<p>Hey,
I'm a junior and just starting my college search and I'm trying to find liberal schools without strict core curriculums. I've already got Hampshire on my list as well as Pitzer and Reed, but I was wondering if you guys have any suggestions?</p>
<p>Brown University in RI.</p>
<p>Amherst College, Grinnell College</p>
<p>Wesleyan University, New College-Florida.</p>
<p>Reed does not exactly have a core curriculum, but it does require all first-year students to take the year-long Humanities 110 course.
[REED</a> VIRTUAL TOUR](<a href=“http://web.reed.edu/apply/tour/index.html?humanities/index.html~mainFrame]REED”>http://web.reed.edu/apply/tour/index.html?humanities/index.html~mainFrame)</p>
<p>Reed also has a senior thesis requirement, preceded by a junior qualifying exam, and followed by a comprehensive oral exam (which may include questions about the thesis or about any courses the student has taken).</p>
<p>Smith College, if you’re female.</p>
<p>St. John’s College goes a little bit beyond having no core.
It is pretty different, but very interesting. Check it out. (:</p>
<p>St. Johns College has the strongest core ever, everyone takes the same classes!</p>
<p>Very few colleges actually have core curriculums, which means everyone takes the same sequence of courses. Columbia and Chicago are examples.</p>
<p>The majority of colleges have distribution requirements which means that you take a certain number of courses from several loose categories. For example three each from each category: humanities, social studies, science/math. Distribution requirements are usually not too onerous and are easily fulfilled by a reasonably curious student.</p>
<p>Some colleges have open curriculums which means that they have no core and no distribution requirements. Hampshire, Smith, Brown, Amherst are a few examples. This arrangement seems to be growing in popularity.</p>
<p>No matter what system the college follows all have other requirements specific to the individual school, for example writing intensive, quantitative reasoning, multi-cultural, language proficiency. Also, your major will have its own requirements.</p>
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<p>Even the core curriculum schools are somewhat flexible, though.
At Chicago, there are 1 year core requirements for each of the major divisions of knowledge, but there could be a half dozen or so course sequences to satisfy each one. For example, the Physical Science core requirement might be satisfied by a course called “Matter, Energy, and Organization” or by another in “Geophysical and Astronomical Sciences” (a.k.a. ** “Rocks and Stars”). The Social Science core might be satisfied by a course sequence on “Politics, Economics, Rhetoric and Law” (“PERL”) or by another on “Deviant and Sexual Psychology” (a.k.a. ** “Nuts and Sluts”). In one course sequence, the readings might focus on Enlightenment period authors (Locke, Montesquieu, Rousseau); in another, on 19th and 20th century authors (Marx, Weber, Durkheim).</p>
<p>Now, at some schools that are not considered “core curriculum” colleges, there may in fact be a requirement to take one sequence of courses that is the same for everyone. I’m thinking of the Humanities 110 requirement at Reed, which as I understand it is the same course for all.</p>