How to survive (and love) the Core

Love it or hate it, there’s nothing in the Columbia experience that quite compares to the Core Curriculum.

The Core unites students in Columbia College and the School of Engineering and Applied Science with a common learning experience, albeit one with endless reading lists and discussion posts.

Whether you sleep with “The Iliad” under your pillow or have long since chucked it out the window, the Core defines the University’s mission to cultivate critical thinking in undergraduates.
Here are some universal maxims (Kant, anyone?) for making your way through:

1. Tailor the classes to your interests. In many courses, you can choose your own essay topics. Love Jane Austen but hate Virginia Woolf? If you go with what you like, you’ll make even your least favorite Core class more palatable.

2. Instructors are key. A good one can make you love a course, while a bad one can have you running for the hills within a week. When possible, use CULPA (www.culpa.info) to pick the professors that are right for you. Remember, though, that different students look for different traits in professors—you might actually love a professor who got poor reviews on CULPA.

Also keep in mind that a good instructor can come from anywhere: Your favorite teacher may end up being a graduate student, while the class taught by that award-winning professor might turn out to be a bust. Look at the amount of time they have for each of their students and how much they are willing to work with students, and don’t make judgments solely based on a professor’s field. Many Core professors come from different departments. Even if your professor has only ever taught Italian, she could still be an insightful Literature Humanities professor.

3. Take Core classes that contribute to your major. A Global Core course or a class that fulfills the science requirement might force you to explore a different aspect of your major than you normally would have—and you have to graduate sometime, after all.

4. Read selectively. Even instructors will admit that you can’t read everything, and certain portions of the texts provide greater insight than others.

The Core is the one part of the curriculum that is uniquely, well, Columbian. Whatever you feel about it, know that every single student around you has to get through the Core for his or her diploma. It is the tie that binds us together as Columbia students.