<p>For CU 2009 students (especially SEAS):</p>
<p>What are your intended majors and how much do you actually know about it? Do you know what GPA average students get with that major?</p>
<p>Columbia College '09:</p>
<p>Not sure about what my major is going to be. I put down mathematics on the app, but I am thinking about things a lot more now and am possibly looking into a math/econ combined or an econ/philosophy combined major.</p>
<p>Not totally decided yet....
Possibilities:
Structural engineering--involves stuff about knowing materials, buildings, standing up to various forces such as wind and earthquakes.
Mechanical engineering--moving stuff, heat stuff, cooling stuff, blah.
Biomedical engineering--medical stuff. The major has 3 tracks, I find tissue engineering to be more interesting. I think a chunk of ths major deals with quantifying the stuff that goes on in the body in a more rigorous, mathematical way than just "well, food goes into intestines and gets absorbed." It's a pretty new field and they're still in the process of standardizing and getting stuff straight.</p>
<p>SEAS- i put electrical engineering</p>
<p>I think that gpa for EE is lower than for other majors, as it is in the most other schools</p>
<p>Generally, the typical engineering GPA is about a 2.7</p>
<p>civil tends to be the highest</p>
<p>hey thomas you said generally...do u mean in columbia specifically? I always thought Ivys had pretty heavy grade inflation...</p>
<p>Go Econnn! And East Asian studies :P</p>
<p>"hey thomas you said generally...do u mean in columbia specifically? I always thought Ivys had pretty heavy grade inflation..."</p>
<p>Well, true, many Ivys (and many LACs in general) have grade crazy inflation. But engineering schools (even Ivy League ones) have grade deflation, with a typical GPA of about 2.7.</p>
<p>I'll quote BurningSands, someone who has actually gone through engineering school:
"While your poly-sci or english major friends might have to take classes like Western Civ., Poetry 101, and Basket Weaving, you will have to take Circuits, Thermodynamics, Engineeing Physics, Fluid Mechanics, etc. Just a TAD bit more challenging. And when you graduate, your GPA (if you're lucky) will be just above a 3.0 (very good for engineering), more than likely it will be in the high 2's; while your Liberal Arts buddies will have GPA's of 3.5 and better."</p>
<p>So, yeah, this is why engineering GPAs are low. It's not specific to Columbia. You'll find this everywhere--Caltech, MIT, Cornell, UIUC, or any other respectable engineering institution.</p>
<p>As for Columbia College, I've heard that it is actually one of the more difficult Ivys and is not affected by the kind of inflation you'll find at, say, Harvard.</p>
<p>Gah!!! all these science/maths!!!! Human Rights for me...</p>
<p>What are you planning to do with a Human Rights major? I'm going into physics (probably) and I've always wondered about majors like Human Rights or Women's Studies.</p>
<p>actually my alumni interviewer got me into joining to paece corps after college (he did), but after that I'm going hardcore into journalismn</p>
<p>Does Columbia not have a journalism major or is there another reason you'd do Human Rights to go into journalism?</p>
<p>i think i'm going to major in BME--tissue engineering....i hope their #18 ranking goes up by the time i graduate :)...i kind of want a minor in mathematics or applied mathematics..but i'll see how hard BME is first...considering everyones saying that engineering GPAs are like 3.0...</p>
<p>can anyone explain to me what industrial engineering and operations research is...what's the real world application...do most people that graduate with a B.S. in that major end up going to business school or something?</p>
<p>"can anyone explain to me what industrial engineering"</p>
<p>Well, I'm not a very die-hard engineer so I'm looking at one of these choices:</p>
<ol>
<li>Industrial Engineering - According to my knowledge, it is the combination and implementation of engineering into business industry. Very similar to financial engineering or economics[engineering].</li>
<li>Computer Science & Engineering with minor in economics - I'm going to "attempt" (keyword, lol) combining computer techniques with business applications. Hopefully business school after and a software company perhaps?</li>
</ol>
<p>no journalism major :( but as an upperclassman you're allowed to take courses @ the grad school of journalism</p>
<p>Ah, ok.</p>
<p>i want to do either English or Anthropology with a premedical concentration</p>
<p>biomedical engineering - tissue engineering for me (haha...good choice beachpanda =))</p>
<p>Where'd you hear that columbia BME was number 18?</p>