Columbia University in the City of New York Top Questions

At Columbia, the quality of your education depends on your department. It can be phenomenal like in the econ dept where you'll be taught be Nobel Prize Winners or it can make you want to kill yourself like in chemical engineering for instance where the teachers are too smart to make sense to undergrads. Columbia has a core curriculum which creates a nice balance on campus. There are a lot of differences between the liberal arts college and the engineering school, including the core, class size, student competitiveness, and teacher interaction. In the engineering school, you'll really only have meaningful contact with a professor if you do research with him or her. It's also more competitive and engineers spend A LOT more time studying consistently throughout the year, as opposed to the college students who write a paper or 2 and have a final. Columbia focuses a lot on finance and the majority of students, regardless of major, go into some sort of finance--the career center is really helpful for that, but if you're not into finance you're basically on your own.

great size classes, great relationship with the professors, has really interesting kinds of classes, I take most of my classes at Barnard, the women's college associated with Columbia but the classes I've taken at Columbia in my major were great - small seminars and great conversation, the professors generally treat the students like their peers, respect them and their opinions

My professors know my name, my majors, my interests, they are supportive and fantastic, students have intellectual conversations outside of class. some students are competitive with each other, but these are mostly premeds.

Classes at Columbia are smaller than at most schools (from the impression I get from talking to my friends). My freshman year, I had the opportunity to be in classes with fewer than 20 people in them. I think that's very unique. However, kids are very competitive and sometimes the atmosphere of the classroom feels a bit more like an arena for econ majors to show off than a place that I feel the most comfortable voicing my actual opinions and asking questions about what I want to learn about. The core has some really great qualities, but it's not why I came to Columbia. I think Lit Hum and CC are interesting classes but a lot of core classes can either be really bad or really good just depending on what teacher you get. Also, the structure is such that we read so much in such a short spand of time that I never absorb what I'm reading even if I'm interested in it. So I like the idea of the core, but I'd like to radically restructure it. On the plus side of that, Columbia is to a certain extent open to student opinion on the core and does respond to our feedback on these issues.

The core curriculum is great, as are most of the professors that I have had. I've focused on history, which is one of the best departments at the university, let alone, in the world. Class participation is common, all Columbia students tend to have some sort of an opinion, but it is accepting. I have found that everywhere is a classroom, with discussions from class coming up in contexts outside of school. I've kept in touch with many of my professors and teaching assistants, who have helped me along the way.

Biomedical engineering is a relatively new field, so the professors are always trying to improve it. all of the professors ive had at least recognize my face if they don't know my name, but i think that's more because i make the effort to get to know them. i try to go to office hours for each professor at least once, and i feel that all my professors are really willing to help.

The professors are in general good, except in math. TERRIBLE. They expect you to be as math-loving as they are. And they just can't conceive the fact that not everyone understands math on their first try. Otherwise, i love columbia! I also had one very bad experience with an English feminist teacher. to her, all men were evil. I simply did not agree and ended up not doing so well in her class. But she got so many complaints from students that i dought she'll be teaching first year english any time soon!

I've developed relatively close relationships with my professors and discussion leaders. Most of the classes are under 20 students and the TA's for the larger lectures are really helpful and informative. You NEED to participate in seminar classes. Don't come to Columbia if you just want to sit in the background, voicing your opinion and engaging in discussion is a big part of classes here.

One of the things I value the most at Columbia is the willingness of the professors or the TAs to help. I not yet taken a class where there has not been someone who can help me if I need it. I think that most of the professors genuinely care about the students and it shows through their efforts.

Columbia isn't that great of an education. If you get a scholarship to a school TAKE IT. don't go here because you think you'll get an "Ivy League Education." Alot of my friends feel lke they learned more in high school. I am not challenged here. Expectations are low.