Click here to go to the NEW College Discussion Forum

Are there, in fact, schools with no core requirements? I want to study history, but after one semester of all the core, totally unrelated bs, I find myself very unhappy. I am at a loss and ready to quit school altogether.

Are there schools with no core requirements where I could just go to study history?

I have a GED under my belt (I left high school early to attend a community college), a semester of core classes and a semester of art classes).

Are there any colleges designed like this? Please help me out! I'm beginning to feel like I should just give up on school but I know I'd hate myself if I did.

By Joeschmoe on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 05:58 pm: Edit

Vassar
Brown
Lehigh
Amherst
Grinnell

- -All of those have minimal cores

By AnotherDad on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 06:17 pm: Edit

A lot of schools have design your own programs -- Gallatin at NYU for example.
You might also think about going the other way. Tty St. Johns fully structured program on the development of Western thought. You read a massive curriculum from the Greeks to the modern day, which should be a great background for history.
In general, I recommend that you take courses outside your specific area. History is a social science and every aspect of culture, economy, and environment bears on the course of history.
Just curious -- where are you now?

By Eanderso1 on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 07:08 pm: Edit

Hampshire

By Thedad (Thedad) on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 09:18 pm: Edit

Smith. Requires on freshman writing-intensive class.

By AnotherDad on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 10:37 am: Edit

TheDad,

I hope you post where your kid ends up. I am curious. I will do the same.

AnotherDad

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 04:16 pm: Edit

Will do, Another Dad, though I hope you realize that we have over a year to wait unless she applies ED/EA next Fall. I'm just here scouting out the problems and opportunties early.

I do have my personal nightmare scenario: she gets accepted to both Smith and Harvard and can't decide.

Two totally different experiences, each excellent in its own way. If it happens, I'm glad that _I_ don't have to choose. Of course, when I said this elsewhere, another parent was horrified that I wouldn't _force_ her to go to Harvard.

Fortunately, her chances look to be a little less than 10 percent, so I probably won't have to deal with it. I just believe in worrying early.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 04:20 pm: Edit

Btw, Another Dad, anent your suggestion to annastarlet, while St. Johns isn't for my daughter, I don't think, their materials and their approach were very impressive and very compelling, I thought.
One path to becoming educated in the best possible sense. Macalester has also impressed me; too bad it's in !@#$%^&*! Minnesota...Massachusetts will be cold enough for my hothouse flower.

By a on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 09:02 pm: Edit

Wesleyan has no requirements, although it has "recommended" ones. In order to graduate with honors, you have to take a very small amount of courses from diff. depts, although it's not required for graduation.

By AnotherDad on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 10:00 am: Edit

TheDad,
Good to hear that we are not in direct competition. We will know in a month and a half. Be sure to visit the candidate schools this Summer and inform the schools because they keep records. It will help the selection process a lot and questions such as the lack of requirements can be addressed directly. Incidently, many of the schools listed here, such as Brown, Vassar, Wesleyan have very nice campuses that impress people that visit. AD

PS -- When visiting Wellesley, be sure to treat the family to dinner at the Blue Ginger, owned by Ming Tsai, the 2002 winner of Best Chef in the Northeast Award.
Also, some people actually turn down Harvard for a better fit. It is happening this year at my daughter's HS.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Friday, February 14, 2003 - 10:37 am: Edit

AnotherDad, we're doing our visits over Spring Break: Harvard, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Yale, Columbia, Barnard.

No Wellesley, alas, as they don't have access to
high-level ballet. (Neither does Yale, really, but it's directly on the way from Northampton to NYC.)

As someone who likes good food, I'll be sorry to miss the Blue Ginger. I'll try to file that away. As it is, we're only having a breakfast & lunch in Boston before being away to western Mass. on a schedule that doesn't leave much room for error; daughter has been invited to take one of the ballet classes at Smith that starts at 2:40, this with the Harvard tour ending at noon.

By AnotherDad on Wednesday, February 19, 2003 - 09:42 am: Edit

TD,
Think you should extend your tour to get a better feel for each school. By the way, a ballerina from my kids school got into Harvard this year -- you may want to check out how interested they are. AD

By Thedad (Thedad) on Wednesday, February 19, 2003 - 10:03 am: Edit

AD, time is the enemy. We have half a morning at Harvard and have to be on the road by 12:30 or so to get to Northampton in time to make the ballet class she's been invited to take at Smith.

I'd be interested in knowning more about your kid's school's ballerina...Harvard offers ballet only as an extracurricular, not a class.

By Burgmuller (Burgmuller) on Wednesday, April 09, 2003 - 08:15 pm: Edit

I an admitted student to Amherst, Upenn, Brown, Dartmouth and MIT. I looked up these universities and it seems like Amherst and Brown have no requirement for general education. english history and all that crap. and MIT looks like they want to torture their students. MIT's requirement is "unbelievable." I was happy when I was admitted but after reading the materials they sent me, I just knew that MIT is just out of the question. I'm not even considering MIT. I probably will go to Amherst, #1 the liberal arts college. hope this helps

By Chadwilsonx (Chadwilsonx) on Friday, June 18, 2004 - 03:13 am: Edit

Rochester (that is University of Rochester) has no required courses except for a freshman writing course -- however even with that you can choose to be in a writing class which focuses on your favorite subject. The courses are very unique and there is usually at least one course which represents fields such as literature, science, politics, history, etc. (This site gives some course titles: http://listener.uis.rochester.edu/cschd/data.t051/1/foundation/P) Instead of having required courses they have a cluster system where you are required to choose/make a cluster from 3 broad categories -- humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences -- and take 3 RELATED courses in each of those categories. There is more information about the curriculum here: http://www.rochester.edu/admissions/academics/curriculum/index.html

By Chadwilsonx (Chadwilsonx) on Friday, June 18, 2004 - 03:14 am: Edit

BTW...I know for a fact that Lehigh does not have a minimal core. There are a whole bunch of required courses...quite different from Rochester's curriculum.