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Caroline greets viewers and introduces the video’s focus on Columbia’s core curriculum. She explains that she wants to break down the program into clear, digestible pieces.
hi everyone and thank you so much for clicking on today's video if this is your first time here then welcome my name is Caroline and it is so nice to meet you and if this isn't your first timehere then welcome back and I really appreciate your continued support I hope you guys are staying safe and healthy and happy during this time and are finding ways to you know use your time productively to improve yourself tohelp others and yeah overall just having as good of his time as possible the end of the semester even though it was remote learning even though it was pass/fail for us it was still quite busy I had alot of final papers I had a couple of final exams but classes have finished and it is time to film my fourth Colombia QA so hope you guys enjoyed this one this topic has been one that has been
very highly requested by a lot of you guys probably
today we're gonna be talking about Colombia's core curriculum so the very famous the very renowned core curriculum at Columbia it might seem like the core is like this mysterious four so I kind of want to break it downinto digestible pieces for you guys all the while providing some personal insights oh and before we get started if you want to check out my previous Q&A some of my other college videos I will link those in thedescription below all right so let's get into the video
This section explains how Columbia’s core differs from general education requirements and why it is designed to build a close academic community. It also introduces the main core classes and the broader educational philosophy behind them.
before we get started with Columbia score let's talk about gen ed requirements regardless of their program of study regardless of their major or concentration all students have to fulfill these these are generally a set of guidelines that requirestudents to take various classes in a wide variety of disciplines so for example arts and humanities classes science classes history classes social science classes foreign languages etc so a lot of different disciplines the goal of these gen edrequirements is to cultivate more well-rounded students those students who both have a depth and breadth of knowledge across a wide variety of disciplines and this not only really helps you determine what you're really interested in it also exposesyou to a great variety of learning styles and learning standpoints that really helps you become a better thinker more critical thinker even if the topics you're learning about don't directly relate to your major the skills learn from them
can be translated so that's kind of the goal of general requirements usually schools have relatively broad gen ed requirements and students can choose from a number of courses to fulfill them
Colombia's core curriculum has a more specifically defined set of courses that you have to take you have to take like hum contemporary civilization fro sigh your writing art hum and music comm and so these are a set ofcommon courses that all undergrads at Columbia take the goal for this is really to create a more tight-knit community you are not only taking the same types or the same subjects of classes that your peers are taking you'reactually taking the exact same courses you guys have a lot to talk about you guys have a lot to think about together whether it be late nights talking about lahum or maybe studying for fro side together it's alot of common experience and that's what really ties the Columbia community together these classes that I mentioned are the specific classes of the core and I will talk about each one of them individually later in the video there
are also other general requirements for Columbia and these are the global core the science requirement and the physical education requirement and the swim test for these general requirements these ones you get to choose from a list of approvedcourses so it gives you a bunch of flexibility in your schedule this traditional Columbia core is at the college as I mentioned previously in my other videos there are four undergraduate institutions at Columbia and so this traditional coreis at a traditional liberal arts college which is Columbia College so the commonalities for these classes are that you really have a small class size around 20 people maybe the max is like 22 people and this really allowsyou to form a really close bond with your peers and also with your professor another common theme for the core curriculum is that you're looking to think for yourself you're reading like 20 books a semester one semester not
even a year for l'homme or CC you're exposed to such a great variety of ideas that you really start to understand how to form your own arguments how to use rhetoric effectively how to integrate arguments and to developyour own ideas and your own way of thinking and your own worldview not only with classes like lahum and CC which are at the heart of the core with classes like fros I like you writing art huh musicum it really sparks interest in a variety of disciplines I've heard of people who are not very science eat people and they took Roza hi and they really enjoyed it so it's something to think about when when learningat Columbia just always keep an open mind I'm going to first talk about the class that you've probably heard the most about which is literature humanities
Caroline describes Literature Humanities, including its workload, reading expectations, and how it helps students become stronger readers and writers. She also shares advice for new students on how to succeed in the class.
literature humanities the full name is masterpieces of Western literature and philosophy I thought the really well-made let's call it little you take it your first year it is a two semester course so you take it fall and springthis was actually my first course at Columbia my first class at Columbia ever because I had lit home at 8:10 a.m.on a Tuesday so I was literally the first day of classes lit home was my first class and going into it I was really nervous because I never read these works before I've never heard of Herodotus or ourstop manie's never read their works also because it's a lot of reading even before even for the first class we had to read the first six books of the Iliad which is like this thick but do not worrydo not panic if you're in the same situation it gets better I feel like I've become a lot stronger at reading critically and finding out the most important part of a text you're gonna have a hundred or so
pages of reading for each class and it's not easy reading it becomes way less intimidating as you go through it so if you're worried like I was don't be you're gonna be fine the topics are pretty interesting sinceit's literature it's stories and storytelling there was a lot of interpretation that you can do you're gonna become a lot stronger at reading a lot faster at reading and a lot better at writing and arguing also at theend of your first year at Columbia after taking it home you're gonna be really happy because you know on on Butler library there are carvings of names of famous writers and philosophers and thinkers they're gonna be like Iknow those people I've read their works and so you're gonna feel very well-read it's not something that will make you happy my advice for at home especially since you're taking it in your first semester your first year is
to go to office hours if you need to your professor I'll be understanding they'll give you advice they'll help you focus on the important parts of the text your professor understands that everyone's coming from from background not everyonehas experience with these types of texts and you're not expected to because you're learning about it in the class if you go to office hours and speak with your professor about your concerns they're gonna be willing to helpout so don't worry about that
She moves on to Contemporary Civilization, discussing the course format, her experience with remote learning, and the kinds of philosophical and political ideas covered. She emphasizes how the class encourages discussion and critical interpretation.
all right so the second class of the core that I'm gonna go over and talk about is not gonna be one that you're taking your first year this is gonna be one you're taking your sophomore year and it'scalled contemporary civilization introduction to contemporary civilization in the West but that's really long though we're just gonna say see it's kind of like analogous to at home of your first year it is two semesters again so you takeit in your fall and your spring DC I took this this past year since I'm a rising junior oh my gosh time was going by so quickly I absolutely absolutely loved CC this past year I had the bestprofessor ever she was so understanding with her transition into Xoom classes and remote learning she actually assigned us a final project at the end where we got to work with our classmates so it wasn't an independent project like
it usually is we had two choices it was either we can write in the style of the manifesto like we had read in the class or integrate ideas from philosophers and thinkers that we've read about kind of applythose ideas to contemporary issues we talked about Immanuel Kant it was a really famous German philosopher and also John Stuart Mill who was an English philosopher we made it into a very funny screenplay and that was it wasreally really fun to write and our professor really enjoyed it and we really enjoyed the process I don't know I'm just really appreciative of that create a final project that we got to complete you're gonna be exposed toand explore so many social political moral religious ideas it's mind blowing your mind will be blown and it's gonna really challenge your preconceived notions for example if I read Plato and Aristotle there are such big names right in
Western society you think that Fame equals correctness like but getting a more nuanced look at their text actually reading it as a primary source you're gonna see a lot of holes in various arguments you're going back to theseprimary sources and you're finding out you're you're kind of experimenting you're finding out for yourself what isn't isn't true about the text what isn't is in present in the text so you get to become a detective that yearof lahum really made me a better reader so that it really helped me with CC you're gonna see that the core is a progression you're gonna keep on continuously improving yourself your intellectual abilities and so advice on CCadvice on CC is to not be afraid to participate in class don't be afraid to share your ideas and your interpretations of the text even if you think you're wrong because generally I mean usually there's no wrong answers
these texts are pretty hard to understand so even if you kind of miss read something someone else might help you understand it better and just bringing up these questions that you have really stimulates classroom discussion even if youthink it's an obvious question bring it up and it'll stimulate greater discussion
Caroline explains Frontiers of Science and University Writing, outlining their structure, assignments, and the skills they build. She closes by noting that the core curriculum discussion will continue in a future video.
the next class I'm going to talk about is frontiers of science you take it during your first year but unlike l'homme or CC it is a one semester class because it is a one semester class you either takeit in the fall or in the spring and generally first year students are pre registered by the school I was pre-registered for frontiers of science during the fall semester and so in the spring semester I took University writingwhich is the class at this one switches off with if you take you writing or university writing in the fall semester you'll take frontiers of science or Fross I and a spring semester but it doesn't really matter whichone as long as you pick it it is a big lecture class all the students who take fro sigh are actually in one auditorium that big lecture class because it is so big you're actually paired with a discussion
section and for each individual discussion section have a section leader and my professor was a postdoc researcher at the Lamont Institute so in environment researchers Toby was really cool and really helpful for the environmental unit and talking aboutunits for our year we had four units of study so frontiers of science it's kind of like a survey of the different scientific fields that might interest you and might pique your interest in astrophysics biodiversity or in ecologyand environmental sciences in neuroscience etc and you'll learn about what the class is called you learn about the frontiers of science both the fundamentals of these fields as well as some really cool ongoing research for example in theneuroscience unit we learned about optogenetics which is basically you're inserting an electrode into a mouse brain and you're using light to control it's their own old firing you're really immersed it feels like like a show thisx I never
thought that I would take an astrophysics class but it's actually pretty interesting learn about general relativity special relativity kind of the basics of that for my discussion section we had weekly homeworks and also one presentation project so actuallyin the last class of the semester and near the last class Santa Claus actually comes to visit in the winter for first time comment down below if you want to know what that means or if you do knowwhat that means share with the world it's actually pretty fun all right so the next class I'm going to talk about is university writing
university writing is the class that switches off with the first I that I just talked about and since University writing is quite a long name again students usually call it u writing or UW I call it u writingor UW I don't know but it is again a one semester class you are immersed in a small seminar again it's like maybe 15 to 20 people it is a course that really really really teaches you how towrite I know people think that some people are naturally born as talented writers some people aren't but there are skills that you learn in this class that really make you a better argue where alpha better reader a betterreader and a better writer I really enjoyed this class I learned so much not only about writing but because the way that you learn in this class is through you're actually reading about topics that are really relevant to
society so the main you writing section the topic is called contemporary essays not only is there the contemporary essay section there is also a wide variety of topics that you can take you writing in so for example there'sreadings in American Studies film and Performing Arts human rights data and society law and justice and there's also a specific section for international students it's called a university rating for international themes it's a very very writing heavy classso you're writing for papers in one semester there Health Professions you're continuously working on them they're gonna learn a lot about the hermeneutic circle you're gonna learn a lot about key terms and their importance p3 is one ofthe biggest assignments of the semester and p4 is an op ed so you get to have a chance to publish and a lot of students do publish and so I really enjoyed this class I learned so much not
only about writing but also about art about films about politics interpersonal communication you learn so much and you're gonna you're gonna carry these skills around for the rest of your life all right so I do realize that thisvideo is getting a little bit long so I might actually cut this into a part 1 and part 2 on the core curriculum in the next video then I'll be talking about art hum music hum global core sciencerequirements and the PE requirements and the foreign language requirements actually that's quite a lot so stick around for the next video it won't be too long before that one's posted hopefully it's up by the time you're watching thisbut if not it'll be up very soon I promise I hope you guys check in with me in the next one thank you so much for watching let me know if you have any additional questions any additional certifications
I can make thank you to those of you who actually asked for this video please be sure to leave a thumbs up and comment down below and also hit that subscribe button with the bell icon for notifications thanksso much again for your support and I'll you in the next one bye
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