<p>Hey,</p>
<p>I'm wondering if anyone knows if it's possible to take an entire major at another school in the Five Colleges? I've always considered majoring in Linguistics, and MHC doesn't offer the major, while UMass does... anyone?</p>
<p>thanks,
Bustles</p>
<p>I don’t know whether that’s possible, but I will say this: my daughter is a junior at Smith, and it’s REALLY difficult to manage the logistics of taking classes at one of the five colleges. Depending on the bus schedule, it can take a long time to get back and forth. Obviously, if you have a car on campus, you’re much freer.</p>
<p>It would seem rather unusual to major outside of your home college. That said, perhaps you can “create a major” at MHC. I would strongly suggest contacting admissions and perhaps the academic department where the best “fit” might be.</p>
<p>My daughter is a junior at MHC and has taken a class at UMass and two at Amherst. It does take effective schedule planning to manage the bus system and much juggling, however the consortium does work. I believe that you must take all of your courses at MHC first semester and a maximum of two off campus courses thereafter.</p>
<p>You can register for a maximum of two, but you can take more than two. I had a friend who had two at Amherst, two at UMass and one at MHC (all academic classes). You can create your own major and use a lot of UMass classes, but you will still have to figure out a way to do some of it here at MHC. Good luck!! :)</p>
<p>Hmmm, when I was at Hampshire I didn’t have a hard time with the logistics taking classes off campus. With the exception of Mt Holyoke: the way the buses ran from Hampshire it wasn’t practical at all.</p>
<p>My daughter has taken classes at both Hampshire and Smith. She felt the Hampshire classes were not a problem for her as far fitting in her scheduling or the bus schedule.</p>
<p>The Smith class was not at all convenient. She needed to leave crew practice early on Tuesday and Thursday in order to catch the bus since it was an early class . She also found the round trip route on the bus very time consuming.</p>
<p>I just want to clarify, that my daughter was able to take courses at UMass and Amherst pretty easliy. She had planned on taking a course at Smith her sophmore year, but abandonned that idea because the time involved given the bus timing interferred with classes she needed for her intended major</p>
<p>Hey! So Smith is the farthest from Mount Holyoke, so, yeah, taking a lot of classes at Smith is possible, but much more annoying than it would be to take classes at UMass, Hampshire, or Amherst. Anyway, my old roomie takes classes in the UMass linguistics dept. and she loves it. It’s not very complicated for her to get there on the PVTA. She knows their campus pretty well now too and it helps her meet a lot of new people. She considered designing her own major involving linguistics for a while too. Anyway, it’s definitely possible to work linguistics into a designed major. I’m not sure if you can form an entire major out of off-campus classes, but it’s definitely possible to use a lot of off-campus classes. I’ve looked at the form to declare a designed major (I was also considering for a while lol, but for different topics) and I don’t remember seeing anything like that specified.</p>
<p>One more comment to add: the beauty of a MoHo education is the small class size and the interaction between students and professors. Plus, and this is why many go to women’s colleges, the classroom environment itself is different in the kind of support and confidence it gives students. While using the consortium is a wise choice, I’m not sure going to MoHo to major at UMass (or wherever) is the best use of your tuition. Designing a major that includes many courses on campus as well as some that are at other colleges might be a better alternative.</p>
<p>Well said Momwaitingfornew!</p>
<p>^Totally agree. If you are paying MH tuition I should think you’d want the majority of your classes to be at MH. Icesk8mom - My D was accepted to MoHo - I think we did some posting last year re: figure skating at MH. As I recall its available. D is taking a
2nd look later this month and D #1 is now at Hampshire (transferred this year).<br>
Consortium-wise, D #1 takes 2 classes at MoHo now. However she does have a car. She tried taking one at Smith also but the professor cut the class in 1/2 and she was out…she did say the logistics of getting to Smith if she did not have a car would have been hard.</p>
<p>Check. All noted. Thanks a lot folks :)</p>
<p>Momwaitingfornew, I feel for your daughter, but I think that tends to be more of a Smith problem because it’s so far from the rest of us. For those of us east of the river, taking classes at the other colleges is much easier.</p>
<p>watsonishere, the PVTA now offers almost continuous service from Mount Holyoke to Hampshire. 
Especially since Hampshire is the main transfer station these days.</p>
<p>Bustles, I believe we have a cap on the number of credits you can take outside of Mount Holyoke and then apply to your degree, but I’m not positive…you might want to check on it.</p>
<p>MHC2011 – It depends on what you mean, the registrar has a certain number of MHC credits you need taken at MHC to graduate, but that’s more applicable to people who transfer here rather than to people who take a lot of 5-college courses. Per department, there may be additional requirements for courses taken on and off campus, but most departments are pretty flexible. My major has no “cap” on off campus courses, and I took over half of my minor courses at other schools without any problem.</p>
<p>Classes at Smith I haven’t had such a problem with. I’ve taken two, one I got a ride to, and one where I took the bus. The math department will let students drive fleet vehicles to drive to Smith classes, I don’t know if that’s something that all departments will do though.</p>