e_man1157

heyy, i was looking at the college bulletin for columbia and most of the classes are filled up already for fall of 2007. I know students pick classes on april 13/14, but what about first years? I wanted to take intro to comp. politics, but it's already full -- at least according to the website. and intermediate chinese is already full too. are there going to be more sections opened up for first years or thats it?

i was also wondering how many classes are discussion based (aside from the core curriculum)? esp. for poli sci classes, are they all lectures and over like 100 people?

lastly, are classes mostly taught by prof. or just grad students?

i know. lots of questions. haha sorry. but thanks.

Shazkar

Yeah, no, definitely there will be some spots in classes opened up when you get here.

All my classes have been taught by profs so far (except UW), but of course recitations are held by TAs.

I'm in SEAS and haven't taken any Poli-sci courses so... dunno about that.

Skraylor

you will pick classes at the end of NSOP...basically 3-4 days before classes actually start

maybe an upperclassman/alum can say more about this but i dont think they will open more sections. people will definitely drop out of some of the classes they are taking tho so by the time you register there will prolly be some spots open. or if not then then usually in the first few days....also, you can usually get a professor to let you into a class if its full if you just ask

also....classes like chinese are just extremely popular and hard to get into...

most everything "intro" or "general" will be over 100 people. it's just the way it is although that applies more to the science classes than english ones, those tend to be smaller and more intimate

like shazkar said, all prof's except U.writing

bing121086

In my experience, some lower level language classes are taught by grad students too (at least in the French dept), like the first four semesters (Elementary and Intermediate levels). That's not to say any of them were bad or anything, though.

WindowShopping

99% of the courses you're looking at will have sporadic openings during the next two registration periods (shortly before the fall term and then during the first two weeks). if there's a lecture that you're qualified for that continues to show up as full, chances are pretty good that the instructor can manually add you.

yapsuper

Everything above is right and the only thing I have to add is that the T.A's (at least the ones I've had) are sometimes more helpful than professors because you can be more open with them about your expectations of the class.

The Ace is Back

Skraylor for Chinese, will East Asian Studies majors find it easier to get in?

Also does anyone know if there's any way to find out what the most popular majors are at Columbia?

metsfan

probably econ/polisci. also the econ/polisci double major. a lot of people do pre-med, although it's not actually a major.

Skraylor

no because you dont declare until 2nd semester sophmore year anyways.

besides, i dont think chinese has a priority list (as opposed to arabic, in which case middle eastern studies majors get priority for arabic classes)

tho i could be wrong on the above, it might be worth looking into.