10 Best Columbia Pre Med Majors

The Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology (E3B)

In addition to the off-campus facilities detailed below, the Columbia community offers academic excellence in a range of natural and social science disciplines that are directly related to biodiversity conservation including: evolution, systematics, genetics, behavioral ecology, public health, business, economics, political science, anthropology, and public and international policy. These disciplines are embodied in world-class departments, schools, and facilities at Columbia. The divisions that bring their resources to bear on issues most relevant to E3B’s mission are: the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the School of International and Public Affairs, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the International Research Institute for Climate Predication, the Black Rock Forest Reserve in New York State, the Rosenthal Center for Alternative/Complementary Medicine, the Division of Environmental Health Sciences at the School of Public Health, and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN). Several of these units of the University are networked through the Earth Institute at Columbia, a division of the University that acts as an intramural network of environmental programs and supplies logistical support for constituent programs, through planning, research, seminars, and conferences. All of the above schools, centers, and institutes contribute to finding solutions for the world’s environmental challenges.

The Earth Institute Center for Environmental Sustainability (EICES)

The Earth Institute Center for Environmental Sustainability (EICES), formerly known as the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC), is actively involved in protecting biodiversity and ecosystems. The Earth Institute Center for Environmental Sustainability is dedicated to the development of a rich, robust, and vibrant world within which we can secure a sustainable future. Through a diverse array of strategic partners in science, education, and outreach, the center builds unique programs that promote human well-being through the preservation, restoration, and management of biodiversity, and the services our ecosystems provide.

The Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC), a leading provider of cutting-edge environmental research, education, and training, since its inception in 1994, has grown into two institutions—an Earth institute center and a Secretariat for a major environmental consortium. The center’s new name is the Earth Institute Center for Environmental Sustainability (EICES, pronounced “i-sees”). EICES also continues, however, as the Secretariat for the Consortium for Environmental Research and Conservation, continuing 15 years of collaborations between the Earth Institute, the American Museum of Natural History, the New York Botanical Garden, The Wildlife Conservation Society, and EcoHealth Alliance on biodiversity conservation.

American Museum of Natural History

The American Museum of Natural History is one of the world’s preeminent scientific, educational, and cultural institutions. Since its founding in 1869, the Museum has advanced its global mission to discover, interpret, and disseminate information about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe through a wide-reaching program of scientific research, education, and exhibitions. The institution comprises 45 permanent exhibition halls, state-of-the-art research laboratories, one of the largest natural history libraries in the Western Hemisphere, and a permanent collection of 32 million specimens and cultural artifacts. With a scientific staff of more than 200, the Museum supports research divisions in anthropology, paleontology, invertebrate and vertebrate zoology, and the physical sciences. The Museum’s scientific staff pursues a broad agenda of advanced scientific research, investigating the origins and evolution of life on Earth, the world’s myriad species, the rich variety of human culture, and the complex processes that have formed and continue to shape planet Earth and the universe beyond.

The Museum’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation (CBC) was created in June 1993 to advance the use of scientific data to mitigate threats to biodiversity. CBC programs integrate research, education, and outreach so that people, a key force in the rapid loss of biodiversity, will become participants in its conservation. The CBC works with partners throughout the world to build professional and institutional capacities for biodiversity conservation and heightens public understanding and stewardship of biodiversity. CBC projects are under way in the Bahamas, Bolivia, Madagascar, Mexico, Vietnam, and the Metropolitan New York region.

The Museum’s scientific facilities include: two molecular systematics laboratories equipped with modern high-throughput technology; the interdepartmental laboratories, which include a state-of-the-art imaging facility that provides analytical microscopy, energy dispersive spectrometry, science visualization, and image analysis to support the Museum’s scientific activities; a powerful parallel-computing facility, including a cluster of the world’s fastest computers, positioned to make significant contributions to bioinformatics; and a frozen tissue facility with the capacity to store one million DNA samples.

New York Botanical Garden

The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG), with its 7 million specimen herbarium, the largest in the Western Hemisphere, and its LuEsther T. Mertz Library, the largest botanical and horticultural reference collection on a single site in the Americas, comprises one of the very best locations in the world to study plant science. NYBG’s systematic botanists discover, decipher, and describe the world’s plant and fungal diversity; and its economic botanists study the varied links between plants and people. The Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, the largest Victorian glasshouse in the United States, features some 6,000 species in a newly installed “Plants of the World” exhibit. The new International Plant Science Center stores the Garden collection under state-of-the-art environmental conditions and has nine study rooms for visiting scholars. All specimens are available for on-site study or loan.

In recent years, NYBG has endeavored to grow and expand its research efforts, supporting international field projects in some two dozen different countries, ranging from Brazil to Indonesia. In 1994, AMNH and NYBG established the Lewis and Dorothy Cullman Program for Molecular Systematics Studies to promote the use of molecular techniques in phylogenetic studies of plant groups. This program offers many opportunities for research in conservation genetics. NYBG operates both the Institute for Economic Botany (IEB) and the Institute of Systematic Botany (ISB). The ISB builds on the Garden’s long tradition of intensive and distinguished research in systematic botany—the study of the kinds and diversity of plants and their relationships—to develop the knowledge and means for responding effectively to the biodiversity crisis.

The Garden has also established a molecular and anatomical laboratory program, which includes light and electron microscopes, and has made enormous advances in digitizing its collection. There is currently a searchable on-line library catalog and specimen database collection with some half million unique records. Field sites around the world provide numerous opportunities for work in important ecosystems of unique biodiversity.

Wildlife Conservation Society

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological Society, works to save wildlife and wild lands throughout the world. In addition to supporting the nation’s largest system of zoological facilities—the Bronx Zoo; the New York Aquarium; the Wildlife Centers in Central Park, Prospect Park, and Flushing Meadow Park; and the Wildlife Survival Center on St. Catherine’s Island, Georgia—WCS maintains a commitment to field-based conservation science. With 60 staff scientists and more than 100 research fellows, WCS has the largest professional field staff of any U.S.-based international conservation organization. Currently, WCS conducts nearly 300 field projects throughout the Americas, Asia, and Africa. The field program is supported by a staff of conservation scientists based in New York who also conduct their own research.

WCS’s field-based programs complement the organization’s expertise in veterinary medicine, captive breeding, animal care, genetics, and landscape ecology, most of which are based at the Bronx Zoo headquarters. WCS’s Conservation Genetics program places an emphasis on a rigorous, logical foundation for the scientific paradigms used in conservation biology and is linked to a joint Conservation Genetics program with the American Museum of Natural History. The Wildlife Health Sciences division is responsible for the health care of more than 17,000 wild animals in the five New York parks and wildlife centers. The departments of Clinical Care, Pathology, Nutrition, and Field Veterinary Programs provide the highest quality of care to wildlife.

EcoHealth Alliance

EcoHealth Alliance is an international organization of scientists dedicated to the conservation of biodiversity. For more than 40 years, EcoHealth Alliance has focused its efforts on conservation. Today, they are known for innovative research on the intricate relationships between wildlife, ecosystems, and human health.

EcoHealth Alliance’s work spans the U.S. and more than 20 countries in Central and South America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia to research ways for people and wildlife to share bioscapes for their mutual survival. Their strength is built on innovations in research, education, and training and accessibility to international conservation partners.

Internationally, EHA programs support conservationists in over a dozen countries at the local level to save endangered species and their habitats, and to protect delicate ecosystems for the benefit of wildlife and humans.

Academic Programs

The Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology runs two undergraduate majors/concentrations. The primary major is in environmental biology and the second is evolutionary biology of the human species. The foci and requirements vary substantially and are intended for students with different academic interests.

The environmental biology major emphasizes those areas of biology and other disciplines essential for students who intend to pursue careers in the conservation of Earth’s living resources. It is designed to prepare students for graduate study in ecology and evolutionary biology, conservation biology, environmental policy and related areas, or for direct entry into conservation-related or science teaching careers.

Interdisciplinary knowledge is paramount to solving environmental biology issues, and a wide breadth of courses is thus essential, as is exposure to current work. Conservation internships are available through partner institutions and serve as research experience leading to the development of the required senior thesis.

Declaration of the environmental biology major must be approved by the director of undergraduate studies and filed in the departmental office located on the 10th floor of Schermerhorn Extension.

The major in evolutionary biology of the human species provides students with a foundation in the interrelated spheres of behavior, ecology, genetics, evolution, morphology, patterns of growth, adaptation, and forensics. Using the framework of evolution and with attention to the interplay between biology and culture, research in these areas is applied to our own species and to our closest relatives to understand who we are and where we came from. This integrated biological study is also known as biological anthropology. As an interdisciplinary major, students are also encouraged to draw on courses in related fields including biology, anthropology, geology, and psychology as part of their studies.

The department grants credit toward the major for work completed under the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) Advanced Placement Program. Students receive 3 academic credits and exemption from POLS UN1201 INTRO TO AMERICAN POLITICS or POLS UN1501 INTRO TO COMPARATIVE POLITICS for scores of 5 in the United States and Comparative Government and Politics AP Exams.

Advising

The Department of Political Science offers a variety of advising resources to provide undergraduate majors and concentrators with the information and support needed to successfully navigate through the program. These resources are described below.

Undergraduate Advising Office

Students should take questions or concerns about the undergraduate program to the department’s undergraduate advising office first. If advisers cannot answer a student’s question, they then refer the student to the appropriate person.

The undergraduate advising office is staffed by political science Ph.D. students who hold open office hours each week (the schedule can be found online at https://polisci.columbia.edu/content/undergraduate-advising). During open hours, advisers are available to respond to questions and concerns about requirements, course selection, course of study, transfer and study abroad credit, and any other aspect of the program. Students may also reach advisers by email at polisciadvising@columbia.edu.

Students should also consult the undergraduate advisers for assistance in completing the political science program planning form (available online at https://polisci.columbia.edu/content/undergraduate-forms-library). The advisers must sign and date this form in the approval column next to any listed class that requires approval to fulfill program requirements (transfer courses, non-traditional courses, etc.). Each student’s planning form is kept on file in the department, so that each semester they may meet with an adviser to update it.

The advisers are also available to speak with students about academic and professional issues, including research interests, internships, and post-college plans. Since the advisers have been through the graduate school application process, they are great resources with whom students may discuss the process. Also, as current Ph.D. students in the department, they are familiar with the research interests of political science faculty and can therefore refer students to a professor whose research aligns with the students’ interests for focused thesis advice, information about academic, professional, and research opportunities, or professional development.

Requesting a Faculty Adviser

Often the best way for students to obtain advising from a faculty member is to contact a professor with whom they have taken a class in an area of interest. Students also have the option of having a faculty adviser assigned by the department. To request a faculty adviser, students should complete the Faculty Adviser Request Form and submit it to the undergraduate coordinator during the first two weeks of the semester. The link to the current adviser request form may be found in the undergraduate forms library on the department website.

Students may consult with their faculty adviser for any substantive issue, but still must visit walk-in advising hours to have courses approved, to have planning forms reviewed and approved, and to discuss departmental requirements and regulations.

Director of Undergraduate Studies

The director of undergraduate studies oversees the department’s undergraduate programs and is available during office hours. While a student’s first stop for advising should be the undergraduate advising office, the director of undergraduate studies is available to answer any questions that the undergraduate advisers or the undergraduate coordinator cannot.

Economics–Political Science Adviser

Economics–political science majors may consult with the economics-political science adviser during office hours. However, students should also see an undergraduate adviser to discuss major requirements and fill out a planning form.

Political Science–Statistics Adviser

Political science–statistics majors may consult with the political science-statistics adviser during office hours. However, students should also see an undergraduate adviser to discuss major requirements and fill out a planning form.

Faculty At-Large

All faculty are available for consultation with students during office hours or by appointment to discuss interests in political science, course selection, and other academic or post-college matters. The faculty may provide advice about graduate schools, suggest literature that the student might consult as sources for research, recommend specific courses or professors based on the student’s interests, or offer information about research opportunities with faculty. However, students should note that any issues surrounding departmental regulations and requirements, major certification, course approvals, etc., should be addressed initially with the undergraduate advisers.

Honors Program

The department offers the Honors Program for a limited number of seniors who want to undertake substantial research projects and write honors theses. The honors thesis is expected to be about 75 pages in length and of exceptional quality.

Honors students perform research as part of a full-year honors seminar (POLS UN3998–POLS UN3999, 8 points total) during their senior year, in place of the seminar requirement for majors. Honors students may, however, take additional seminars to fulfill other course requirements for the major. Theses are due in late March or early April. To be awarded departmental honors, the student must satisfy all the requirements for the major, maintain a 3.6 GPA in the major, and complete a thesis of sufficiently high quality to merit honors.

The honors seminar director provides general direction for the seminar and supervises all students. Each student also works with a faculty member in his or her major subfield (American politics, comparative politics, international relations, or political theory) and a teaching assistant. The honors seminar meets weekly for part of the year and addresses general issues involved in research and thesis writing, such as how to develop research questions and projects, methodology, sources of evidence, and outlining and drafting long papers. The sessions are also used for group discussions of students’ research and thesis presentations. Students are also expected to meet periodically with the supervising professor and preceptor.

Students who wish to apply to the Honors Program must notify the department in writing by the end of the spring semester of the junior year. Please check the department website for the official deadline. Normally no more than 10% of graduating majors receive departmental honors in a given academic year. Applicants are required to have already completed the methods requirement for the major.

Application Materials

Applications to the Honors Program must include the following:

1. A cover page with the student’s name, CUID number, e-mail address, and school (Columbia College or General Studies);
2. An official transcript, which may be obtained from the Office of the Registrar in Kent Hall, or from Student Services Online (SSOL);
3. A writing sample, preferably a paper written for a political science course;
4. A brief description (no more than one page) of a possible thesis topic.

Completed applications should be sent to:

Department of Political Science
Attn: Departmental Honors
420 West 118th Street
Mail Code 3320
New York, NY 10027

In addition, students are encouraged to find a faculty sponsor for their thesis proposal. Students who have identified a faculty sponsor should indicate the sponsor in the proposal; students without a faculty sponsor should identify a faculty member with whom they would like to work. Research areas for the political science department faculty are listed on the department’s website. Students will be notified by e-mail of the decision taken on their applications before fall registration.

Students who are not accepted into the honors seminar or who decide after the application deadline that they would like to write an honors thesis may take one or two semesters POLS UN3901 INDEPENDENT RESEARCH I and POLS UN3902 INDEPENDENT RESEARCH II  in order to write a thesis to submit for honors consideration. Any member of the department’s full-time faculty may sponsor independent study courses. Part-time faculty are not obligated to sponsor these courses.

For registration information and more details about this process, students should contact the Academic Affairs Coordinator. Note that most honors theses are about 75 pages in length. All theses must be submitted along with a confidential assessment of the paper by the supervising instructor in order to be considered for departmental honors. Students who choose this path must also complete all the requirements for the major and maintain a minimum major GPA of 3.6. Theses are due in late March or early April, and decisions about departmental honors are announced in May.

Departmental Prizes and Fellowships

The Department of Political Science administers the following prizes and awards. Unless otherwise noted, students do not play an active part in the nomination process. Rather, faculty members nominate students at their own discretion. Departmental prizes are reserved for political science majors.

Charles A. Beard Prize

A cash prize awarded every other year to the student who writes the best paper in political science during the academic year.

Caroline Phelps Stokes Prize

A cash prize established at the bequest of Caroline Phelps Stokes is awarded to a student who has been a degree candidate at Columbia College or Barnard College for at least one academic year, and who has written the best essay in course or seminar work on the general subject of human rights.

Allan J. Willen Memorial Prize

A cash prize awarded to the Columbia College student who writes the best seminar paper on a contemporary American political problem.

Edwin Robbins Academic Research/Public Service Fellowship

The Robbins Fellowship provides a stipend each summer for at least two political science students in Columbia College who will be engaged in research in important matters of politics or policymaking or who will be working, without other compensation, as interns in a governmental office, agency, or other public service organization. Each spring, the department invites students to submit fellowship proposals. Awards are announced in late April or early May.

A cash prize awarded to GS students for excellence in the field of political science.

Phyllis Stevens Sharp Fellowship in American Politics

The Phyllis Stevens Sharp Endowment Fund provides stipends each year during the summer for one or more Columbia College or School of General Studies students majoring or concentrating in political science to support research in American politics or policy making, or otherwise uncompensated internships in a government office, agency, or other public service organization. Each spring, the department invites students to submit fellowship proposals. Awards are announced in late April or early May.

Early Admission to the Master’s Degree in Political Science

While the Department of Political Science does not offer a joint bachelor of arts/master’s degree, it does allow Columbia and Barnard undergraduates to apply for early admission to its master’s degree program.

Students should apply during the fall semester of their senior year for admission to the M.A. program in the following fall semester, after completion of the B.A. degree. The department and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences may award up to one-half residence unit of advanced standing and/or up to three courses (nine to twelve credits) of transfer credit for graduate courses (4000-level and above) taken at Columbia in excess of the requirements for the Columbia bachelor’s degree, as certified by the dean of the undergraduate school awarding the bachelor’s degree.

For further information about the application process and minimum qualifications for early admission, please contact the director of undergraduate studies.

For further information about requirements for the M.A. degree, see https://gsas.columbia.edu/degree-programs/ma-programs/political-science.