<p>I'm looking for a college in the northeast with a liberal vibe and relatively open curriculum. I would prefer a more urban environment or something very close to a city. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>Vassar College?</p>
<p>UPenn or Columbia</p>
<p>I’d place Columbia with its core curriculum at the extreme polar opposite of Brown.</p>
<p>These schools don’t have totally open curriculum, but offer quite a bit of flexibility in choosing courses.</p>
<p>-University of Rochester (not sure how liberal it is)
-NYU’s Gallatin School
-Hampshire College (in a college town)
-Smith College (near the same college town as Hampshire, but women only)</p>
<p>Outside of the Northeast, consider Pitzer, Reed, Evergreen State, and possibly New College of Florida.</p>
<p>I would add Macalester. Although it does have distribution requirements and is in the midwest, you might find it of interest. Twin Cities are wonderful. cold, though.</p>
<p>[College</a> Lists / Open Curriculum - schools with more flexible curricula](<a href=“College Lists Wiki / Open Curriculum - schools with more flexible curricula”>College Lists Wiki / Open Curriculum - schools with more flexible curricula)</p>
<p>Of these, Eugene Lang is about as urban as it gets (Greenwich Village); it’s in the NE; it is very liberal. It is not nearly as selective as Brown or Wesleyan. </p>
<p>Sarah Lawrence comes fairly close to satisfying your criteria.
Most of the others are not urban. Reed may come closest to meeting your requirements (but it’s not in the NE, and although its curriculum may be relatively “open”, in other respects is quite demanding).</p>
<p>As of right now I am applying to Brown, Wesleyan, Tufts, and NYU Gallatin. I’m also considering JHU, Vassar, Penn, and Haverford. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>Why would you want to transfer TO NYU? It’s overpriced and overrated. Many people say there is a commonality between Wes and Oberlin, if Ohio is not too far away. </p>
<p>List published above in #7 is completely wrong. Reed is about as “open curriculum” as the University of Chicago plus requires qualifying exams and a thesis. The University of Rochester is not know as “open curriculum” either. St. John’s College (Annapolis) has a four year fixed curriculum.</p>
<p>Brandeis?</p>
<p>Consider Swarthmore. It may not have an open curriculum, but it has a similar liberal, intellectual environment. Fiske Guide makes a point of comparing it to Brown and Wes.</p>
<p>You must have a generous definition of Open Curriculum if you include Tufts, it is one of the few that still includes a foreign language and culture requirement 
Personally, I don’t see the issue with schools having “gen-ed” requirements as long as there are lots of good departments and courses to choose from!
U. Rochester does not have any required courses and it is sometimes referred to as an open curriculum - [Academics</a> :: University of Rochester](<a href=“http://www.rochester.edu/academics/]Academics”>Academics - University of Rochester)</p>
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<p>Only 5 schools are represented on that page as having “completely open curricula”. The larger list includes schools “with different levels of curricular freedom”.</p>
<p>^ What’s your point? The list is junk. St. John’s has no electives and its fixed for four years. Reed is as structured as it gets. Columbia and Chicago should also be listed as they are rigid too. St. John’s, Columbia, Chicago and Reed are opposite ends of the spectrum from Wes and Brown.</p>
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<p>I’d add Oberlin along with Vassar, Haverford to your list.</p>
<p>Take outs:</p>
<p>NYU Gallatin: Seriously overpriced and overrated speaking as a NYC native. Better off saving this institution for grad school…especially in business, law, med, or some Arts & Science fields. Mainly for well-off kids who want to design their own curriculum. </p>
<p>JHU/Penn: Much more pre-professional and less artsy/freewheeling. Also, several alums have recounted them being “sink or swim” sort of places.</p>
<p>^^ That list is what it is. If you find it un-helpful, then find (or make) what you think is a better one and share it. </p>
<p>The point is that very few other colleges have a completely open curriculum. Of the ones that do (unless we’ve missed some) hardly any satisfy all the OP’s other criteria (northeastern, urban, liberal, LAC). The one exception I can think of is Eugene Lang (which does have some course requirements, and is not nearly as selective as Wesleyan or Brown).</p>
<p>Therefore the OP will need to bend on one or more of his criteria. The most restrictive of them is the “open curriculum” concept, since it appears there are only a very few that are as open as Brown. If you relax your definition of “open”, then many other possibilities emerge. </p>
<p>For instance, I too would consider St. Johns at the opposite end of the “open” spectrum, in the sense that its program is completely fixed. However, it has no majors. It does not require you to specialize in any single field. Its program covers the liberal arts more broadly than others do. As for Reed, it sets 8 basic graduation requirements, which include “sufficient units of academic work” and a phys ed requirement. Only one specific course sequence is required for all students (Humanities 110). So I wouldn’t say its program is “as structured as it gets” (although the oral comprehensive exam and thesis requirement may be more than you want to take on.) </p>
<p>Very few schools (besides St. John’s) have a completely fixed curriculum. Few schools (besides Chicago and Columbia) have a Core curriculum. The majority are schools with distribution requirements. So, once you’ve built a list that more or less satisfies your other criteria, look for a “graduation requirements” or some such page to see if it includes any you’d absolutely want to avoid.</p>
<p>Here’s a white paper on “The Values of the Open Curriculum”:
<a href=“http://www.teaglefoundation.org/teagle/media/library/documents/learning/2006_brownwg_whitepaper.pdf?ext=.pdf[/url]”>http://www.teaglefoundation.org/teagle/media/library/documents/learning/2006_brownwg_whitepaper.pdf?ext=.pdf</a></p>
<p>The 8 members of the working group that prepared it were:
Amherst
Antioch
Brown
Hampshire
New College of Florida
Sara Lawrence
Smith
Wesleyan</p>
<p>Here’s another short list of “Open Curriculum” schools:
[Open</a> Curriculum Colleges & Universities: Examples in Action | Open Jar Foundation](<a href=“http://openjar.org/curricular-freedom-examples-in-action]Open”>http://openjar.org/curricular-freedom-examples-in-action)
Amherst
Brown
Evergreen
Hamilton
Smith</p>
<p>Don’t confuse NYU Gallatin’s Individualized Study (aka design-your-own-interdisciplinary-major) with an open curriculum. Gallatin has a fairly rigorous liberal arts core curriculum: [NYU</a> Gallatin > Academics > Undergraduate](<a href=“http://gallatin.nyu.edu/academics/undergraduate.html]NYU”>Undergraduate > Academics > NYU Gallatin)</p>
<p>What about Grinnell?
[Education</a> in the Liberal Arts - Grinnell College - Acalog ACMS?](<a href=“Grinnell College - Acalog ACMS™”>Education in the Liberal Arts - Grinnell College - Acalog ACMS™)</p>
<p>Definitely apply to Vassar - it certainly meets all of your requirements. Hamilton is a bit more remote but Utica is not too far away and Hamilton also has a very open curriculum. Easy to double major at both schools.</p>
<p>My primary focus is the vibe from Brown and Wesleyan - academic with a lot of vibrancy and diversity. I prefer the urban environment because I like having off-campus nightlife options, rather than feeling trapped on campus. And I like a largely self-directed curriculum.</p>
<p>“I like having off-campus nightlife options” That’s not Wesleyan in Middletown, CT. Do you have a car? It doesn’t sound like most LAC’s either.</p>