emory does have one. It’s called the Oxford college and it has it is listed as it’s own entity on collegeboard. The acceptance rate is pretty high, 56% I think.</p>
<p>It has a separate College Board site because it is miles away from the regular campus, but it still feeds into Emory. While I admit that Penn and Columbia are different in their structure, they still admit students who would not regularly be accepted to either of those schools, hence similar to BU. I’m saying that it doesn’t hurt their rep and it also doesn’t for NYU and Emory. I’m just making the point that the schools I’ve listed are considered to be quite prestigious and that their CGS-like programs don’t hold them back.</p>
<p>Hahaha what a flawed argument. So let me get this right… Just because other schools with higher “rankings” have similar programs, these programs don’t hurt their rankings?? Haha that’s ridiculous. Perhaps, for example, an ivy league like UPenn is just simply a better school and when compared to BU (both without the CGS-type programs) it would still be a better school. That speaks nothing to whether or not they would be a worse school without it. Inductive arguments always sound great, don’t they? It’s late and I’m bent right now so I don’t even care to make a further argument. Anyone looking at this objectively knows what’s up. One day they’ll scrap CGS, trust me.</p>
<p>Personally, I think that anyone who resents CGS should shift their focus to something else. It’s not leaving anytime soon, so I suggest that you go and spend our time on other more important issues such as the Presidential elction or the Aids epidemic, maybe? Geez, grow up. </p>
<p>I understand everyone’s arguement quite clearly, but I just don’t care. I will be in the entering class at CGS this year and I know that I will recieve crap for going there but who the heck cares? I don’t care what people think and I know that I will excell whether it be at CGS or another BU college. To the other members of the CGS class, I will give you some advice. If someone feels the need to attach a stigma to you, I recommend that you just ignore them. Obviously, they think that they need put you down in order to elevate themselves which is ridiculous. </p>
<p>I am saying that CGS is absolutely not to blame. DJglover16, you support my point exactly. The schools I named previously are better…which is why they and many other schools are ranked higher; it has nothing to do with this notion of BU’s CGS holding it back. BU needs to better itself independent of CGS in order to have higher rankings.</p>
<p>CGS probably has very little to do with rankings, which are kind of idiotic in the first place. </p>
<p>Rankings generally have two parts, one mechanical and the other anecdotal. The mechanical parts include books and endowment divided by students. The anecdotal is essentially a survey in which various people involved in academics rate others and that tends to reinforce existing images, rewards those with active PR and hurts those who go against a trend.</p>
<p>My own guess - it can only be a guess - is that BU is probably hurt by a few basic anecdotal points. First, there is still a perceived legacy of division from the Silber era and the nationwide perception in academia was that BU’s administration was 1950’s authoritarian. Second, as part of his legacy building, Silber highly exaggerated where BU was coming from so his accomplishments would look more impressive. All schools have changed dramatically over the last 30 years but Silber wanted it to look like he’d made a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Third, BU is in Boston where the competition for recognition is great. Compare NYU, for example, which sits in the largest city but whose only sizable competition for mindshare has been Columbia. Every study of behavior says that we evaluate in a frame of reference so that if it were only BU and Harvard then BU would suddenly look better. But it’s not BU and Harvard; it’s BU and MIT and Harvard and Tufts and BC and Northeastern and on and on and on and many of these schools pursue niches, from BC’s obsession with athletics to Tufts’ IR program. So a ranker thinking about schools then has to think BU versus MIT on this and BU versus Tufts on this and simple behavioral economics says that this hurts BU’s overall anecdotal ranking.</p>
<p>The point is the ivy league programs are not “CGS like,” those programs are more comparable to the metropolitan college.</p>
<p>CGS does affect the rankings whether you like it or not. It is very detrimental to the schools selectivity in terms of SAT Scores, GPA and Admissions rate. look at the student profile on the BU admissions page. the middle 80% in terms of SAT score doesn’t even overlap with the middle 80% for the rest of BU. A lot of people get rejected from another BU school and then get recommended to CGS. I personally think the resentment people have towards BU for both CGS and low GPAs is really the problem, peer reviews are probably the most important part of the rankings.</p>
<p>People have to realize that the rankings do have importance whether you think they’re idiotic or not. A lot of corporate recruiters base their target list in large part on these rankings. I agree that there is a lot of controversy over the merit of the rankings and their methodology, but to completely ignore them and call them idiotic is not the way to go.</p>
<p>What ever happened to tolerance and respect for each others differences? End this immaturity now, it will only generate hard feelings when you all have to face each other in the fall. BU is a marvelous institution committed to very high standards. Period.</p>
<p>Incoming CGSers…just don’t worry about it. The deal is, when you get here no one will refuse to associate with you or think your worth as a person is less simply because you’re in CGS. I have never, ever heard of that happening. Both my roommates are in CGS, and I love em to death. People might make jokes every now and then, but there are also jokes about CFA and SMG and COM and all the colleges. No one really takes it seriously.</p>
<p>It’s good to debate these things, just like it’s good to debate about the new Honors College and class requirements and building renovations and any other part of BU. That’s what makes college, college.</p>
<p>Is it easier to get accepted to the CGS program? What are the average scores/gpa for admission? Can you apply directly to this program, or are you redirected if not admitted to another BU college?</p>