<p>I see a lot of threads here asking what sets Columbia apart from other schools and almost 100% of the responses mention "the core". I can't claim to have read all posts, but I've read a lot and I have yet to see anyone elaborate. What is it, exactly, about Columbia's core that sets it apart? I may have missed the threads that include detail, so feel free to simply point me in the right direction.</p>
<p>all the specifics are right here:</p>
<p>The threads will include less detail than the bulletin or the website. If you want to find out about the core, there's a lot of good information in those two places. The general place to go on the website is here: <a href="http://www.college.columbia.edu/students/academics/core/%5B/url%5D">http://www.college.columbia.edu/students/academics/core/</a>. (Or go to the prospective page> about columbia> and click the core link). The website has booklists for Literature Humanities (the year-long freshman course), which looks like a fun list. The link is <a href="http://www.college.columbia.edu/students/academics/core/lh_syllabus.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.college.columbia.edu/students/academics/core/lh_syllabus.php</a>.
The books are:
ILIAD (U. of Chicago, tr. Lattimore)
HOMERIC HYMNS (Hopkins, tr. Athanassakis)
ODYSSEY (Harper, tr. Lattimore)
THE HISTORIES (Penguin, tr. de Selincourt)
ORESTEIA (Aeschylus I, U. of Chicago, tr. Lattimore)
OEDIPUS THE KING (Sophocles I, U. of Chicago, tr. Grene)
MEDEA (Euripides I, U. of Chicago, tr. Warner) ISBN 0-226-30780-8
HISTORY OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR (Penguin, tr. Warner)
SYMPOSIUM (Hackett, trs. Nehamas, Woodruff)
LYSISTRATA (Signet, tr. Parker) ISBN 0-451-52789-5
BIBLE: Revised Standard Version (Meridian)
Virgil, AENEID (Bantam, tr. Mandelbaum)
Augustine, CONFESSIONS (Oxford, tr. Chadwick)
Dante, INFERNO (Bantam, tr. Mandelbaum)
Boccaccio, DECAMERON (Penguin, tr. McWilliam)
Montaigne, ESSAYS (Penguin, tr. Cohen)
Shakespeare, KING LEAR (Pelican)
Cervantes, DON QUIXOTE (Penguin, tr. Rutherford)
Austen, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (Oxford)
Dostoevsky, CRIME AND PUNISHMENT (Vintage, trs. Pevear & Volokhonsky)
Woolf, TO THE LIGHTHOUSE (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich)</p>
<p>One good thing about the core is that everyone takes it, and everyone takes it around the same time. You also end up learning about lots of different things that you might never have learned about. You can end up learning about yourself this way, finding new interests, becoming an interesting and cultured person to talk to. You learn skills along the way, too, definitely analysis and writing and probably other things like communicating well.</p>
<p>The reading list for the sophomore year-long course, contemporary civilization is:
Texts: Plato, REPUBLIC (Hackett)
Aristotle, NICOMACHEAN ETHICS (Oxford)
Aristotle, POLITICS (Hackett)
BIBLE: Revised Standard Version (Meridian)
Cicero, ON DUTIES (Cambridge)
Augustine, CITY OF GOD (Penguin)
AL-QURAN (Amana)
Machiavelli, SELECTED POLITICAL WRITINGS (Hackett)
Hillerbrand, ed., THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION (Harper & Row)
Descartes, DISCOURSE ON METHOD AND MEDITATIONS ON FIRST PHILOSOPHY (Hackett)
Hobbes, LEVIATHAN (Oxford)
Locke, SECOND TREATISE OF GOVERNMENT (Hackett)
Hume, Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (Hackett)
Rousseau, Basic Political Writings (Hackett)
Kant, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals (Hackett)
Smith, Wealth of Nations (Modern Library)
Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (Hackett)
Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Dover)
Tocqueville, Democracy in America (Hackett)
Mill, On Liberty and Other Essays (Oxford)
Marx, The Marx-Engels Reader (Norton)
Darwin, On the Origin of Species (Broadview)
Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals (Vintage)
Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (Dover)
Freud, Civilization and its Discontents (Norton)
Woolf, Three Guineas (HBJ)
Arendt, The Human Condition (Chicago)
Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (Grove)
Foucault, Discipline and Punish (Vintage)
Rawls, A Theory of Justice (Harvard)
MacKinnon, Towards a Feminist Theory of the State (Harvard)</p>
<p>And look here for the art class, which uses the city's abundance of art. <a href="http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/arthumanities/%5B/url%5D">http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/arthumanities/</a></p>
<p>Every core class uses the city! It's awesome.</p>
<p>I have to go to a picnic now, but anyway, read about this stuff because you might like it a lot.</p>
<p>Yeah...I'm terrified of the core...but w/e lol...it's something I won't be able to experience at other schools</p>
<p>don't be terrified. it's really a lot of fun. i just finished Contemporary Civ (the sophomore year course) and I feel like I have a much greater understanding of philosophy than when I started. If you're going to Columbia in the fall, try to get a head start on some of the Lit Hum books - you'll be glad you did later.</p>
<p>So, from the replies so far the core curriculum is broad reaching and what sets it apart is:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Everybody takes the same courses and reads the same books the first two years. The reading list is impressive. However, it seems that other institutions offer similar opportunities. The difference being that specific areas af study are required, but not such a rigid set of classes. A cynic might say that the Columbia approach is stifling. However, I agree that if you can apply yourself you will definitely have the breadth of knowledge that will make you a well rounded, interesting person.</p></li>
<li><p>The cultural opportunities avaiable in NYC are infused as part of the core. This is cool, but is not necessarily unique. Boston and Philadelphia share many of the same opportunities with regard to museums, theater, etc. No, not in the same numbers as NYC, but the quality is high. Please, no flames from NYC snobs. :-)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>So, I admit the core curriculum is excellent, but the approach may not be for everybody.</p>
<p>Do the students in Columbia SEAS have to also, follow this core curriculum?</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
Do the students in Columbia SEAS have to also, follow this core curriculum?
[/QUOTE]
Yes, but not as extensively - for example, I think they can choose either CC or Lit Hum, while students in the college take both</p>
<p>Sounds like great prep for Jeopardy</p>
<p>do you have to read all those books? in one course?</p>
<p>OMG i will never graduate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>Man...that guy to the right of Ken Jennings (was Brad his name?) is going to win.</p>
<p>Maybe steveistutor could answer that question, DecisionTime, since I guess he's been through this.</p>
<p>those books are for two separate courses. So u would have to read those books over 2 years. I think there are 52 books spread over those two years. That makes it 13 books per semester. </p>
<p>Dont get me wrong thats still a lot of books per semester.</p>
<p>omg. <em>flip</em></p>
<p>WC13: I wouldn't call NYC's cultural opportunities part of the Core, but they are certainly part of what sets Columbia apart from other schools. They are not part of the academic requirements, they're just a really nice bonus!</p>
<p>A cynic might say that the Columbia approach is stifling.</p>
<p>I think it's really just more "proscribed" rather than stifling, since there is so much freedom of choice about everything else you study (especially in that you're not even required to major). Columbia tells you upfront that in their infinite wisdom, you should have read xyz books and discussed xyz theories in order to be truly well educated. If you agree that the Core curriculum represents things EVERY college graduate ought to know, then Columbia's the place for you. If you don't, perhaps not.</p>
<p>Personally, I tend to agree. It may be rigid, but I'd have a hard time arguing that a college graduate shouldn't have been exposed to everything in the Core classes; I think it's a really solid curriculum.</p>
<p>Oh, and DecisionTime: consider the fact that you will have no classes on Fridays as compensation for the fact that you may spend one day every week reading a good book.</p>
<p>Oh, abcdefghijklm, Don Quixote will certainly take more than one day in one week, let me tell you.</p>
<p>The core does build NYC into it in several ways: MusicHum includes concert-going, and ArtHum includes museum trips. Beyond that, in LitHum, the teachers have a small budget that may include taking the class to a play related to the reading, and they go to the Met to look at artwork related to the reading as well. (Above info from my son, who just finished LitHum)</p>
<p>Another aspect of the core that makes it a little different from just assembling a similar set of courses at another college is that it guarantees small classes first and second years. They are capped at 22 students. They may be taught by Teaching Fellows or faculty from various departments, but the idea behind them is that they are meant to function more like seminars in which there is discussion and everyone considers the works together, rather than hearing from an expert on what you are supposed to get out of the books. This is luck of the draw, since it obviously depends both on the teacher and the collection of fellow students. But when it works, it can be wonderful.</p>
<p>I do agree it is not for everyone. Therefore, it is an important consideration when deciding whether to apply to Columbia.</p>
<p>sac: That's good to hear - I didn't realize that was the case!</p>
<p>jono: You're right...one <em>extra</em> day per week for reading is more like it I suppose. At least the books don't have to be read in their original languages!</p>
<p>It seems like you don't read every page of the books; for example: </p>
<p>Cervantes, DON QUIXOTE: Part I: all except Tale of Foolish Curiosity; Part II: Prologue and Chapts 1-3, 72-74 (optional: Chapts 8-11,16,18,22-23,41-8,72-4)</p>
<p>haha all the european history and related questions on jeopardy are easy already from AP Euro...Ken is losing :D</p>