<p>I'm applying for transfer admission from a community college to Columbia University School of General Studies (GS) and CUNY City College of New York (CCNY) for Spring 2014 to study Computer Science. While my education at CCNY would be completely covered in grants and scholarships, if I decide to go to GS, I will have significant amount of student loan. I had a lot of financial hardships and I just recently got a green card. I have many years of gap in my education after high school. I would like to also get a Master's from either Columbia or Harvard in Computer Science. If I get accepted to both GS and CCNY, which one would be a better option? Do you think employers would prefer one school over the other? What about grad schools such as Harvard, Stanford, Yale, MIT or Columbia itself? I really like Columbia's core curriculum! Please advise! Thank you so much for your time and efforts!</p>
<p>The financials answer the question: go where it would NOT be a financial hardship for you to attend. Clearly CCNY would be the economically wiser choice.</p>
<p>Dear itsmenick212,</p>
<p>Both are great schools. However, considering your financial situation, and the fact that you want to go to graduate school, I strongly recommend considering City College for your undergraduate education. I always remind students that funding at the graduate level is very limited, so most, or all, of your graduate education will have to be paid out-of-pocket or with student loans. If you desire to eventually go on to graduate school, then it would be wise to consider a strong, but inexpensive, undergraduate program, especially if you are considering a private school for your graduate degree.</p>
<p>City College is great place to study Computer Science. Our Grove School of Engineering is named after Andrew Grove, the Co-Founder and former Chairperson of the Intel Corporation. He graduated from City College in 1960 and is a very big supporter of our engineering school. Graduates of that caliber (and we have many) should give you some idea of the quality of our education. City College has been recognized by the Princeton Review and Forbes Magazine as being among of the top colleges nation-wide. Many of our graduates go on to pursue their graduate and post-graduate degrees at the very same institutions that you desire to attend.</p>
<p>If you would like to learn more about our Computer Science program then feel free to contact me.</p>
<p>Carlos Parker
Admissions Senior Advisor
The City College of New York
212-650-6419
<a href=“mailto:cparker@ccny.cuny.edu”>cparker@ccny.cuny.edu</a></p>
<p>Go to CCNY. There’s no use going into deep debt, especially if you want to get a master’s later.</p>
<p>You can also construct something similar to the Core at CCNY, if you like. My husband goes to GS and the Core is basically two literature classes, two social science classes, a quant class, a natural science class, two semesters of “global core” (global studies), art hum, music hum, and four semesters of a foreign language. GS students aren’t required to take Lit Hum, CC, or FroSci - they can, to satisfy the requirements, but they don’t have to. You can take classes in all of those fields at CCNY. The only classes you can’t easily replicate are probably Art Hum and Music Hum, but a lot of the students here don’t like those classes anyway, and you can choose another fine arts class or two to replace them. (And the students tend to hate Frontiers of Science.)</p>
<p>CCNY is a recognized school for math, science and engineering - they have strengths in those areas. It’s a great school and the campus is really pretty.</p>
<p>Mr. Parker, you give me your contact information to learn from you more about Computer Science program at CCNY, but when I email you, I don’t get a response from you for almost 2 months (and still waiting for one)?!</p>
<p>Go to GS. You take the same classes and have the same access as Columbia Students. Plus, when you graduate–you get access to both the Columbia and Ivy networks.</p>
<p>Yup, GS is clearly a better option.</p>
<p>I recommend you visit each campus more than once and talk to current students as well as recent alumni. The vibe of each is very different.</p>
<p>What about Stony Brook?</p>
<p>I love Columbia, but in today’s job market, and given the great strides made by CUNY, I suggest you go for CUNY. As was posted above, I am certain you can find a ‘Great Books’ or Humanities class or two at CUNY that will be rewarding, since you have a strong interest in those studies.</p>
<p>Alright guys, I decided to attend Stony Brook University instead. I fell in love with their Computer Science program.</p>