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blah1111 · 10-01-2005, 07:54 PM

I'm a sophomore here, and I find the advising system at Columbia to be pretty good (and rightly so, Columbia College has 4000 students in it). My advisor knows me by name. Hell, her SECRETARY knows me by name. 'Nuff said. Students who know the ropes can obviously provide useful advising info too.

All core curriculum classes (Lit Hum, Art Hum, Music Hum, University Writing, Contemporary Civilizations, foreign language, and most Major Cultures classes) are all approximately 20:1. Classes that everyone and their mothers take (eg, principles of econ) will have up to 300 students. But others have four or five (or even one!). I think the average class size, when you get into your major, will be around 15-20. However, the science departments have an amazing student:faculty ratio, which is definitely a pull-factor for future chemists/physicists.

I don't really know what you mean by "actual research not TA." TA's are graduate students who, believe it or not, do serious research for their dissertation. They just have teaching fellowships at Columbia to pay for tuition. Very rarely can undergraduates be TA's. If you want to do research, it's actually very easy to get a job; three of my friends have research positions with actual Columbia professors. The student-faculty ratio for physics majors at Columbia College is 2:3 -- yes, that means that there are more physics professors than undergraduate physics majors. This makes research very easy to find.

I don't think the social scene on campus is necessarily bad, just kind of different. I lived in a very social dorm in my freshman year, and we became a pretty close-knit floor. I'm not really sure what you mean by "unity"... does it have something to do with school spirit? Do you want students to express their love for Columbia on a daily basis? I think students here enjoy their Columbia experience on a more subtle level; I agree with anyone who says that students here don't have that "ra-ra" feeling, but when you evaluate yourself, you're going to have to ask yourself the question "Is that necessary?" To me, it's really not (I find it kind of obnoxious). This very well may be the reason alumni donations are so low, but that's hardly indicative of alumni's amount of satisfaction with their undergraduate career.

Of course, just like at any college, there'll be students who don't like it here. To take that kind of anecdotal evidence to heart is kind of flawed.

10-01-2005, 07:54 PM	#23
blah1111 Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Posts: 394	I'm a sophomore here, and I find the advising system at Columbia to be pretty good (and rightly so, Columbia College has 4000 students in it). My advisor knows me by name. Hell, her SECRETARY knows me by name. 'Nuff said. Students who know the ropes can obviously provide useful advising info too. All core curriculum classes (Lit Hum, Art Hum, Music Hum, University Writing, Contemporary Civilizations, foreign language, and most Major Cultures classes) are all approximately 20:1. Classes that everyone and their mothers take (eg, principles of econ) will have up to 300 students. But others have four or five (or even one!). I think the average class size, when you get into your major, will be around 15-20. However, the science departments have an amazing student:faculty ratio, which is definitely a pull-factor for future chemists/physicists. I don't really know what you mean by "actual research not TA." TA's are graduate students who, believe it or not, do serious research for their dissertation. They just have teaching fellowships at Columbia to pay for tuition. Very rarely can undergraduates be TA's. If you want to do research, it's actually very easy to get a job; three of my friends have research positions with actual Columbia professors. The student-faculty ratio for physics majors at Columbia College is 2:3 -- yes, that means that there are more physics professors than undergraduate physics majors. This makes research very easy to find. I don't think the social scene on campus is necessarily bad, just kind of different. I lived in a very social dorm in my freshman year, and we became a pretty close-knit floor. I'm not really sure what you mean by "unity"... does it have something to do with school spirit? Do you want students to express their love for Columbia on a daily basis? I think students here enjoy their Columbia experience on a more subtle level; I agree with anyone who says that students here don't have that "ra-ra" feeling, but when you evaluate yourself, you're going to have to ask yourself the question "Is that necessary?" To me, it's really not (I find it kind of obnoxious). This very well may be the reason alumni donations are so low, but that's hardly indicative of alumni's amount of satisfaction with their undergraduate career. Of course, just like at any college, there'll be students who don't like it here. To take that kind of anecdotal evidence to heart is kind of flawed.