Hi guys. One of the factors that will I feel will really influence the school I go to is the core curriculum there. I intend to double major in physics and mathematics, and feel I can get into a top school. My weighted average is 112.98, and my unweighted is 98.98. I got a 1590 on the SAT and perfect scores on the subject tests, and I’ve won a few national awards in science. My concern is having to deal with humanities requirements in university. So, out of the top universities in the country, where will I have the most freedom to take the classes I want? A list of maybe four or five would be appreciated!
Brown. Or you could go to a very tech focused school like Caltech that has minimal humanities requirements. Both are going to be reaches, as they get many more highly qualified applicants than they can accept. You could look at RPi’s requirements for matches.
Harvey Mudd would be another option albeit about as selective as Cal Tech. Georgia Tech? Emory?
Mudd prides itself on requiring a secondary humanities concentration. Their technical core is also quite rigid. My kid went there, but it didn’t seem to fit what the OP is looking for.
Of schools rated “most selective” by U.S. News, the five that I know of with maximal curricular flexibility consist of Amherst, Brown, Hamilton, Grinnell and Smith. You could also consider tech-focused schools such as Caltech, mentioned above.
Both Caltech and Harvey Mudd (and MIT) have substantial humanities and social studies requirements (at least a quarter), as well as substantial science (including chemistry and biology as well as physics and math) core curriculum courses. It should not be assumed that tech-focused schools are light in humanities and social studies requirements.
Grinnell would be less flexible than the others for the OP, since it limits the percentage of credits to graduation within any one division (science and math being one of the divisions), so that at least a quarter of credits need to come from humanities and/or social studies. In contrast, Brown and Amherst do not have general education requirements, while Hamilton limits the number of credits from any one department (to half), and Smith limits the number of credits in a major (to half).
However, general education requirements may not be a barrier to completion of a double major in math and physics at most colleges. Assuming 12 courses for math and 15 courses for physics, but with 4 overlapping lower level math courses, that would require a total of 23 courses, out of the usual approximately 32 courses at a typical semester-system college where students take 4 courses per semester. So if general education requirements consume 11 or fewer courses (about a third or less of the total), the majors would still be doable with careful planning. Of course, if the student enters advanced in math, as is common for math and physics majors at highly selective colleges, that may reduce the number of major courses needed by 1 to 4 math courses (or even more in math if super-advanced in math). That can leave more room for free electives even after completing general education requirements.
Obviously, a student intending a major in math and/or physics should check the offerings in those departments at each college, particularly at smaller colleges, and particularly if the student is very advanced in math.
Worth noting.
Canadian universities might be the best fit for this.
Columbia University would be a very poor choice. Their Core Curriculum is the centerpiece of their educational program and it is intensively focused on philosophy, art, music, literature etc. Not a good choice if you don’t enjoy these subjects.
@BahaDavie: Had anyone mentioned Columbia?
British universities typically have students focus on their major at the expense of taking a wider range of subjects.
I know that you are asking about “top universities”, so you probably mean just a handful of the most highly ranked schools by USNWR, but University of Rochester is a very selective school (also highly ranked) and has a lot of flexibility with no core curriculum. It is very strong in science also.
U of Rochester may also offer you some merit money.
Purdue. If you’ve taken AP courses, you can use them to fulfill almost all the gen ed requirements. CMU would be another to research…
If cost and distance are no object then agree that the British universities would fit the bill best, you’d never have to go near a non-science subject.
Vassar’s core requirements are minimal.
If you’re female, Barnard doesn’t have the same core as Columbia U’s Columbia College although it has distribution requirements that may be too restrictive for you still.
Rochester does require at least 3 courses in humanities and 3 courses in social studies.
Case Western Reserve U has a math and physics major and very flexible. Its designed for students who
want a PhD in theoretical physics–
http://physics.case.edu/undergraduate-programs/undergrad-degree-programs/bsdegree-mathphys/
Also Case Western offers a lot of help to pass the physics GRE exam, with study groups,
and opens the Putnam Mathematics exam to any student. Case Western has a particularly strong theoretical biophysics group that mentors undergraduates:
http://biotheory.phys.cwru.edu
Case Western physics graduates have been admitted to Cornell, Stanford, Berkeley and U of Toronto lately.
They often double major in math and physics.
U of Toronto in Canada is strong in physics for undergrads.
I also like U of Rochester as well. strong in optics.