Columbia GS at 75: A Beacon of Innovation in the Ivy League

This fall marks the start of the 75th academic year at the School of General Studies at Columbia University, a milestone moment and an opportunity to celebrate GS’s unique history, accomplishments, and past, present, and future innovations. 

As the preeminent college in the world dedicated to nontraditional students, GS has spent the past seven and a half decades working to expand equity and access in higher education by creating a college within the Ivy League committed to meeting students’ unique needs and uplifting the exceptional talents of veterans, dancers, community college transfer students, returning citizens, career changers, former and current athletes, first-generation college students, and parents, just to name a few of GS’s vibrant student communities. As GS enters its 75th year, it continues this legacy of diversity, with the current student body comprising 41% Pell Grant recipients, 24% international students, 22% first-generation college students, and 11% veteran students.

GS not only admits a one-of-a-kind student body, it supports each student wholeheartedly through their educational journey at Columbia University and beyond via an innovative, constantly-growing suite of resources tailored to the nontraditional student experience. These include academic assistance via advising and tutoring through the Academic Resource Center (ARC), programming to bolster campus community through GS Student Life, financial aid and scholarships designed to support students from underrepresented populations including the Program for Academic Leadership and Service Scholarship (PALS) and the Columbia University Scholarship for Displaced Students, resources for specific student communities such as the Center for Veteran Transition and Integration (CVTI), and the unwavering support of the nearly 100-person strong GS administration and staff.

Columbia’s School of General Studies has always been at the forefront of educational innovation, from its official founding in 1947 in large part to meet the needs of soldiers returning from the Second World War, to its seeds in earlier Columbia programs for nontraditional students that welcomed the first working adults to campus and enrolled the first undergraduate women to receive bachelor’s degrees from Columbia University. GS has also pioneered a number of groundbreaking programs, such as the first-of-its-kind Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program in the United States, and Dual and Joint Degree Programs with List College of the Jewish Theological Seminary, Sciences Po, City University of Hong Kong, Trinity College Dublin, and Tel Aviv University. These innovative programs attract the kind of brilliant and curious minds who embrace the opportunities to pursue a passion for medicine after obtaining an undergraduate degree in the liberal arts, to marry secular and religious studies, and to experience a truly international education. This spirit of collaboration extends even further, with partners both in and outside of Columbia, such as the City University of New York (CUNY) system and Columbia’s Justice-in-Education initiative, coming together to forge new educational paths and opportunities for GS’s talented students.

The existence of GS immeasurably enriches not only the broader Columbia academic and campus community, but also expands the possibilities of elite education and benefits society as a whole. Empowered by a Columbia education, GS alumni consistently flourish in their post-graduation lives. GS alumni have been the recipients of countless prestigious scholarships and fellowships, such as the Rhodes and Truman Scholarships, and in the 2021-22 school year alone, 54 GS'ers were awarded national and international fellowships. In the professional field, GS alumni are entrepreneurs, community leaders, medical visionaries, diplomatic powerhouses, and creative juggernauts. Through the extraordinary accomplishments of GS students and alumni, achievements that go far beyond the boundaries of the Morningside Heights campus, GS exemplifies the mission of higher education, empowering individuals to harness the power of knowledge to better society. 

For 75 years, GS has been a beacon of innovation and equity at Columbia, in the Ivy League, and within higher education nationally and globally. Unsurprisingly, given its pioneering mission and spirit, GS has excelled at constantly evolving to meet new challenges and break new barriers. In the next 75 years and beyond, GS will no doubt continue that journey with revolutionary results, further expanding the accessibility and impact of higher education, one extraordinary GS student at a time.