<p>I’m applying to Columbia RD. Right now I’m looking at the core curriculum classes and the readings and they all seem heavily focused on the Western world. So is the core curriculum too Eurocentric? For Columbia students, did you find this to be a problem/turn-off?</p>
<p>The same is true in science and math – almost all advances were made in the western world. The west has been where the action has been, so that’s what is taught.</p>
<p>I think the idea of the Core is to introduce the background to Western thought, so I think that it naturally followers. </p>
<p>Though, I also think the Western world is huge – you could argue it includes a lot of the former European colonies which also stretches a lot of the globe – so I also see it as lacking in that regard. I think the works they pick are the most important, but there are some others I could see in there (the Analects immediately jumping to my mind).</p>
<p>blah: whether you view the Core as too Eurocentric or not, if you happen to attend Columbia, you have the pleasant option of exploring tons of great non-European offerings in many many disciplines.</p>
<p>You face the same choice as say, a hard core science student, might face. She might say: should I attend Columbia with its required Core or should I attend a Core-less school like MIT?</p>
<p>If you feel the Core and its western offerings aren’t to your liking, you have absolute control over that …</p>
<p>The Core is absolutely Eurocentric, but in most Core classes, Western ideas are challenged and critiqued, not accepted uncritically. Columbia has great classes focused on non-Western literature, philosophy, and culture, and it would be nice if some of those were required in the Core Curriculum (there is a Global Core requirement but it’s just a distribution requirement, not an actual class), but I wouldn’t worry that your experience at Columbia will be too Eurocentric. Does that make sense?</p>
<p>You’re applying to a Western university…</p>