Hi everybody my name is Kat and if you watched the last video in this series you
know that I've partnered with Columbia admissions to make some videos for
prospective students . This video is a first year student perspective on the
core curriculum. I asked my friends what is the core mean to you and what's your
favorite core class and why. I hope you enjoy. So I'm sure at this point you guys
have heard a lot about the core. The core was really important to me when I was
applying because it was so diverse. So I really loved the core because I think it
gives me a great opportunity to see classes outside of what I normally take
I'm a humanities major but I've always really loved science too and so we get
to take courses in that field that I probably wouldn't be taking if I wasn't
supposed to for the core. There's a music and art part of the curriculum so to be
around students that know about that and that care about that like that was super
super important for me. The one defining aspect of the core for me is how it
builds Columbia community. We might be in different classes we have different
majors different interests we come from different parts of the world but then
you could also everybody can go back to their dorm at the end of the night and
go on the elevator and strike up a conversation with another student who
we've never talked to before about King Lear and then you have that automatic
link to everybody. And I also like that whenever I meet in any Columbia alumni for
example I was on alumni dinner a few weeks ago with someone from the class of
like '55 and we were talking about books that I was currently reading in class -
like that connectivity between all Columbia students is so important for me
just because you from the jump like have this connection with anyone that went to
Columbia and that was really important especially for like building networks
and just just being like what feels like a part of a larger community something
bigger than myself. Also a big part of the core is just all
the people I get to meet that I wouldn't normally some of my best friends are
pre-med and I think at a lot of other schools you wouldn't typically interact
with people who are outside of your track Right off the bat you're
automatically guaranteed to be in very intimate settings which isn't something
you can say for a lot of comparable schools you're going to be in classes
with about 18 19 20 other students talking about a lot of really
abstracting big-ticket ideas. Coming from a place where I really like thrived on
those kinds of like close-quarter relationships it was nice to know that
I'm still gonna get that in college. Things happen in Core classes that I
would never have expected coming to like a college class where like it's my
professors birthday and so all of the students we have like a group page
together and we plan to bring her a cake and we come into class and we celebrate
and sing her happy birthday and we have like a little party while we're talking
about Montaigne's Essays. My favorite core experiences have been the time
where we've just connected on a basic human level which i think is what the
core is about - it's about finding our humanities together. As far as my
favorite core class that is difficult. I'll go with Frontiers of Science I really
liked Frontiers of Science. Frontiers of Science is one that all CC students take
and it's basically like a class that opens you up to the frontiers of science
so like developing new kinds of fun things that are happening in science. So
that takes place in like a lecture and then you have another class
complimentary to that like later in the week where you are in like that
18-19 student group Frontiers of Science make sure it's important that you
understand a scientific method and you understand
scientific thought and you understand the importance of truth and like how we
get to truth. My professor was actually the guy that created Frontiers
of Science he's an amazing guy his name's David Helfand you guys should look
him up - he kind of looks like Santa and Dumbledore. So actually fun fact in
this fall semester on the last day of school or last day like the fall winter
semester he dressed up as Santa Claus and then in the spring semester he
dresses up as Dumbledore because he looks like that so that's really cool.
One of the really cool classes I've taken so far with the Core is
University Writing and my favorite project we worked on was a research
paper. So what was really cool about the research paper was that we got to sort
of explore anything we wanted and I was in a particular section that was for
Human Rights so I got to work really closely with my professor because the
class only had like less than 20 students in it. In University of writing
it's like different subjects so like for example I chose to take the University
Writing course that's related to American Studies. You can use University
writing in areas like medical studies gender and sexuality and it goes on so
that's really cool while you're writing that you can take different kind of like
subject lines and then so then the readings and writings that you work on
kind of relate to that field. As a first year my favorite core class has been
literature humanities (LitHum). The basic format of the class is that we get
to talk to each other so for two hours twice a week we just sit down around a
table and we talk about you know books and about the things that we've been
reading but you know a lot of the topics and themes of literature can extend to
our basic like humanity are our current events, our social events, our history. To
me the core has been making friends over Frontiers of Science homework, going
dancing with my classmates from Literature Humanities, and going on a
scavenger hunt through Butler library for my University Writing class. The
strides that I've made in my education through the Core in my first year have
really exceeded all of my expectations and my professors have been just
mind-blowingly incredible. I hope that after watching this video you can
connect the core on a more human level getting past the surface level class
names and requirements. If you have other questions about the core will link the
core website in another admissions video about the core in the bio. Thank you for
watching have a great day!