<p>What are the differences? Or are they largely similar?</p>
<p>I'm trying to decide which of these amazing schools to attend, and knowing if there are differences in their Core programs would probably help me make that decision. Thanks!</p>
<p>Why don’t you do a comparative analysis yourself and come back with some preliminary findings to share for discussion? Simply asking a question, as you have, is intellectually lazy. Consider yourself on notice for a rude awakening next year, irrespective of where you go.</p>
<p>I didn’t apply to Chicago and don’t live in the Chicago area, but I can tell you that Columbia has an outstanding core curriculum. A few very close friends of mine attend Columbia (I will most likely be enrolling myself) and they have nothing but good things to say about Columbia.</p>
<p>OldScarecrow - I’m sorry you feel that way, but I actually have done my research. I know all that websites and admitted students booklets can tell me. I posted this on the forums to get actual student opinions of the two programs. What a school outlines on their website about the Core and how students view the programs are very different things.</p>
<p>OldScarecrow - What the ****? I also get annoyed when people post vague questions that show they haven’t done any research, but I don’t think that’s the case here.</p>
<p>The OP obviously wants opinions on the respective Core programs from students who have experienced them. It makes perfect sense that they’d make such a request on this forum. I don’t understand your hostility.</p>
<p>SRHS12,</p>
<p>Share your findings from your web searches. What aspects of the programs are alike? What have you found that are different? Frame the discussion for the group and be specific in your questions. Do not assume that people on this thread understand the Chicago program.</p>
<p>pwoods - Find ways to add value in your postings.</p>
<p>I joined the site specifically to respond to the O.P.'s question, to the best of my ability. I am, both, a proud graduate of Chicago, and the proud relative of a Columbia '16 admit. In the years since I was at Chicago in the late 1980s Chicago has re-tooled its Core, which it had already done significantly before I matriculated. A central difference between Chicago’s and Columbia’s cores is this: the Columbia Core requires that ALL students take several of the EXACT same classes, including the year-long LitHum, whereas Chicago’s requires specific Core fields, from which you choose the particular courses. At Columbia you would take LitHum and LitMusic…these are specific to the entire Columbia undergraduate curriculum and EVERYONE MUST take these specific courses, which all have exactly the same syllabus. Chicago requires that you have significant exposure – like every other student – to the same fields of inquiry, but the specific courses you can use to fill the requirements are more flexible. You will have Humanities, social science (etc) requirements to fill as part of your Chicago Core curriculum, but which of the available core course you use to fill that requirement is a personal choice. The difference, in a nutshell: much of Columbia’s Core is class-specific (you HAVE to take LitHum), whereas Chicago’s is field specific, in that you have more flexibility in which class you would take to meet your lit or hum Core distribution requirement. At least that is what Chicago did in the late 80s. I would suspect that it is still true.</p>
<p>Columbia is RENOWNED for these specific, everyone-must-take-these Core courses like LItHum, which are pretty much the same as they have been, content-wise, FOR DECADES. When I was at Chicago there were several initiatives afoot to make the College more appealing to a broader applicant base. One such initiative was to get, as we heard, BETTER LOOKING STUDENTS, another was to make the Core less restrictive and more flexible.</p>
<p>As a Chicago grad, Columbia is the undergraduate college in the Ivy League that I am most “jazzed” about. When I was at Harvard, its Core, very good of course, was more on the newer-version Chicago model, where fields of inquiry were required, but course selection within the required field was more flexible. Therefore, Columbia’s curriculum even within the Ivy League remains, as far as I know, unique.</p>
<p>Very different schools, each with a very different kind of Core curriculum. How to choose? It is like apples and oranges, especially when it comes to school environment. That is also something to take into consideration. One reason why my family member SPECIFICALLY applied to Columbia was for ITS version of the Core. Plus she/he still believes that Chicago is “the place where fun goes to die.” It is not!! But Columbia was determined by this applicant to be better suited in personal terms, as well.</p>
<p>swingtime - Thank you! That was very helpful :)</p>
<p>amodestproposal, thanks for the compliment. Columbia and UChicago both have fantastic core programs. They are, however, very different and the difference is worth an explanation.</p>