Too High a Price for a GS Education?

Was it a mistake to come to Columbia? Having amassed nearly $70,000 in student debt, it’s a nagging question. It’s impossible to put a price tag on my education thus far, but as I enter the job market, I am taking stock of what it has been worth in the grand scheme of things.

Columbia prides itself on being a place where students learn to think. Hence, we offer a liberal arts regime as opposed to vocational degrees in marketing, finance, or communication. We all want to be employed when we graduate, but I for one came here hoping that the quality of my education would enable me to make a difference in the world. I know I am not alone in this desire. If not the inherent assumption of the Ivy League, that is the allure.

At the School of General Studies, the overwhelming majority of us major in either political science, economics, or pre-medical fields in spite of a multitude of curricular offerings. Most of us are here to become doctors, bankers, and lawyers. This can partly be attributed to our proximity to Wall Street and the profusion of major law firms whose headquarters are in Manhattan. However, there are other more practical concerns—these are jobs that pay well, and Columbia is a very expensive school.

The cost of a Columbia education continues to soar while the job outlook is considerably bumpier than it was just 12 months ago. The go-to employers—investment houses and hedge funds—are laying off employees by the thousands in the wake of the subprime mortgage meltdown. As our economy flounces into a recession, I’m no longer worried about getting a job with a six-figure salary—I’m just hoping to land employment with health insurance. Again, I’m sure I’m not the only senior to feel this way.

Granted, I am lucky to be in debt only $70,000 when private and federal loans are totaled up. A married friend of mine has upwards of $120,000 in debt with a full year left. There are also many of my classmates who enrolled only to leave after one or two terms because they could no longer afford it. The price of my full-time enrollment is two decades’ worth of debt. I’m still waiting to see what the benefit will be relative to the cost.

I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but I know that we can do better. While it can be argued that an Ivy League education is a choice and not a privilege, it is incumbent upon our administration to provide the necessary financial support to GS undergraduates who are here. Financial concerns are foremost in many of our minds and have detrimental and long-lasting effects on our experience as Columbia students. This is often a burden our peers do not understand or appreciate. Although financial aid to undergraduates at Barnard, SEAS, and Columbia College may seem insufficient, those students are fortunate to receive scholarships based on need. This is not currently possible at GS.

GS succeeds in providing an unrivaled educational experience to adults and non-traditional students. However, it struggles to provide the same level of service as the peer institutions within Columbia University, and it does so at greater individual expense. GS students are right to demand more of their administration and the University as a whole.
Perhaps GS needs to be much smaller, focusing its resources and energy upon enhancing the level of services available so that no one leaves Columbia feeling their experience was lacking. In the short term, GS should be given the resources to bolster the staff in the Dean of Students Office. While I often antagonize the deans, I adore them for the tremendous job they do with such limited resources.

Additionally, the Center for Career Education has been a nonentity in my career search. This is largely my fault for not proactively seeking their help. During the fall, I sat in on an information session for student leaders and learned that CCE has added new staff and launched initiatives as the result of funding increases mandated by President Lee Bollinger. While any investment in students is welcome, CCE still suffers from the perception that it is an appendage of the investment banks. I have not utilized the resources at CCE because I’m not interested in banking or consulting, which seem to be their specialty.

Going forward, it would be nice to see CCE play a more prominent role in the GS job se
arch. Because many of us have left careers to attend school, it would be easy to leverage our past experiences. Those same experiences we bring to Columbia can also be harnessed as an asset for students from the other undergraduate colleges. It’s all a question of resources and priorities.

Ultimately there is never enough money. Even a behemoth like the Pentagon complains of being underfunded, though as a civilian I can’t imagine how. With an endowment of over $4 billion, I refuse to believe Columbia’s hands are tied when it comes to funding the education of all undergraduates. Dean Peter J. Awn likes to joke, “At GS, we are expensive but we are worth it.” In six months, jobless, indebted graduates will look back on those words and they may very well say the experience was overpriced and that it was definitely not worth it.

The author is a student in the school of General Studies studying urban studies. He is the senior class president.