<p>I'm interested in Bioengineering (SEAS), but I also like the majors at Columbia College. </p>
<p>Is there a way to major in areas in SEAS and CC?</p>
<p>If not, let's assume I apply to SEAS and decide BioE isn't for me anymore: what are the chances that I could switch to CC?</p>
<p>hi - i don’t know if torn is the word i would use for choosing between what is clearly a math/science rigorous curriculum, and the more humanities centered core. Might you find both appealing, sure. but honestly, if you don’t start developing a preference based on your perceived skill set, then that lack of clarity will show in your application - and having the ability to major in either school wont be an option…if you catch my drift.</p>
<p>1) you can only major in both if you do one of the combined plan programs - you first enter into one school, and once a student you set yourself up in a way to apply to the programs. you can read up about both of them on the columbia website. you do not, to clarify, apply from the getgo in to the program, so please make sure your first school is one that you wish to be part of most.</p>
<p>2) the chances depend on what you want to do. but there are 16 other majors in SEAS, so choosing the school for one major is pretty, well, absurd. and bioengineering probably bases itself more on physics and computer science than biology, so please know what bioengineering really means before applying, otherwise it will be a long 4 years. and ultimately, if your goal in life is to go to medical school, you do not need to be a bioengineering major from SEAS to do it, you can major in a couple other options and still go on to a top flight med school. in short: your major choice does not necessarily correlate to your life’s pursuit. so of the students i know to be successful in transferring, they did not do so because a) their grades were poor, b) they wanted a lighter math curriculum; but mostly because of c) they preferred a humanities/social science and to the least extent natural science major that they could not pursue in SEAS to the depth of their interests, and could cogently articulate this other interest as having a substantive impact on their future pursuits. </p>
<p>but whereas i played down before the humanities in SEAS (because it is not even close to the college, so not mistakeable), comparatively, SEAS at CU is far more open to diverse futures and diverse interests than traditional engineering schools. just because you major in comp-sci does not mean you have to code the rest of your life. therefore, merely not wanting to be an engineer for the rest of your life is insufficient cause. you need more than that. </p>
<p>not to say you should have that reason already secure. rather you should figure out which school most closely aligns with your present desires. and i would concentrate on a few things - the size of each is different, and then the focus of each is different along the lines of math/science v. humanities as the foci of each core.</p>
<p>I’m a second year student here, and I’ve experienced enough, or heard from friends, to know that the SEAS and CC curriculum (while having mutual courses in the Core) vastly differs. For example the CC core has University Writing, Frontiers of Science, Music and Art Hum, Lit Hum (1 year), CC (Contemporary Civilization - also 1 year), Global Core (2 courses), Foreign Language (this can be waived if you’re fluent in a language or place out through exams). Compare this to SEAS Core, which consists of UWriting, Music or Art Hum, either CC, Lit Hum, or two Global Core courses, Gateway, Preprofessional, and Computer Science, and Principles of Economics. </p>
<p>As you can see, the full CC core is heavily loaded in reading and papers, while the SEAS core has less of that and more technical course (though nothing compared to what you’ll be taking later). The differences between the two cores are significant.</p>
<p>One of my friends was in SEAS his first year, and later transferred to CC because he had never really been exposed to engineering before and was much more interested in the humanities. However, I’ve also had CC friends who now wish they were in SEAS because they are majoring in science and find the whole CC core to be unnecessary and a deterrent to their main foci.</p>
<p>There is no way for you to major in areas in both CC and SEAS, unless you do the Economics-Operations Research major, Applied Math, or Computer Science, none of which you are interested in. With all this said, it really depends on what your interests are. Have you actually been exposed to Bioengineering? As in, do you have at least a vague idea of what this field is about, and what is involved in terms of coursework and future opportunities? If you do, and are really interested, then definitely take the SEAS route. Usually things go wrong when a student has no clear idea about the field he/she is interested in, and applies blindly. At this point you may believe you are interested in both humanities and engineering, but that will definitely not be the case once you get here. Even as a SEAS student, you can still take many electives outside of your major, so that may or may not be enough for you. </p>
<p>You shouldn’t worry about being able to transfer to the other school once you get here. I know at least two people who have done it (so there are probably more), I would guess a GPA of 3.5 or above, which isn’t all that difficult as long as you actually study and do work.</p>
<p>eclecticist, you are wrong here, and i don’t want to be nit picky, but i really think it is important to be clear with the OP and not create unnatural expetations. it is not set in stone to transfer between schools. at columbia to transfer you have to have at minimum a 3.5 GPA, which if you are taking science classes with a B or B- curve, yeah, it could be difficult.</p>
<p>it is important that the student figure out where they want to be and not be whimsical about it because their future happiness may depend on it. and anecdotes of how many students transfer is an absurd basis for saying you know this person can, or that indeed it is highly probable. the vast vast majority of students do not transfer (either between schools or to other schools). and unless you find someone vocal, it is less likely that you will find someone that failed to be honest about their attempt.</p>
<p>i know you were trying to help, but from plenty of experience here on the subject you are not quite there. further - you should clarify that every engineer needs to take upward of 4 semesters of calculus and at least 2 extra semesters depending on their intended major, at least chem and physics, perhaps biology, with labs, and this is before one gets to major courses. the ‘technical’ courses are rigorous and very much math/sci related and are all graded on curves.</p>
<p>but you do speak truth about how different the experiences are. i hope you are enjoying school. you sound like a college student 
, what is your major?</p>