How is Columbia GS school viewed by BBs?

Columbia GS is for people who choose not to attend college directly after high school graduation, whether it's for military, opening your own business... From what I heard they basically receive the same education as other columbia kids, and they all get Columbia University diploma. The difference is that they are older, and that they can be better candidates for BB simply because their experience before entering college is broader. Anyone care to add more?

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=326095

I know what GS is. What does that link have to do with my question?

the diploma/transcript is almost identical but yours will say "General Studies" -you will probably not get university housing (GS students are served last) -you will probably have to pay full tuition unless you are very very good and get merit aid -most people in GS have already started their careers, etc and you will be at a disadvantage for some of the more competitive on-campus-recruiting events -You need a hard shell to put up with bashing from elitiest Columbia College students

from the link

I know that this is not the opinion of general population, but I have a friend @ CC who calls Bernard a school of sluts and GS as acronym for "Generally Stupid"...

well I guess you just need to be prepared for that... (though I wouldn't care if I was in your position)

Yeah I'm prepared for the typical elitist attitude of a lot of kids at Ivies.

I've actually heard from some students that GS is not viewed as negatively as some say.

Anyone want to answer my original question?

i went to gs. i wouldn't pay much mind to all of the nonsense, you take classes with all the CC kids and have to jump through ALMOST all the same requirements as them.

If you do well, you're as good as any of them.

I eventually left GS and went to a top ivy med school. GS was great and it really prepared me because Columbia is so competitive and gives you a great education

Anyone else have more thoughts on this? I am asking with regard to the BB's because there is a misconception about GS students being infereior in some places, is this often the view of recruiters?

I am trying to decide between Cornell (AEM) and Columbia GS (Econ and Operations Research, with some FE classes)

Thanks

Go to Cornell AEM before you ever go t Columbia GS

It seems like it would be better to be in the city so you can do internships during the year/be closer to recruiting, etc....

Go with Cornell AEM. I took the liberty of posing your question to a few columbia alums who are on the recruiting team at my bank. They're response is that they "would not treat a Columbia GS kid the same as a Columbia College kid." Apparently in GS, you only have 'concentrations' versus a real major. The most popular concentration is creative writing, and the real merit of the GS program comes from their postbac premed program.

*note, i am just relaying what my buddy who's a columbia alum said.

Thanks HerSerendipity. I appreciate you asking someone from the recruiting team. This is a really tough decision since I want to go more into trading (replied to a thread in banking, I know), and I would be doing a Joint Major in econ/operations research and trying to do a concentration in financial engineering. I think this would be more applicable to a trading desk than AEM, but if its not recruited as well then I guess I'll have to weigh that into my decision. Thanks for everyone's help.

it's not your university or degree that will get you onto a trading desk

I know people who just graduated from GS this year. They are now at Goldman, Morgan Stanley and other BBs as IB analysts. Although there are obviously old people in GS who sit in the front row, some are about the same age as we are. I know GS people transferred from UPenn, Princeton, Harvard for whatever reasons and people who went to elite schools like Collegiate, Andover, Eton, etc. And there are several professional models and ex-military guys too.

Can't comment on how general studies is viewed by BBs, since I've only been on the other side. But GS is essentially a cash cow for the Columbia administration. Their "scholarships" cover only a small fraction of the bill and many graduate with significant debts. GS students can virtually take the same classes as CC, but alot of social CC events are barred from them (e.g. residential events). I'm sure GS is a diverse school, so there is a large number of really old guys whose best intellectual days are behind them as well as foreign students who speak no normal engleese.

Culturally there is definitely a distinction between CC and GS. I'm guessing recruiting teams can pick it up.

get real every one can through the bs you either go to the main campus program or you don't

don't kid your self

Hi all,

I wanted to post all the information I could to help educate people who are considering GS, but are having second thoughts due to the negative posts throughout the majority of these [ivy league] college forums. I was recently admitted into Columbia GS, a fact that I take tremendous pride in, and the decision to apply to Columbia was not a hard one to make. *(A little side note about myself: I do not rush into decisions that will have a tremendous impact on my life both mentally and financially). I wanted to be as thorough as possible after considering Columbia GS, so I read and researched just about everything I could that had to do, or mentioned, Columbia GS and this is what I have found:

Brief Overview: Columbia GS is one of the official three undergraduate schools at Columbia University, dedicated to non-traditional students. The other two undergraduate schools that make up Columbia University are Columbia College and Columbia Engineering (formerly known as SEAS), which are dedicated to traditional students. You must apply to GS if you have taken at least a one year break in your education, and you cannot apply to either CC/CE if you have taken more than two semester course loads at another school. In addition, you are automatically ineligible to apply to CC if you have taken over a year break from school. Also, you cannot apply to more than one school during the same cycle.

Being that all three schools are official undergraduate schools of Columbia University, they are all considered to be in the "Ivy League". Some have questioned the prestige of Columbia GS because the admissions process and criteria differs from that of CC, but it should also be mentioned that CE too has a completely different admission process and criteria from either schools. This is because all three schools have different admission committees that review their own applicants for each specific school, thus the different admission rates for each school. The rankings are based on the combined average CC/CE admission rates. GS rates are excluded in the overall admission rates, because (from what I've gathered): 1.) Most applicants for GS are transfers opposed to first year students 2.) GS applicants are non-traditional it would not make sense to lump them into the admission rates with the other traditional applicants considering there is different criteria that are examined. Nearly all the other schools in the nation only record traditional students admission rates, it only makes sense for Columbia to do the same. *if there are more logical reasons I'm sure someone else with add to this section.

Now, I have no idea what life is like at Columbia nor after graduation, but the fact of the matter is that GS is a part of Columbia U, regardless of how the other students or peers throughout academia view GS students. Prestige has become synonymous with admission rates, but I would not be too worried about GS admission rates considering there is only a fraction of qualified applicants able to apply to GS (about 1500-2000 transfer apps) compared to the 34,000 first year apps CC/CE had this past year. Not to mention CE had admission rates varying between 23-31% prior to 2006. In reality if you took CC/CE admissions rate for 2005(I believe this is the correct year) CC had a rate of 12% and CE had a rate of 31% making their combined rate about 21.5%, similar to the rate of what GS posted recently. Their marks have come down dramatically in recent years (especially after Obama was elected in 2008), but this is because of the substantial increase in applicants. As the years pass, GS will continue to have lower acceptance rates as it becomes more well known (if you want to look at it in that light).

As for the classes, there are only a few that GS students can't automatically register for (I believe they can petition for registration into these courses however), but they have the same equivalent courses in the GS sections. The rest of the classes, including the core requirements are the same and integrated. You learn side by side with the other students of the college as well as from the same professors, and graduate with the same Columbia University degree, with only minor adjustments:

GS diploma: Regarding the School of General Studies Diploma | General Studies This is an image of the diploma, posted on the GS website

CE diploma: File:SEASdiploma2003.jpg - WikiCU, the Columbia University wiki encyclopedia As you can see this is nearly identical to the GS diploma (along with 13 graduate school diploma)

CC diploma: File:Ccdiploma2007.jpg - WikiCU, the Columbia University wiki encyclopedia Diplomas - WikiCU, the Columbia University wiki encyclopedia Only CC and Columbia Law have diplomas in Latin, but are worded the same as the other diplomas (including the GS diploma)

The only real difference you will find with these diplomas are the dean's signature line. They will correspond to the specific school in which you attended (ie: General Studies, Columbia College, etc..)

One last this I wanted to reiterate, is that GS is a unique school within the "Ivy League". There is no other "Ivy League" school that houses a specific undergraduate college for non-traditional students. Yale and Brown have programs within their college, but they are not schools of either institution. Yale only accepts about 5-10 transfers (and usually they are extreme cases such as Mike Richter - former NY Rangers Goaltender) into their Eli Whitney program, who graduate with a degree from Yale College, because there is no other undergraduate school at Yale. The same goes for Brown's RUE program; however, you must be away from school for at least 5 years. The other programs mentioned on this board that were compared to GS were Harvard extension and UPenn LPS. Harvard extension is similar to Columbia's School of Continued Education, but is open enrollment. You can take courses at Harvard under certain contingencies, and you will not be fully integrated as some people alluded to. UPenn's LPS is not a school, it is actually a program housed within another college (School of Arts & Sciences) at UPenn.

I hope this helps. It was late when I put this together, so please forgive any misspellings or shortcomings. If I left out any information, I will add it another time.

I'm a GS student. I just took an offer at JPMorgan. Banks dont care if you're cc or GS or barnard or not. Campus recruiters meet everyone and you'll be interviewed and offered a position as long your grades, and technical knowledge are up to par. I've taken everyone of my classes with undergrads from all other schools for the exception of some core classes (lit hum, cc, university writing).

For the record I'm a computer science - mathematics MAJOR. I could pick a concentration but it is separate from my major (just like columbia college or barnard).

I don't know why you want to go to a school outside the city when wall street is your end goal. I can't tell you how often we meet alumni and representatives from these banks. In fact, since there are a lot of ex-military students in GS, we get even MORE recruiting opportunities than the rest of campus for positions in TOP banks. Big banks LOVE military employees, and 99% of the time military alumni from Columbia go to GS or the business school (if you take a year off school and/or have over 20 colllege credits you CANNOT go to columbia college, you MUST apply to GS if you want to go to Columbia).

I forgot to share a link that proves that GS students and columbia college have the same requirements for the majors. This link is for computer science major (in fact any major, CS-math, CS-stat). Notice that the requirements are broken down by schools but CC and GS have the SAME required classes.

http://www.cs.columbia.edu/education/undergrad

I think living in NY and being able to network weekly, if not daily, is a tremendous boon for choosing GS over Cornell. You can also even find part time internships at not so well known boutiques to give you experience. I knew some people who graduated from GS and to me the diversity of their experiences in their "prior life" makes them much more interesting to talk to.

I knew someone at BB who went to GS

There will always be some w/an elitist bias who look down on it - obvious

She was regarding as one of the best analysts, so eventually people shut up

Point is go into this knowing: (i) BB jobs are available from GS, if that's your thing, (ii) some will look down on it, some will not, many won't know the difference, and (iii) ability to perform wins out

Thank you for your information. I am Jack CAI, a newly admitted student in General Studies School of Columbia. I will do my best to chase my dream and follow my heart.

One of my good friends was Columbia GS. He had an atrocious GPA (in the 2's) and got multiple BB offers. I think GS is viewed fine and if anything I think you'd have a better shot in recruiting from GS than CC, assuming you had cool experiences in your time off.

Anecdotally, one of my fellow interns is Columbia GS, and apparently he was a baller during interviews (multiple offers, some on the spot, etc.) Citi IBD, btw.

lol

.

If you want the answer to your question, look at the curriculum. Columbia's GS major in Mathematical Economics is no walk in the park. The curriculum is rigorous and challenging but most importantly prepares you very well for a career in Investment Banking.

While Columbia School of General Studies is generally for the non-traditional student, admissions to this school at Columbia University is highly competitive as is managing to keep the GPA to stay in the program.

The main difference between CC and GS is that GS is meant for non-traditional students, i.e. students who graduated from high school more than a year before starting college. Realistically, no one would ever be deciding between CC and GS. If you are going straight to college out of high school, you would only apply to CC and not GS. If you've had a break since high school, you would not be eligible for CC and would have to apply to GS.

A few posters have mentioned knowing examples of GS grads who went on to get successful jobs in IB, which is certainly true. The important thing to recognize is that "non-traditional" students represent a really broad spectrum. The number of years you took between high school and college and what you did during that time can determine how competitive a candidate you would be. For example, veterans and former professional dancers entering GS in their mid-twenties tend to do very well after graduation. If you've had a much longer break, then it will likely be an uphill battle.