Hello CC, I’m an incoming to Columbia University (Columbia College), and I’m overwhelmed by all the majors they have. I have an interest in neuroscience, specifically integrating neuroscience with something like computer science or physics. However, i’m unsure of what to major in. I’m thinking of doing Neuroscience with Pre-Med since I will also be a varsity athlete and double majoring seems tough. I’m also thinking of doing computer science and pre-med or physics and pre-med. What do you guys suggest I major in? Is computer science and pre-med feasible with all the core requirements or would it just be better to switch to SEAS and do Biomedical Engineering and risk a lower GPA for medical school? Thank you.
I am currently a premed at Columbia. I’m not in CS myself, but I have friends that are, and the classes seem to assign HW/projects that take a good deal of time, which may be hard as a varsity athlete. The premed curriculum is a little gruelling, since you take GC 1 and 2, Bio 1 and 2 (huge time sink), Physics 1201/1202 or a higher track, Orgo 1 & 2, and physics, orgo, and gchem lab.
http://bulletin.columbia.edu/columbia-college/departments-instruction/computer-science/#requirementstext The CS requirements actually appear to be fairly light, but the physics (on the tab to the left) seem fairly heavy. I have a friend who did biochem and physics double major but he wasn’t an athlete and also kind of crazy.
Neuroscience is a little weird because Orgo and physics aren’t actually requirements for it, so you take additional premed recs in addition to a bunch of psych classes.
BME has a very, very intense workload. Most students I know take 6 classes a term. If you were to transfer to SEAS, I imagine you would have to keep up with the SEAS core during your first year. I’m also pretty sure it wouldn’t give you the physics coverage that you want since only 1401-1403 is required, and the CS requirements are also light. I honestly don’t think the Columbia College core is that awful, because everyone skimps on reading once in a while.
From just looking at the bulletin, I think Neuro + premed would be the easiest, CS + premed would be possible, physics + premed looks challenging. Personally, speaking, however, I think the Neuro major is weak because of the number of psych classes involved. If you’re really passionate about physics, Biophysics is an option; in this, premed is effectively covered, and you get more physics. I feel like you could add some CS courses in as well. I was going to do biophysics until I had an iffy experience in a physics class along with a concentration in math.
When you get to Columbia I encourage you to take these questions up with your advisor. If you are interested in taking physics seriously, I would suggest doing, along with the four required cores (FroSci, UW, LitHum 1 and 2), gen chem, calc, and physics, because I was definitely disadvantaged by starting the physics sequence sophomore year (which is what most premeds do). If you lean more towards CS, I would take 1004 or 1007 sometime during your freshman year.
However, you don’t declare until your 4th semester and you can still change after, so don’t sweat it too much! Enjoy your summer 
Thank you so much! That was very informative. I spoke to my coach and he said physics is effectively impossible since it’s just a demanding major. Double majoring is a no-go especially if I want research and clinical experience when applying to medical school. I plan on staying at CC as well. After evaluating the requirements for CS and Neuro and what overlaps: Neuroscience + Pre Med is 36 classes which is 4.5 classes a semester while CS and Pre Med is 5 classes a semester. Everyone’s been telling me GPA is the most important thing to consider when choosing majors so whichever I feel like I’d do better in should be my goal. I’m pretty set on going Pre Med but CS would give me job security if things don’t pan out how I want. I’m going to look into the biophysics major but thank you so much! As a random question, I didn’t fulfill the language requirement in high school so do you recommend I push language until sophomore year? What would you suggest my schedule be like for the first two semesters at CU?
From what I’ve heard from my CS friends, it’s not a terribly good ‘back up’ track if you’re short on time. I don’t want to discourage you at all, and I certainly lack the personal experience, but they have told me that for CS, classes themselves are not adequate for technical interviews and they did some self studying on the side + personal projects are also very important. Unless you are passionate about CS and would do that anyway, I’m not sure that it’s the best for ‘back up’.
I only suggested biophysics because it covers all the premed requirements and adds the entire intro physics sequence (normal premeds only do 2 courses) + a lab + 2 advanced physics courses. The bio is also lighter, with just the intro sequence + one more bio course. You can always add neuroscience courses to it, but if you’re interested in neuroscience purely for learning (and care about behavioural - I don’t b/c my interest/research is more in clinical neuroscience) but not for grad school, I would advise the neuroscience major. It’s not too heavy and you can always take the harder level physics (1400 or 1600 instead of 1200), as it will still fulfill the premed reqs.
I don’t want to make the process sound ~easy~ by any means, and it certainly requires a certain kind of person/mindset, but a number of Columbia students end up going into finance/start-up/consulting with non-Econ/related majors. I have a friend who decided she was interested in consulting her junior year and is now working FT with IBM. She did this while also doing clinical work + research (Consulting is just a gap year for her; she intends on ultimately going to medical school). Finance, in particular, really likes athletes. There are a lot of options available at Columbia and in general that are worth exploring; sometimes we just aren’t aware of all the possibilities until we look.
For the language requirement, it totally depends on you and on what language you intend on taking. I took an accelerated version that fulfilled the requirement in 1 year during my freshman year. While it’s good to be done with and the course was easy, I had class 4X a week, at the same time, which decreased my options. If you think it’s not going to be insanely time consuming and you have no other prereqs you direly need to take (for biophysics you should take physics, for example, econ would be principles of econ), I’d do it.
Assuming that you’re applying at the traditional time for MS (between junior and senior year) - I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately - you’re going to want to have more time during your junior year to study for your MCAT. After having gone through my first two years here, I honestly think freshman year was very nice in terms of workload. At the same time, it’s a new environment, you’re making friends, experimenting with life etc. As a result, I would suggest you get essential, easy to medium courses that you can do well in without too much effort, for at least your first semester.
Freshman year:
Semester 1: LitHum, UW/FroSci, Gen Chem 1 (if you don’t do this you’ll be behind), Science of Psych, easiest Calc you can take (take Calc 1 or 3, 2 is uselessly hard - I’m assuming you’ve had calc before)*
Semester 2: LitHum, UW/FroSci, Gen Chem 2, Gen Chem Lab* (utterly useless course but best to get it over with unless you want to take 2 labs sophomore year), a fifth class (Global Core/Stat 1111 or 1211 - you need it for premed, or even a fun class)*.
*I suggested Science of Psych because it’s a basic prereq for your major, so is Calc for premed, and Gen Chem Lab you want to get done ASAP because it’s boring and stupid but you still have to do it. Stat you need for your major and premed/the MCAT and I hear it’s a tedious, not hard but not well taught class, so I suggested it. You could also do a global core or Mind, Brain and Behaviour if it’s offered in the spring or another prereq. I wouldn’t take a global core with UW and LitHum since you’ll already be doing plenty of reading and writing, maybe it’s ok w/ FroSci (though I heard they added BS reading).
These are just my quick thoughts - feel free to reshuffle or entirely discard. Try adding the classes you want to take this year (if they’re offered in the fall - all of them should be) to vergil.registrar.columbia.edu by searching (sometimes you have to look them up on the bulletin, because the search function sucks) if you have your uni and password set up. You can plan it out quite nicely on there, see which schedule you like and fits with your practice schedule. As an athlete, you’ll get the best registration time, so you should mostly get all the times/classes you want, unless they’re filled with upperclassmen - possibly true for Global Core and Science of Psych but people sometimes drop, so don’t fret.
Thank you so much! After all the information you’ve given me, I’ll likely be leaning more towards majoring in neuroscience or biophysics and taking computer science classes here and there. I’m already proficient in java and python. As for languages, I took spanish and latin in high school. However, I’m a fluent french speaker-- sadly I can’t really write in the language haha so I plan on taking up french at CU. If I may ask, how did you find the intensive language class? I’m on Vergil right now and see that it meets 4x a week and has 120 min sessions as opposed to the normal 85 min sessions.
My intensive language class met 4X a week but we only had 65 minute long sessions somehow, so it was great for me, but it was also for heritage speakers. I think it’ll be different for non heritage classes - I think the course you’re talking about (ACCEL Elementary French), right? In general, if you don’t know what the course is going to be like, it’s a good idea to check out the profs on culpa.info, vergil (click faculty evaluations and then type the name), and at coursesatcu.com (will require a free account and is run by Spectator, the school newspaper).
The professor teaching it http://culpa.info/professors/2781 seems to be good but the class is apparently hard. Make of it what you will.
My only remaining point is if you want to take biophysics make sure you sign up for 1401 or higher physics this term, or else you will be behind. I was doing biophysics and started the sequence sophomore year and it was a huge pain. Neuro, you can do it 2nd year.
Anyway, good luck with everything!