Current and Former Students, How Did the Grad School Impact You?

For all the currently enrolled students as well as alumni, what are your thoughts on being at a university with such a large graduate school? Do you feel this opened positions (being able to participate in more research, take higher level classes, etc.) or do you feel that this was a detriment to your education?

All of the places where I did/do research at Columbia exist because of the professional and graduate schools that we have. However, I am in STEM, and it may be a different story for humanities majors.