Incoming students also heard from Kirsty Jardine ‘15GS, ‘16PH, Co-Chair of the GS Alumni Association, as well as current GS students, including Samantha Demezieux, President of the General Studies Student Council, Jacquie Viggiano, GS NSOP Student Chair, and Chelsea Faison, Vice President of Medical School Fair Operations of the Premedical Association and a Postbac Premed student. In their speeches, each enthusiastically welcomed the incoming class, sharing personal experiences and emphasizing the unique and supportive nature of the GS community.
Throughout the remainder of Orientation Week, students mingled with each other at meet-and-greets, attended workshops about campus resources and community standards, and went out on the town together, touring museums, catching Broadway shows, and ice skating at Rockefeller Center. NSOP is instrumental to new students’ integration at the University, and provides numerous opportunities to meet new and returning students, as well as alumni, before classes start.
An Overview of the Spring 2018 Entering Class
The School of General Studies continues to be one of the most diverse undergraduate colleges in the Ivy League, and this year’s incoming class is no exception, counting among them a former classical pianist, military veterans, former professional actors and musicians, first-generation Americans, and professional athletes, to name only a few.
The presence of GS students in the Columbia classroom enables the University, already one of the most ethnically and economically diverse undergraduate communities in the Ivy League, to define diversity on much broader terms—a truly global diversity of socio-economic background, age, life and career experience, and perspective.
- 20% of incoming students are international students
- 38% of incoming students are first-generation college students
- 26% of incoming students are Pell Grant eligible
- 14% of incoming students are U.S. military veterans
Enrollment
- Undergraduate: 172
- Postbac Premed: 54
Demographics
- Age range: 18 – 64 years old
- Women: 45%
- Men: 55%
- Students who are married: 22%
- Students with children: 16%
- U.S. residents come from 22 states
Citizenship
- Six foreign countries are represented, making up 20% of the incoming class
- International students come from China, Germany, Israel, Kenya, South Africa, and South Korea
