An Overview of STEM Majors and Programs at Colby College

This article was written based on the information and opinions presented by Abigail St. Johns in a CollegeVine livestream. You can watch the full livestream for more info.

 

What’s Covered:

• STEM Requirements
• Interdisciplinary Courses and Opportunities
• Engineering Programs at Colby
• Colby’s Premed Program

 

 

STEM Requirements

 

STEM subjects at Colby College are varied and diverse. Every student at Colby has to take thematic requirements to graduate. This means that, even if you are not majoring in a STEM field, you have to take a certain number of classes in the STEM curriculum. 

 

The good news is there are many different types of fields from which to choose. You can take courses like quantitative reasoning, computer science, or logic classes from the philosophy department. There are plenty of opportunities for all students to explore their interests, which is one thing that Colby College values a lot. 

 

Colby College as an institution values problem-solving and flexible learning. One of Colby’s mottos is “knowledge is the light of the mind,” and this especially holds true for STEM fields, which is why they offer classes in many different areas. 

 

Interdisciplinary Courses and Opportunities

 

There are plenty of interdisciplinary computation programs at Colby College. These programs combine computer science with any other discipline on campus like theater, dance, or psychology. For example, you can combine biology and computer science to come up with incredible research projects like how biomechanical engineering can affect the human body or how psychology can affect the ways we think about computation. These are only a couple examples of some projects students in interdisciplinary programs have studied. 

 

All of these interdisciplinary computation programs revolve around computer science, so if your passion is computer science but you also have interests in other fields this is a great option. Colby College values creative thinking, and this is the main reason why they developed these programs. Students in interdisciplinary programs have the flexibility to combine multiple different passions into one research project. 

 

Engineering Programs at Colby

 

Colby College doesn’t have a specific engineering degree, but they do partner with Dartmouth College and Columbia University for a few programs. These aren’t engineering programs that you need to apply to in your college application. You apply to these programs once you’re admitted to the college. Some of them are quite competitive, so not every student who applies gets in. For example, the dual engineering and computer science program has a 50% acceptance rate, but this program gets more competitive each year. 

 

The engineering programs that partner with Dartmouth and Columbia are very unique. For the Dartmouth program, you take your first two years at Colby and then spend your junior year at Dartmouth taking general engineering courses. Your senior year is spent back at Colby and, finally, you take a postgraduate year at Dartmouth. 

 

The Columbia program works a little differently. You have the option to do three years at Colby and two years at Columbia or four years at Colby and then two years at Columbia. The engineering programs that partner with Columbia are more specific, so your years spent at Columbia will focus on a specific type of engineering. 

 

Colby’s Premed Program

 

Colby College doesn’t have a premed major, but there is an advisory center that helps students plan out the courses they need to take to be part of the premed track. While there isn’t an official premed track, this advisory center will ensure students interested in medicine are taking the necessary classes to follow a career in medicine after Colby. The premed advisory will also help make sure students have access to opportunities through internships or laboratory research. These opportunities will help premed students learn soft skills, such as bedside manner and communication skills, or they can relate to a student’s specific area of interest. The premed advisory allows students interested in premed to be very flexible with their education.