courses

<p>I'm confused by the course structure at Sarah Lawrence.
Here is my general understanding; PLEASE correct me if I am wrong:</p>

<p>Students take courses from three of the four major disciplines (Humanities, Science/Maths, History/Social Science, Arts). Does this apply just to each semester or could I theoretically go through all four years without taking a single science or maths course?</p>

<p>Also, I don't understand how the Dance/Theatre/Music Thirds work. If anyone can give me some insight it would be greatly appreciated :)</p>

<p>In your first year you MUST take 3 courses in three of the four different departments – after that, however, you may actually take anything you’d like (although your don is supposed to prevent you from specializing too much, which happens).</p>

<p>I’m actually not sure if its possible to go all four years without taking a math/sci – there ARE a maximum number of hours in each department, so that by the time you reach spring term senior year if you’ve specialized too much you might be forced into doing some courses outside of your interests. However, this won’t happen if you set your courses up right to be decently varied. And if its set up just right, you probably won’t ever have to take a math/sci course (generally, SLC’s academic guidelines set up students to complete work that somewhat resembles an art school and somewhat resembles the curriculum of other LA schools like Vassar, Bard, Wesleyan, etc… although it IS actually possible to go through the school without taking any creative arts class. Its a hell of a large workload for students like that, and it half-defeats the point of going to SLC, but there are a few students who do it).</p>

<p>I am not a “third” student but I have a general idea of how they work - 2/3rds of someone’s classes are devoted to anything they want, often not associated with whatever they’re specializing in while the remaining third is divided into two smaller classes that are directly about the subject they want to study. So for example, a theater third might have four classes during a term - Class 1, Class 2, Class 3a, and Class 3b. The 3a and 3b classes make up the third, and are each about theater (and are worth 2.5 hours/credits instead of 5 hours/credits). A non-third student would just have a schedule that’s like Class 1, Class 2, and Class 3. </p>

<p>The third is more complicated than that but that’s the general idea – I think you’ll discover that the “thirds” idea actually ends up kind of being more of a limitation than a benefit – but honestly there is so much freedom in choosing what you want to study compared to other colleges that its hardly that bad.</p>

<p>Be wary that your interests might change after your first term or year at SLC, mine certainly did – I went from being a Bio/Literature/Fiction-Writing student to a Neuroscience/Compsci/Creative non-fiction student. You might actually take another interest in science or math, both subjects are wayyyy better in college than in high school when you’re forced into that AP Bio/Chem/Calculus drivel.</p>