CUNY Macaulay Honors College (transfer, private schools, university)

[MattSiggs]

Castro, the MHC track record is pretty well-known. Over the past three years, we've had back-to-back-to-back Truman Scholars. I know friends that have a multitude of different internships and scholarships under their belt already. I've done a lot so far and I'm only a sophomore.

The MHC gives you a good education and helps you get into competitive grad schools. As you should know, most employers look at your grad school education first, and are starting to disregard the undergrad degree a little bit.

Also, with the economy shaping up the way it is; I'm really glad I don't have any student loans to worry over.

Perhaps the most important part of the college experience is the ability to have fun and be happy for four years while achieving a good education. MHC and CUNY more than meets that requirement for me.

Oh, and on resumes, it's listed as attending "The Macaulay Honors College at the College of Staten Island at the City University of New York." You are correct in that you do get your degree from the CUNYs, but it comes with an MHC stamp. There are certain MHC requirements to meet.

[Mary543]

From what I have read it does seem that the track record of the MHC Program has been pretty good. I know that on the website they are going to try to make it seem as good as possible, but I have seen information about Truman Scholars. That does show that good students go into the program. I have also heard about internships, and having the opportunites to get internships in the city can not be a bad thing. It gives you experience, and I'm sure that looks good on your application when applying to grad schools.

MattSiggs, thank you for clarifying what gets put on your transcript. It's good to know that when applying to grad schools it is completely known that you attended the MHC program rather than just the regular CUNY.

Castro Viejo, as far as what you said about either attending Rutgers or a SUNY, that is a bit difficult in my case. Rutgers does not have the major I am looking for, and many of the SUNYs do not either. I know 5 of them do, but 4 out of the 5 are further than I am looking to go. A priority for me is to be able to come home on the weekends when I want to, and 4 of them are 5 hours + away. The only one that isn't is SUNY New Paltz, and I haven't heard to many great things about it (correct me if I'm wrong though).

[Castro Viejo]

Originally Posted by MattSiggs

The MHC gives you a good education and helps you get into competitive grad schools. As you should know, most employers look at your grad school education first, and are starting to disregard the undergrad degree a little bit.

Their disregard for your undergraduate degree is a symptom of the mass production of Bachelors in the United States. Over 1 million Bachelors degrees are awarded every year across 3,000-4,000 undergradaute colleges in the United States. That figure probably doesn't consider the multitude of online "colleges" on the internet which all seem to sell B.A.s for cheap. This is both good and bad.

It's quite a complex issue within higher education circles, but nonetheless, it can be summarized by the following: if your Bachelors degree is from a place no one's ever heard of, it is disregarded and you'll likely have to get a graduate degree to get an entry-level position that a Bachelors degree from a well known institution may not need.

Originally Posted by MattSiggs

Oh, and on resumes, it's listed as attending "The Macaulay Honors College at the College of Staten Island at the City University of New York."

Is that how it reads on your diploma from CSI? If it does, then this is okay. If it doesn't, then this is misleading and somewhat fraudulent. Sorry, but this is the honest to God truth in resume writing.

[Castro Viejo]

Originally Posted by Mary543

Castro Viejo, as far as what you said about either attending Rutgers or a SUNY, that is a bit difficult in my case. Rutgers does not have the major I am looking for, and many of the SUNYs do not either. I know 5 of them do, but 4 out of the 5 are further than I am looking to go. A priority for me is to be able to come home on the weekends when I want to, and 4 of them are 5 hours + away. The only one that isn't is SUNY New Paltz, and I haven't heard to many great things about it (correct me if I'm wrong though).

While I appreciate the idea that today's college students essentially come to school as a stepping stone to a vocation (what's commonly referred to today as a "career"), you need not major in exactly what you're looking to do with your life. Make sense? Plenty of my friends who are investment bankers, traders on Wall Street, physicians, surgeons, and lawyers NEVER majored in something called "Investment Banking" or "Premed" or "Prelaw." There are no such majors in any school in the U.S. What they did major in were things like English (the Investment Banker), Mathematics (the Lawyer), Political Science (the Surgeon) and they still landed the jobs/professional schools they wanted.

In any event, a major for speech language pathologists does exist at Rutgers. It may not be called "Speech Language Pathology" but it's called Linguistics. It would more than qualify you for such a career and it exists at Rutgers College in New Brunswick.

[MattSiggs]

Originally Posted by Castro Viejo

Their disregard for your undergraduate degree is a symptom of the mass production of Bachelors in the United States. Over 1 million Bachelors degrees are awarded every year across 3,000-4,000 undergradaute colleges in the United States. That figure probably doesn't consider the multitude of online "colleges" on the internet which all seem to sell B.A.s for cheap. This is both good and bad.

It's quite a complex issue within higher education circles, but nonetheless, it can be summarized by the following: if your Bachelors degree is from a place no one's ever heard of, it is disregarded and you'll likely have to get a graduate degree to get an entry-level position that a Bachelors degree from a well known institution may not need.



Is that how it reads on your diploma from CSI? If it does, then this is okay. If it doesn't, then this is misleading and somewhat fraudulent. Sorry, but this is the honest to God truth in resume writing.

I was under the impression that you had to go to graduate school no matter where you get your BA. Obviously, if one goes to Harvard, than one has a better chance of getting into grad school. I'm not denying that- in fact, I'd say it's guaranteed.

Alas, we cannot all get into the Ivy League, so MHC is a pretty good option, considering all the "freebies." I have a friend who goes to Wagner College. He's taking out student loans for a name that's almost equally as obscure as MHC outside New York City.

I'm not going to dispute your claim; I'm just going by what I've been told. I'll have to ask my advisor to see whether it's true or not. I'll be sure to report back.

[Mary543]

Originally Posted by Castro Viejo

While I appreciate the idea that today's college students essentially come to school as a stepping stone to a vocation (what's commonly referred to today as a "career"), you need not major in exactly what you're looking to do with your life. Make sense? Plenty of my friends who are investment bankers, traders on Wall Street, physicians, surgeons, and lawyers NEVER majored in something called "Investment Banking" or "Premed" or "Prelaw." There are no such majors in any school in the U.S. What they did major in were things like English (the Investment Banker), Mathematics (the Lawyer), Political Science (the Surgeon) and they still landed the jobs/professional schools they wanted.

In any event, a major for speech language pathologists does exist at Rutgers. It may not be called "Speech Language Pathology" but it's called Linguistics. It would more than qualify you for such a career and it exists at Rutgers College in New Brunswick.

Is this entirely true? I realize that Rutgers does have a Linguistics Major, but most graduate schools seem to require a major of the equivalent of Speech Pathology (ex. Communication Disorders). Linguistics is not exactly the equivalent.

I have thought about not majoring in Speech Pathology or Communication Disorders, but it makes it a lot more difficult to get your masters. To get into most master programs for Speech Pathology you need to major in one of those 2 majors, OR take a number of different courses. Here is an example of the courses that I would be required to take for admission into one graduate program if I do not already have the major:

• SLP 305/Acoustic Phonetics
• SLP 308/Anatomy and Physiology of the Speech and Hearing Mechanism
• SLP 102/Language, Speech, and Communication Development
• SLP 140/Introduction to Measurement of Hearing
• STA 115/Statistics
• SLP 307/Communication Disorders:Nature, Diagnosis and Treatment
• SLP 103/Social and Legal Foundations of Special Education

I have also heard that it is harder to get into a masters program if you haven't already majored in Speech. It only makes sense that the schools would prefer someone that has a convienent major to someone that just took courses in it. So if at all possible I want to major in Speech Pathology/Communication Disorders. It just makes more sense.

[MattSiggs]

Part of the reason I'm majoring in English is due to the wide variability it offers me. I can go to law school, be a writer, or work for a business. At a workshop, a career counselor told us that a business looked for English majors. Reason being that a business can teach someone about economics, but can't teach them how to analyze or write well.

[biggyboy]

There are a handful of good SUNY schools which are probably better than Rutgers, depending on what you want to get into.

[babadi]

Originally Posted by Mary543

Is this entirely true? I realize that Rutgers does have a Linguistics Major, but most graduate schools seem to require a major of the equivalent of Speech Pathology (ex. Communication Disorders). Linguistics is not exactly the equivalent.

You don't need to major in speech pathology. I know a girl who's finishing up a speech pathology master's at Hunter, and she was a French major. She did have to take a whole bunch of undergrad coursework as a condition for admission to the program, though. So if you're pretty set on speech pathology, it seems like it'd be a good idea to major in it.

To answer your question about New Paltz, it's mediocre at best. If it happens to be one of the few schools in the area that has the program you want, then fine, apply there -- maybe they also have an honors program with a generous incentive package, I don't know -- but it's certainly not more reputable than CUNY and I wouldn't even consider paying out-of-state tuition to go there.

I think I've said this before, but there are certain fields where going to a "name brand" school really counts. If you wanted to get into a top-name doctoral program and spend your career in academia, going to Yale would probably be worth something. If you wanted to be an i-banker, going to Penn would probably help a lot. But there are some cases where realistically it's just not going to make a difference, and my inclination is that this is probably one of them.

You know you're to have to go to grad school, and it really doesn't matter what grad school you go to so long as it has whatever certifications required to enable you to apply for state licensure. And once you've gone to grad school, nobody cares where you went to college. So the main concern you ought to have is getting into a grad program. If you're concerned about whether going to CUNY will hurt your odds of admissions to grad programs, I'd suggest that you ask them. Look up grad programs you think you might want to apply to, email/call them and ask them about their students -- what are their average test scores, what kinds of schools did they come from. I would be genuinely surprised if you didn't find out that a very healthy chunk of them came from public schools.

Name-brand schools are great. If you can get into one for free or cheap, you should go. But as you know and as I've said, student loan debt is no fun, and there's no point in taking it on unless there's a really good reason for it.

[Castro Viejo]

Originally Posted by MattSiggs

I was under the impression that you had to go to graduate school no matter where you get your BA.

Well, if you wanted to be a physician or a lawyer, yes, you'd have to go to a professional school. But graduate school as a necessary evil for most people? Absolutely not. The current figures are that about 300,000 Masters degrees are awarded annually in the United States. That's not much.

Originally Posted by MattSiggs

I have a friend who goes to Wagner College. He's taking out student loans for a name that's almost equally as obscure as MHC outside New York City.

Staten Islanders are an interesting group of people. Wagner College to most people on the island is the equivalent of Harvard. I don't know why. I agree. If I just had to live on Staten Island for college, I'd much rather go to the MHC program at CSI than attend Wagner College.

Originally Posted by MattSiggs

I'm not going to dispute your claim; I'm just going by what I've been told. I'll have to ask my advisor to see whether it's true or not. I'll be sure to report back.

Your advisor will say that a graduate degree is absolutely necessary today to compete in the job market. Tell that to the throngs of graduates of the nation's elite colleges who flood the large financial houses and Wall Street with nothing more than their B.A.s and A.B.s.