#core curriculum

[uchicagoadmissions]

A STEM major's retelling of Harry Potter...

[antistudyblr]

today in art humanities i came to the conclusion that Columbia's core curriculum is just lord of the rings

[20elements]

If the Meta Liberation Army taught our four “core” class subjects.

[officialcolumbiauniversity]

Understanding the Columbia Passage ID

It’s good to know what “passage ID” means before heading into Literature Humanities. As an incoming freshman, Lit Hum is obviously the least of your concerns right now, but I for one am bored out of my mind and want to put out some IPs that haven’t been covered by any other appblr, studyblr, or Columbia blog. I went through some of my old posts and realized that I never quite explained what a passage ID was in my Lit Hum “Core in Review.” So now, here’s an IP explaining what you’ll be asked to do way too many times during your first year at Columbia.

Essentially, passage IDs are quotes, and they range from a length of one sentence to 8-12 lines. To your gratitude, professors ensure that what appears on the test is exactly as it would have appeared in the text, except for the font. So, if you see something in verse, you’d better know intimately which texts ever used verse, and if it’s in prose, you’d better eliminate any poetry or Shakespeare. What you have to do is state to a satisfactory degree 1. what text it’s from, 2. the author, 3. the speaker, and 4. the immediate context. Word of warning, any proper nouns that give away the text or context will be omitted in some way. Here’s an example:

Question: “To be or not to be, that is the question.”

General Answer: You’d have to say that this is from Hamlet, by Shakespeare, when Hamlet is giving his lil soliloquy on suicide after his mental state was in question in the last scene. You would also have to explain why exactly Hamlet was contemplating suicide, giving a very brief summary of the events that directly caused this particular quote.

Passage IDs also typically require 5. a brief close reading of the quote, with the end of the response offering 6. a look at how the quote plays into general themes of the text. So, with these six parts in mind, here’s a response I would have constructed for Hamlet’s quote:

Full Answer: This passage is from William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, where the titular character gives his soliloquy on suicide. Hamlet, having realized that Claudius killed his father and Ophelia spurns his love, among other reasons, seems to go rather insane. Although the authenticity of his craze is ambiguous to both the characters of the play and the audience, at this point in the play he still has a clear barrier between his antics and his true self. In true soliloquy manner, he reveals his inner thoughts with this speech on comparing death to sleep. The brevity of this quote exemplifies Hamlet’s ability to view the bigger picture: he condenses his whole debate on the merits of living versus death into six simple words. This simplification provides contrast with the rest of the soliloquy, where Hamlet delves deeper into the nuances of suicide, suggesting that similarly, while Hamlet on the surface seems to be an easily understandable person to the rest of the characters, his madness on the outside only serves as a leeway into the entire complexity of his character and thought.

I hated that I just voluntarily did schoolwork but that’s a satisfactory example of the kind of work you would be required to do in about 5-10 minutes. Passage IDs can show up both on reading quizzes, which are about 10 minutes long, and midterms and finals. I forget how long those exams are but the idea is that you spend no more than 10 minutes on any one passage ID. So although I said that you don’t need to read any of the texts, you do need to know them well enough to at least bullshit your way through the context and close reading parts of each passage ID. Best of luck if you don’t.

[dettiot]

Hi ! 4. Humanities

4: What's your favorite line of dialogue?

Oh, what a fun question!  :-)

I’ll admit, the first thing that popped into my head was “What, are you gonna thank me with sex?” from Chapter One.  Because really, it just seemed so Felicity, especially the Felicity I was trying to portray in this fic.  Also, I had to go from the dialogue from Oliver and Felicity’s first meeting towards a different kind of encounter than what we got on the show, so I needed something to plant the seed of sex.  So why not just come out with it?  :-)

Rambling Felicity isn’t something that comes easily to me, which is why I was so happy and proud of Felicity’s line evoking Dumbo.  “And--and you think--what you’re saying is that--all I am is the feather to help you fly?  Until you realize you don’t need me and you go back to Laurel or find someone else?”  That kind of connection felt very Felicity to me.

I’m also fond of Oliver’s speech at the end of the fic, responding to Felicity’s question.  “I’m not saying I thought about you every day, or when times got tough or anything.  But . . . you were like a little flame in my mind, always there even if I wasn’t really aware of it.  And that flame sparked a fire when I met you again, and now . . . just knowing you exist makes me feel warm.  Hopeful.  Happy.  You’re not a feather, Felicity.  You’re my light.”

Fic Asks!

[jolieeason]

Romanceopoly 2026-Core Curriculum—March

Prompts I finished in March Compass Wing: Read a romance book from a genre you don’t typically read Crying Room: Read a romance (that made) or will make you cry or emotionally spiral

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[jolieeason]

Romanceopoly 2026-Core Curriculum---February

Prompts I finished in February Registrar’s Office: Read a book by an author you’ve never read before

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[ncfcatalyst]

New Odyssey course previews this semester

This term, New College students were offered a new course, The Odyssey. Run by Professors of Classics Carl Shaw and David Rohrbacher, the class facilitates students’ deep dive into classical literature. Each week, more than 50 students prepare by reading two chapters from Homer’s Odyssey. The only required book, it is distributed to them for free. Then they meet to listen to lectures from…

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