Modern Perspective
USMA Curriculum
USMA Core Curriculum Academic Year 2022 Onwards
It is clear that even with the large number of majors offered by the United States Military Academy there is a definite structure to all courses of study. There is a large diversity in the courses required, and in some ways this closely models what one might find at a liberal arts college rather than an engineering school. Bear in mind the stated mission of West Point is "to educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the Nation as an officer in the United States Army." As such it should not be surprising that there are so many courses outside of engineering required with the understanding that to be an officer requires a wider breadth of knowledge than most other careers.
USMA 2022 Engineering Sequences
Apart from the core required courses in STEM, every cadets who is not in an engineering course of study is required to select an engineering sequence from this list. While these only give a brief overview of their respective fields of engineering compared to a full major study they are meant to tie together the required courses in mathematics and science.
NYU Tandon Curriculum
NYU Majors 2022
In contrast to West Point NYU Tandon offers a relatively small number of majors. These majors are also much more concentrated in engineering. Part of this could be the structural difference of Tandon being the engineering school to NYU which offers a much broader range of majors in various other component schools.
While the core requirements are not as broad as at West Point we can see that there are a number of similarities. The general courses in advanced mathematics, natural sciences, and writing are common across the two. The difference appears to be that Tandon offers more flexibility by having fewer required courses but requiring certain types of courses, ie writing intensive whereas West Point offers a more one size fits all approach with exact courses prescribed.
Personal Observations:
The core course sequence at West Point is much more rigidly defined. Further, the curriculum at West Point is intended to develop officers capable of operating in the complexities of the modern world resulting in a much wider breadth of courses, such as psychology, law, history of the military art etc. required for all cadets. While at first glance this would seem to indicate the relative lack of depth in majors, West Point simply requires cadets to take more courses in order to compensate for the increased breadth. Personally, during my second year I took 23.5 and 25.5 credits in the fall and spring semester respectively. It should be noted that this does account for other courses in addition to the academic courses, namely physical and military courses. The contents of the courses also presents an interesting contrast, with the majority of West Point courses being focused on applications and problem solving rather than theoretical. For example in my advanced chemistry course we did a unit on explosives and made thermite in one of our labs. By contrast even the applied math courses at NYU seem to have a focus on theoretical underpinnings with applications studied more as a result of theory. Another important difference is the importance of tradition at West Point. Courses are taught in a similar manner as they have been since Sylvanus Thayer in the 1800s with the aptly named Thayer method. In STEM courses readings and homework are assigned then in class you would be expected to work on a different set of problems typically on blackboards when applicable. Due to the small class sizes, my advanced courses had as few as 4 or 5 students, the professor would then be able to provide individual feedback or guidance if you were struggling. Further, there are no TAs or anything of that ilk so interaction with the professor was much higher, with the added benefit of professors being much more likely to work with you on individual research interests. By contrast, NYU is very much an active research school where the graduate students outnumber the undergraduates. In this way sometimes it is harder to work with professors on individual projects as there are others who have more background/ ability to contribute to original research in a meaningful way. In my experience your primary interaction will be with TAs, generally graduate students rather than the professor themselves outside of lecture. Perhaps the biggest difference structurally is recitations for most 4 credit STEM classes.