<p>I'm currently a student from Vassar hoping to transfer to Columbia College. I noticed one thing though while I was perusing Columbia's websites. I took 4 classes per semester at Vassar, so ,given Columbia's way of counting credit, it seems like I'd need to take 5 classes per semester to get the 124 credits necessary for graduation. I got through 4 classes per semester fairly easily, but I have the sense that 5 classes a semester for three years would be extremely difficult, and friends at other schools who do 5 classes per semester agree. I'm willing to take on any challenge and I love Columbia, but is it possible to do 5 classes per semester and not get crushed (i.e. get at least 3.6 or so gpa)?! Thanks to whoever responds.</p>
<p>I can count the number of people I know taking 4 classes on one hand, and I assure you that a lot us who take 5 classes or more do OK by the standard you described. I know someone in real life who takes 7, and I believe one or two regulars on this forum take 7 or 8.</p>
<p>My child is one of those who is taking 5 classes. He is a freshmen and is taking both LitHum and UWriting this semester plus Chem, Chem Lab, and Cal. He is getting killed right now. Are there any secrets you can share to on how to make this work?</p>
<p>I think 5 classes/semester is the most common in the College. I only know one person who regularly takes 4, and many people I know take 6 (I also know a couple of people who’ve taken 7 in a semester, but I think this may be a little more common in SEAS). Tsakashvili, what’s your major, and what kinds of classes have you been taking at Vassar? What do you find the most challenging about your classes (e.g., studying for several midterms/writing several papers at the same time, keeping on top of the work, etc)? I can’t imagine that classes here have significantly less homework than at other schools.</p>
<p>I would say that the key to dealing with any course load is time management. An obvious answer, but one that’s always held true for me. Mshap, I don’t know your son, but I think chem labs are huge time-sucks. Not only do you have to spend five hours in the lab, but you have to spend several hours preparing ahead of time and/or writing lab reports afterward. Plus, Lit Hum and UW both have a lot of work (at least, I thought UW had a lot of work when I took it), and then you get the multiple midterms in chem and calc. I have found that knowing what to expect ahead of time saves me a lot of headaches down the line. If I know I have two midterms and a paper all in one week, I can start preparing for one or two of those things a week ahead.</p>
<p>agreed here with demeter, even supposing the 5 hr lab, your son will be in class at max 22 hrs a week. that leaves him plenty of time for sleeping, studying and social life. i think that in the end a lot of students just need to keep themselves on a very committed schedule. promise to study X amount per day, and if you end your work early, find one of the classes that you can get ahead on. the worst thing (what kills students) is when they get behind. then it is just a horrible catch up.</p>
<p>re: lithum and any reading based class - there is reading for pleasure and reading for class. sometimes the hardest part for students is defining between the two especially when the could read everything in high school. reading for class is about understanding argument and context. its aggressive reading, and you will notice that there is a lot of stuff that doesn’t contribute to the argument or context (it is filler). and this is a process when used and cultivated that can be very helpful. it means that instead of reading a 200 page book in 10 hrs, you can/should be able to read it in 4 hrs. and that saves you SO much time.</p>
<p>re: quant/pset based classes. honestly there is no trick. about the biggest trick you can do is work with other students (and most do that already). if you don’t do your work delay you are going to end up having a hard time. the best advice is to set aside time to work on the pset, work with friends, and read the textbook or meet with the TA. the more you do it, the better you get at it.</p>
<p>I’m a freshman, so I don’t have a major yet. Part of why I’m transferring to Columbia is that the program I want to major in, Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures (MEALC), has no counterpart at Vassar. Within MEALC I’m interested in going in a middle east studies direction. What I’ve taken at Vassar are mostly 100 level courses in Arabic, Political Theory, U.S. History, Art History, and Russian Literature. The one exception to that is that I’m currently taking a 200 level course in political economy. I will say that 4 classes has been very manageable. The only thing that really came close to stressing me out was near finals, and I got through that ok. Again I’m willing to take on any challenge, and I tend to work 7 hours a day, 7 days a week. That’s not how much time I need to do my work; I use about 1/3 of that time to study ahead, or, like demeter, work in advance on stuff that’s due several weeks ahead. Do you think I’ll be able to manage Columbia? Thanks to whoever replies, and special thanks to demeter, admissionsgeek, and ShruggingSheep.</p>
<p>Would your son want you to refer to him as “my child”? Moving on, he could be strategic about it and try to focus on certain classes where effort makes a difference. In other words, there are many classes where it’s relatively hard work to get an A, and you have to be an imbecile to get a C, and you can go through the motions and take your B. He might want to half-arse those classes and take his Bs, while focusing on classes where you’ll get a really low grade if you don’t know what you’re doing and/or there’s potential for hard work to pay off. For example, I feel like Chem lab is a class where if you work hard and put in the time to jump through whatever bullsh-- hoops they want for your lab reports, you’ll pretty much get an A. And Lit Hum is probably a class where you can read almost nothing and BS your way though the papers and never put yourself in danger of getting a C if you can write coherent English.</p>
<p>BTW, I’m laughing at the thread title, thinking back about taking 7 real classes about hairy, scary equations rather than fluff about the Rostovs.</p>
<p>C02, would you mind describing your 7 classes/semester in more detail? Was it a sustainable sort of workload (i.e. doable over multiple semesters)? How big a hit did your GPA take (if at all)? Also, what was your major?</p>
<p>You’ll notice that the title is rather unusual and grabs people’s attention (like yours). A key aspect of a title is after all to catch the readers’ attention so that they will be compelled to view and comment on the thread. Incidentally Columbia2002, thanks for proving with your two comments that my title is indeed eye catching and compelling. I hope you leave more comments so that this thread can continue to stay on the front page and attract other commentators.</p>
<p>Though, you run the risk of people hijacking your thread and having side-discussions about other issues. I’d say 3/4 of the substance on this thread is already off-topic.</p>
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<p>I was SEAS and majored in one of the more difficult majors. I took 5 classes my 1st semester after listening to my advisor’s propaganda (Columbia advisors have a strong incentive to minimize your stress because they don’t want you burning out, going homicidal/suicidal, etc.). After that I think I took 7 classes the remainder of the way out. I never studied that much or worked that hard, because I didn’t really care about grades and I was tired of the rat race from high school. I think GPA ranged from 3.4 to 3.7 the first couple years depending on how difficult the classes were, and I somehow got over a 4.0 my last year (senior classes, especially seminars, are generally graded easy). I probably would have earned the same grades taking 6 classes versus 7 because I never was at a point where I was maxed out and couldn’t handle it all; rather, I just chose not to study that much.</p>
<p>kajon by what measure do you think it is worth more? </p>
<p>in any case, as far as i am aware, columbia transfers you in terms of semesters, so if you have done 4 semester at vassar, that would become in columbia’s view 64 credits.</p>
<p>I’m going to be a SEAS freshman this fall, majoring in chemical engineering. Does this first semester schedule look too demanding? Especially with a part time job and a research position? </p>
<p>calc 3
intensive general chem (the second sequence)
physics (first or second sequence)
university writing
gateway lab
phys ed</p>
<p>1) why do you need to do a part time job and a research position? i think you should probably consider adjusting first before adding extras. if you need a job to fill work study that is one thing, but i’d hold off.
2) how/why are you taking gateway and uwriting at the same time, columbia automatically assigns you to one or the other depending on your last name.<br>
3) your 3 math/sci classes are pretty much standard for a lot of chemE folks i’ve met.</p>
<p>Wow, thanks for all the comments! I’d just like to steer the discussion back to the main topic, which is basically how much harder is it to take 5 classes per semester than 4? If I do end up transferring from Vassar to Columbia, and admittedly considering the acceptance rate that’s a pretty big if, that would be the greatest adjustment I’d have to make. I’d be glad to hear from anyone who is taking, has taken, or knows people who take 5 classes per semester.</p>
<p>It all depends all the types of course you are taking. Some, like U Writing, feels like two or even three in terms of workload. Others feel like none (e.g. Frontiers if you get a good section leader, some classes in the “softer” humanities). I am a freshman in CC. I took six classes last semester with UW. It did feel like alot, but I assure you it was all because of UW (and I did have a “nothing”). This semester i’m doing seven classes, with I’d say 3 very light classes. It’s all about how you balance, as many have said.</p>
<p>edit: op, it’s probably not wise to be rude towards c02.</p>
<p>Thank you for the comment. I doubt that I was rude towards him/her. I merely noted that the purpose of my title was to attract interest. His/her commenting on the thread was proof of that, and I even thanked him/her for keeping the thread going. As for the main body of the comment, I have no idea how transfer students fit in the core. One thing I suspect, though this is merely a hunch, is that they might let some courses people took at their other schools count if they’re close enough. In my case for instance, I think that the year of Arabic I’ve taken would count for part of the language core, while the art history course might be able to count for the Art core. Turning to the U Writing, Vassar has “Freshmen Writing Seminars” which are writing intensive classes that sound like they serve a similar purpose to the U Writing core. If I’m blessed with an admission offer, and as always that’s a big if, that might count as a U Writing Core. Of course, I have no idea if Columbia would even give core credit for courses taken at another school, or that it would count these classes as equivalent if it did. I’d appreciate it if anyone with some insight into this could offer me some perspective.</p>
<p>columbia is rather notoriously strict on the 6 main core courses when it comes to placing out (uw might be the most flexible). and columbia is also very open about this ahead of time because they want even transfer students to feel like they graduated with the full columbia experience. you should go in with the expectation that you will have to fill them. though peripheral core classes you can usually fill easily (arabic fitting for a language, math/sci reqs).</p>
<p>also, admissions officer are not the only ones who counts courses, it is done in conjunction with the center for student advising the folks that know the course offerings inside and out. nor do i think it is as subjective as i hope that my admissions officer is nice, it is a bit more objectively based on whether or not the material taught is similar enough to columbia’s class (as far as i know, many frosh writing courses are taken). most transfer students at the point of acceptance will receive a transfer credit evaluation letting them know what will or will not count, it is not a definitive credit evaluation, that happens when you get your DAR (degree audit report) when you fully enroll, you can continue to petition classes and should use old syllabi to do so.</p>
<p>“Do I have to take the Core curriculum, even if I’ve already taken similar courses at my current college/university?
The Core is the cornerstone of undergraduate academic life at Columbia. Even those transferring in with advanced credit should expect to take elements of the Core, if not all of it. Students are very rarely exempt from Core classes like Literature Humanities, Contemporary Civilization, Art Humanities and Music Humanities.”</p>
<p>and lastly - i think i need to take a shot at you, but i would research before you go on hunches. i know you were conceding that you didn’t know stuff, but quickly after that you made it seem like you were an authority (i am talking about tone here). the fact being, you really didn’t need me to post because all of this information i got straight from columbia’s website and most of it from the instructions for the application. the only extra thing i know is about the csa people being involved in transfer evaluations because my old advisor was involved in that and mentioned it once in passing.</p>
<p>second, he said don’t pick a fight with Columbia2002 because s/he is notorious for picking your argument apart and being vicious. it creates a linguistic fury of nothingness. it is best to ignore c02 when s/he talks grammar (not because s/he doesn’t usually have great grammar) but because it tends to be tangential to the question. beyond that s/he offers good advice and knows a lot.</p>
<p>Thank you for your comment. I certainly didn’t mean to sound like “an authority”, and as you noted I did point out that I really have no clue, but thank you for the feedback. I was merely stating my own, again admittedly uninformed opinion, that if Columbia accepted some outside classes for core credit at all, that those might be some that it would accept. Clearly that base presumption was itself wrong, except apparently in regards to the language requirement. I also did read the part of the website on the core curriculum. Because of the phrase, “those transferring in with advanced credit should expect to take elements of the Core,” it seemed to me that I might be exempt from some classes. My point was simply that the classes I noted (freshman writing seminar, art history, and language core) seemed very similar to the core courses. This is why I sought out other people’s opinions as to whether my suspicions were right, since I said I couldn’t answer them myself, and why I’m glad that you were able to show me otherwise. As always I appreciate other people’s opinions and comments.</p>