<p>Was it in SEAS or CC? What was it?</p>
<p>Hardest conceptually was an upper-div SEAS major course.</p>
<p>Hardest gradewise was intro biology.</p>
<p>My son has told me that the two semesters of Honors Math in CC his first year were his hardest classes. They are each worth 4.5 units, so are a class and a half (most courses are 3 units.) The second semester, the prof told them, would be the most difficult undergrad math class they would have while at Columbia.</p>
<p>so far, the intro bio courses are the hardest courses i’ve ever taken in my life</p>
<p>Agree with many of the other posters-Intro to Molecular and Cellular Biology was one of the toughest classes at Columbia as a pre-med - took it over 25 years ago and it is still taught by Professor Mowshowitz-it was difficult then and if CULPA is any indication, it is difficult now. More difficult than anything I took in medical school.</p>
<p>Conceptually graduate level Advanced Organic Chemistry and Multivariable Calculus were tough as well.</p>
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<p>Wow, she’s been there that long teaching that same class? That’s amazing. It’s not a terribly difficult class, conceptually. It’s just a lot of material that is tested in terms of your ability to know how to do certain problems that are in their problem books.</p>
<p>Yes indeed - I believe she was relatively new to the faculty at the time and there were several professors teaching different sections but most of my fellow students had her. Although it was a long time ago, what I remember about the course was the problem solving nature of the material. Rather than the typical intro bio course found at colleges at the time where large amounts of material had to be memorized, this course was oriented to problem based learning material-quite unusual at the time. ( I think it was based on course work originated at MIT)</p>
<p>The usual pre-med “weed out” course in college is organic chemistry but at Columbia (at least as far as I can tell from CULPA), this course would appear to be up there in difficulty at least as far as grading - maybe its the curve??</p>
<p>As a math major, I’d have to say that the hardest course I’ve taken so far is university writing. Most of the UW professors are young and haven’t learned that their job is to teach us to write, instead of just rip our work to shreds and give us bad grades, so if you’re a science major and you get a bad professor for university writing, it can be hell. Apparantly logic and rhetoric was a much better course.</p>
<p>All depends on the teacher for UW… and it varies greatly. For me, it was one of my easiest.</p>
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<p>I think the curve in intro bio is consistent with the usual Columbia curve in a lower-division math/sci class. I think both organic and intro bio are hard A’s, not-so-hard B’s, with a sprinkle of C’s mixed in. I think organic may be substantively easier than intro bio because it the profs who generally teach it want more memorization and less problem solving.</p>
<p>Quantum Mechanics, PHYS 2601, was an absolute ball-buster. There was no textbook, so if you missed one class you had no idea what he was talking about thereafter. (Brian Cole was the professor). Problem sets easily took 30 hours per week. Yes, thirty. And that was while working in a group.</p>
<p>I hear Accelerated 2801-02 was just as hard, but quantum was the hardest I took, for sure.</p>
<p>Music Hum. I don’t have a good ear for music ;-)</p>
<p>I am in Brian Cole’s 2801-2802</p>
<p>In my books, its by far the hardest class ever. It makes Honors Math (which I am also in) seem like the ABCs.</p>
<p>It takes like >40 hours a week to do the tedious problem sets—only to find out that they will only account for 10-15% of ur grade—with all the weight on the final.
If you are up for a challenge—take Accelerated Physics. If you want to push the limit take Accelerated Physics and Honors Math. If you straight up want to kill urself or you are like the next Einstein (even then u probably will still want to kill urself), take Accelerated Physics, Honors Math, and Orgo.</p>
<p>If i could redo freshman year—I would take plane old Calc 3 and Physics 1601—and get good grades in readiness for the harder classes coming up—but oh well—they say what doesnt kill u makes u stronger</p>
<p>good luck to those coming to Columbia</p>
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<p>Of the 3, Organic is the only one that worthwhile beyond the intellectual challenge. Organic actually gets you out of 2 classes (2 semesters of g-chem). Honors Math doesn’t allow you to bypass anything. And 2 semesters of 4.5 credit Accel Physics is the same credits as 3 semesters of 3 credit regular physics.</p>
<p>If I could tell incoming SEAS freshmen (at least, those who are really smart) one thing, it would be to take Intensive G-Chem instead of the normal G-Chem. One semester instead of two. Much nicer curve. No ■■■■■■■■paper to write. God, there were a bunch of reasons, I wrote a “Top 10 reasons to take Intensive General Chemistry” list at one point.</p>
<p>Orgo seems like more work for the same advantages. Of course, it’s also an interesting class in its own right, but unless you’re looking at a Chem or Bio-related major, probably not worth the work.</p>
<p>Afrikaan, you’ve got bigger stones than I did. 2801 scared the bejeezus out of me just looking at the syllabus. Dealing with a Brian Cole class my sophomore year was enough of a ball-buster, I can’t imagine trying to do that straight out of the gate freshman year. Good luck to ya.</p>
<p>As VesalVay might say, Crikey!</p>
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<p>i disagree…if u look at d. mow’s grade distribution for intro bio in the first semester you will see that it is a PERFECT bell curve which means there are people who failed the class (3 i think, the year i took it) and it goes up from there.</p>
<p>Agree with Denzera</p>
<p>I took Intensive G Chem years ago and thought it was a great experience not only for all the reasons that Denzera mentioned but also for its class size. Much smaller than the huge General Chem lectures. As a freshman we had the chance to get to know our fellow classmates much better in this setting as well as have more direct interactions with the professor. Many of us became chemistry majors together and I still keep in contact with many of my fellow students I met in that setting. Denzera recommends it for all SEAS students. I would second that for CC science majors and science oriented pre-medical students. (Should mention you have to qualify for this course with AP Chem scores or a placement exam) . If you are looking for a follow-up second chem course for the 2nd semester you can take the freshman seminar.</p>
<p>As far as freshman orgo, I just donÂ’t get it. Freshman academic adjustments are already tough at Columbia with the core and all else that to place that kind of pressure on a freshman seems unnecessary. As stated by several posters, orgo isnÂ’t difficult conceptually but it is a huge amount of material and memorization and to have that as your introductory science course as a Columbia freshman seems just a bit much. Does any one know anybody who took this course-what did they think of it??</p>
<p>I took Intensive Gen Chem last semester.
I’m an idiot and did none of the work and got less than 50% on every midterm and exam… but, thanks to the curve, I still got a B! Hoorah.</p>
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<p>I took fresh orgo. The people who took fresh orgo had a helluva easier time with that than the people who took accel physics had taking that monstrosity. (A few people did both; I was in accel phys for a day.)</p>
<p>If you’re doing bio, chem, bme, chemE, premed, etc. you have to take orgo anyway and it’s going to be hard no matter when you take it. And fresh orgo is known to be slightly easier than regular orgo in some ways because it’s a smaller class with other freshman that’s less intimidating than the regular orgo in a large lecture hall. Also, they try not to kill you in the beginning because they know you’re a freshman.</p>
<p>bme and chemE only require the first semester of 3000 level orgo.</p>
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