Money
2017-11-01T12:33:27.752Z
In an email to the Columbia community, University President Lee Bollinger announced a bold plan to commit $100 million over the next five fiscal years to build a more “diverse faculty and student body.” The University’s ambition is commendable: “It is a fundamental premise ... that scholarship and teaching are strengthened immeasurably by having a diverse faculty and student body.”
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2017-07-17T03:59:36.625Z
Budgeting sounds easy enough, but that holy trinity of extortionate New York prices, the inevitable busyness of college, and the fact that keeping control of random expenses is like a game of Whack-a-Mole will leave both your wallet and your soul empty soon enough.
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2017-07-17T01:06:35.909Z
Now that you’re a college student, you have some degree of control over your money. However, you may find that no matter how much you budget, you might still end up not having as much cash as you’d like. Before you fire up Google (“How much for a black market kidney,” anyone?) research some easier (and legal) ways to make and save money on campus.
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2017-07-16T23:41:03.651Z
A lot of people go into college thinking that the cost is limited to tuition payments. But with pricey textbooks, living essentials, and transportation, you can end up spending much more than planned. Keep note of these frequent money drainers and budget accordingly.
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2016-12-06T21:00:05Z
Egg donation organizations know that the price tag of a Barnard or Columbia degree threatens students' financial futures. They advertise all over campus—on bulletin boards in Hamilton and Butler, and frequently in the classifieds section of Spectator.
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2016-12-05T05:00:04Z
This Friday, almost 400 Columbia women from all schools and all years will begin the process of formal recruitment for sororities. The process involves three rounds of mandatory networking events, referred to as "parties," which result in bids given to new members at the end of formal recruitment.
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2016-12-01T10:05:05Z
Step 1: Get into Columbia. Step 2: Graduate from Columbia. Step 3: ????? Step 4: Profit.
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2016-02-29T04:08:13Z
It turns out that the Core Curriculum wasn't invented just to torture the overloaded undergrads of Columbia. Surprise, surprise, you can get more out of it than just your diploma.
... 2016-02-28T10:00:06Z
I got a second chance at starting Columbia three weeks ago when I got to experience and be a part of NSOP for the first time, even though I'd already studied here for a year. I missed my original orientation last year out of financial reasons—coming a week early for NSOP would have cost me $1,500.
The year proved to be busier than I imagined and, additionally, I had to push myself to meet at least some students in my class (since I came to the University knowing no one) so I was overly engaged and candid during and after classes. Only two topics never came up: how many jobs I hustled to afford two classes a semester and how much more time and resources I needed to appear academically onboard with my classmates. Looking back, I was trying to fit in, but didn't feel I belonged.
The most bitter-tasting lesson I've learned is that these two experiences are correlated. I could not make it to recitations, office hours, and available tutoring appointments because I had to be at work so I could pay my rent and buy food.
Low-income students have an especially hard time transitioning both socially and academically. This is because low-income students (like myself), in addition to a lack of money, do not possess the cultural capital, guidance, and support network to help them navigate college life and start professional lives (like their peers from better-off families do). Studies show that low-income college students are at a higher risk of underperforming: getting lower GPAs, lacking study and time management skills, and being less confident in their academic performance. In the long run, they have lower completion rates, are less likely to apply to graduate schools, and acquire less connections and professional capital to advance their careers later on.
Columbia is proud to market itself as one of the most socioeconomically diverse Ivy League universities. If we consider Columbia's past admissions statistics and assume they remain the same, approximately every seventh student at Columbia College and the School of Engineering and Applied Science comes from a family with an annual income between $20,000 and $50,000. But this statistic isn't easily perceptible on campus.
Socioeconomic background, just like an applicant's sexual orientation, religious and geographic background, is visually unnoticeable unlike other measures of diversity (e.g., age, gender, race, ethnicity, physical disability) and thus doomed to cultural invisibility. While having a low-income background is a fact of life for hundreds of Columbia students, unlike most other types of diversity, it has more stigma than pride attached.
This stigma starts out socially and spreads to the academics, as students feel inferior and deficient when they need to seek out academic support—likely for reasons similar to mine.
Existing support programs like the Writing Center, tutoring services, and the Academic Support Program are appreciated and important, but they cannot possibly destigmatize the situation alone. Proper integration of low-income students into the Columbia community is not a policy issue that's easily solved.
I challenge the faculty, students, and staff to strive to accommodate socioeconomic diversity on campus.
First, we must enrich underprepared students with the academic culture they need to succeed at Columbia. This can't be done better by anyone but fellow students who are already thriving academically. So why not create a peer-mentoring program that addresses academic and social adjustment (and not just ethnic differences)?
Second, it is imperative that faculty revise their assumptions about an average Columbia student. I, for instance, cannot afford to rent (let alone buy) textbooks for any of my classes this semester. Faculty should evaluate the demand for their books in the library or make them available on Courseworks. All students, especially first-semester and working students, would benefit if faculty came out from under the rock, and took advantage of the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning to either supplement classes with video explanations of fundamental concepts or flip the classroom to finally move on from the archaic "sage on stage" teaching method.
Integration of students who are academically underprepared—often due to their socioeconomic background—is a matter that not only Columbia as an institution but rather Columbia as a community must invest in. We are all responsible for being aware of the hundreds of Columbia undergrads coming from low-income families and in challenging our assumptions about who an elite university student is. As Brené Brown explains, "Fitting in is about assessing a situation and becoming who you need to be to be accepted. Belonging, on the other hand, doesn't require us to change who we are; it requires us to be who we are."
I want Columbians to be brave, to demand, and to receive whatever will make them feel like they belong.
The author is a School of General Studies student majoring in financial economics.
To respond to this staff editorial, or to submit an op-ed, contact opinion@columbiaspectator.com.
... The year proved to be busier than I imagined and, additionally, I had to push myself to meet at least some students in my class (since I came to the University knowing no one) so I was overly engaged and candid during and after classes. Only two topics never came up: how many jobs I hustled to afford two classes a semester and how much more time and resources I needed to appear academically onboard with my classmates. Looking back, I was trying to fit in, but didn't feel I belonged.
The most bitter-tasting lesson I've learned is that these two experiences are correlated. I could not make it to recitations, office hours, and available tutoring appointments because I had to be at work so I could pay my rent and buy food.
Low-income students have an especially hard time transitioning both socially and academically. This is because low-income students (like myself), in addition to a lack of money, do not possess the cultural capital, guidance, and support network to help them navigate college life and start professional lives (like their peers from better-off families do). Studies show that low-income college students are at a higher risk of underperforming: getting lower GPAs, lacking study and time management skills, and being less confident in their academic performance. In the long run, they have lower completion rates, are less likely to apply to graduate schools, and acquire less connections and professional capital to advance their careers later on.
Columbia is proud to market itself as one of the most socioeconomically diverse Ivy League universities. If we consider Columbia's past admissions statistics and assume they remain the same, approximately every seventh student at Columbia College and the School of Engineering and Applied Science comes from a family with an annual income between $20,000 and $50,000. But this statistic isn't easily perceptible on campus.
Socioeconomic background, just like an applicant's sexual orientation, religious and geographic background, is visually unnoticeable unlike other measures of diversity (e.g., age, gender, race, ethnicity, physical disability) and thus doomed to cultural invisibility. While having a low-income background is a fact of life for hundreds of Columbia students, unlike most other types of diversity, it has more stigma than pride attached.
This stigma starts out socially and spreads to the academics, as students feel inferior and deficient when they need to seek out academic support—likely for reasons similar to mine.
Existing support programs like the Writing Center, tutoring services, and the Academic Support Program are appreciated and important, but they cannot possibly destigmatize the situation alone. Proper integration of low-income students into the Columbia community is not a policy issue that's easily solved.
I challenge the faculty, students, and staff to strive to accommodate socioeconomic diversity on campus.
First, we must enrich underprepared students with the academic culture they need to succeed at Columbia. This can't be done better by anyone but fellow students who are already thriving academically. So why not create a peer-mentoring program that addresses academic and social adjustment (and not just ethnic differences)?
Second, it is imperative that faculty revise their assumptions about an average Columbia student. I, for instance, cannot afford to rent (let alone buy) textbooks for any of my classes this semester. Faculty should evaluate the demand for their books in the library or make them available on Courseworks. All students, especially first-semester and working students, would benefit if faculty came out from under the rock, and took advantage of the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning to either supplement classes with video explanations of fundamental concepts or flip the classroom to finally move on from the archaic "sage on stage" teaching method.
Integration of students who are academically underprepared—often due to their socioeconomic background—is a matter that not only Columbia as an institution but rather Columbia as a community must invest in. We are all responsible for being aware of the hundreds of Columbia undergrads coming from low-income families and in challenging our assumptions about who an elite university student is. As Brené Brown explains, "Fitting in is about assessing a situation and becoming who you need to be to be accepted. Belonging, on the other hand, doesn't require us to change who we are; it requires us to be who we are."
I want Columbians to be brave, to demand, and to receive whatever will make them feel like they belong.
The author is a School of General Studies student majoring in financial economics.
To respond to this staff editorial, or to submit an op-ed, contact opinion@columbiaspectator.com.
