<p>How many core classes do students take per semester as opposed to the number of classes taken to fulfill the student's major? Basically, what's a typical sample schedule for, say, an English major?</p>
<p>This has been discussed in earlier forum posts, but here goes. Columbia is stricter than most colleges, so a majority of classes during your freshman year will be core classes. If you go with the flow, you will take either 4 or even 5 core classes each semester during your first year. Things get better your sophomore year.</p>
<p>It will probably look like this:</p>
<p>1st Semester: CC, Lit Hum, Univ Writing, Art Humanties, Foreign Lang.
2nd Semester: CC, Lit Hum, Music Humanties, Science class, Foreign Lang., Gym</p>
<p>You should also consider that you can place out of things like the Foreign Language requirement by taking the SAT II test. If you are already good with a foreign language, then it becomes your "gut" course for the semester if you'd like.</p>
<p>I just noticed they've added a course called Frontiers of Science. Check it out online: The</a> Core Curriculum | Columbia College When I was a freshman, some people were deathly afraid of all science classes so they found these gut classes that fulfilled the science requirement. My favorities were:</p>
<p>1) Physics for Poets
2) Astro with Jastrow (Astronomy with a renowned NASA scientist)
3) Rocks for Jocks (Geology)</p>
<p>Ah, memories.</p>
<p>Post #2 gives a misleading idea of the sequence in which the core courses are taken -- Perhaps it has changed since the poster attended.</p>
<p>Your best bet is to follow the link given above rather then digest tidbits from blogs. The core requirements for CC and SEAS are different. Some of the courses, like lit-hum, cc, frontiers-of-S and university writing are pre-scheduled by the school. Others can be taken flexibly at the student's discretion. Normally, CC students take the year-long lit-hum as 1st years and the year-long cc as 2nd years. It would not make much sense (and I don't think Columbia would normally allow you) to take cc and lit-hum concurrently.</p>
<p>I believe it's possible to place out of the Music Hum class, and many kids place out of the language requirement based on AP scores. Otherwise, you're gonna have to take all the core requirements including F-of-S and U writing, both of which are complained about heroically.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Well, as Mets indicates, I am an old fart (CC 1982). Everyone I knew took Cont. Civ and Lit Hum their freshman year. And what a brutal year it was.</p>
<p>A freshman in the College will take 2 core classes per semester (a combo of either Lit Hum and Frontiers or Uni Writing). You can theoretically take Art or Music Hum freshman year, but due to our sucky registration times it's almost impossible to get in. Usually you take those two sophomore year, along with CC.</p>
<p>As for a typical schedule, freshman are encouraged to "explore." I don't know if that's the right advice, and many people do try to fulfill requirements instead. So I'd say that a typical freshman schedule would be the 2 core classes, a class or 2 that fulfill requirements (such as science or language), and a class that's either an elective in an area of interest or part of the student's intended major.</p>