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Comment by Firebrand | Hacker News Reader

Columbia also has the School of General Studies bachelors program for non-traditional students that costs $85k (including living expenses) a year, and it’s notorious for offering little to no financial aid for it.

You end up paying $340,000 to take the same classes as regular Columbia students while being almost cut off completely from the college social experience.

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This seems like a very clear case of the need for personal responsibility. In light of these facts, why in God’s name would anyone opt into this?

I went to Columbia. Many reasons folks wind up in General Studies. Two common ones are you didn’t get into good schools but your dad is both loaded and encouraging that a Columbia degree is worth it. Another is you’re between 40 and 60 and trying to reinvent yourself and/or your love life.

It’s a cash cow, akin to the Learning Annex.

What does your love life have to do with a Columbia degree?

The implication is that you meet the students grads and professors of the university and they are now part of your social circle and your dating pool.

A while back a friend in her thirties went to Columbia's teachers college and ended up marrying one of her professors so I guess it's more common than I realized.

What I was remarking on was that there was a certain subset of the 'back to school' cohort, in my day, who were basically reinventing their life, and often post-divorce.

> This seems like a very clear case of the need for personal responsibility.

I would rather that people didn't bring their religious cant phrases into this otherwise adult discussion.

Brand name, nothing more.

Having a brand name on your resume, can open up doors which would most definitely be closed otherwise. And the longer you are in your career, what you studied will count less and less.

And, as someone else mentioned, if your parents are loaded - then how much something costs may not mater.

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