School of General Studies

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Columbia University School of General Studies
GS-Shield.gif
Established 1947
President {{{President}}}
Dean Peter Awn
Degrees BA, BS, Postbac Certificate in Premedical Sciences
Enrollment 2000(2010)
Website www.gs.columbia.edu

The School of General Studies, commonly known as General Studies or simply GS, is one of Columbia University's three official undergraduate colleges for non-traditional students. It confers Bachelor of Art and Bachelor of Science degrees in over forty different majors. GS students take the same courses with the same faculty, are held to the same high standards, and earn the same degree as all other Columbia undergraduates.

Background

A Columbia undergraduate class could include students from any of the following schools: GS, Columbia College, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, or Barnard College. GS is unique among colleges of its type, because its students are fully integrated into the Columbia undergraduate curriculum: GS Students take the same classes with the same students and professors and are granted the same degrees as students at Columbia College or SEAS. The school awards both the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees. GS students, who comprise of approximately 25% of all Columbia undergraduates, have the highest average GPA of all the undergraduate schools at Columbia.[1]

GS is also home to Columbia's Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program, which is the largest and oldest in the United States. Students enrolled in the List College Joint Program with Jewish Theological Seminary of America are awarded two Bachelors of Arts degrees (one from GS, one from JTS) on graduation.

Admissions

Applicants to the School of General Studies must have a break of one academic year or have compelling personal or professional reasons for part-time attendance to be eligible to apply for admission. GS students have the option to attend part- or full-time unlike Columbia College students, who are required to attend full-time. Also, scholarships at Columbia GS are merit based rather than income based like that of Columbia College or SEAS. In the 2006 class, the average age was 27 for incoming students, and the majority attend full-time.

Admissions officers examine high school records, test scores, extra-curricular activities, resumes and essays. They conduct interviews in person and on the phone. They also consider college-level work and real-life experience.

According to the College Board, GS accepts 23% of all applicants. For transfer students, most successful applicants attain GPAs of at least 3.8 according to the GS admissions office. GS also requires standardized test scores for entry. The school will use scores from the SAT, ACT, or the school's own General Studies Admissions Exam. A list of admissions requirements and procedures is available from the General Studies website and statistics on application, admission, and matriculation are available at the website of Columbia's Office of Planning and Institutional Research. GS admissions statistics are not reported in conjunction with CC/SEAS statistics. This is related both to GS's different admission deadlines and the fact that CC/SEAS and GS have different applicant pools.

Most GS students are transfer students, as 78% of the admitted class in 2006 transferred some college credit.[2] A list of admissions requirements and procedures is available from the General Studies website

Additional statistics on application, admission, and matriculation are available at the website of the Office of Planning and Institutional Research. [1]

Nontraditional students

GS enrolls world-class dancers, Olympic athletes, and musicians; investment bankers and small business owners; published authors and military veterans; and people who come from as far away as China, Israel, and Germany. Many students work full-time while pursuing a degree, and many have family responsibilities; others attend classes full-time and experience Columbia's more traditional college life.

Many have enjoyed successful careers in fields such as investment banking and information technology and quite a few are nontraditional due to previous conscription or community service requirements in their home countries. A substantial portion of the population enter as transfer students; the previous schools of these students range from community colleges to Columbia's peer institutions.

Academics

GS students must complete a total of 124 credits to graduate. Up to 60 of these credits may be transferred from another institution; at least 64 credits must be completed at Columbia University.[3]

Core Requirements

The following table lists the core requirements for GS and CC:

GS[4] CC[5]
Writing[6] University Writing University Writing
Literature 2 Literature Courses OR Literature Humanities Literature Humanities
Foreign Language 4th Semester of a Language OR exemption by university exam 4th Semester of a Language OR exemption by university exam
Art Art Humanities, Asian Humanities (Art) or exemption by similar course taken at another institution Art Humanities
Music Music Humanities or Asian Humanities (Music) or exemption by similar course taken at another institution Music Humanities
Humanities/Social Science 2 courses each in Humanities and Social Science (students have the option to take Contemporary Civilization, which satisfies the Social Science requirement. Contemporary Civilization
Quantitative Reasoning Exemption by exam: 600 on Math section of SAT OR any mathematics, statistics, economics, or computer science course, OR Frontiers of Science, which satisfies both a Science and the Quantitative requirements Covered under Science requirement
Physical Education None Swim test, 2 courses
Science 3 science courses, one of which can be Frontiers of Science Frontiers of Science and 2 additional science courses
Cultural Diversity 1 course that focuses on a culture, society, literature, or language of a nation or region that, as a general principle, is located outside the United States, Canada, or Europe. 2 courses from the Major Cultures Approved Courses List

Major Requirements

Major requirements are determined departmentally. These are generally the same for both GS and CC.

Science Po Columbia University Dual BA Program

The Dual BA Program is an intensive, transatlantic course of study for which undergraduate students earn a Bachelor of Arts from Sciences Po and Columbia University. Students will spend two years at one of three Sciences Po campuses, each of which is devoted to a particular region of the world and offers a heavy linguistic and cultural focus. After two years, students will matriculate at Columbia University School of General Studies in New York City to complete the interdisciplinary social sciences curriculum. Admission to the program is most competitive. High school students may apply.

Financial Aid

GS offers scholarships for both newly accepted and continuing students. These scholarships are merit- rather than need-based like that of Columbia college and SEAS.

A common complaint made by GS students is that the financial aid amounts and options offered by GS are smaller than those offered to CC/SEAS students. In the absence of need-based institutional aid, many GS students rely on a combination of loans, external grants, and personal funds. In 2006 the University announced financial aid reforms for CC and SEAS students whose parents earn less than $50,000 annually.

GS does not offer parity with the packages offered to CC/SEAS students. This is because the scholarship system at GS is independent of the financial aid system for CC/SEAS and funding is sourced from a separate GS-only pool. GS has made some recent efforts to address the issue, both through campaigns to increase the endowment and by increasing its scholarship offerings by 10 percent (in 2006.)

Housing

General Studies students are not eligible for the CC/SEAS Room Selection process. However, many GS students receive housing through University Apartment Housing.

History

GS's evolutionary ancestor is Seth Low Junior College, which was established in Brooklyn to help alleviate the steady flood of applicants to Columbia College.

The University Extension program was reorganized and renamed the School of General Studies in 1947, in part to address the influx of GIs returning from World War II. It became Columbia's third official undergraduate school. It is sometimes claimed that Barnard College is Columbia's third undergraduate school, and GS is its fourth; however Barnard is officially only affiliated with Columbia University, while GS, its deans, and students are formally integrated into the university proper, along with Columbia College and the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.

GS originally maintained its own faculty, classes, and programs. In 1968 the University Council first decided to allow GS to grant the B.A. degree in addition to the B.S. In the 1980s it was separated from the Division of Continuing Education. In 1990, the CC, GS, and GSAS faculties were merged into the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

The school's name refers to its diverse student body by alluding to medieval universities, which were also known as studia generalia. Studia generalia were degree-granting institutions that served a much broader, often international group of students and scholars.[7][8]

Myths

  • GS is night school.
GS students attend the same classes as students in other colleges at the university. Columbia offers some classes at night, but they are available to all students.
  • GS is an extension program.
GS is a degree-granting college. Students are expected to pursue a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree. The separate School of Continuing Education offers individual courses on non-degree basis.
  • GS is a back door to CC.
  • It is unclear whether anyone has ever successfully transferred into CC or another Columbia undergraduate school from GS. The official policy reads:

Undergraduates enrolled in the School of General Studies, including Joint Program students, who are interested in transferring to another Columbia or affiliated undergraduate school (Columbia College, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), Barnard College, or List College/JTS) should not submit a transfer application to any of those schools without prior consultation with their GS advisors. Transfer applications from GS to Columbia College, SEAS, or the Joint Program with JTS will not be considered by those schools without a written endorsement from the GS Dean of Students. Endorsements are limited to those students in good standing who have sound academic reasons for seeking to transfer from GS. Joint Program students who are considering the submission of a transfer application to one of the Columbia undergraduate schools, including GS, should also discuss the matter with their GS and JTS advisors; transfer to GS is not automatic for Joint Program students and requires a new application to GS through the Office of Admissions.

Relationship to Columbia College

The School of General Studies is loosely defined as a school for 'non-traditional students.' “Nontraditional students include persons who have interrupted their educations since high school for at least one academic year or individuals who have compelling personal or professional reasons to attend college on a part-time basis. GS is also the college at Columbia for students seeking to complete a second B.A. or B.S. degree.” (Admissions section of the 2006-07 GS Academic Bulletin, pg. 7). [9] Columbia College is for 'traditional students' who matriculate directly from high school and have not had a gap of more than one year in their undergraduate studies. On this basis, students applying to study at Columbia University are directed to the appropriate school.

In December 1968 the University Council decided, over the objections of some members of the Columbia College Faculty, to allow GS to grant the B.A. degree in addition to the B.S. The Board of Trustees authorized that decision in February 1969. As a result, even though GS and CC students are academically indistinguishable- they both receive instruction in the liberal arts and sciences from the Columbia Faculty of Arts and Sciences and receive the Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University.

The somewhat arbitrary delineations between the College and GS have grown as a result of attempts to reconcile the overlap between the schools while justifying the disparate standing of the schools within the University. The wide range of constituents forming the GS student body, from professionals or dropouts returning to school for a degree, to students who took 2 years off before attending college, to 'traditional'-age students enrolled in the Joint Degree Program with List College at JTS, to postbac pre-med students, makes it hard to say just what identity GS students have that makes them so different from their fellow students in the College.

In 2007, the administration floated the idea of a CC-GS merger.[10]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.columbia.edu/cu/opir/abstract/enrollment%20headcount%20by%20school%20all.htm
  2. ↑ Source: 78% of 2006 admitted students transferred credit.
  3. ↑ Source: GS Credit Policies
  4. ↑ School of General Studes Core Requirements
  5. ↑ Columbia College Core Curriculum
  6. ↑ University Writing is required of both GS and CC students, but the sections are divided by school.
  7. ↑ Universities: Introduction
  8. ↑ Janus: ` studium
  9. ↑ Average gap in studies for a GS student in the fall 2006 entering class was 6 years
  10. ↑ http://www.columbiaspectator.com/?q=node/28042

External links

Columbia University Schools
Architecture, Planning and Preservation • Arts • Arts and Sciences (Graduate School) • Business • Columbia College • Dentistry • Continuing Education • Engineering • General Studies • International and Public Affairs • Journalism • Law • Medicine • Nursing • Public Health • Social Work
Affiliated Institutions
Barnard • Jewish Theological Seminary • Teachers College • Union Theological Seminary
Defunct Schools
Pharmacy • Library Service
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