The Classes

Columbia’s general education requirements expose students to a wide range of subjects and disciplines. The aim is to familiarize students with the many ways in which we create meaning and knowledge. By exploring these diverse ways of knowing, Columbia students become more versatile thinkers with richer lives, who may discover skills and interests that they were not previously aware of.

The heart of the Core are five courses that all students at Columbia College are required to take:

Art Humanities

Contemporary Civilization

Frontiers of Science

Literature Humanities

Music Humanities

Many students in the schools of Engineering and General Studies also take some portion of these courses.

These five courses, which have been offered at Columbia for decades, create a community of learners who engage collaboratively with some of the images, ideas, discoveries, stories, and sounds that help us to make sense of our world.


For questions about Art Humanities, Contemporary Civilization, Frontiers of Science, Literature Humanities, and Music Humanities, please contact the Center for the Core Curriculum in 202 Hamilton Hall: core-curriculum@columbia.edu.