Photo Credit: Columbia University, Eileen Barroso
One of the primary things Columbia College is known for is its “Core.” A set of requirements that all CC students must complete before graduation, parts of the Core resemble what might be described as general education requirements while other parts are courses specific to CC. How does the Core work and how much say do students have in deciding what courses they will take to complete the Core?
When I think about the Columbia College Core, the classes that come to mind immediately are Literature Humanities (more formally known as Masterpieces of Western Literature and Philosophy) and Contemporary Civilization (aka Introduction To Contemporary Civilization in the West). These are the two year-long courses that Columbia College students typically complete in their first and second years, respectively. Academics aside, the wonderful thing about these courses is that they create a real sense of community. With very few exceptions, every first-year student takes Literature Humanities and every second-year student takes Contemporary Civilization. This means that, when I was a first and second year, I shared at least one course with nearly all of my peers. While these classes are taught in sections, meaning that there are roughly 60 sections of this class, each taught by a different professor and containing around 20 students, there is still the common ground that all sections read more or less the same texts.
The other two courses that must be completed at a specified time during undergrad are University Writing and Frontiers of Science. These two are taken in the first two semesters, one after the other (students are randomly assigned which one they are to take first). Similar to Literature Humanities, the timing of University Writing and Frontiers of Science meant that, as a first-year student, I shared the experience of these classes with my peers.
Art Humanities and Music Humanities are a little different in that they can be taken at any point during undergrad. Typically, these courses have limited spots and fill up fast, so CC students who want the best shot at picking the exact section they want tend to take these courses as upperclassmen. Still, the advantage to being able to take these courses more or less whenever you want is that the sections are composed of students across a diverse range of class years. And, similar to the other courses discussed so far, the fact that Art Humanities and Music Humanities are required means that everyone who graduates from Columbia College has taken them.
The foreign language requirement is a little different from the courses we’ve discussed thus far in that there are a number of different languages to choose from. This requirement is also a little more challenging to explain because there are many paths to fulfillment. The simplest way is to start from square one. Taking four semesters of any single language (Beginner I, Beginner II, Intermediate I, and Intermediate II) completes the requirement. Instead of starting from square one, I tested into Intermediate II, and hence the only course I needed to take to fulfill the requirement was Intermediate II. Other students are sometimes even able to test out of this requirement completely.
The final three requirements of the Core are the Global Core requirement (two courses), the Science requirement (two courses), and, my personal favorite, the PE requirement (two courses). These requirements have the most flexibility in that rather than being required to take a specific course, students are asked to choose courses that interest them most from lists of approved courses. In my case, one of my courses for my Applied Mathematics major will be applied towards my Science requirement, and I was able to select Global Core courses that will be applied towards my History major. These requirements allow for the possibility of double-counting classes (like I did), but they also allow for the opportunity to select courses that are of interest to you but outside of your major/concentration. My second science course, for example, cannot be in the math department (or history department) so I have the opportunity to choose a course in a subject that I otherwise wouldn’t be exposed to.
Now, let’s not forget about that PE requirement. There are a LOT of different ways to fulfill the PE requirement. And that’s the beauty of it. I did ballet all through high school, so having the PE requirement allowed me to continue to take ballet classes through Barnard and get credit for them! But if you prefer soccer, hiking, yoga, or even fencing, Columbia has the class for you.
All in all, remembering exactly how each Core requirement is structured and what courses need to be taken in order to complete the Core can be a little confusing. It may seem like quite a few courses to check off, but the intrinsic structure of some of them allows for a more streamlined course selection process and a cohesive undergraduate experience.