<p>is there a core curriculum at tufts that requires students to take math and science classes?</p>
<p>ideally i would strictly take ir/poli sci classes.</p>
<p>No, no, my dear, the beauty of the liberal arts curriculum is that you take at least a few classes in every broad discipline -- the natural and mathematical sciences included. You can, however, test out of some of those requirements with AP/IB exams (check online for specification). There are also science and math classes for the admittedly "non-math; non-science."</p>
<p>Why on earth would you not want to take math and science courses? That's like the most arrogant attitude ever dude.</p>
<p>Strictly political science/ir courses? You interested in anything else? Or do you just want to moan about how much injustice there is in the world without knowing a thing about anything.</p>
<p>Seriously, don't come here if thats your attitude. There's too many folks like that here as it is.</p>
<p>There are distribution requirements to be fulfilled, including math and science. However, you can get out of them with APs, and there honestly are many interesting and - believe it or not, somewhat IR/Social Sciences-relevent - courses you can take to fulfill them</p>
<p>There are odd classes that fulfill science requirements, one of them being plants and humanity in the biology department.</p>
<p>RightBackATYou wrote:
"Why on earth would you not want to take math and science courses? That's like the most arrogant attitude ever dude."
Honestly, how does a preference toward the humanities translate to some general arrogance?
I would contend that if anything Im being humble by telling people that im not very good at math and science and thus would like to avoid a lot of those courses throughout college.</p>
<p>RightBackAtYou wrote:
"Strictly political science/ir courses? You interested in anything else? Or do you just want to moan about how much injustice there is in the world without knowing a thing about anything."
Can you explain to me how taking advanced calculus would help me learn more about the world?
Believe it or not there are a lot of disciplines within international relations and political science departments so don't worry about me not getting a full education.
Honestly buddy, I guarentee if the two of us took some kind of quiz on the world (whether it be international or american, historical or current) you would not come out so well.</p>
<p>RightBackAtYou wrote:
"Seriously, don't come here if thats your attitude. There's too many folks like that here as it is."
Just to clarify, this wasn't my attitude. It was the attitude of one of the coaches at Tufts who recommended I just pwn the IR department for four years.
Don't worry, if there are even a few people like you at Tufts I wouldnt want to go either.</p>
<p>now please, ****.</p>
<p>Chillax88:</p>
<p>I am a senior IR major. For my science requirements, I took a Civil Engineering class on Epidemiology that actually counted for my IR major and it was one of the most fascinating courses I've ever taken. While the midterm did involve molecular understanding, my term paper compared the ways the governments of Bostwana and Brazil have dealt with their respective HIV/AIDS crises. It was basically like writing an IR paper. Then I took an Environmental Science senior seminar that was really interesting and surprisingly manageable considering it's a class taken mostly by EnvSci majors. For my math classes, I took Calc 11 which was relatively easy seeing I'd done most of what we covered in that class in my IB Math Methods class in high school; I am currently taking Math of Social Choice for my last math credit, and it's not only really interesting and applicable to every day life, but I have a 99 in it. :-)</p>
<p>Other people take Computer Science classes for the math requirement. And some notoriously "non-science people" classes include Astronomy and Geology (Rocks4Jocks). Don't fret.</p>
<p>Environmental Bio also counts as an IR requirement (if you're doing the International Economics thematic cluster). </p>
<p>Other sciences apart from the ones lolabelle mentioned are Physical Anthropology, and Oceanography (through the Geo department). You don't have to take calculus, though, which is where you're mistaken. Like she said, there's Math of Social Choice, Symmetry (which I think involves, like...analyzing wallpaper, or something equally retarded), History of Math, and Logic is taught through the Philosophy department and counts as a math. Stat is a math and is required for the Econ major, taught through the Econ department. Civil Engineering offers a Probability/Statistics course. You can take random engineering courses like EN 1 for half credit that count as maths or sciences or something, I forget which.</p>
<p>I think RBAY was trying to say that you shouldn't be so closeminded; i have friends here who are also self-proclaimed math/science idiots - one of my friends is convinced that the Math Gods hate him, so when we have math tests he tells us "Bad Luck!" b/c he figures that the Math Gods will do the opposite, since they hate him. And yet they've found random courses that are for non-science and math people that have been really interesting, enlightening, and come up in everyday life. I had a blast in both Plants and Humanity and Environmental Bio, and I don't think I'd have taken Plants if there hadn't been a requirement.</p>