5 Classes a Semester: Impossible?!

<p>1) job comes with columbia financial aid. i already do research so it’d be nice to continue asap
2) so you’re telling me that it isn’t possible to have uwriting and gateway at the same time?
I was planning ahead because second semester of freshman year i have to take two math classes (calc 4 and differential eq) with physics, chem, a professional engineering course and gym. which already adds up to 5 classes excluding gym. so yeah… i pushed both uwriting and gateway to first semester. better than having 6 major classes plus gym at the end of freshman year in my estimation</p>

<p>1) there are plenty of work study jobs that let you do homework on the job (library mostly) so consider those. i know the immediate impulse to get started, but play it by ear, don’t feel like you need everything to come into place at the right time. if you get a great option to do research, take it, but otherwise use the time to work and build relationships with the people you want to have.</p>

<p>2) you might be able to petition, but i have never ever heard of a student take uw and gateway together.</p>

<p>3) taking 6 courses in seas is not unheard of, and not unheard of in the first year. in fact it might be the only way if you want to get that second math course out of the way. you could easily manage if you’re organized and the better you are at psets the easier it will be.</p>

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>Sorry to revive such an old thread, but I’m an incoming student I was wondering whether the courses I intend to take are too heavy. I’m a Junior transfer at GS and still have to take UW, Art Hum, Music Hum and one literature course for the Core. I’m an economics major and have already taken some core courses. I wanted to start this semester with:</p>

<ul>
<li>University Writing</li>
<li>Stat B</li>
<li>Economics of Money and Banking</li>
<li>Calculus III</li>
<li>Financial accounting </li>
<li>Sculpture I</li>
</ul>

<p>That would make 18 points, but one course is sculpture and there are two math courses (knowing that I really enjoy math and almost placed out of calc III with my HS coursework…). Do you think that’s too much? I won’t be interning/working this semester, but I still want to be able to have a social life / student groups / etc.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<p>hey cocteau - i guess it depends on what was your most recent scholastic experience, was it recent or awhile ago? from the sound of it it may have been recent? if it was awhile ago i’d just note that it is one helluva reintroduction to school to take such a math intensive courseload.</p>

<p>if so i would say this is probably not going to be terribly too difficult. so long as you do all the impending problem sets which you say you like. UW can range from tedious to fun (mine was fun), but usually always you to just play with writing and thinking if you see it that way. </p>

<p>in the end you can always drop a class, and have about 5 weeks to do so, so always know you have something in your back pocket.</p>

<p>ease into things at first, there are tons of social things you can pick up slowly but surely, and quite a bit of columbia life tends to revolve around studying; especially GS students using Lewisohn as a place to work/congregate/procrastinate. and from there you can find your own way to get involved in student groups.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>Yeah, actually I am pretty much a regular student, I’m 20 and studied two years at a french university. Although I didn’t take much math at college (just a couple of quantitative-related subjects), I was really good at it in HS and am looking forward to re-discovering the beautiful realm of math. </p>

<p>I forgot I could drop a class, that’s great and I guess it solves my problems. I really want to be able to take all my required classes and do sculpture…</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>sorry for bumping this up again, </p>

<p>i’m pondering why in vassar, 4 credits per course * 4 courses per semester = in columbia 3 credits per course * 5 courses per semester? is that implying the material in a course you take at columbia weighs less than that of at vassar?</p>

<p>and by the end of one’s undergraduate studies, a columbia students has taken 40 courses and harvard 32?</p>

<p>Not necessarily. CC students need 124 and SEAS students need 128 to graduate. Say you come into CC with 9 points of AP credit. The 6 main core classes (plus PE), 2 global core, and 2 science core make up another 41 points. If you’re taking 4 semesters of a language, that’s another 16 points. If your major requires 40 points (~13 classes), that leaves 18 (6 classes) for electives or a concentration. So you could graduate having taken ~33 classes, or even fewer if you max out on AP credits. It’s just that many students who have the option choose to go over the graduation requirement.</p>

<p>EDIT: Current Columbia students please correct me if I’m wrong about any of this.</p>

<p>Saob12, your math is correct and the situation certainly happens. But the norm really is 5 classes a semester, 40 classes total.</p>

<p>I’m kind of worried about my schedule now because I’ll have to take Lit Hum and UW together. I honestly thought UW would be one of the lighter courses, but from reading previous comments, I guess not. Almost all CC students have to deal with it, so I guess I’ll pull through eventually.</p>

<p>Might be a little off topic, but I’m deliberating whether to take chemistry 1400-level, java 1004, or principles of econ first semester. This would be in addition to lit hum, uw, and two other classes. I’m most interested in Java, but I’m concerned whether the workload (esp. combined with UW) will be too much for someone who’s never programmed. My backup would be econ, but as of right now the classes look pretty full, and Salanie, the third prof, has a lot of terrible reviews on culpa.</p>

<p>Any upperclassmen willing to offer some advice?</p>

<p>^ How does one find out that the classes are pretty full or whatever is the status? You had mentioned that “the classes look pretty full”?</p>

<p>Is it not normal to take 6 classes in the first semester?</p>

<p>[Fall</a> 2012 Department: Economics](<a href=“http://www.columbia.edu/cu/bulletin/uwb/sel/ECON_Fall2012.html]Fall”>http://www.columbia.edu/cu/bulletin/uwb/sel/ECON_Fall2012.html)
[Economics</a> | Columbia College](<a href=“Columbia College Bulletin < Columbia College | Columbia University”>Columbia College Bulletin < Columbia College | Columbia University)</p>

<p>This says that Musatti and Gulati are almost full, and once athletes and the first registration time have gone, it will likely be full. That leaves Salanie, although there’s the option of waiting for people to drop the class, or bring that add/drop form to the professor.</p>

<p>6 classes seems excessive for the first semester. In that way, it’s different from high school. Most people take five at first, and the summer advisors even said to consider taking four if you don’t feel confident in making the adjustment to college or want to focus more on socializing.</p>

<p>When is the exact scheduled date for classes registration? Until when can the freshmen add or drop classes? Cannot figure out the link in the website for the above details.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.ssol.columbia.edu%5B/url%5D”>www.ssol.columbia.edu</a></p>

<p>Under reg appts, the schedule for registration times is there.</p>

<p>On that note, how good is a 10:20 A.M. registration time? I believe 9:30 is the earliest, so 10:20 would be very good?</p>

<p>From the perspective of someone with a 12:30 time, sounds good to me. Columbia seems intent on screwing me over at the moment…</p>

<p>neiro6-I got 12:30 as well. Goodbye Gulatti’s Principles of Econ. I’ll just wait til the Spring.</p>

<p>I’m really frustrated cause it seems like coming in with exemptions is basically useless since all that is open are intro classes. My late registration time is only exacerbating that. I’ll just have to get a lot of add/drop forms and hope professors are kind/upperclassmen drop things.</p>

<p>What’s your first choice schedule for this semester. Other than Lit and UW/FroSci, I have Portuguese, Principles of Econ, Intro Mechanics and Thermodynamics, and Calculus 3 (obviously I’ll only choose 3). I figured getting a spot in the other three shouldn’t be too difficult, but Econ is probably doomed.</p>

<p>Any idea why the appointments are until 9.30 pm and also goes right until Sept 14th?</p>

<p>Does the registration happen on the first day - that is August 31 or can it be done later also? Heard that its fixed on August 31 but why are there other dates as well under the schedule for registration times?</p>