[LAFF] Columbia College

[Silky9102 at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/6/2007 11:37:55 P.M. Central Standard Time,  
pemapanik at hotmail.com writes:

I've  been thinking about transferring to Columbia College in Chicago. 
Seeing  the price is making me wonder if it is worth it.  Does anyone go  
there?  What do you think of the school?  My major would be Film  - Directing 
/ Screenwriting.

-Timmue Pemapanik  



Timmue,
I'm an academic, and what's  pretty well known in scholarly circles is the 
sad fact that Columbia's high  esteem among the uneducated and ignorant comes 
from geographic confusion.   Columbia in New York is a top echelon college, 
Columbia in downtown Chicago is a  college for dull witted underachieving rich 
white suburban kids who couldn't get  into a real competitive college.  That 
doesn't mean you shouldn't go,  because of its reputation (albeit based on 
ignorance and not substantiated by  academic rigor), there are more than a few 
graduates in the film/screen  writing/advertising-commercial industries from 
Columbia-Chicago.  You go to  college partly to learn stuff that will be directly 
useful in your career,  partly to learn stuff that is only indirectly useful to 
career and citizenship  and life, and partly to make friends and expand your 
social network, also to  directly and indirectly help you at work.  Columbia in 
Chicago is somewhat  useful for the latter, not so much the former.  If you 
have that kind of  money to invest, you should be thinking of the highest end of 
prestige, take a  look at how many Yale grads are successful in the 
competitive Hollywood and  indie film world.  Following close behind are the rest of 
the high prestige  pack, U of C Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, 
University of  Chicago, Cornell, Northwestern, and so on, and we're not really talking 
about  exclusively Film or video production majors.  Many successful 
screenwriters  have English or history degrees, the point is the academic prestige of 
the  university or college is a source of symbolic capital that can make  
connections and open doors for you, and the kinds of colleges that can do  that 
for you are known for rigorous academic standards to begin with.   That's what 
makes the elite colleges and universities somewhat worth the  investment of 
their ridiculous tuition costs.  Columbia college in  Chicago is on the other end 
of the spectrum, it's one of the easiest colleges in  the Midwest, and along 
with Northeastern Illinois university, the Chicago city  colleges, governor's 
state, and their ilk, it's pretty well known among the  over-educated set that 
there are virtually no academic standards at these  easiest-to-graduate-from 
schools.  Unlike the other super-easy-sleazy  schools, Columbia in Chicago is 
very expensive.  Really, not worth  the money, like the copier commercial said 
"there's no status in  overpaying."
 
Silky 



**************************************Check out AOL's list of 2007's hottest 
products.
(http://money.aol.com/special/hot-products-2007?NCID=aoltop00030000000001)