Columbia's Moment

[cobrat]

<p>

@admissionsgeek

this is a bigger critique i have of graduate school period, especially coming from columbia, is that instead of feeling it to be more challenging than college, it is a common complaint i find that it is less challenging, especially in more policy oriented areas. my friends doing public policy degrees agree there, folks doing ed degrees have said the same. about the only folks in grad school that i hear complaining are medical fields and law. in a sense you are paying for a degree, and not an education. you wont learn all that much, you wont struggle all that much. it is not the rigorous intellectual experience you would be used to coming from a top flight undergrad experience.

</p>

<p>Out of curiosity, do you find this complaint about Columbia grad schools being not as challenging mainly from students who attended SLACs or also topflight universities? </p>

<p>A few college classmates/friends who attended SIPA have ranted about how many American-born SIPA classmates whined endlessly of the “heavy reading loads” of 300+ pages/week per course when the former group experienced similar reading loads as undergrads at SLACs or some topflight universities. Have a neighbor who also ranted about the same type of whining from the SIPA students she worked with as their course TA. </p>

<p>@pwoods: From what I’ve heard from dozens of grad students and even some high school teachers I’ve had, there is a common perception that the field of education tends to mostly attract those whose undergrad records were mediocre to middling at best. Even some friends who attended TC and Harvard School of Ed have remarked at how they were viewed by fellow grad students in other divisions…admittedly with some justification as being the least competitive grad students on their respective campuses.</p>