Core Registration & Core Policy

Core Registration Calendar, Fall 2023

All students are strongly encouraged to consult their academic adviser before making any decisions regarding their Core registration.

Students who are unable to make changes to their Core registration via SSOL can do so by filing petitions online (more information below). The Core Registration Petition period runs concurrent with the Change of Program period. Dates for Fall 2023 registration may be found below.

Fall 2023 Core Petition Period: September 5-7, 2023.

The form will available on this page beginning at 12:00AM EST on Tuesday, September 5, 2023, until 11:59PM EST on Thursday, September 7, 2023.

During the Core petition period, students may file petitions online to add or change sections of Art Humanities, Contemporary Civilization, Frontiers of Science, Literature Humanities, and Music Humanities. Requests for changes submitted via email will not be processed. Students should visit the relevant departmental offices for issues regarding the Science, Global and Foreign Language requirements.

Last day to Add, Drop or Change a Section of a Core Class in SSOL: Friday, September 15, 2023. 

After this date, students MAY NOT drop or change sections of their Core classes. Students with questions and concerns should see their academic advisors. This Core Drop Date happens much earlier than the regular drop date, so it is imperative that students keep this deadline in mind as they work out their schedules.

Important Information Regarding Fall 2023 Registration

In addition to the information below, please refer to the Core FAQs here.

Literature Humanities and Contemporary Civilization

Students are pre-registered into their sections of Literature Humanities or Contemporary Civilization for the fall semester. Students wishing to switch sections may do so during their registration period, or through the petition process in September (see above).

Frontiers of Science

Students are pre-registered into the lecture and a seminar section of Frontiers of Science. In order to make changes to their sections of the seminar, students may do so in either SSOL or via the petition process (see above).

University Writing

Students are pre-registered into a section of University Writing for the fall semester. In order to make changes to their sections, please write to english-cc1010-petitions@columbia.edu.

Important Additional Information

Deferring Frontiers of Science until the Sophomore Year

Prospective science majors who in their first year are enrolled in: Literature Humanities, a Mathematics course, a language course at the Elementary II level or above and CHEM UN3045-UN3046, PHYS UN1601-UN1602, or PHYS UN2801-UN2802 may petition the Committee on Academic Standing to postpone taking Frontiers until their sophomore year. Students wishing to do so should go to the Center for Student Advising.

Student Attendance

Students are expected to attend every session of their Core classes. In the event that a student must miss a class due to religious observance, illness, or family emergency, instructors may strongly encourage (though not require) that students complete additional assignments to make up for missed class participation. Unless the emergency or illness does not permit them to do so, students are required to provide advance notice of absence and to get instructor permission. Instructors may require a doctor's note in case of illness. Students who miss class without instructor permission should expect to have their grade lowered.

Core instructors have discretion as to the specifics of their individual attendance requirements within these general parameters. Students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with their specific instructor's expectations and requirements (all Core instructors outline attendance and grading policies on their class syllabus).

Please see the University Policy on Religious Holidays for further details.

Faculty Statement on Academic Integrity

The intellectual venture in which we are all engaged requires of faculty and students alike the highest level of personal and academic integrity. As members of an academic community, each one of us bears the responsibility to participate in scholarly discourse and research in a manner characterized by intellectual honesty and scholarly integrity.

Scholarship, by its very nature, is an iterative process, with ideas and insights building one upon the other. Collaborative scholarship requires the study of other scholars' work, the free discussion of such work, and the explicit acknowledgement of those ideas in any work that inform our own. This exchange of ideas relies upon a mutual trust that sources, opinions, facts, and insights will be properly noted and carefully credited.

In practical terms, this means that, as students, you must be responsible for the full citations of others' ideas in all of your research papers and projects; you must be scrupulously honest when taking your examinations; you must always submit your own work and not that of another student, scholar, or internet agent.

Any breach of this intellectual responsibility is a breach of faith with the rest of our academic community. It undermines our shared intellectual culture, and it cannot be tolerated. 

For more information on academic integrity at Columbia, please see the College and University Policies section of the on-line Bulletin (this link opens up a new browser window), and Facts About Columbia Essential to Students (FACETS).

Note to Core Faculty

Core faculty who suspect a student of academic dishonesty should contact the Center for the Core immediately.