Hi everyone. I was recently accepted to Columbia College, and I am strongly considering attending. However, I have a few questions relating to the Core, specifically for math/physics majors or science majors in general. The Core seems like something I would enjoy (I wouldn’t have applied otherwise), but I am a bit worried about how time-consuming it may be. In your experience, does the Core prevent you from focusing on your major at all? Is it difficult to balance, say, math problem sets with the reading for Lit Hum or CC? I’m planning on attending graduate school for either mathematics or physics, so I was also curious about the kinds of programs into which Columbia students get admitted. Do grad schools look down upon the Core at all? I apologize if any of these questions sound presumptuous; I’m just trying to get a feel for what it’s like to be a science major at Columbia. Thanks in advance for any comments!
I am not a math/physics major, but I have a friend in CC who double majored in Physics and Biochem. He took accelerated physics his freshman year along with the typical course load and seemed fine with it. I know other physics majors who also don’t seem to be inhibited by the core in any way. Some professors may assign more reading than others, but you can usually switch, and also most people don’t typically do 100% of the assigned reading anyway and still do fine in the class. Last year, spring semester, I had a heavy courseload and a CC professor who assigned lots of reading, but she gave most people A-s.
Also, I have found lots of reading to be the exception more than the rule in my experience. I’m also a science major, and have not found the core classes to be my harder ones thus far. For LitHum, I did do all of the reading, largely because of my admiration for my professor, and it didn’t take me that long because she was pretty sensible with what she assigned. I also found CC term 1 reading to be fine. If you really struggle with the humanities, it may be an issue, however.
I frankly can’t see how you’d be looked down upon for taking humanities classes in addition to a rigorous science course load. I suggest you contact the department or admissions for info about graduate programs.