<p>The only buildings we don’t have swip access to are CC/SEAS dorms.</p>
<p>“GS students do not have the same access to facilities as other students.” What facilities other than dorms?</p>
<p>I think that for as many people you can get together in a room that’s how many differing stories we can share about whether or not it has been worth it to spend our money here at Columbia. These are very personal stories for each of us. We are the students that have successful careers, lapses in our education, time in the military. We don’t have a mom or dad that’s paying our tuition and expenses so it’s really tough sometimes. </p>
<p>I’m graduating this May. I came to Columbia with a master’s degree with a goal to obtain a degree in a totally different discipline. It’s been really tough sometimes, and it is expensive. However, without any hesitation, if you were to ask me whether I should have attended the local university or Columbia, I would vote for Columbia. From my own experiences, I know that a state university education is nothing compared to an education from Columbia. I was recently accepted into a graduate program and was ready to attend in September until I noticed that their courses were the exact same ones that I took as an undergraduate. </p>
<p>And yes, it is a big deal out there to graduate from an ivy league university. It was a big deal to this graduate program that I’m graduating from Columbia and now they are offering me an assistantship as an incentive to attend. Where I currently work (MAJOR financial institution in mid-town), they don’t even want to talk with you unless you’ve graduated from an ivy league. </p>
<p>And for the last time: there is NO SUCH THING as a BGS diploma. We tell our potential employers and graduate programs that we’ve graduated from Columbia University. It doesn’t matter if our home base is CC, Barnard, GS, or the School of Engineering…we graduate from Columbia.</p>
<p>The main advantage here is being able to connect with the top people of your field and most of these guys don’t care about what school you’re from. I am currently interested in working for Wall Street and have interviews lined up with hedge funds and banks. Not a single banker ever asked which school of Columbia University I came from because anybody who’s put themselves through here understands that a 3.8+ GPA in a quantitative degree is hard. </p>
<p>If I went to a state school there’s no way I would made the numerous connections from all the recruiting sessions they have here. My fellow GS students didn’t really run into obstacles getting summer internships for prestigious firms such as BlackRock or any of the bulge brackets. </p>
<p>I openly admit to classmates that I’m GS and most of the time they just don’t really care. None of the banker’s I’ve ever talked to asked exactly which school I came from. The only people who even cares about this are the select few current students with over blown self importance. They’re generally the more insecure undergrads and I have never met one personally, only on these forums do they even appear significant. </p>
<p>Anyway for the question of whether or not the expense is worth it depends on what you’re pursuing career wise. If you’re looking to work in the public sector then no it’s not worth it. It is definitely worth it for me since a lot of these financial firms wouldn’t even consider you unless you’re in one of 9 schools in the world.</p>
<p>The reason banks don’t ask about which Columbia school you attend is because they already know. Part of the responsibility of being the new guy in finance or consulting is interpreting the transcripts/credentials of applicants from your university. </p>
<p>For example, if your application comes in to my work, a recent Columbia grad like me will know that they can go to the university’s site, search your UNI, and find your school affiliation in 15 seconds.</p>
<p>To think that an employer cares if you graduated from Columbia College or from General Studies is utterly ridiculous. I have spent the past 15 years working as a national account manager carrying a 20 million dollar book of business and on my own generate a few million dollars of sales as well. I work at a MAJOR institution in midtown, and they couldn’t care less if I graduated with my masters degree (from a different university) from the “good” part of the school or the “not so good” part. Now, I’m a graduating senior at Columbia having returned to school as a GS student for a completely different discipline. I was accepted into top universities to begin graduate work in September, and the departments are excited to have a Columbia University graduate in their system. No one cares if I graduate from GS or from any of the other undergraduate schools at Columbia. And, do you know why? Because we all have the same classes and are certainly not given any breaks. When high level executives come into my office and see the Columbia University coffee mug, they don’t ask what school I was part of; they ask me about my major. So silly to think that going to GS is on anyone’s minds. The Columbia College students don’t even care.</p>
<p>Okay, as a current GS student, I feel that I can add to this discussion. Let me tell you, the ONLY people that care whether or not you are in GS are seriously CC students and/or CC alumni. This is widely agreed upon because CC kids seem to have a prestige complex. CC students believe they are “above” Barnard, SEAS and GS - they just seem to think they are better than anyone. I know this because I have CC friends and co-workers who have expressed this kind of sentiment. They do not say bad things about GS in front of me, but I’ve heard them talk about Barnard and many of them say things like, “They think they are entitled to everything Columbia has,” “They are a second-rate school,” and “Barnard girls to bed. Columbia girls to wed.” The sense of superiority among most/all CC students is pretty disturbing. So, it is not just GS that receives backlash from CC, but also, all of the other schools. </p>
<p>I think anyone thinking about applying to GS should know this because I was not aware of this until I enrolled here. That being said, people who don’t care what school you are in are: the professors, the other students, the administration, and graduate schools and employers (from what I’ve read on other posts). </p>
<p>GS students have to take the exact same classes and have nearly the exact same requirements for graduation, so the prejudice that CC students harbor is ungrounded and even a little desperate. I have a theory that it is maybe because GS students consistently outperform GS, as a whole, that there may be latent bitterness. GS has had the highest GPA among all four undergraduate schools in all recent years while taking the exact same classes, so it is a fact that GS students perform “better” than CC students. In general, I have noticed that a lot of GS students sit in front of class, participate in class and generally try very hard. If I could characterize GS in a few words, it would be that they are the most humble, hardworking and sometimes eclectic of the four schools. </p>
<p>Despite some CC students’ need for validation, I have found my experience at GS to be great. For me, GS challenged me to be a better scholar and I improved my writing, reading and thinking abilities exponentially faster than in any other year in my life. If you want to broaden your mind and experience a the kind of scholarly and inspirational environment that you probably will never experience again, you should attend Columbia. </p>
<p>GS probably can’t cross register at Teachers College because, like the medical school and law school, TC is a graduate program. There are no undergraduate classes.</p>