<p>I apologize if this has been discussed before; I couldn't find any recent threads on this topic, but please link me if there is one.</p>
<p>As an incoming senior, I obviously haven't been accepted to Columbia yet, but for current Columbia College students or alumni: based on your personal experience, how difficult is it to change majors? Some posts on CC have talked about all the red tape in Columbia.</p>
<p>It'd also be helpful if you could also tell me which major you switched to (and switched from), and when you did this (ie junior year, freshman year?)</p>
<p>you do not declare a major until your sophomore year, though of course you probably begin with some intimations of what you will want to study, but you are kind of a free agent until sophomore year. you can take all kinds of polisci classes, but you aren’t a major in polisci until sophomore year around february when you declare for Columbia College and then I believe it is something like october for Columbia Engineering.</p>
<p>you are able to change your major at any point before graduation so long as you can prove that you will be able to graduate on time with the new major. it is very easy, it basically is a form that your advisor and you sign. for example, i had a major and second semester senior year i realized i had enough credits for a concentration in another field, so i went to my advisor and added the concentration, so i graduated with a major and a concentration.</p>
<p>the advantage to declaring the major in the department of your choice in your sophomore year when it is usually done is that you get departmental advisors and support more easily, you also get into classes where majors are preferred. so let’s say you are majoring in polisci, but start to want to take economics classes, some econ upper level classes would be closed out to you until you declare an econ major by filling out a form.</p>
<p>Phew, I was a little worried about Columbia and its rumoured red tape, but clearly that isn’t a problem in this respect. Thanks for the helpful reply! :D</p>
<p>columbia has some bad red tape for certain, but a lot of it has to do mostly with how departments interrelate with each other and the cracks of jurisdictions that are created as a result.</p>
<p>for the most part the areas that will have the least red tape will be areas where the undergraduate office is really the only domain on the subject. majors and academic affairs (at columbia through center for student advising), and career placement (cce) tend to be the easiest areas of the university to navigate. in fact i would say the easiest and most hassle free part of columbia involves academics (despite the core) because you really can do whatever you want so long as you graduate, and professors even can be lax about some rules. since i went to columbia first and foremost for the academics, i tended to enjoy it a lot, and found advisors to be very helpful in letting me do what i wanted.</p>
<p>student activities have some of their own issues with regards to jurisdiction with offices like facilities, a separate department that runs lerner hall and then general counsel that often tries to watch after the columbia brand and any risk that might occur. so this area can be more frustrating. though in general it is more the task to figure out the holes.</p>
<p>the closer you start to step on other offices the more complicated things become. if you apply and attend columbia, just be aware of that, like most things in new york, you adapt or you complain. your choice.</p>
<p>Adgeek’s right, though CSA and the whole academic offices definitely have some red tape. The forms you have to fill out to add/drop classes and change majors are similar to what you’d find at the DMV. But it’s not actually difficult to do. All you have to do is fill out a form, and there are tons of people (starting with your advisor) who will help you do that. You really get a taste of the Columbia bureaucracy when you have to deal with facilities. Just try to reserve practice space for some extracurricular group!</p>
<p>thanks for the information! I would like to ask if there’s quota on the no. of students allowed to take a major each year? If so, will preference be given to those who indicated the major when applying? say, if I choose economics when applying but suddenly wish to switch to anthropology at the end of my sophomore year, will I be at a disadvantage comparing to those who indicated anthropology as their major when they were applying?</p>
<p>Most majors just let you declare without any formal application process provided you can graduate on time. For example, for the econ major, the core classes (principles, macro + micro, metrics, and the seminar) take 4 semesters to finish because of prerequisites, so you couldn’t declare it any later than fall of junior year.</p>
<p>AFAIK, there isn’t a quota on anything except the business minor, which “accepts” only 40 or so a year, but you can still graduate with it if you take all the classes. Other majors like physics and comp lit have application processes which are really just short conversations with the dept. head making sure you’ve taken the proper coursework and what your future plans are.</p>
<p>No, the majors don’t have quotas. The major that you indicate on your application has no bearing whatsoever on your academic experience. Admissions may track (for their own records) how many people end up majoring in something that they indicated on their application, but that will not have any effect on you during your time at Columbia.</p>
I would like to ask if there’s quota on the no. of students allowed to take a major each year? If so, will preference be given to those who indicated the major when applying? say, if I choose economics when applying but suddenly wish to switch to anthropology at the end of my sophomore year, will I be at a disadvantage comparing to those who indicated anthropology as their major when they were applying?</p>