Science Requirement

General Information: Academic Affairs, cosi@columbia.edu

The objective of the science component of Columbia College’s Core Curriculum is identical to that of its humanities and social science counterparts, namely to help students “to understand the civilization of their own day and to participate effectively in it.” The science component is intended specifically to provide students with the opportunity to learn what kinds of questions are asked about nature, how hypotheses are tested against experimental or observational evidence, how results of tests are evaluated, and what knowledge has been accumulated about the workings of the natural world.

All students in Columbia College must complete three courses in fulfillment of the science requirement. The three courses must be distributed across the three categories detailed below: Science A, Science B, and Science C. 

Each of the three courses must carry at least 3 points of credit. All courses used to satisfy the science requirement must be taken for a letter grade. 

Students should pay careful attention to the prerequisites and instructor approvals required for certain courses. Prerequisite and instructor approval requirements can be found in the course descriptions for each course located in specific departments' sections of this bulletin.

While students are not required to complete a two-term sequence, students may choose to do so, if the two courses together will fulfill both Science B and Science C. For this reason, the Committee on Science Instruction has indicated recommended sequences below. Unless otherwise noted, the first course in the sequence must be taken before the second course in the sequence.

Transfer students may be able to apply transfer credit for science coursework taken elsewhere to the Science requirement. One of the three required science courses must be taken at Columbia, and the coursework taken to fulfill the three-semester science requirement must be distributed across the categories of Science B and Science C.

Unless otherwise indicated, students may not use Barnard College courses to fulfill the Columbia College science requirement.