Does anyone know any colleges like Vassar? Specifically I am looking for:
- An open or near-open curriculum, like Vassar, or like the University of Rochester. Minimal distribution requirements are okay, too--the fewer, the better.
- Good student-faculty interaction, but ideally not a super small school (2000-6000 would be ideal)
- Excellent need-based financial aid
The only reason I DONT like Vassar is its location–in a sort of lame town in the Northeast (I already live in the Northeast and would very much like a change). So if the place is in a good college town or city somewhere that isn’t the Northeast or Mid-Atlantic (i lump those two regions together culturally in my brain, from personal experience) that’s a huge plus.
Brown. And Amherst but it’s slightly smaller than your range. Both have a totally open curriculum (more than Vassar or RIT - Amherst requires only one class of everyone, the other reqs are for your major, believe Brown is the same) but both are in the NE.
If you are female, Smith has few reqs.
Are you trying to avoid distribution requirements even if they are flexible? There’s a lot of air between a Columbia/UC-type core and a totally open curriculum.
I’ve looked at Brown an Amherst. I’ll definitely apply to Brown, probably Amherst, too–but I should add that I don’t think my stats and ECs are good enough to get me into either school. The hardest school I can probably get into is something like Vassar or Hamilton, but I’m a junior and haven’t applied anywhere yet so it’s hard to tell (to summarize, I go to a fairly competitive small public HS, have excellent SATs but an A- GPA with 6 APs by the time I graduate, and only have a few extracurriculars, in none of which I am extremely invested or highly achieved).
Oh and I’m willing to compromise on the curriculum of other criteria are met. Like I’m okay with something like Reed or bard, which doesn’t have very many distribution requirements. It’s kind of just trying to find a compromise between all those criteria I listed. There isn’t a school out there that fits all of them, so I’m trying to get as many options as I can which are close.
Rochester is not really open curriculum, since it requires at least a three course cluster in each of three divisions (humanities, social studies, science).
The most open curriculum college is Evergreen State (for its BA program).
http://evergreen.edu/registration/degrees
@ucbalumnus Thanks for the heads up. I knew that already, though; like I said I’m willing to compromise. And I actually like the requirement since it feels so sensible; I think it’s much more useful than having to pick one course in each of 9 categories (although that’s manageable since some colleges require fifteen or sixteen courses!)