34 CommentsA tipster from inside the ESC meeting tonight has informed us that the Academic Affairs Representative told the board that a new policy has been instituted this year that bars SEAS students from registering for non-SEAS courses during pre-registration (i.e., this week). The representative said that they can only register for these classes during the Fall. The tipster stresses that this information still needs to be verified officially with the administration, but anecdotal evidence in the meeting suggests that many Engineering students were unable to register for Economics classes today.
Earlier last week, SEAS students received an email saying that those interested in registering for Lit Hum or CC could only do so during a special “SEAS-only registration period just prior to the general change-of-program period in August (date to be announced).”
We will keep you updated as we learn more details. Check back tomorrow for our full roundup of tonight’s meeting!
UPDATE (12:02): JK! ESC President Chris Elizondo set the record straight. Some SEAS students are having difficulty registering for Econ classes, but as of right now, he thinks this was caused by slow internal procedures within the Econ department. ESC is waiting to hear back from them about why students have not been able to register.
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34 Comments
@haha LolSEAS
@SEAS Student CAN’T REGISTER for Financial Economics, Corporate Finance, MUSIC HUM, OR ART HUM. It says restricted. WTF COLUMBIA!?!?!?
@SEAS '13 I registered for Art Hum this morning, and a few sections still show as open for me.
@another SEAS '13 Art Hum is open (though most sections are full) but Financial Econ is RESTRICTED. What the fuck.
@Anonymous I’m a declared econ major (read: in CC) and it won’t let me register for Financial Economics!
@Lost ipod? Do want! By the way, this is random and I just noticed this.
The lost items sidebar to the left just makes me want to look for those things where they were lost and take them for myself.
Lost iPod? Do want!
@Anonymous This is simply the dumbest policy ever. If the university wants to better gauge the number of sections required for Lit Hum or CC, it should have sent out a survey to all engineering students before registration to determine general interest.
This policy will surely drive all SEAS students towards taking Global Core classes as they seek to firm up their schedules during this spring registration period. Even if additional sections are to be created, a SEAS student is never guaranteed that there will be a time slot that has space that fits his schedule.
@SEAS senior this school is going to hell…so glad to be fuckin out of here.
@current SEAS student Dude, you ain’t kidding. Remember that post on the depression thread about Columbia being an “overpriced, overrated shitshow”? If you guys think that describes CC, well, SEAS is at least 10 times worse.
@Anonymous I will mention that not all SEAS courses are open to CC. Friend tried to register for an environmental engineering GIS class, was told it is not open to non SEAs students and that only sustainable development GIS was. Which was bullshit, and not really equivalent.
But I overall agree: all classes should be open to all students with necessary prereqs, or no prereqs in case of CC and Lithum etc.
@Anonymous i thought the environmental engineering GIS class is being offered only in the spring…also, classes like the eee GIS are pretty technical, and use alot of the material covered in previous eee courses from soph/junior year. i know it seems unfair, but they also sort of have a point?
@in other SEAS news it Yuri’s night, can you post some Russian themed drinks.
@Anonymous I can’t get over how much I love that tag: fffuuuuuu foundation
GENIUS
@CHRIS ELIZONDO sucks
@Claire I beg to differ.
@same shit how does it make a diff if its just CC and LitHum? it’s still extremely screwed up, and needs to be changed.
@This is an outrage what makes SEAS special and what drew me here is the mixing of the humanities and engineering, limiting that makes it hard to ignore the ignore the lackluster facilities and the lack of focus on undergraduate teaching. That mixing of humanities and engineering is extremely hard to find; most programs are fully technical with no room for such arts. We must attack this policy and destroy it without mercy. Bwog, when you update us, can you post the emails of the people responsible?
@current SEAS student People think this is true but it’s actually bullshit. MIT requires students to take 8 courses in Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. Last time I checked, non-tech requirements for SEAS were 27 points i.e. 9 courses. That’s right, even the most hardcore engineering school mixes in almost the same amount of humanities. That and the teaching quality in technical classes at MIT is way superior to that of SEAS.
I have no idea who in their right mind would come to SEAS to be treated like a second-class citizens (unless they have no better options).
@another SEAS student this is true – this special mix of ‘humanities and engineering’ is all bullshit. Despite MIT requiring less humanities courses, MIT Engineers are eligible for Phi Beta Kappa while Columbia Engineers are not.
@Anonymous Can ESC PLEASE make it possible for engineers to get Phi Beta Kappa?
@SEAS '12 The point is not that other engineering schools don’t offer humanities classes (most do), but that they don’t offer humanities classes worth taking. While I’m sure that not every person at the Olin College of Engineering hates books, every person I met from an engineering-only school last summer (this was at Microsoft) was utterly uninterested in reading. Who would want to teach to such a group?
That being said, if you’re taking as few humanities classes as possible while you’re here, you probably should have gone to MIT after all.
@SEAS '12 Also, you’re complaining about the particular set of Greek letters associated with your college’s honors society? Really?
@current SEAS student It’s not that we want to take as few humanities classes as possible, but that the onerous engineering requirements make it impossible to take more than 8 or 9. In that respect, SEAS is not so different from MIT in terms of the balance between engineering and the humanities. Also, I would have gone to MIT had I gotten in (and I’m near the top of my year in SEAS), so that in itself should speak volumes about the student quality at MIT vs. SEAS.
@Shameless Self Promotion Scientists and Engineers for a Better Society is hosting a discussion panel about the divide between the sciences and humanities at Columbia. It features administration bigwigs like Dean Moody-Adams (Dean of CC), Philip Kitcher (Undergraduate Director of Philosophy Department), James Valentini (Undergraduate Director of Chemistry Department) and Severin Fowles (Professor of Archaeology).
It’s this monday 4/18. You have to RSVP at Tic but its FREE with FREE FOOD.
@wait this sounds pretty awesome!!
@Spec Now has the correct information
@Anonymous WHAT FUCKING IDIOT THOUGHT OF THIS? WE ARE THE SAME FUCKING SCHOOL!
@no. its the SAME. FUCKING. SCHOOL. what idiot proposed this? also, is there action being taken to get rid of this ridiculous policy?
@Dean Friedman Proposed and sent out an email regarding this.
Also it only relates to CC and LitHum.
@even so why the hell should CC be able to sign up for CC and LitHum first? read: same school.
@Apparently it’s so they can gauge how many extra classes they’ll need for SEAS.
Bullshit though, probably.
@well its not “extra” classes for SEAS. SEAS students are not ‘extras’ added on. they go to this school, and when figuring out how many sections of CC/Lithum will be needed, they should use the same procedure they use for any other class at Columbia University.
if this doesnt change, engineering clubs should boycott the SEAS days on campus coming up.
@sigh SEAS: never getting into a language course again.
I hope it was a mistake, and they’re only talking about LitHum and CC. ://
@Ffuuu Foundation Most relevant. tag. ever.