Contrary to popular belief across Boston University’s campus, CGS does not stand for crayons, glue and scissors. It is however the acronym for the College of General Studies, a core liberal arts school that provides a well-rounded education.
I profoundly enjoyed my two years at CGS, and as an alumnus, I feel entitled to illuminate its shortcomings while hailing its praises. The rampant and unfounded claims that label CGS as the ‘Commonwealth Grammar School’ whispered in the locker-lined hallways of the College of Arts and Sciences and over lattés at the School of Management Starbucks irk me as much as they do every student and professor associated with CGS.
Not that my time there wasn’t an eye-opening and slightly padded landing into the harsh reality that is freshman year it was. CGS professors are more available to the student body than any other segment of the faculty, period. Classes, however, are no laughing matter. If you’ve ever aligned a Star-chart, reconciled the Truman Doctrine, the Warsaw Pact and Trotsky in a coherent essay or orally defended a shaky Capstone paper, you know what I’m talking about.
However, what I didn’t realize as I pushed through those swinging glass doors and the throngs of chainsmoking underclassmen for the first time was that after I graduated from the two-year program I would be seriously behind that infamous 8-ball.
Upon graduation I did possess a ‘well-rounded liberal arts education upon which I could expand my mind and my major,’ as one tenured professor put it.
However, I did not realize that I would have endless requirements for my major that remained unfulfilled by my CGS courses. I began my junior year amid sophomores who had completed twice as many required courses as I had and three times as many internships.
I just narrowly escaped the dreaded proposition of a summer semester. I don’t know about your household, but my parents view summer classes as something for those who don’t cut it during the year. Now before you jump on the crusade to attack the cantankerous columnist who’s out of touch with the student body, let me say I don’t share their opinions. They also think Boston College is an upstanding Jesuit institution of higher learning. Ha!
Now it’s not that I have any sort of a vendetta against CGS. I have some very warmhearted memories of the program, and some very chilling ones too thank God I have more of the former.
I was in Jacob Sleeper Auditorium when 20 lunatics flew planes into New York skyscrapers and the Pentagon. Word spread quickly that unforgettable day two years ago. I sat in that same seat when I clinched my first college A. I loved Friday morning 9 a.m. class (hangover helpers, we called them) freshman year with Gonzalo Sanchez. Millard Baublitz unlocked the secrets of the universe for me with a jump rope and a blowtorch. Jennifer Ivers taught me that brevity is the vanguard of eloquence (something I’m sure you realize I still grapple with today).
But I digress I learned volumes. CGS is sink or swim. It is somewhat like a bear trap. Some would rather chew their leg off to get out (or have daddy build a new library); others lay down to die. Some are clever enough to avoid it, and still others like myself enjoyed the pain in a sadomasochistic show of perseverance and chose to lick our wounds once we were released.
I loved the intimacy of the classes and cramming for four finals in four consecutive days sleepless nights of Marx and microbiology. I loved the frantic last nights of Capstone and fumbling through a three-hour oral defense. Robert Wexellblatt is an untapped treasure. William Tilchin is stuck in the late 1960s and for that reason I aspire to be him. Michael Kort is one really smart guy with a serious caffeine addiction.
It is not that I wouldn’t recommend the program to prospective students. I simply feel they ought to be better informed before plunging in two feet first. As one professor pointed out, CGS does provide many students with the feeling of being ‘at the bottom of the barrel’ something a lot of Boston University students can’t identify with. And that’s good. College is supposed to be a new experience.
But caveat emptor. CGS provides one hell of an education. It lurks behind a social stigma, red tape and unfulfilled requirements. But it gives you one hell of a launching pad.
Watch the sarcastic comments about CGS alumni; you may one day be working for us.
Cory Hardy, a senior in the College of Communication, is a weekly columnist for The Daily Free Press.
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