Janitor Graduates from IVY League School
(Monkey, 59
Points)
on 5/14/12 at 11:09am
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47408737/ns/us_news-li...
pretty cool story






Very cool, good for him.
Very cool, good for him.
General Studies. That is NOT
General Studies. That is NOT Ivy League. Any one can sign up for GS, and keep taking a few courses until the requirements are fulfilled.
Look up the difference between Columbia College and School of General Studies.
cool
cool
asshole, that's a man with
asshole, that's a man with pride
seedy underbelly: General
General Studies. That is NOT Ivy League. Any one can sign up for GS, and keep taking a few courses until the requirements are fulfilled.
Look up the difference between Columbia College and School of General Studies.
Way to completely miss the point.
seedy underbelly: Any one can
Any one can sign up for GS, and keep taking a few courses until the requirements are fulfilled.
Note to self
General Studies. That is NOT Ivy League.
Yeah? Do most employers know the difference?
YOU JUST GOT TROLLED
http://www.troll.me/images/red-foreman322/dont-you...
"I was educated in my family
"I was educated in my family — not to look for fame and fortune, but to have a simple, honest, honorable life,"
I guess the dude got 15 minutes of fame without trying. Cool story
YOU JUST GOT TROLLED
http://www.troll.me/images/red-foreman322/dont-you...
Much Respect
Much Respect
Simplicity is the highest form of sophistication ~ Leonardo da Vinci
Good for him. Glad he is
Good for him. Glad he is happy.
Work hard, play hard.
inspiring... "The richness is
inspiring...
"The richness is in me, in my heart and in my head, not in my pockets," said Filipaj,
this is an awesome story. Do
this is an awesome story. Do you think there could be a movie about it?
Bingo. It seems like many
Bingo. It seems like many people in New York are unhappy with their lives, and this guy seems pretty darned content simply with what he has. We should be happy for him and his own form of richness. Congrats to the 52 year old Janitor who graduated Columbia and enjoys reading the classics.
"The richness is in me, in my heart and in my head, not in my pockets," said Filipaj, who is now an American citizen.
Soon after, the feisty, 5-foot-4 janitor picked up a broom and dustpan and went back to work.
I like this guy. He's got things figured out.
Work hard, play hard.
seedy underbelly: General
General Studies. That is NOT Ivy League. Any one can sign up for GS, and keep taking a few courses until the requirements are fulfilled.
Look up the difference between Columbia College and School of General Studies.
Okay, now that you’ve heard the traditional opaque message board conjecture, let’s get some facts about Columbia GS on the table.
The GS program at Columbia University is, in every way, an Ivy League college within an Ivy League university. GS students take the same classes, with the same faculty, alongside all other Columbia undergraduates. They are also held to the same academic standards and are graded on the same curves as their Columbia College and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences counterparts. Columbia GS students also have to complete a Core Curriculum – a curriculum that is, ostensibly, exactly the same as Columbia College’s Core. Furthermore, GS students can join, and are regularly apart of, Columbia’s athletic teams. The Ivy League, despite its altered meaning in the American lexicon, is, at its core, an athletic conference. As such, GS students are, by proxy, Ivy Leaguers. An education between a Columbia College student and a General Sutdies student is virtually identical.
Core Curriculum comparision:
http://www.wikicu.com/School_of_General_Studies#Co...
“The School of General Studies, commonly known as General Studies or simply GS, is one of Columbia University's three official undergraduate colleges. It is a highly selective liberal arts college known for its non-traditional and international students. GS confers the Bachelor of Art and Bachelor of Science degrees in over seventy 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.”
http://www.wikicu.com/School_of_General_Studies
Simple logic here: Columbia Univeristy is in the Ivy League. Columbia GS is an official undergraduate college of Columbia University. Therefore, Columbia GS is an Ivy League school.
Here are few more facts (many of the links are furnished by Wikicu, which is Columbia University’s unofficial encyclopedia):
Columbia GS students have the highest overall GPA of all of Columbia’s undergraduate colleges:
“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.” Link: http://www.wikicu.com/School_of_General_Studies#Ba...
And while Columbia GS’ admissions rate is much greater than Columbia College’s, it is still “highly selective.”
“Admission to Columbia GS is highly selective. According to the College Board, the GS acceptance rate is 23%. 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. 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.”
Aside from the their different admissions policies, GS and CC students are, in essence, academically indistiguishable. For Gac Filipaj to graduate with honors, comepting for grades with students from across Columbia’s three official undergraduate colleges, while working full-time as a janior, is rather incredible. In fact, it is almost unbelievable.
Columbia GS students earn the same degrees as all other Columbia undergraduates:
Per Columbia’s webiste: “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.”
http://www.gs.columbia.edu/admissions-faqs
Academically, GS students are fully integrated into the undergraduate curriculum:
“GS students take the same courses as all other Columbia undergraduates, are taught by the same professors in the same classes, and are fully integrated into Columbia's undergraduate curriculum.”
http://www.gs.columbia.edu/admissions-faqs
GS students are a part of the Ivy Council:
“The Ivy Council draws its membership from the Brown University Undergraduate Council of Students, Columbia University (in particular the Columbia College Student Council, the Columbia Engineering Student Council, and the Columbia General Studies Student Council), the Cornell University Student Assembly, the Dartmouth College Student Assembly, the Harvard University Undergraduate Council, the University of Pennsylvania Undergraduate Assembly, the Princeton University Undergraduate Student Government, and the Yale College Council.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_Council#Member_sc...
Is GS as competitive as Columbia's traditional undergraduate colleges?
“Yes. Columbia University School of General Studies (GS) is as competitive as Columbia's traditional undergraduate colleges, which include Columbia College, the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, and affiliate Barnard College. Though admission requirements differ slightly from the aforementioned schools because of our nontraditional student applicant pool, GS admits only the best and the brightest prospective students.”
http://www.gs.columbia.edu/admissions-faqs
Do GS students go on to prestigious graduate schools and finance careers?
“More than 70 percent of GS students go on to earn advanced degrees after graduation. Columbia GS students have been admitted to top graduate programs all over the country including law schools at Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, the University of Chicago, NYU, the University of Pennsylvania, UC Berkeley (Boalt Hall), Duke, and Cornell. They have also been admitted to medicals schools at Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins, Duke, Stanford, UC San Francisco, Yale, Columbia, the University of Chicago, Cornell, and many others. In recent years, GS graduates have been recruited by investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, UBS, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Citigroup.”
http://www.wikicu.com/School_of_General_Studies#Pl...
So, in conclusion, Columbia GS students earn the same degrees (BA/BS) as all other Columbia undergraduates. They can join Ivy League athletic teams. They take the same classes, with the same faculty, alongside all of Columbia’s undergraduates. Is the admission’s process different? Yes. But, is Columbia GS still highly selective (given its much smaller applicant pool)? Yes. And, aside from admission rates, SAT scores, and high school performances, let us focus on what is arguably the most important measure of one’s merit – within the context of an Ivy League school: how one performs while in college. Columbia GS students have the highest overall GPA among all three of Columbia’s official undergraduate colleges. The admissions committee, while admitting a higher percentage of people, must be doing something right. Gac Filipaj graudated with honors, thus he obviously performed quite well, and fully deserves to be labeled an Ivy League graduate.
tsar10027: seedy
General Studies. That is NOT Ivy League. Any one can sign up for GS, and keep taking a few courses until the requirements are fulfilled.
Look up the difference between Columbia College and School of General Studies.
Okay, now that you’ve heard the traditional opaque message board conjecture, let’s get some facts about Columbia GS on the table.
The GS program at Columbia University is, in every way, an Ivy League college within an Ivy League university. GS students take the same classes, with the same faculty, alongside all other Columbia undergraduates. They are also held to the same academic standards and are graded on the same curves as their Columbia College and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences counterparts. Columbia GS students also have to complete a Core Curriculum – a curriculum that is, ostensibly, exactly the same as Columbia College’s Core. Furthermore, GS students can join, and are regularly apart of, Columbia’s athletic teams. The Ivy League, despite its altered meaning in the American lexicon, is, at its core, an athletic conference. As such, GS students are, by proxy, Ivy Leaguers. An education between a Columbia College student and a General Sutdies student is virtually identical.
Core Curriculum comparision:
http://www.wikicu.com/School_of_General_Studies#Co...
“The School of General Studies, commonly known as General Studies or simply GS, is one of Columbia University's three official undergraduate colleges. It is a highly selective liberal arts college known for its non-traditional and international students. GS confers the Bachelor of Art and Bachelor of Science degrees in over seventy 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.”
http://www.wikicu.com/School_of_General_Studies
Simple logic here: Columbia Univeristy is in the Ivy League. Columbia GS is an official undergraduate college of Columbia University. Therefore, Columbia GS is an Ivy League school.
Here are few more facts (many of the links are furnished by Wikicu, which is Columbia University’s unofficial encyclopedia):
Columbia GS students have the highest overall GPA of all of Columbia’s undergraduate colleges:
“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.” Link: http://www.wikicu.com/School_of_General_Studies#Ba...
And while Columbia GS’ admissions rate is much greater than Columbia College’s, it is still “highly selective.”
“Admission to Columbia GS is highly selective. According to the College Board, the GS acceptance rate is 23%. 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. 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.”
Aside from the their different admissions policies, GS and CC students are, in essence, academically indistiguishable. For Gac Filipaj to graduate with honors, comepting for grades with students from across Columbia’s three official undergraduate colleges, while working full-time as a janior, is rather incredible. In fact, it is almost unbelievable.
Columbia GS students earn the same degrees as all other Columbia undergraduates:
Per Columbia’s webiste: “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.”
http://www.gs.columbia.edu/admissions-faqs
Academically, GS students are fully integrated into the undergraduate curriculum:
“GS students take the same courses as all other Columbia undergraduates, are taught by the same professors in the same classes, and are fully integrated into Columbia's undergraduate curriculum.”
http://www.gs.columbia.edu/admissions-faqs
GS students are a part of the Ivy Council:
“The Ivy Council draws its membership from the Brown University Undergraduate Council of Students, Columbia University (in particular the Columbia College Student Council, the Columbia Engineering Student Council, and the Columbia General Studies Student Council), the Cornell University Student Assembly, the Dartmouth College Student Assembly, the Harvard University Undergraduate Council, the University of Pennsylvania Undergraduate Assembly, the Princeton University Undergraduate Student Government, and the Yale College Council.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_Council#Member_sc...
Is GS as competitive as Columbia's traditional undergraduate colleges?
“Yes. Columbia University School of General Studies (GS) is as competitive as Columbia's traditional undergraduate colleges, which include Columbia College, the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, and affiliate Barnard College. Though admission requirements differ slightly from the aforementioned schools because of our nontraditional student applicant pool, GS admits only the best and the brightest prospective students.”
http://www.gs.columbia.edu/admissions-faqs
Do GS students go on to prestigious graduate schools and finance careers?
“More than 70 percent of GS students go on to earn advanced degrees after graduation. Columbia GS students have been admitted to top graduate programs all over the country including law schools at Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, the University of Chicago, NYU, the University of Pennsylvania, UC Berkeley (Boalt Hall), Duke, and Cornell. They have also been admitted to medicals schools at Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins, Duke, Stanford, UC San Francisco, Yale, Columbia, the University of Chicago, Cornell, and many others. In recent years, GS graduates have been recruited by investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, UBS, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Citigroup.”
http://www.wikicu.com/School_of_General_Studies#Pl...
So, in conclusion, Columbia GS students earn the same degrees (BA/BS) as all other Columbia undergraduates. They can join Ivy League athletic teams. They take the same classes, with the same faculty, alongside all of Columbia’s undergraduates. Is the admission’s process different? Yes. But, is Columbia GS still highly selective (given its much smaller applicant pool)? Yes. And, aside from admission rates, SAT scores, and high school performances, let us focus on what is arguably the most important measure of one’s merit – within the context of an Ivy League school: how one performs while in college. Columbia GS students have the highest overall GPA among all three of Columbia’s official undergraduate colleges. The admissions committee, while admitting a higher percentage of people, must be doing something right. Gac Filipaj graudated with honors, thus he obviously performed quite well, and fully deserves to be labeled an Ivy League graduate.
What nonsense. There are GS students in class on oxygen tanks who are only here because Columbia wants their money. Admitting old high school and college dropouts and having them pay full is Columbia's pathetic way of funding the Core.
And shut up with the highest GPA nonsense. You people take 1 or 2 classes a semester (half are part-time). A monkey could get a decent GPA at Columbia taking two classes a semester.
Don't even compare GS-trash to CC. It seems the admissions office over at GS is spending a little too much time on internet forums.
"What nonsense. There are GS
"What nonsense. There are GS students in class on oxygen tanks who are only here because Columbia wants their money. Admitting old high school and college dropouts and having them pay full is Columbia's pathetic way of funding the Core.
And shut up with the highest GPA nonsense. You people take 1 or 2 classes a semester (half are part-time). A monkey could get a decent GPA at Columbia taking two classes a semester.
Don't even compare GS-trash to CC. It seems the admissions office over at GS is spending a little too much time on internet forums."
Through this response it is quite clear that this person has never even stepped foot on Columbia's campus, and has virtually no knowledge of the University outside of a few lazy internet searches. His entire worldview, as one could easily deduce through his uninformed, vitriolic posts screams of insecurity - an insecurity grounded in a kind of rapacious ignorance.
Now, lets break down his nonsensical response:
"There are GS students in class on oxygen tanks who are only here because Columbia wants their money."
-How do you know this? Are you in some way privy to the inner-workings of the Columbia University undergraduate system? Again, this statement is pure conjecture and not based on any kind of factual information. I, on the other hand, have provided links and facts to buttress my points.
"And shut up with the highest GPA nonsense. You people take 1 or 2 classes a semester (half are part-time)"
-Again, another nonsensical point that has no grounding in reality. No facts back up this claim. It is merely this poster's uninformed opinion. Here, however, is a fact: "... the average age was 27 for incoming students, and the majority attend full-time." Last I checked, a majority is far more than half - or whatever number this poster culled from thin air.
http://www.wikicu.com/School_of_General_Studies#Ad...
"A monkey could get a decent GPA at Columbia taking two classes a semester."
-This point really crystallizes this poster's utter lack of knowledge regarding the rigors of a Columbia education. Only someone who has never been in a Columbia classroom, or competed for grades with some of the brightest undergraduate minds in country, could make such a claim. I'm guessing any actual Columbia student would laugh at this ridiculous statement.
^ 3.7 GPA taking 6 classes
seedy underbelly: ^ 3.7 GPA
seedy underbelly: What
Work hard, play hard.
I just don't understand why
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
happypantsmcgee: I just don't
You're born, you take shit. You get out in the world, you take more shit. You climb a little higher, you take less shit. Till one day you're up in the rarefied atmosphere and you've forgotten what shit even looks like. Welcome to the layer cake, son.
tsar10027: Last I checked, a
I hate victims who respect their executioners
Follow BH & Co. on Twitter: @DumbLuckCapital
twitter.com/DumbLuckCapital
IlliniProgrammer: Columbia
YOU JUST GOT TROLLED
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seedy underbelly: ^ 3.7 GPA
seedy underbelly: Columbia's
YOU JUST GOT TROLLED
http://www.troll.me/images/red-foreman322/dont-you...
UFOinsider: Not sure if
Work hard, play hard.
IlliniProgrammer: UFOinside
YOU JUST GOT TROLLED
http://www.troll.me/images/red-foreman322/dont-you...
.....one could argue that
Work hard, play hard.
happypantsmcgee: I just don't
Right so why not make that
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
seedy
Look, I'm just thrilled that
Work hard, play hard.
whether its columbia or
I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred million dollars, buddy. A player. Or nothing.
I just love how everybody who
"WSO is like the 300 for anti spamage. None shall pass." -happypantsmcgee
"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer
seedy underbelly: General
OK, I think the bus that
Work hard, play hard.
Seedy, all seriousness, you
seedy
This was a great thread until
Work hard, play hard.
Really inspiring. Nothing I
NextPay is an innovative global Secure Online Processing company
Seedy is like Brady 2.0
"Teachers open the door, you enter by yourself".
Guys spitting truth. Hot
Immortal Technique.
Say what you guys want, but
seedy underbelly: Say what
YOU JUST GOT TROLLED
http://www.troll.me/images/red-foreman322/dont-you...
UFOinsider: seedy
1.) Seedy is a 22-year-old
Work hard, play hard.
Whenever IP says 'back to my
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
Ok, actually, it's less cool
Work hard, play hard.
seedy underbelly: Say what
One of the marks of wisdom is
Work hard, play hard.