<p>Hey guys...
im an incoming freshman for the class of 2014. </p>
<p>so i had a few questions regarding the academics/courses etc :</p>
<p>1) How and when can incoming freshman choose and register for their classes? (Being an international - i still havent received the academic planning guide so yeah)</p>
<p>2) I was initially planning on doing the "Combined Plan" 3-2 program with SEAS.....primarily cuz i want to do Computer Science/Computer Engineering. However i noticed that Computer Science is also offered at Columbia College for a B.A degree...
How is this different from the B.S computer science degree offered at SEAS??? :S</p>
<p>3) Lastly...if i do decide not to do the 3-2 program...i would ideally like to double major in economics and computer science (both at CC ofcourse) with a minor in financial engineering (ive heard how strong this program is at Columbia). Is this manageable/allowed?? With the core and stuff...are double majors even possible at Columbia..and what about a double major with a minor from SEAS???</p>
<p>thanks alot guys..</p>
<p>Hey im incoming 2014 too and international as well. We apparently choose during orientation after we meet with our advisors and so on. We’ll be pre-registered for Lit hum and either University writing or frontiers in science.</p>
<p>On another note </p>
<p>heres the academic planning guide online </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.columbia.edu/cu/orientation/documents/academicplanningguide2014.pdf[/url]”>http://www.columbia.edu/cu/orientation/documents/academicplanningguide2014.pdf</a></p>
<p>You can find it and other stuff on these two websites </p>
<p>[New</a> Student Orientation Program](<a href=“http://www.columbia.edu/cu/orientation/html/cc/mailings.html]New”>http://www.columbia.edu/cu/orientation/html/cc/mailings.html)</p>
<p>look to the left side you’ll see links for some documents</p>
<p>[Student</a> Services June Mailing : Download the Mailing](<a href=“New Student Resources | Student Service Center”>New Student Resources | Student Service Center)</p>
<p>heres some more mailing stuff to download</p>
<p>1) Orientation week.</p>
<p>2) [Department</a> of Computer Science, Columbia University | Undergraduate](<a href=“http://www.cs.columbia.edu/education/undergrad]Department”>FAQ for Currently Enrolled Undergraduates | Department of Computer Science, Columbia University)
You can read about the differences in both. Note that the BS degree has more required core courses (7 v. 10). Not a computer scientist so can’t speak of the differences, but had friends who did both the BS and BA degrees and they were in classes with each other. The one mention I’ve heard is that there are more BS students than BA students in the department, with the heavy tinge that way as a result.</p>
<p>3) You can’t minor in financial engineering (or any engineering subfield) if you are a student in Columbia College. You should consider though the Financial Economics ([Columbia</a> University - Economics](<a href=“Columbia | Economics |”>Columbia | Economics |)) new major if you are interested in that route. It sounds entirely doable to do a double major in FinEcon and CS.</p>
<p>You could of course do a triple major (though this might be difficult only because you’d have to fulfill both the engineering and college cores) if you did the 3/2 program. In general you could consider doing either Econ (FinEcon or regular) in the college and Financial Engineering major in SEAS.</p>
<p>As for how feasible doing double majors (or triples)…it depends really how sadistic you are and how smart you are. I know folks who triple majored without blinking, and folks that had trouble finishing one major. If you’re willing to go above and beyond the 5 classes you approximately need to graduate, it is entirely possible to do something crazy.</p>
<p>But the ultimately question is…why do you need it? If you just want to become a better programmer because you want to be a quant, you don’t need to be a CS major. Pick a major you like to start out with (either interests you academically, personally or careerwise), and if you think you need another major to become successful in whatever field you start to pick out as your preferred track, consider that. But otherwise taking courses is often sufficient. If your goal is wall street, having a knowledge of economics is necessary, but majoring in economics is not; so taking a handful of econ courses, financial accounting, etc., will be helpful, but you don’t need to take on a full major.</p>