Anonym

I found this, and sort of concurred with you. Thanks for sharing.

They may have told you half-truths. After all, they are Columbia employees, and they are told to protect their business partners so the bank keeps rolling in for the Schools. Or they may just do not know or understand the relationship, just as anyone unfamiliar with it. Note that the upper executive administration knows about this intricate relationship and should have done something about it to simplify the paperwork for students or graduates. The fact that Columbia does not make an effort to do that, and asks that you file extra paperwork in order to prove your eligibility for the Columbia Alumni Association, instead of automatically admitting you to the database when you graduate, is also a red flag. Section 3 of Columbia Alumni Association Bylaws also says that: " Degree holders from the Affiliate Schools of the University (i.e. Barnard College, Teachers College, Jewish Theological Seminary and Union Theological Seminary) (“Affiliate Schools”) may apply to CAA as an individual alumnus/ae for affiliate membership in the CAA with limited rights and privileges."(https://alumni.columbia.edu/content/columbia-alumni-association-bylaws). Check it out and see how strange it is, that as Columbia Alumni, you have "limited rights and privileges" compared to fully integrated Columbia schools. TC students, as seen on Columbia website, also do not have a Columbia email (columbia.edu, and not tc.columbia.edu, or tc.edu). It is also another red flag, because other schools, such as the Columbia Law School, have both the unique email (law.columbia.edu) and the common (columbia.edu) email account. That allows you to have access to contact with everyone in the university. So you may be an affiliate and take classes at Columbia, but you are not a Columbia student because of the separate legal status between the University and TC. This may be a separate topic, but some people also withdrew from TC after attending this school and witnessed how low quality this School is as an independent institution: https://www.reddit.com/r/columbia/comments/khrs3p/satisfaction_with_teachers_college/ https://forum.thegradcafe.com/topic/118977-teachers-college-columbia-university-2020/ Could you perhaps share your experience with us? Perhaps if you and other current students could test for yourselves if TC is really a Columbia school, that will really help us all from being misled, both for the quality of education here and for the name which is sold.

Someone wrote on another site, and this is so true though (from official Columbia website): "I found out today that although "Columbia University" is included in the name of the School, Teachers College is an affiliate school, and does not have the same status as a Columbia graduate school. Researching further, on Columbia Alumni Association website, it is stated clearly that "Please note that we cannot provide alumni online access to certificate holders, alumni of affiliate schools, current students, faculty, or staff." , or "Unfortunately, this business card service is currently unavailable to alumni of Barnard College, Teachers College, and the Jewish Theological Seminary," or in Alumni Access Page, "Please note we are currently not permitted to offer access to alumni of affiliate schools (Teachers College, Barnard College, Union Theological Seminary, Jewish Theological Seminary, and affiliate programs)." This clearly means that Teachers College are not Columbia alumni. That explains why Teachers College students do not receive Columbia ID cards. Yet, the School lied to students by saying that it is the Columbia School, when even on Columbia's website, Teachers College is listed as an "affiliate school," and not a "Columbia graduate school" as many others. I wonder what happens if current students and Alumni sue the School for defrauding them by lying about what they do not have to sell." Can someone explain this? If not, TC is really just a Columbia school on papers so the tuition can keep raking in to the Trustees and high-level employees at the detriment of ill-informed students.