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Columbia University School of General Studies

 
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Columbia University School of General Studies
General Studies Shield
Location United States New York, NY, USA
Campus Urban, 36 acres (0.15 km²) Morningside Heights Campus, 26 acres (0.1 km²) Baker Field athletic complex, 20 acres (0.09 km²) Medical Center, 157 acres (0.64 km²) Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory
Nickname GS
Affiliations Albert A. List College (Jewish Theological Seminary), Hostos Community College and the Juilliard School
Website www.gs.columbia.edu

The School of General Studies, commonly known as General Studies or simply GS, is Columbia University's undergraduate college for non-traditional students.

Contents

Background

GS students have the option to attend part- or full-time (unlike Columbia College, whose students are required to attend full-time). In the 2006 class, the average age was 27 for incoming students, and the majority attend full-time.

GS awards both the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees. Located at Columbia University's Morningside Heights campus, GS is also home to Columbia's Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program, which is the largest and oldest in the United States.

Students at GS take the same classes, with the same professors, and earn the same degree as students in Columbia’s other undergraduate colleges[1], a distinction that makes GS unique in the Ivy League. A Columbia undergraduate class could include students from any of the following schools: GS, Columbia College, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Barnard College.

While Columbia University’s mascot is a lion, the School of General Studies has its own mascot: the owl,

General Studies Student Council's Owl Logo as sketched in 2007

which was selected for two reasons. First, it represents a connection to night classes, which most GS students attended in the School's early days. Second, the owl represents Athena and thus knowledge and wisdom; an owl can be found hiding in the robes of the university's central Alma Mater statue. The school also has a separate motto - "Lux In Tenebris Lucet," Latin for: The light that shines in the darkness.

In 2006, two students were asked by the university to compose the official school song, or Alma Mater. "Columbia, Columbia" was conceived by student/composer Paul Farinella, and lyrics provided by GS student Erich Irving. The fully orchestrated recording premiered in May 2006, during class day. It is hoped that[who?] "Columbia, Columbia" will be given equal consideration and representation as the CC fight song during commencement exercises. "Columbia, Columbia" can be heard via the following link: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/gssc/senior2006/index.shtml "Columbia, Columbia" is the only Alma Mata composed by two students matriculating at a school during the time of its creation.[citation needed]

The school’s name refers to its diverse student body by alluding to medieval universities, which were also known as studia generalia. Unlike the studia partiuclaria, schools that educated only members of a local population, the studia generalia were degree-granting institutions that served a much broader, often international group of students and scholars.[2][3]

History

The GS coat of arms, as first sketched in 1950

Nontraditional education began at Columbia in the 1830s[4]. A formal program, Extension Teaching (later renamed University Extension), was created by Columbia President Nicholas Murray Butler in 1904[4]. GS's evolutionary ancestor, however, is Seth Low Junior College, which was established in Brooklyn to help alleviate the steady of flood of applicants to Columbia College when the College was limiting the number of Jewish applicants [1].

In 1947 University Extension was reorganized as an undergraduate college and designated the School of General Studies, with an influx of students attending the university on the GI Bill[4]. GS has become one of the three undergraduate schools of Columbia University with Columbia College and the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.

In December 1968 the University Council first decided to allow GS to grant the B.A. degree in addition to the B.S., over the objections of some members of the Columbia College Faculty. The Board of Trustees authorized that decision in February 1969. As a result, 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. At the time each of schools had a faculty independent of the other, with professors able to hold joint-appointments between multiple faculties.

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 & Sciences.

Formerly housed in the Alumni House, now known as Buell Hall, the School of General Studies moved to its current location, Lewisohn Hall, in 1964[4].

Nontraditional Students

 This section may be confusing or unclear to readers. Please help clarify the article; suggestions may be found on the talk page. (August 2009)

Columbia defines nontraditional students as those who have interrupted their education for a year or more. Additionally, it includes students who are otherwise traditional but have a strong reason to attend part time (e.g., they must split time with a career in New York's performing arts industry) and students enrolled in the List College Joint Program with Jewish Theological Seminary, which awards two Bachelors of Arts degrees (one from GS, one from JTS) to each graduate.

While there is no typical student, many students share similar histories. Many have enjoyed successful careers in fields such as investment banking and information technology.[citation needed] Several are published authors, and quite a few are nontraditional due to previous conscription or community service requirements in their home countries.[citation needed] Others are able to attend only part time due to work or family commitments. A substantial portion of the population enters as transfer students; the previous schools of these students range from community colleges to Columbia's peer institutions. Some GS students are veterans of the U.S. military, and have their own group, the U.S. Military Veterans of Columbia University (or "MilVets"; see link below). In addition, there is a significant population of former Israeli soldiers who have completed their pre-university military duty.[citation needed]

One can observe some tensions between traditional Columbia College students and untraditional GS students within the Columbia community. Some of the traditional students claim GS as one of Columbia's "back doors" because admission standards for GS students are different than for Columbia College students. In 2007, approximately 39 percent of GS applicants were admitted compared with 9 percent of Columbia College applicants admitted; there are also far fewer applicants to GS than to Columbia College which greatly skews the comparison (18,081 applicants to the College and 926 applicants to GS in 2007 according to the University)[2]. Since the School of General Studies is defined as a school for "non-traditional students," and Columbia College is for "traditional students" who matriculate directly from high school, the criticism is a misunderstanding of the missions of the schools.

For transfer students, a minimum college GPA of 3.00 is required and most successful applicants attain GPAs of at least 3.7 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 [3].

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. GS releases few statistics about its incoming class, leading to speculation that GS lets in students with subpar statistics, which the University then 'hides.' This may also provide the grounds for accusations that GS is a "back door" to a Columbia undergraduate education.

Additionally GS students deal with a dearth of financial aid funding. Because GS is operated separately from the joint administration of CC and SEAS, it is not covered in the plan to eliminate student loans for CC and SEAS students with family incomes below $50,000, an initiative applicable only to the financial aid office under CC/SEAS's Division of Student Affairs.

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 military students 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.

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, which 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. (Brown University and Yale University nontraditional student programs do not have full-fledged undergraduate colleges devoted to nontraditional students, though Brown's RUE Program and Yale's Eli Whitney Students Program are considered among the most integrated nontraditional student programs in the Ivy League. The College of Liberal and Professional Studies at the University of Pennsylvania also serves nontraditional students and offers heavily discounted night classes taught by a faculty that includes tenured professors, adjunct professors, and advanced graduate students (though LPS students also have the option to take day classes)[5].)
  • 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.

Deans

  • Frederick H. Sykes, (1904-1910) Director of Extension Teaching.
  • James C. Egbert, (1910-1942) Director of Extension Teaching/University Extension.
  • Harry Morgan Ayres, (1942-1948) Director of University Extension (re-established as School of General Studies in 1947).
  • John A. Krout, (1948-1951) Acting Director of the School of General Studies
  • Louis M. Hacker, (1951-1958), former student of University Extension. First Dean of the School of General Studies.
  • Cliford L. Lord, (1958-1964)
  • Clarence C. Walton, (1964-1969)
  • Aaron Warner, (1969-1976)
  • Ward H. Dennis, (1977-1992)
  • Caroline W. Bynum, (1993-1994)
  • Gillian Lindt, (1994-1997)
  • Peter J. Awn, (1997-Present)

Notable alumni and attendees

The following list contains some of the notable alumni and attendees of the School of General Studies and its extension school predecessors only. For a full list of people associated with Columbia University as a whole, please see the list of Columbia University people.

An asterisk (*) indicates an attendee who did not graduate.

Alumni of the School of General Studies and its precursors

Student Groups

References

  1. ^ Columbia University School of General Studies
  2. ^ Universities: Introduction
  3. ^ Janus: ` studium
  4. ^ a b c d http://www.gs.columbia.edu/history.htm
  5. ^ University of Pennsylvania's College of General Studies | Bachelor of Arts Degree

Further reading

External links

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Columbia University
Undergraduate
College  · Engineering  · General Studies
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Graduate (Humanities and the
Physical and Social Sciences)
Architecture  · Arts  · GSAS  · Engineering  · SIPA  · Journalism  · Social Work
Graduate (Law, Business,
Health Sciences, and other)
Affiliates
Barnard  · JTS  · Teachers College  · UTS



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