<p>Hi, I visited Columbia last week, and went to the info sesh and tour. They talked a lot about the Core Curriculum as Columbia's most important distinctive feature from all other schools. They said they want all students to graduate with a grounding in the works of "dead white men." Now, I think that's great, but I'm afraid it may be redundant for me. I go to a Jesuit prep school in the northeast, so I'm probably a lot more familiar with these "DWM" works than other schools: Kant, Aquinas, Shakespeare, the Bible, Aristotle, Locke, Sophocles, etc. I've even read Herotodus and Homer in the original Greek. Will the Core feel like a burden if I've already studied them? Or could I place out of some classes? Or is it ultimately more rewarding to read the works at Columbia? I don't want to spend 2 years of college rehashing my high school classes.</p>
<p>LitHum (scroll down for syllabus): [Literature</a> Humanities | Columbia College](<a href=“http://www.college.columbia.edu/core/classes/lh.php]Literature”>Literature Humanities | The Core Curriculum)</p>
<p>Contemporary Civ: [Contemporary</a> Civilization | Columbia College](<a href=“http://www.college.columbia.edu/core/classes/cc.php]Contemporary”>About Contemporary Civilization | The Core Curriculum)</p>
<p>Assuming you like reading and discussing great works of literature and philosophy in a seminar-style format, I think you’d like these two major Core classes. You already have some exposure to them, so it should come slightly easier to you. But do you really think you’ll be rehashing what you did in high school? There’s a difference between high-school level discussion and analysis and that of college. You should certainly consider whether you want to take LitHum and CC (and the other Core classes), and that should factor into your ultimate decision to apply or not to apply to Columbia, but I wouldn’t fear that you’ve already identified and considered every possible interpretation of these literary and philosophical works in high school!</p>
<p>Great, that’s what I was thinking, but wanted to be sure. How long does it take to complete the Core?</p>
<p>I believe all Core requirements take 2 full years to complete. Can someone confirm this please?</p>
<p>I’m pretty positive it’s 2 years. And I am positive that you cannot place out of the Core.</p>
<p>To the OP, I too go to a Jesuit CP and have read H’s and P’s in Greek. However, that’s going to be nice. I think that the college analysis will be a lot more in depth than high school, so live with it.</p>
<p>For Columbia College, you have a year of LitHum, a year of CC, a semester each of UW, Frontiers, ArtHum, MusicHum, 2 science courses, 2 Global Core (i.e. non-Western culture) courses, 4 semesters of language (unless you place out), and some phys ed classes. Assuming you take 5 classes a semester, the Core requirement is equivalent to about three semesters, though it takes at least 2 years to complete. If you wanted to finish all the requirements by the end of sophomore year, your first 4 semesters at Columbia would look something like this:</p>
<p>LitHum<br>
UW
Language<br>
Science
Global Core</p>
<p>LitHum
Frontiers
Language
Science
Global Core</p>
<p>CC
ArtHum
Language
Elective
Elective</p>
<p>CC
MusicHum
Language
Elective
Elective</p>
<p>it’s more like 3 semester, and if you place out a language requirement, it’s more like 2 semesters and a bit. Finally many core courses count in some major or the other, like your science courses can be the math required an econ major, and some of the global core stuff counts for history and some other majors. so for many the core is simply 2 semesters of work.</p>