Columbia GS at 75: A Community Like No Other

Among the many groundbreaking tenants the School of General Studies at Columbia University has upheld for each of its 75 years, its commitment to diversity is key to the school’s identity and impact. GS brings diversity to the Ivy League as the sole college dedicated to nontraditional students, welcoming brilliant talents not in spite of their unique paths to higher education, but precisely and proudly because of them. GS brings diversity to Columbia University, enriching classroom, extracurricular, and social settings university-wide thanks to the academic and real-world expertise of GS students. And GS itself is a one-of-a-kind educational home to students hailing from hundreds of places across the U.S. and the globe, enrolled as undergraduates, Postbac Premed students, or Dual and Joint Degree program students, and carrying with them an expansive range of professional and personal experiences. 

The singularity of being a nontraditional student creates a strong sense of comradery amongst GS students, setting the groundwork for student-to-student mentorship and peer support on and off-campus. “Among GS there’s a ‘we all succeed together’ kind of mentality,” said alumnus Nick Wu ‘23GS, who enlisted the support of world-renowned climber Marin Minamiya ‘24GS when training to scale Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Americas. “You help each other out.”

This can be especially true for students who share formative experiences, leading to strong networks of support amongst community-college transfer students, student veterans, dual and joint degree program students, student parents, working students, first-generation low-income students, students of color, LGBTQ+ students, and many more circles of community within the broader GS family.

Not only do GS students have each other’s backs, they also push each other forward and challenge each other in ways that exemplify the promise of the collegiate experience: to bring together exceptional individuals whose diverse perspectives and talents empower them to learn from, as well as with, one another. In all of these community-building endeavors, students are supported by a multitude of GS resources, from peer advising and tutoring through the Academic Resource Center (ARC), to a multitude of events and social opportunities from the Office of Student Life.

This support extends far beyond GS students’ graduation through the GS Alumni Relations team, which fosters connections between current students and alumni, as well as supports GS alumni community. GS alumni also embody another nuance of the impact of the college’s diversity. The varied origin points and interests of GS students lead them to pursue a wide range of meaningful endeavors as graduates, from advocating for criminal justice reform and expanding representation in the arts, to breaking new ground in science and technology, stepping into educational leadership roles, and pursuing medical innovation and equity, to name just a few of the paths GS alumni have forged. Through its groundbreaking alumni, GS stretches its influence far outside of the Morningside Heights campus to touch communities across our globe. 

The focus on creating impact both at Columbia and beyond is crucial to GS and its unique and continuously growing legacy. Many initiatives born inside GS, like the Columbia University Scholarship for Displaced Students or the Center for Veteran Transition and Integration (CVTI), began as GS innovations, which then expanded their offerings to the whole Columbia community. 

This is because at the heart of GS’s mission is a spirit of expansion, a commitment to making elite education available to more brilliant students, a desire to make resources innovated at Columbia accessible to more community members, and a determination to constantly grow the reach and positive impact of GS. The diversity of GS is one of the most powerful manifestations of a core belief which has shaped the remarkable story of GS for its first 75 years and will continue to guide it forward in the decades to come: that the secret to creating a truly remarkable community of higher education is not contained in locked gates, but instead realized through joyfully flung-open doors.