I am a sociology major and trying to decide between the three!
I have been accepted into UCLA, Berkeley and Columbia School of General Studies for Fall 2016 transfer.
I currently live in So. Cal, but wouldn’t mind moving.
Any advice?
Also, how does Columbia GS compare to Columbia University CC?
@TransferStudent2016 There are a lot of factors to consider in your decision. UC Berkeley and UCLA both have excellent sociology programs. As a California resident, you would save a ton of money by attending either one of these schools. If going to GS would require you to take out a significant amount of loans, I can’t see any logical reason for attending Columbia over UCLA or Berkeley. Even if funds are not an issue, both of these UC schools are listed higher in rankings by USA Today for sociology programs than Columbia is. I don’t know a ton about the traditional sociology track, but imagine that you will have to attend grad school regardless. In that case, the signs still point to the UCs over Columbia. As for the undergraduate experience itself, well, this is where Columbia may be more enriching. Columbia is known to be an intellectually stimulating environment and will certainly challenge you in various ways (not that the UCs wouldn’t). You will also be living in New York City and will have access to a ton of different resources there - it just comes at a pretty steep price. How compelling is the core curriculum to you?
Regarding your second question, I’m assuming you are wondering how they compare in terms of prestige? Well, you will receive the same top-notch education that those from Columbia College receive, so a comparison can’t really be made here. GS students obviously have more diverse life experiences than do students in CC/SEAS. This does not make them any better or worse than the other undergrads, but is certainly something to consider. In terms of prospective employers, it seems, and is logical to assume, that down the line it does not matter one bit which undergraduate school you attended within Columbia University; however, this is not to suggest that there aren’t some employers, mainly those recruiting students for the more coveted positions/fields (i-banking,finance), that do view GS as less prestigious than the other two. In this case, it seems to matter most for internships and the student’s first job out of college. Again, this MAY OR MAY NOT BE true, but is what I have occasionally heard/read from a lot of the research I have done on GS.
http://www.careereducation.columbia.edu/sites/cce/files/2015_gss–gs.pdf
http://www.careereducation.columbia.edu/sites/cce/files/2015_gss–cc__seas-ug_.pdf
These are the graduating student survey results from Columbia’s Center for Career Education.