GS... Is it worth it?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

<p>I'm 27 and I was recently admitted to GS. Now I'm faced with the decision as to whether it is worth going into heavy debt by attending Columbia.</p>

<p>At the moment, I make an OK living (80k) doing IT work and have absolutely zero debt (my only critical expense is rent). When I enroll in school the plan is to go to school full time and quit my job. Or at most, work 15-20 hours a week. The only way I can pay for Columbia is by taking out loans and by the time I graduate I calculate I would have taken out 100-150k.</p>

<p>I don't want to attend Columbia part time as I'd like to graduate as soon as possible and I'd rather not work full time so I can concentrate on my studies.</p>

<p>A: How good is financial aid in GS (I'm Hispanic, if it makes a difference)? I've heard that after you perform well academically for one or two semesters, they give you more aid, is this true? How much financial aid should I expect from Columbia? Remember that I will not have a job after I enroll so my income will be virtually zero. Parents are retired and cannot help.</p>

<p>B: Is it worth it to spend that much money on an education from Columbia? Part of me thinks it is, but I also think about the fact that I could attend CUNY Baruch with only 20k in student loans.</p>

<p>I guess I'm getting cold feet after looking at the price tag. Any insight or useful information is very welcome.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>I don't think it is worth to take on that amount of loans for any school. This loan will probably take you almost your entire life to pay it off ( if you don't win the lottery or get a super dupa job after school). Basically you will be cash constraint for your whole life. </p>

<p>I think you can get a great education at Baruch College at a fraction of the cost. There are good teachers everywhere, and you can do well wherever you go if you are motivated. </p>

<p>I don't think it will be worth it.</p>

3

<p>Ask yourself what you want to do after undergrad. If it's something that requires grad school, which will also require entrance exams, research how much weight is given toward exams before your college grades. For example, if it's law school you want to attend, stick with Baruch.</p>

<p>Then ask yourself how you feel about payout out-of-pocket for mandatory classes (like art, music, and writing), taught mostly by disinterested graduate students and attended by equally disinterested undergrads, many of which will be ten years younger than you.</p>

<p>Then ask yourself how you feel about having absolutely no college community at a school that, to get the full value of the institutional education, encourages lifelong relationships. Immediately, the other undergraduate divisions one-up GS.</p>

<p>Then ask yourself how you feel about having a stigma attached to your diploma anywhere you go after the university, even though you will have paid more to experience the same education.</p>

<p>Finally, ask yourself how you feel about being able to complete virtually the same education with well-grounded (albeit not silver-spooned) students at the CUNY of your choice for literally pennies.</p>

<p>To answer your financial aid question -- you'll start with something like $2,500 toward the first semester. I think they call it a First Semester Incentive Scholarship. If you attend full time and earn something like a 3.3 or above, it shoots up to around $8,000 over the next two semesters. Then I think it goes up to about $11,500 for the next two. I think the highest you can get out of the school is $15,000 over a full year, which won't even cover an entire semester, and will seem more like pennies after shelling out off-campus housing, utilies, and other living expenses. (hence, you now understand why so many students drop out of GS after a semester).</p>

<p>Look, I'm in GS right now. I'm a senior, but I only had to go through this for about two years having transferred. I have a very high GPA. In fact, I'd probably be in the top 15% (or higher?) of all undergrads. I've had some tremendous classes that I wouldn't have been able to take anywhere else. I've had to work much harder here than anywhere else. At the same time, I could have gotten a pretty good education with pretty good professors and remained in the city at any CUNY, and would be in the same position heading into graduate school, except that I wouldn't be poor. If I ever felt that I wasn't being challenged, I could have just as easily used my library card to make up the gap.</p>

4

<p>GS_Banding,
I am a graduate of Columbia College so I can't really speak to you about GS but I will attempt to answer your question whether the name is worth the debt.</p>

<p>Well, it depends on your long term goals. If you would like to go to professional school like law or business school, having graduated from Columbia will probably help you get admitted as opposed to going to a place like Baruch, i.e., a 3.5 at GS would be far more impressive than a 3.5 at Baruch. Assuming you want to work at an elite firm, the name of your college will matter but this will become less important if you went to a top law school or business school and did extremely well there. In other words, if you want to become a lawyer or banker at a top firm in NY I would say save your money for going to a top law school or b-school. However, the critical step is getting INTO THAT TOP LAW SCHOOL OR B-SCHOOL!!!! If, however, you are certain that getting into these sort of industries are not of interest, then not going to a prestigious school may be of little importance to you in the grand scheme of things.
I have been out of college for quite some time and I am surprised by the number of people who ask me still where I went to college. I happen to be employed in the banking world so people tend to be more prestige oriented here, however, I don't think this obsession with "prestige" is so prevalent in other areas.</p>

5

<p>It's not going to matter which UG the OP attends should the next step be law or business studies. As long as the OP does well at either place (assuming the GPA would naturally be higher elsewhere) and again on the necessary entrance exam, either application would be just as competitive.</p>

6

<p>Thanks for the replies. Very thought-provoking.</p>

<p>I understand that I'm basically buying the right to wave the Columbia flag for the next 30 years for 100k. Whether there will be some stigma (GS) attached to it, it personally does not bother me. Not to mention that a degree from GS is better than what I have now (nothing).</p>

<p>As far as graduate work goes, it is likely that I will go on to grad school but not exactly sure in what area. One of the reasons for returning to school is to change careers. That's why a liberal arts edu from Columbia, where I can explore different fields, seems so attractive to me. So I'm actually looking forward to all those Core classes. Who knows, maybe I'll fall in love with CS again and stay in that field. </p>

<p>I have much to think about and a couple months to make a decision. Maybe I'll go part-time for one or two semesters to see if classes at Columbia are everything I've imagined them to be. I do think that once I start I will not want to leave. I dislike being bored.</p>

<p>WindowShopping, you sure do know how to turn someone off. ;)
I sent you a pm with a couple of questions.</p>

<p>Is there such a thing as need-based aid at GS?</p>

7

<p>I think you have a good approach testing the waters. I went to GS MANY years ago. If you are motivated to make the most of your time there, it can be a life-changing experience. If you are a top student there, you will have many opportunities. You can petition to take graduate-level courses after you have a proven track record. GS offers several joint degree programs, and I was able to get into the joint BA/MBA program (BTW, it saves one year of tuition). I always selected my classes carefully so that I would get the top professors, or rising professors. For example, the professor I had for International Economics later earned the Nobel Prize. I believe that a top student from GS will have many more opportunities than a top student from CUNY, especially if your career brings you beyond NYC.<br>
I really cannot compare the 2 schools. However, before I went to GS, I took a few continuing ed classes at NYU, and these really were run by inexperienced Ph.D.candidates. After that, I tried Fordham and found that it was too easy to get straight A's. Also, I found rampant cheating in one class that really upset me. Of course, these are very fine institutions, and my experience happened years ago so things may be very different today. I was very happy with the quality of education at GS, but I made the most of it. I had a great education, so I earned far more than the right to say I went to Columbia.
Good luck and congratulations on having such a successful career without the benefit of an undergraduate degree!</p>

8

<p>Windowshopping,
Top law and business schools do take into consideration where applicants go to college for purposes of admissions. An A average from Columbia would be considered more impressive than an A average from a school where the students are not as academically inclined. This is a fact. Compare Burb Parent's personal experience having taken classes at NYU and Fordham. There is a reason why graduates of the top schools are overly represented in the student bodies of the nation's top law and b-schools.</p>

9

<p>GS_Banding,
I say try GS out first before writing it off. You can always transfer if it doesn't meet your expectations. Also, I think it would be more troubling for you if you find yourself regretting your decision to go to Baruch. Say, for instance, you decide to go to Baruch and have a horrendous experience personally and academically. Now you have crappy grades and are stuck there since you have no viable exit strategies. This could significantly diminish your chances of pursuing a grad program or getting a decent job. Although this is highly unlikely in your case, nothing is impossible.</p>

10

<p>Since many graduate programs use will defined formulas, that's probably not the case. However, a Columbia GPA should be slightly lower than however that student would have performed should he or she attended a "non-competitive" environment (which, mind you, is relatively subjective). In the end, it all normalizes, and grad schools know this.</p>