Applying to General Studies at Columbia from a CC with close to an associates degree

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
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However, was that article itself in the WSJ? I'm too lazy to look but I doubt it. I dont think any respectable news organization would bother with that kind of dribble. Also, yes his books have gotten positive reviews. What do you expect when they are aimed at such a large audience (people who cant get into good schools)? Some people are bound to like them.

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<p>They are popular for the same reason David Bach's books are popular. They repeat what you already know. They motivate that's what sells. It is difficult to judge a book of this nature based on books of this nature. It is statistically incorrect to assume that the reader reviews are relevant to whether the material will work for you or not.</p>

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<p>Skyraylor's points
Well , its true his book may add to what people already know, but unless you read the book if you want to criticize it - its a consensus that can be debated. You don't have much too lose by following advice, but can lose if you wish yourself had taken advice, (never read his books- but saw a the ivy league article)</p>

<p>As for WSJ, some people view the newspaper as having a conservative bias irrespective of statistics , the same with the nytimes too in reverse. </p>

<p>and yes, it has been shown that undergrads don't have preference when it comes to the same school's grad schools as shown by the ivy league. </p>

<p>If you can show otherwise, then show it , not because I am trying to put this as a flaming post, but as far as I know that is a fact.</p>

<p>Columbia's own website even says that they DO NOT give any sort of preference to its undergraduates when it comes to graduate admissions, even though it does state the undergrads from columbia do attend graduate school at Columbia , I presume in an significant number.</p>

<p>I do agree with URI name does matter, which is why I am trying to go to NYU and have thought about Columbia and yes you could network and meet wealthy people at Columbia although how it may benefit yourself may vary depending on what you studied at Columbia (if youre in english major in the humanties it may be very difficult in some instances) </p>

<p>BTW Uri, what is your major (engineering, math)? You must be in the Cuny honors college. I always thought that Cuny's honor wasn't worth it because its like a short-term reward rather than a long term preparation you could get at Columbia. Did you apply to any other schools like NYU?</p>

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<p>for that matter, a 3.5 at a top undergrad program will generally mean more to a top MBA school (all else - like work experience & GMAT - being equal) than a 4.0 at a state school. It's a matter of credentialism: the fact that you got into (and out of) a top undergrad program is more impressive in its own right than the ability to get As in a state school whose quality of students or rigor of classes is largely unknown to the admissions committees.</p>

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<p>Some employer's don't care where you went to school, as for graduate admissions, schools like stern do check up on the quality of the institution so that may be a factor.</p>

<p>I agree that CCNY, may have top-notch programs but employers may still look down on city colleges which is why I don't plan on going to any city college when I leave my community college.</p>

<p>However, as for transferring from a community college to a senior college in that respect, most top intuitions don't care about the fact that you went to a community college, some of them do, however many programs recruit from community colleges,</p>

<p>in this case General Studies at Columbia recruits heavily from community colleges, and NYU has a program/setup also, the cctop. I have no idea about gs until recently, and maybe I am not ready (though I feel I can do it but) to rush to Columbia yet, especially the location, travel time,etc although nyu is also in manhattan.</p>

<p>I just found out that Columbia gs was at my CC for nearly 6 hours , but nobody told me that columbia was going to be there.</p>

<p>It all depends, there is no one standard gold rule, buy yes top schools have more prestige for getting grad degress, and to an extent undergrad, although undergrad is more for foundational purposes.</p>

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<p>Honestly, nycollegelooker1, you're just digging a deeper hole for yourself. Your arguements don't make any logical sense and you've strayed far from your original question. If you care so little about Columbia and think it's so over-rated, then why are you continuing to argue? Just drop it.</p>

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<p>I can't comment on the whole Columbia issue, but...</p>

<p>"Frankly, in posting in cc forums, I post very quickly, I'm not writing an essay, so why should I have to pay attention to grammar/spelling."</p>

<p>I have to disagree with this. Unless English is your second language then the grasp you claim to have on it (such high grades and all) shouldn't be an on/off/sometimes function. You either can write coherent, understandable sentences or you can't. This is not math where estimates are acceptable - it's either right or it isn't. Why should you have to pay attention to it? Because the misuse of words and the lack of effort you put into your posts makes it much easier to pick apart your argument.</p>

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I agree that CCNY, may have top-notch programs but employers may still look down on city colleges which is why I don't plan on going to any city college when I leave my community college.

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However, as for transferring from a community college to a senior college in that respect

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<p>What the hell are you talking about? CCNY has one of the most selective pre-med programs in the country (Sophie Davis) It is also the only public school that offers degrees in architecture. The chair of our physics department is Theoretical Physicist Michio Kaku. Many of their programs are very good, not up to par with Columbia's but by no means do employers "look down" on it. There are a lot of very bright engineers at CCNY, especially in CivE. Why don't you do some research before making such an ignorant statement. </p>

<p>As a matter of fact, there are more Baruch graduates on Wall St. than any other school and it is a part of CUNY, Founded as part of CCNY as their business school.</p>

<p>Tostito - Exactly what I was implying. I can not imagine a good write, let alone a responsible writer ignore the basic rules of grammar such as capitalization and punctuation. Not to say that many people on these forums do not reply in a hurry, therefore making careless errors. On average the same grammatical errors one would make posting in a forum would be a direct reflection of their work outside of the world wide web.</p>

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<p>First off, somebody else had said that people look down at city colleges compared to Columbia,etc </p>

<p>So yes, note the comparison - up until 1999 city colleges were open admission which meant that anyone with a high school diploma could get inside them.</p>

<p>Standards were toughened up a bit since then with a lot of dissent and criticism as a recent nytimes article showed that minority enrollment had declined at certain city colleges recently (an article refuting this was posted earlier I believe but it may have been a few years before the nytimes article).</p>

<p>Many people believed however, the even if cuny had open admissions it wouldn't affect the college as people would still need to pass the remedial classes before moving on. </p>

<p>City councilman Charles Barron and others had stated that open admissions had been beneficial to people who had not been to the college. However, the point of this is that people did look down at city college, and some still look down it today.</p>

<p>Another problem with Cuny is sometimes there is lack of resources although endowment is helping out. Cuts to Cuny and Suny along with tuition hikes were common in the pataki administration although rebuffs by the legislature were common.</p>

<p>Although sophie davis is selective that's like picking a needle in a haystack, there may be a few top programs but I was referring to the whole picture and its not what I think its who the employers,etc are and if they do and don't look down at city colleges.</p>

<p>I doesn't matter if baruch has more graduates on wall street than any other school , being in wall street alone doesn't count you anything , in fact a lot of people in wall street don't make all the big bucks and bonuses. </p>

<p>Once again too, thats exactly an argument politicians and think tanks make , even if Cuny schools aren't top notch it enables people to get a at least a fairly decent education rather than no education with open-admissions and then move on, </p>

<p>As for the last statement, that's nonsense I post in a hurry sometimes, put I am very good in English - got straight A's and wrote dozens of high quality essays and paid careful attention to not only grammar but style.</p>

<p>By the way estimates are not always acceptable in math as any engineer can tell you, once you start getting into the complex equations a little going off in the process can lead you in the wrong direction.</p>

<p>I said employers may look down, the school sometimes makes a big difference where you get your degree, but it depends on the employer also. </p>

<p>I don't dispute that the programs at ccny are a good value, because I know a few people from there, and was taught by a person who studied there. However, employers do look down at certain city college programs, not I am also referring to the entire cuny system not one particular college so some confusion may have resulted.</p>

<p>Even so , engineering is just one out of hundreds of programs. NYU doesn't have engineering yet although a merger might bring it into being soon, so many potential engineers go to ccny if they can't get into Columbia.</p>

<p>btw what are you studying at ccny?</p>

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By the way estimates are not always acceptable in math as any engineer can tell you, once you start getting into the complex equations a little going off in the process can lead you in the wrong direction.

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<p>Do you mean statistically speaking? OK let's talk statistics. The average CCNY student comes from a low income household or is a low income international student, many of them work part or full time. The average family income for a CCNY student and a Columbia student are very far in between, most CCNY students couldn't afford Columbia if their lives depended on it. CCNY offers a lot of flexibility and to those who can not contribute financially to an education, they pretty much get a free ride thanks to financial aid. Transportation and books are usually covered too, these are just with grants that do not need to be repaid. </p>

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I don't dispute that the programs at ccny are a good value, because I know a few people from there, and was taught by a person who studied there. However, employers do look down at certain city college programs, not I am also referring to the entire cuny system not one particular college so some confusion may have resulted.

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<p>Different schools serve different purposes in peoples lives, CCNY offers different programs than Columbia, yielding a different demographic of employers who recruit. So that argument is irrelevant, considering that your average CCNY student is not looking for the same type of job that a Columbia student looks for, and will most likely not be applying to the same type of job. </p>

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I doesn't matter if baruch has more graduates on wall street than any other school , being in wall street alone doesn't count you anything , in fact a lot of people in wall street don't make all the big bucks and bonuses.

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<p>Where do you come up with this? Wall Street is full of enormous and powerful financial institutions who pay very high salaries. 5th avenue is to fashion as Wall St. is to finance. </p>

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I said employers may look down, the school sometimes makes a big difference where you get your degree, but it depends on the employer also.

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Which employers would these be? Employers are more interested in serious people who have overcome obstacles and succeeded through persistence than students with a degree from a top university. Just because you went to Columbia or Harvard does not mean you will devote more time & effort to a company. While some industries like Investment Bankings only take top students from top schools, those companies are generally exceptions to the rule. Take a look at the company's that hire at CCNY and Baruch, some of the very same powerhouses that rake up HYPC students. If you go to Columbia drink and party for 4 years and don't accomplish anything, your degree won't mean much to any employer. There are many contributing factors to what employers look for in a employee and the name on your degree is not as relevant as people tend to believe. If you are referring to future employment you are wrong, very few years after graduate your degree will barely count and it's based on experience and your productivity record.</p>

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Even so , engineering is just one out of hundreds of programs. NYU doesn't have engineering yet although a merger might bring it into being soon, so many potential engineers go to ccny if they can't get into Columbia.

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Again this is incorrect information. CCNY offers architecture which Columbia doesn't for one, and that's one of their biggest schools. I have yet to hear any engineering student say "I didn't get into Columbia, so I decided to come here." There are quite a few engineering schools in NYC: New</a> York Engineering Schools So no students don't go there by default after being rejected by Columbia. </p>

<p>Columbia is a far superior school, but CCNY students differ very much from Columbia students. Columbia students come from mostly privileged backgrounds from all around the round and CCNY yields locals who are looking for value in education.</p>

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btw what are you studying at ccny?

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<p>Structural Engineering</p>

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<p>"There are many contributing factors to what employers look for in a employee and the name on your degree is not as relevant as people tend to believe."</p>

<p>all things equal it matters a ton.</p>

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<p>Sure if all other things are equal, but I am speaking generally. Just because you have a Columbia degree does not entitle you to priority hiring, especially if you haven't excelled or if you slacked off during college.</p>

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<p>In Manhattan or even in the new york city area , many people who want to do engineering go to ccny if they either don't apply to or get into Columbia.</p>

<p>In fact I know quite a few people at CCNY primarily because of engineering. It's a convenient location, and a lot of the engineering schools you had mentioned are not in nyc (Rensselaer Polytech, RIT,etc) at least may of the dedicated schools. Every school might have some component of engineering as mentioned on the list , but generally engineering students go to a school that has more of dedicated and in-house dept. </p>

<p>Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't Columbia give a ton of aid to low-income students with all that endowment? Many ivy leagues in fact aren't charging law income students and families at all for tuition?</p>

<p>A lot of people on wall street do not make a lot of money, sociologist andrew beveridge has a ton of interesting articles related to demographics in new york city with regards to income,etc. At the gotham gazette website you can find his posts, of course the gotham just reposts his information and if you want to find more about him feel free to look up all his research. I could post his research here but in general Wall</a> Street Bonus Babies (Gotham Gazette, January 2005)</p>

<p>there are many of his posts. Of course on wall street the market is very volatile, one year may be excellent with bonuses , the next year may have people facing layoffs.</p>

<p>Depending on the field some employers would prefer an institution with more prestige , for example careers in the arts , media, etc. It all depends on what the employer does to an extent. I believe that in terms of where you get your degree it matters mostly in terms of Graduate school as grad school is vastly different from undergraduate school.</p>

<p>This is post is not meant to be flaming and yes, the original question has been strayed from.</p>

<p>If you could tell me a little bit more about yourself and your background and why you rejected Columbia, it may be beneficial to the forum.</p>

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A lot of people on wall street do not make a lot of money,

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<p>When we speak of Wall St. we speak of the financial institutions and big powerhouses that rake in billions, not hot dog vendors and IT personnel. So I will rephrase my original statement for you - There are more Baruch graduates with 6 figure incomes on Wall St. than any other school.</p>

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If you could tell me a little bit more about yourself and your background and why you rejected Columbia, it may be beneficial to the forum.

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<p>I don't really see how, I already stated that I did not attend Columbia because I wanted the opportunity to attend lectures by Michio Kaku that were only opened to CCNY students. I also receive a lot of scholarship money, including a very large stipend which I plan on using to pay for graduate school. The aid I was offered by Columbia was nowhere near "paying virtually nothing." I always have planned on graduate school and to attend Columbia I would have had to taken out loans in excess of $75,000 during undergrad which would hurt my opportunity to attend graduate school due to the fiscal responsibility. I will have both Bachelors and Masters degrees paid in full upon graduation. If I had went to Columbia I would of been 75k in debt plus an additional 40k in debt for graduate school.</p>

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I doesn't matter if baruch has more graduates on wall street than any other school , being in wall street alone doesn't count you anything , in fact a lot of people in wall street don't make all the big bucks and bonuses. </h2>

<p>Where do you come up with this? Wall Street is full of enormous and powerful financial institutions who pay very high salaries. 5th avenue is to fashion as Wall St. is to finance.

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<p>Not to get pedantic (or too elitist) on you, but there is a wide, wide range of what "being on wall street" can mean in terms of career, connections, money, and lifestyle. Baruch may make its statistic based on how it defines it itself, but I rather doubt that among those, say, working in IBD at Goldman, Lehman, Morgan or Lazard, there is a plurality of Baruch graduates.</p>

<p>I'd also like to give slight encouragement, Ari, to the idea that maybe arguing with a brick wall isn't the best use of your time or anyone's. Be the bigger man and let's just let it drop. I'll be responding in a new thread to the article on the previous page, just to get this outta here.</p>

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<p>It's defintely true that the people on wall street making big bucks aren't usually baruch graduates by far and large.</p>

<p>Interestingly, baruch is a decent school, but I was on the train one day with a person from france and then a person who lives here talking about which companies, goldman, will take baruch graduates for example, baruch graduates may get some positions but they were talking about which prestigious positions the graduates will take.</p>

<p>Nobody here is arguing with a brick wall BUT the topic has been strayed from.</p>

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<p>This message thread is like a poorly written argumentative essay that is based more on subjectivity than objectivity.</p>

<p>I think everyone here should read "The Potentate and the Traveler" by Edward Said. Similar to Said saying in the article that academic freedom is impinged by national identity, here, the situation is analogous in that freedom of expression is impinged by personal opinions.</p>

<p>In the same way Said approaches academic freedom, I believe that we should all approach others' expressions in the role more of a "traveler," open-minded, willing to visit and taste contrary viewpoints, than as a "potentate," close-minded and in denal of opposing arguments and beliefs.</p>

<p>nycollegelooker1: I'm sorry, but your English isn't very good, no matter how well you are at expression and grammar in comparison with your peers. This is an objective observation and not an opinion. If you do not believe me, copy and paste your postings into Microsoft Word, and run the grammar check.</p>

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<p>was it really necessary to resurrect a 2 week old thread?</p>

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<p>lol I was begining to wonder why this thread came back on the first page again</p>

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<p>The prestigious positions don't come right out of undergrad, those are a few years down the line and by then performance matters a whole lot more than where you got your degree.</p>

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<p>Although I understand where you’re coming from with your response, as it is directed at the individual insulting Columbia, I wonder if it is neccessary for you to in turn, insult community college attendees as a whole? Personally, I am attending Community College; recieving a 3.8 GPA, and I am quite hopeful to attend any school that I set my mind to. Sometimes there are circumstances that prevent someone from attending a 4-year school right away, as is my case, and it is a little disheartening to find that the group consensus is that in order to be deemed intellectual or capable, one must attend a University? Is that indicitive of Columbia policy, or personal opinion? If so, wouldn’t it be a better representation of your prestigious academic institution if you refrained from a generalized insult on a public forum?.. I don’t agree. … :(</p>