<p>I also don’t know too much about Columbia’s core…but, I do believe they read the same exact texts in the same sequence of courses. With the U of C core, there is much more flexibility: yes “Self” and “Power” (two of the most popular Sosc core sequences) will probably read a fair bit of the same literature (i.e. Marx’s Capital and Smith’s Wealth of Nations) but they have different focuses and will definitely read different stuff as well. This flexibility carries through even to the science courses for the non-majors, for instance, I took the “Biology of Gender” for my nat sci requirement, which was definitely a really interesting class.</p>