<p>I have applied RD for Columbia Engineering. I think I pulled off a pretty good app, but I know the acceptance % for RD is close to 5%. </p>
<p>But anyways, I had some questions about the curriculum for SEAS:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>How liberal arts based is the curriculum; that is, how many of your classes are humanities/arts based as opposed to science/engineering based?</p></li>
<li><p>How difficult are the LA classes? I know that Columbia prides itself on the core curriculum, and I am a bit uneasy that if I was to be accepted, that I may not be able to handle a difficult LA curriculum because I simply have not had that type of prep in HS.</p></li>
<li><p>I know a lot of SEAS students enter business/finance after graduation, and I plan to do the same. However, I may have a change of mind (after all engineering is the third or fourth field of study I have considered since 8th grade lol), and choose to enter industry. If I was to do so, would SEAS be a good prep for that career path? </p></li>
</ol>
<p>I plan on majoring in ChemE right now, but I may switch to Financial Engineering, in which case question 3 wouldn't apply.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Depends. If no minor, then you only have the basic core to complete in addition to your major, and that will probably be around 1 or maybe 2 non tech classes per semester. If you are going to minor, then depending on your minor, you might have more non tech classes. </p></li>
<li><p>Classes at Columbia are difficult, and the problem sets and readings can take over your life if you choose to take all the hard classes together. There are some liberal arts/non tech classes that are ridiculous, but that’s why you have to do your research and simply find the classes that requires the least amount of work. (although least here is all really relative b/c I have yet to encounter a core class that doesn’t make me suffer). Note too that for the most part, the classes are difficult because you have to do all those readings/essays on top of you engineering psets. In the end it’s down to time management, wise class selection, and how much you get done on top of your psets (which can get hard). </p></li>
</ol>
<p>3) Do a search, there are probably many threads here that give you a more detailed answer.</p>
<p>thanks for the insight! any other takers?</p>
<p>I was only going to comment on 3 since 1 is painfully easy to find and 2 is answerable with a search but whatever…</p>
<p>1) 4 lib arts classes in the engineering core (UW, 2 semesters of lit.hum/cc/global whatevers, music/art hum.). [econ is a social science, not lib.arts]</p>
<p>2) people aren’t as smart as you’d think. seriously, most of the discussion in lit.hum./cc/etc is mind-numbing…at least in my experience and the experience of most of my cc friends. people may be able to write better than you but that’s what UW is for.</p>
<p>3) You’re citing something that may change soon. a) The economy has screwed over most. Finance is still only hiring the top graduates but many less of them now. I can only think of 2 or 3 people I know graduating this year that have a job in finance/consulting/etc.<br>
b) The new dean is much more engineering oriented. The general vibe coming from all of the classes now, 2010-2013, is a wish that SEAS had better industry connections and supposedly he’s working on it. </p>
<p>That’s not to say that in 4 years you wont be able to go into either field, I’m just saying there is a slight push to get away from the 33% of the class going to finance/related.</p>
<p>Also, a note on industry: some of the departments are very well connected to industry. Environmental, Civil, and Mechanical all come to mind. Heck, env.eng has it’s own career fair every year. This mostly comes form the professors having industry contacts in some form. Some of the departments have no such contacts, chem.e. being a big one (speaking as a chem.e.). You CAN get a job in industry coming from the chem.e. department at columbia, but you will really have to look in places other majors wont like professional societies, cold calling, and family/friend connections. Not to turn you off from chem.e., of course…just being blunt about the realities of the situation.</p>