Columbia|Engineering

The current student, Leia, is a brilliant cellist from the Bay Area. I've known her family forever. She is in the second semester of her first year, and her insights are compelling. Lunch is the perfect opportunity cross-examine the morning's general campus tour against a first-hand account. We meet at Community and converse for over an hour.

At Columbia academics come first. Leia is very high on a history course she took this fall on US Lesbian and Gay History, taught by none other than the foremost historian of the gay male experience in America, George Chauncey. This is the type of thing that you can really only find at a school as prestigious as Columbia. One day George Chauncey is testifying before the supreme court in two of the signal civil rights cases of our time, the next day he's kicking through a history syllabus with freshman who are only starting to realize he is a "big deal".

In addition to this history course, Leia took intro chem, intro physics, calculus, and the core required university writing course (discussed earlier). Despite the fact that she had aced all of her STEM courses in high school, as well as the SAT and SAT II's, Columbia Engineering requires all students to relearn the material upon arrival. This is not unusual for elite programs, where faculty need to confirm every student's foundational grasp and often expand on the AP/IB syllabus. Students should embrace this opportunity to upgrade and consolidate their knowledge.

It turns out that Leia actually chose Columbia Engineering on the strength of its commitment to the humanities. The other programs she considered, such as MIT, also espoused a liberal arts ethos, but when she visited other campuses she found the students less committed to this ideal. Though her first year is packed with introductory prerequisites, she does have room to continue her study of history and receive cello instruction. Next fall Leia will take a course titled the History of Health Inequality in the Modern United States.

For background, Leia is a concert level cellist leaning towards a pre-med/applied math track. If I understand correctly, the applied math track is split between the engineering college and the college of liberal arts, granting a unique set of requirements. If Leia pursues it, this course of study would fuse her interests in math, engineering, biology, computational biology, and epidemiology. She will, however, have until the middle of her sophomore year to commit to her choice of major.

Most of Leia's classes this year are a large lecture format. A professor presents a lecture to 100 or 300 students, and these students subsequently participate in discussion groups led by a teachings assistant. A Columbia professor describes the format in which students are in, "smaller groups, they have a TA, they can raise questions that can't be raised in the classroom." According to this professor, "you can't really have a good discussion with 120, whereas the discussion sections of course are much smaller, and so that works pretty well." Although not particularly beloved, this format of lecture with professor followed by discussion with TA grad student is fairly standard across larger institutions. As Leia progresses in her studies, her classes will grow smaller very quickly. Leia and her fellow students will soon understand the profound advantage of Columbia Engineering's 3:1 (!) student to faculty ratio.

Switching gears, I am eager to hear about the social life, and test some of my theories coming out of the morning tour. First, Leia agrees that there are few open spaces on campus, but assures me that this doesn't prevent students from hanging out. Any time the temperature rises above 45 degrees, everyone gathers on the steps of Low Library, and even the few patches of grass on campus offer a place to lounge in the sun.

As for meeting people, this is not a problem. From what I am hearing, the Columbia social network is telepathic. It's hard to consider Leia's experience emblematic - after all, a competent jazz/punk/rock bassist/classically-trained cellist is always going to be in high demand, but nonetheless the links that Leia forged during her first weeks and months on campus paint a picture of a place where highly creative students are constantly pulling together groups for practice, recording, and concerts both on campus and off. My impression is that Columbia students are not just top students, they bring something else to the party. Take for example the photographer who introduced Leia to Muir - a drummer/multi-instrumentalist - well this photographer is now doubling as the resulting group's publicist and promoter.

Leia describes Columbia as, "a passionate, talented, strong community of kids who like doing what they're doing and want to share it." One wonders if the lack of common spaces on campus actually aids the social environment by forcing people to connect in ways other than just hanging out. When space and time is at a premium, this gives rise to intentional gathering, where creativity can thrive. This is perhaps a profound benefit of attending university in a world-class city, the properties of that city also influence and shape the campus community. I'm thinking about my impression from the tour this morning, and the idea that social life at Columbia favors "joiners." I think that I missed the mark - doing, and creating, seems a better way to describe the cohesion.

One challenge: music practice space and recording space is tough to come by. But even the random moments wandering a new building looking for a room become a chance to meet and connect with new people.

Leia's description of her friend group gives an example of the level of creative talent one can find at Columbia. The "best guitarist I've ever met," a station manager at WKCR with an encyclopedic knowledge of the station's record collection who also plays jazz guitar and trombone, the aforementioned drummer (who also plays bass), and the aforementioned photographer/publicist/promoter. Complementing these friends are Leia's first year crew. Leia describes that it's "easy to meet lots of awesome people," whether on Facebook before arrival, the inevitable friendships that come out of NSOP, or the networking that arises from shared interests.

The last point I'll relate: while there are plenty of dudes in the engineering program, and on occasion they can be both awkward and competitive, Leia has found an incredible, supportive, and close-knit peer-group of women in the college. According to my follow up research, the class of 2023 is 50% female and the entire engineering college is 35% female. The dean of the engineering college since 2013, Mary Cunningham Boyce, is a woman. These are steps in the right direction so kudos to Columbia for supporting woman engineers.

It's time to wish Leia the best and return to Lowe Library to begin the engineering tour.

What would a trip to an engineering school be without a visit to a robotics lab? This space is informal, with groups of students hanging out and working on projects together. Much of the equipment looks like it is from the '70s or '80s and old robots are lying about on the floor, waiting to be scavenged for parts.

In all, the Columbia engineering campus is impressive. More important than the outward appearance, it's evident from the student to faculty ratio and the small size of the undergraduate student body, that students can get a ton on individualized attention here. The size of the college, similar to the college of arts and sciences, is evidence that Columbia chooses to stay small in order to facilitate a close-knit and collegial atmosphere - I can hear that in Leia's description and see it on the tour. Although the introductory classes are large, students quickly fan out to participate in much smaller classes as their course of study becomes more specialized.

The main impression that I will take away from my visit today is the way that Columbia Engineering integrates into the college as a whole. It's integrated both academically and socially. The fact that Leia can study applied mathematics by day and interact with such a range of students by night, alone, is impressive. The fact that the Columbia Engineering curriculum strives to maintain a humane and humanistic approach to the applied sciences, is compelling. Even more compelling, they seem to be succeeding - Leia was able to detect a meaningful difference among the students she met here when she visited. Today, she is part of a first year class that is half women, led by a dean who is herself a rare woman leader of an engineering institution. Columbia has imparted a distinctive quality to its school of engineering - one that connects with the challenges of the world today.

As I leave campus at the end of my visit, I feel a sense of optimism. I am eager to see what Leia and her classmates will accomplish out of this unique education that they have chosen.