Columbia College must have it backwards too. See: http://www.college.columbia.edu/news/barack-obama-83-becomes-first-college-alumnus-to-win-presidency
It is interesting that the article claims Obama as an alumnus, with no mention of a degree.
I can’t recall what was used in 2004, but I noticed more recently that Obama-friendly media uses College rather than University. I am not sure the distinction matters to most, but I was trying to suggest that researchers should cast a wide net if looking for lists, etc. My guess is that Obama did somewhat attend Columbia-something, and got away with incredible laxity courtesy of aggressive affirmative action. Seems doubtful that he earned a normal degree, whether anyone was blackmailed or not. The common belief that he could not have entered Harvard Law without one is not compelling.
I’m a Columbia College graduate (1961)and can offer this info:
Columbia College is the primo undergraduate college of Columbia University which has many different schools, mostly grad schools. However, there is a School of General Studies which offers an undergraduate degree that is not from Columbia College.
The University school accepts transfers and all sorts of foreign students very freely. Columbia College does not normally accept transfers because:
a)this would be a way around the very high selection standards of this Ivy League school, and,
b) because the first two years of required courses of all Columbia College students make transferring very difficult as most transferees would have to virtually start over their education process and that would trip them up against item a)above.
While things may have changed somewhat, I doubt that Columbia College would have made a place for what appears to be a middling student from Occidental in the third year of education.
Professor Graff was my College advisor and if he says something, you can take it to the bank as collateral