<p>I was admitted to BU but was denied from my intended college, CAS. I was, instead, admitted to CGS. Good thing is that CAS and CGS have pretty similar core curriculums. However, I heard CGS has a bit of a bad reputation. Is it true most people look down upon CGS students? I know the joke CGS stands for Crayons, glue, and scissors has been spread around. My education is the most important factor of college, but will my college experience be worse because I’m admitted to a program for those who do not have the requirements for other colleges? Would I be better off applying for another university (like Northeastern University) where I could be in my intended college similar to CAS? I know I could always transfer to CAS, but I’d be in CGS for the first two years (seems like a really long time considering I never intended to go into CGS).</p>
<p>Did you apply early decision with CGS as back-up? Its not common in ED to get CGS usually you will be deffered to RD as priority.</p>
<p>If you had attended CGS info sessions you would have heard they emphasize analysis and writing and generally the students there perform much better in high level major courses. </p>
<p>It ends up being like a small liberal arts college within the university. If that’s not what interests you you may be better off at a different college Northeastern was My DD second choice but she applied directly to CGS since she was undecided and has interests in BUS, CAS and COM and the CGS program gives you the most flexibility to move to a different program if you make a decision in your second year. Students who enter one college and decide in Sophomore year end up taking 5 years to graduate… ca-ching!</p>
<p>There are a million posts on CGS in this forum…feel free to look back on mine, as our DD has been extremely well served by this program, and works for admissions so has a lot of knowledge…summary…
1- CGS is terrific UNLESS you are interested in transferring to Sargent or are interested in math.
2- CGS students are not looked down on by other students. Every college has a nickname, all disparaging and in fun. For example, SMG (the school of management) is School of Malice and Greed. Don’t pay attention.<br>
3 - The classes are smaller, so the projects/assignments are much more challenging in terms of writing skills. More than one professor has said that cgs students are better prepared for upper division classes because of the focus on writing.</p>
<p>^^^ You’re daughter may have been the one that convinced mine to apply to CGS! We were visiting for a third time and went to the admissions office to check in and get information. Two very knowledgeable and enthusiastic young women ( very mature I felt) one who was CGS and now in COM I think stated how much she liked it and gave my DD her email to ask questions I know that that conversation had a lasting impact and she was convinced to apply ED to CGS there and then and now she is elated to be attending her #1 school with so many options!</p>
<p>That’s too funny! It very well might be, and if it is, I am SO HAPPY that it worked so well. She has worked in admissions for three semesters now, and really enjoys helping students and parents. She was joking one day that her overnights had a nearly 100% commitment rate. I think she meant BU - not a psych commitment 
She is a COM major - got straight As this semester, and is heading to England for her internship in the Fall. </p>
<p>It really is a fabulous program. We were not very knowledgeable about it when she got in and read the threads here, but what convinced us was the incredible, palpable enthusiasm of the professors and students at the admitted students open house.</p>
<p>Honestly, when we talked at the open house, what we noticed that the CGS admissions had in common was the ability to tackle obstacles. At our table, there was a student who had been homeschooled for a couple of years because he had cancer, a very personable student who had ADHD but excellent SATs and rising grades, a student who had been living in a part of Africa where the schooling was done online as it was extremely rural… it was a fascinating bunch. </p>
<p>I don’t know if you have learned this much yet, but basically, one of the huge goals of the program is making writing skills sing. Don’t get me wrong - this is not in any way remedial, but rather taking what you learned in high school honors and making it applicable to real world tasks. My daughter had a fabulous writing program in her high school - in fact, we didn’t realize how good until we saw what was expectoed in CGS. Some of the students struggled, but the professors were excellent at honing their skills.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t go so far as to say that people generally look down on CGS students, but you will definitely take more **** for your college than people in any of the other schools will for theirs. That’s just a fact. The idea that “every college has a nickname, all disparaging and in fun” and that CGS isn’t any different than the others in that regard is a joke. The crayon/glue/scissors joke is made about 10x as often as all of the others combined. Additionally, there’s a decent amount of resentment towards CGS (because people feel that BU would be ranked higher if CGS didn’t exist/was a terminal degree program and their stats didn’t affect rankings.)</p>
<p>The other downside of CGS is that it makes things pretty inflexible. It will make it harder to double major. It will make it harder to change majors if you realize you don’t really like what you chose. It will make it harder to do a BA/MA.</p>
<p>I’m not saying CGS is always a bad decision. I know really smart people who did it, and it worked out really well for some of them. But you also shouldn’t be taking advice on it from proud parents. They can’t look at it objectively, and they can’t tell you how other BU students view their child.</p>
<p>Well, I was planning to take a math related major in my Junior and Senior year (computer science) but I will be taking a lot of math and computer science electives. CGS is a liberal arts college and that might not be the best fit for me. I’m also planning to get a BA.</p>
<p>@BUSenior You’re right. I’ve only have taken advice from my parents/counselors/teachers/deans of CGS; they all tell me there is no social stigma. I just want to feel like I fit in.</p>
<p>You won’t be ostracized for attending CGS-plenty of people have a great time/felt it was beneficial as you can see from the responses on this forum. However people definitely do make even more jokes about CGS than other schools and it is looked down upon a little. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, base your decision to apply/attend depending on how you think YOU will benefit, not reputation from other students alone. If BU is truly your first choice and you want more personalized attention, go with CGS if that’s where you’re admitted.</p>
<p>Imaquilt, I would think carefully about CGS if you are interested in math - those classes would need to be electives. Because every student picks a major and moves out of CGS, if you call CGS and give them an idea of your possible majors, they can tell you how many classes in that major are done in a specific order (e.g. you can’t take a Junior Math ABC until you have taken Freshman Math 101 and Sophomore Math CDE). If there are a lot of classes that are ordered like this, CGS probably isn’t a good fit. </p>
<p>BU has a policy where if you get over a certain GPA, you are allowed to overload (e.g. take more than 16 units) for no additional tuition. DD has taken advantage of this every semester, and is graduating in 3.5 years plus a summer with a minor in sociology, a major in COM, and a large amount of French (not quite a minor). She did go in with some AP credits from high school, and has overloaded one class per semester. That said, she changed her major only once, and that was in freshman year so it had little impact. </p>
<p>Shining Star is right - it’s all about the best fit for you.</p>
<p>Some people feel that the tracking of classes and team study and the separate campus makes CGS feel like high school and unlike a college experience. Well its more like a small liberal arts college experience. In a small college with only 1100 kids in liberal arts schools it ends up that you will be in class with much of the same students your Freshman and Sophomore years. THer is some variety but you do see them. </p>
<p>You can meet students from your major in your electives and also join clubs there to meet students and get tied in.</p>
<p>Its all what you want and want to make of it.</p>
<p>Is it true that CAS students take more computer science courses than CGS students do? I know CGS students take around 4 or 5 but there are so many more computer science courses. If a CGS student takes so little courses, would it be hard for him or her to catch up to the other students in junior year?</p>
<p>You can look at the curriculum for each college on the BU website and get an idea of how hard it might be to get “caught up” if you were to start in CGS. Also, CGS had what I think they call maps or guides to the colleges to show what electives it is best to take and how the CGS courses fulfill the general libby arts courses of each major</p>