Columbia University School of General Studies Totally Explained

Everything about Columbia University School Of General Studies totally explained

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

Background

Unlike Columbia College, whose students are required to attend full-time, students in GS have the option of attending part-, half-, or full-time. Slightly less than half of students attend part- or half-time, and slightly more than half 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.
   The school is one of two such colleges in the Ivy League, the other being the College of General Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. While both Brown University and Yale University have similar programs, these programs are not colleges and are much smaller and less fully integrated. GS students take the same courses, with the same faculty, as students in Columbia's other undergraduate colleges. 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, 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.
   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.

History

Nontraditional education began at Columbia in the 1830s. A formal program, Extension Teaching (later renamed University Extension), was created by Columbia President Nicholas Murray Butler in 1904. 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. The college was first authorized by the University Council to grant the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1968; previously, the school only granted Bachelor of Science degrees.
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.

Nontraditional Students

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 (for example, 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's no typical student, many students share similar histories. Many have enjoyed successful careers in fields such as investment banking and information technology. Several are published authors, and quite a few are nontraditional due to previous conscription or community service requirements in their home countries. 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's a significant population of former Israeli soldiers who have completed their pre-university military duty.

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 didn't graduate.

Alumni of the School of General Studies and its precursors

Ira Gershwin* (1918) Attended pre-medical classes, Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer.

Amelia Earhart* (1920) Attended one semester, American aviator and early female pilot.

Simon Kuznets (1923), Nobel Prize-winning economist.

David O. Selznick* (1923), Hollywood Producer, King Kong (1933 film), Gone with the Wind

Federico García Lorca* (1929), Attended briefly, Spanish poet and dramatist.

Isaac Asimov (1939), science fiction writer and biochemist

Jane Jacobs* (1940s), Attended for two years, author The Death and Life of Great American Cities, urban theorist and activist.

Baruj Benacerraf (1942), Nobel Prize-winning immunologist.

Telly Savalas (1946), Actor, Emmy-award winner and Oscar nominee.

Ossie Davis (1948), Actor and social activist, Emmy- and Golden Globe-award nominee.

John W. Backus (1950), Developer of Fortran, the first true computer language.

Anthony Perkins* (1950s), Actor and writer.

Donald Clarence Judd (1953), Artist.

Donald Richie (1953), Film Critic.

Sandy Koufax* (1955), Pitcher for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Mike Gravel (1956), Former US Senator from Alaska and candidate for the 2008 Democratic nomination for President of the United States. Released full Pentagon Papers.

Pat Boone (1957), Singer and actor.

Hunter S. Thompson, (1958). Writer.

Mary McFadden (1959), Fashion Designer

Edward Klein (1960), Author.

R.W. Apple (1961), New York Times associate editor.

John Tauranac (1963), Chief designer of the New York City subway map of 1979.

Jehuda Reinharz (1964), President of Brandeis University

Malcolm Borg (1965), Chairman of North Jersey Media Group (formerly Macromedia, Inc.) owner of The Record (Bergen County)

Jacques Pepin (1970), French Chef.

Edward Cecil Harris (1971), Creator of the Harris matrix.

Peter H. Kostmayer (1971), Former (D) Congressman Pennsylvania.

Roger Pilon (1971), Constitutional scholar and legal theorist.

Kristi Zea (1974), Production designer and producer. Academy Award Nominee for Best Picture, As Good As It Gets. (1997)

Howard Dean (1975), Postbaccalureate Premedical Program. Former Governor of Vermont and current Chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Howard G. Chua-Eoan (1983), News Director, TIME.

Gil Shaham (1990), Violinist.

Ted Rall (1991), Syndicated cartoonist.

Trent Dimas (2002), Olympic Gold-medalist in gymnastics.

Student Groups

Columbia Dramatists.

University Postbac Premed Association

Columbia Producers and Directors Club.

Studies Student Council

, the student governing body of GS.

General Studies Theatre Company.

US Military Veterans of Columbia University (MilVets)

, a student-veterans group.

Non-Traditional Students Action Coalition.

The Observer, a literary magazine.

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