How does the undergraduate workload compare between Columbia and Princeton?

Princeton is more likely to feel academically intense in the upper years because independent research is built into the undergraduate experience, while Columbia’s workload is heavy in a more continuously structured way through the Core Curriculum. At Columbia, students commonly balance their major courses with required Core classes such as Literature Humanities, Contemporary Civilization, University Writing, and science or arts requirements.

The clearest difference is Princeton’s expectation of independent work. Columbia has major-specific research and capstone opportunities too, but the university-wide workload is less centered on a required senior thesis.

Columbia’s Core can make the first two years feel less flexible, since significant reading and writing continue even when they are outside a student’s intended field. A STEM student, for example, may still have substantial humanities reading, while a humanities student may be fitting Core science work around writing-intensive seminars.

Both campuses support active extracurricular lives, but neither has a light baseline. Columbia students often describe the challenge as fitting Core assignments, major work, and New York City opportunities into a busy week; Princeton students often describe intense but close-knit academic routines, with independent projects becoming the main time pressure later on.