At Columbia University, Columbia College does indeed have a stringent core curriculum - which certainly can be a desirable feature for some.
For others who are less enthused, a female student could instead opt for Barnard College at Columbia Univ, which has quite the opposite approach. Instead of a “core”, it has a decidedly broad “distribution requirements”, covered by choices from hundreds of courses in their catalogue, many of which will fulfill more than one requirement.
Some of which might very well complement/tangent someone’s primary area of interest.