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The Core Curriculum is the centerpiece of the first two years of undergraduate study at Columbia. It entails four required courses-Contemporary Civilization, Literature Humanities, Music and Art Humanities-which focus on masterpieces of western civilization and build upon the notion, as Lionel Trilling put it, that "there is a certain minimum of our intellectual and spiritual tradition which a man must experience and understand if he is to be called educated." By now the Core is so well established that we easily forget its radical roots as a grand experiment in undergraduate education. Before World War I Columbia College had been overshadowed by the University's graduate and professional schools, and its educational mission was undefined. Rejecting the emphasis on pre professional training, the College forged a new identity after the war based on a liberal arts curriculum.
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