<p>I heard the general education requirements for Fu are pretty crazy compared to other engineering colleges. Can anyone point me toward what exactly they entail?</p>
<p>This is quite true. You take about 2/3 of the CC core. It's all part of SEAS being an engineering school that tries to produce well-rounded kids who go into all sorts of careers rather than just engineering.</p>
<p>I believe you have to take either Lit Hum (Western Lit) OR Contemporary Civilization (Western Philosophy), Art Hum OR Music Hum, and at least one PE class. Engineers also have the option of taking one semester of Lit Hum and another of CC rather than one two-semester sequence of either. </p>
<p>Fortunately for engineers, there is no subjection to the notorious swim test. The running joke is that while College students need to learn to swim across a river, the engineers will know how to build a bridge over it.</p>
<p>the SEAS core consists of:
-2 semesters of world culture (lit hum OR CC OR world culture) ....in CC you have to take 2 semesters of each
-1 semester of university writing
-1 semester of Art Hum or Music Hum .....in CC you have to take both
-2 semesters of physical education
-1 semesters of principles of economics
-1 semester of computer science
-1 semester of a "pre-professional" course
-9 credits of "nontechnical electives" (3 courses)
and of course the bare minimum science requirements:
-1 semester of chem
-1 semester of physics
-4 semesters of calc
....most majors require you to take much more than that.</p>
<p>and yes, there is no swim test....i know the story behind it but i dont care to tell it right now and bore you all....its not as amusing as the joke reason.</p>
<p>Wow, I have a new appreciation for my SEAS friends. That's insane. Are you forgetting Gateway lab or is that "computer science"?</p>
<p>And actually I'm curious to know why there's no SEAS swim requirement.</p>
<p>oh, yes and of course i forgot....</p>
<p>-Gateway</p>
<p>....i hated that class....suck up to jack mcgourty and do as little work as possible you'll be golden and possibly get an A+....this strategy works only in this class.....(sorry i'm bitter)</p>
<p>the reason why SEAS doesnt have a swim test is because the SEAS administration or whatever were having their meeting before CC's and they had heard a rumor that CC was going to eliminate the swim test so they thought they'd do it first so they voted to eliminate it but then CC voted against eliminating it but then SEAS didnt wanna look like idiots so they stuck with their decision despite the fact that they only eliminated it because CC was going to.</p>
<p>Haha. I assume that was before Zvi Galil's time; premeditating and approximating the behavior of CC isn't something he would do!</p>
<p>do people in SEAS find the core to take too much out of their electives and make their engineering major too demanding, or is it not too bad and better for you in the grand scheme of things?</p>
<p>i LOVED the core classes with the exception of gateway...the science requirements are a part of your major so you would have to take those anyway. I think it makes you very well rounded having to take these classes (except gateway which is just a complete waste of time...anyone who says otherwise is just thrilled with an underserved good grade in a 4 point class)</p>
<p>
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do people in SEAS find the core to take too much out of their electives and make their engineering major too demanding, or is it not too bad and better for you in the grand scheme of things?
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</p>
<p>That's definitely an issue. I did one of the most intense SEAS majors, and I think it came down to me having a total of 3 non-technical electives and 2 technical elective. So, in essense, I only got to pick 5 courses of my own choosing. It's a trade-off.</p>
<p>Shraf..
Given the core, an SEAS student is pretty tied up there living with 9 credits freely elective. A student who works his butt up in IEOR branch say fin engineering would struggle in an even tighter rope to gear his minor concentration if desire to broaden his mind-sphere to say Econ a/o statistics.
Almost not workable to graduate with double majors IEOR/Economics, I would say in five years. Columbia College's website doesn't seem to provide information encouraging SEAS incumbents to attempt across to CC, should they hold interest that way. How would it work out if an SEAS student would like to pursue double majors IEOR/Econ?</p>
<p>I recall MIT academic website clearly provides info to students pertaining to endeavoring a second major on top of engineering.</p>
<p>If you want to do a CC-SEAS double major, there's a special 5 year program for that. Read into the 3-2 or 4-1 programs. You need to do all the CC and SEAS core requirements, plus both majors.</p>
<p>If you major in IEOR it is very easy to minor in Econ...alot of people do it the info can be found at the bottom of this page:</p>
<p>In SEAS you can only minor in a discipline in the college while majoring in engineering. You can also double major in engineering or do a major and a minor both in engineering. You may not (in four years) major in engineering and in the college. As columbia2002 mentioned you would have to do the 3-2 or 4-1 programs for that. Also if you major in IEOR, a minor in econ is sufficient.</p>
<p>info about the 3-2 program is here:</p>
<p>info about the 4-1 program is here:</p>
<p>the 3-2 is for people in SEAS and the 4-1 in for people in CC.</p>