<p>How does the undergrad experience at Columbia compare to other top unis and LACs? Specifically, is the student body generally hard-working and happy? How large are the class sizes? Anything unique to C, either positive or negative, that you want to share?</p>
<p>The core curriculum is unique and it's either a positive or negative depending on who you are, but either way it takes up about one third of your courses and therefore is something to think about. My son is a first year and, based on what he tells me, my impression is that Columbia students work and play very,very hard. He loves it. He does voice the general gripe about the bureaucracy and lack of advising (he hasn't chosen a major yet). I don't know that this is based on any personal experience, or whether it's just the thing to gripe about there. He's had no problem getting classes. As to class size: LitHum is 22 students, University Writing is 12, his math class is about 50, his music ensemble is 6, and he has two lecture classes -- physics around 100 and economics about 300. The math, physics, and econ classes break down into smaller recitation sections as well. He dropped a physics seminar that had 16 students in it because his load was already too heavy. His two favorite classes this semester are the econ with a wonderful lecturer and LitHum, which is discussion based. The LitHum teacher is the same both semesters and she spends an enormous amount of time meeting with students individually both before and after they write papers.
There is no choice in terms of LitHum and University Writing instructors, but he lucked out with both. How's that nursery rhyme go -- when it is good it is very, very good and when it is bad... Though you can tell by his courses he may be heading in the direction of science, he really enjoys the discussions of the books in the core class and the fact that all the first years are reading the same books at the same time, even though their teachers may be taking different approaches.
The other aspect that is different, of course, is New York City. To give you an idea of some of what he did in the city last week, he and a friend dressed up and went to an upscale restaurant that was discounted for restaurant week, he played in a band at a community event on the East side, and he went to a Broadway play for free through Columbia.</p>