<p>Amherst has no requried courses except for a freshman seminar. You can take any class, as long as you are it is open to all classes and you have taken the prerequisites. </p>
<p>They have a Neuroscience department and a Music Department. You can double major, and because of the curricular freedom, a high percentage of students do double major.</p>
<p>Amherst has outstanding faculty and a an 8:1 student/faculty ratio. Classes are very small.</p>
<p>And there is a Jewish organization/group thing, as well as a sizable Jewish population.</p>
<p>booklet, Not impossible at all. there are plenty of LACs that would fit your requirements, just make sure that you find a range of selectivity and don’t just focus on the most difficult to get into, no matter what your qualifications are. For schools that are strong in sciences AND the arts I would suggest: Williams, Wesleyan, Hamilton, Kenyon, Conn College and, if you are female, Smith. </p>
<p>Since Williams is the one I’m most familiar with I’ll give you more information there, but really, what you are describing – small, no TA’s, active Jewish association, and the ability to double major and experiment in other fields – are the hallmarks of all LACs. </p>
<p>At Williams it’s very common for students to double or even triple major in disciplines that are quite different from each other. They like multi-faceted kids and artist/scientist, musician/historian, dancer/mathmetitian combinations are not unusual. Even though there are distribution requirements they are designed to promote experimentation rather than to restrict you to a narrow focus. They want you to get outside your comfort zone. </p>
<p>Williams has one of the best science programs in the country AND it also has one of the best arts departments. The Art History department is renowned and there are three world class museums on or near campus. Art Studio, music and dance is also very strong with beautiful, well funded facilities and plenty of performance opportunities, even for non-majors. </p>
<p>I am also extremely interested in neuroscience (more cognitive neuro though). I don't know much about the dance and art programs you're also interested in, but from what I've seen, I'd concur with most posters on this thread. Brown is one of the best schools for undergrad neuroscience (it seems to me) and has the open cirriculum you're looking for. Amherst and Oberlin are both very good at Neuro too, and have decent arts programs too (especially Oberlin). I've visited both Amherst and Oberlin, and liked them both. Oberlin especially impressed me.</p>
<p>Oberlin, totally. I believe they offer a major in neuro, and you can either double in the conservatory to get a bmus or a ba in music which would be a lot less stressful. I dunno about dance, but there would be dance opportunities if not major.</p>
<p>In the open curriculum idea, add U of Rochester. They're connected with eastman and also offer BA in music.</p>
<p>I definitely second the Claremont suggestion above, and not just Pomona, but any of the schools (although esp. Pomona and Scripps). Neuro's a popular major and the dance and art departments are quite strong. Double majoring is possible and common, even with science students. All full professors, no TAs. Active Hillel. No classes closed off to upperclassmen (excluding stuff like freshman seminars). You could take history as a freshman or as a senior, if you felt like it. Scripps is 800-ish students, Pomona is 1500-ish. The colleges, along with CMC, Pitzer, and Mudd, function as a consortium of 5,000: <a href="http://www.claremont.edu%5B/url%5D">www.claremont.edu</a>.</p>
<p>A lot have mentioned UC Irvine, but I do know that UCI closes many intro classes off to upperclassmen. Also, huge school, not LAC.</p>
<p>Hillel's website lists Oberlin as having 800 Jewish students (out of about 2800); it is also the only one of the LAC's with a Conservatory and a popular double degree program.</p>
<p>If an undergraduate population of about 5,600 is tolerable, Emory University in Atlanta sounds like a nice fit. This is fairly small for a research university, but believe me, it feels a lot smaller than this because many of the upperclassmen either live off-campus or live at the Claremont Campus, located about 15 minutes away. My older sister, currently a sophomore at Emory, is dual-majoring (she knows a kid that is quad-majoring; Emory is flexible about stuff like that) in Neuroscience/Behavioral Biology and Music. She also has a minor in French. I know that Emory has good music and arts programs, and it has a very good reputation (Ranked 18th by USN&WR). It also has strong liberal arts courses, my sister was undecided for a year and a half and just took general courses until she decided what she wanted. I don't know why everyone keeps mentioning the jewish population, but at Emory it is around 30%. Definitely scheck it out, if nothing else. It is on a nice campus in a nice city.</p>
<p>I'm double majoring in either biochem/neuro AND studio art in college :) Haha, guess there are a lot of us! A few schools I applied were Wesleyan, Vassar, Williams, Conn College, Tufts (they have a joint MFA 5-year studio art & major of your choice degree, AND excellent sciences) and Skidmore (saftey) - they all seem to fit your list, I think. I also applied to Brandeis, whom I know have excellent sciences and atleast a 50% jewish population.</p>
<p>Make-you-own curriculum with access to classes at Hampshire, Amherst, Holyoke, Smith, and UMASS Amherst. No grades at Hampshire classes, just evaluations.</p>
<p>i just want to thank everyone soo much, and to tell monydad that he's right, that my interests have changed a bit, and as the year progresses i can imagine why double majoring might not be right, although these are all things im pretty passionate about.. i.e. taking a dance class or an art calss is somethign i would do anyway and have a blast doing.. im definetly continually rephrasing my list as i growe and change.. but theres somethign to be said for having a list to work from.. thanks soo much to everyone!</p>
<p>Not to be a stickler or anything, but are you interested in studying neurobiology or neuroscience? There is a difference. Neuroscience is the study of behavior and cognition from a perspective of it being the result of various neural processes. </p>
<p>Neurobiology is actually the study of the biological physics and mechanics of the brain and nervous system at a cellular level, and how it effects greater neural response. </p>
<p>To simplify, neurobiology is actually a lot more like hard biology than neuroscience, and it requires a greater knowledge of chemistry and physics. </p>
<p>The only reason why I'm bringing this up is because if the OP actually wants to study real neurobiology, its not going to show up at many LACs.</p>
<p>tokeyorevelation9.. ur right.. what i should haev written was neurosceince.. im really fascinated bythe impact that arts/music have on us... hence the double major i was thinking of origianlly... :)</p>
<p>Definitely consider Tufts's 5-year BA or BS degree combined with a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA), Tufts' fine arts school. You get the full art education and one of the finest diplomas in the nation in whichever academic subject you want to pursue.</p>
<p>I should also h ave said, upon re-reaidng your original post, that Tufts' drama and dance department is also highly renowned. AND the Jewish community is huge. Hillel is one of the most popular organizations on campus. I think I read somewhere that Tufts actually has a higher or similar percentage of Jewish students as Brandeis, which I think is hilarious.</p>