<p>Oberlin requires 9 credits in a course related to cultural diversity to graduate. Does studying abroad meet this requirement? If so, typically how many CD credits to students receive for a semester abroad?</p>
<p>you’d do best to check with Oberlin, but it seems that study in a foreign language/country would count for at least some of it.
From the catalog:</p>
<p>To satisfy the requirement, students must earn at least nine credit hours in courses with the CD (cultural diversity) designation. The nine credit hours must be earned in at least two different departments or programs. These courses may count simultaneously toward the nine hours required in each division.</p>
<p>Courses that carry CD credit will have the notation CD in the course heading in this catalog.</p>
<p>The categories of courses designated as CD include the following:</p>
<pre><code>1. Courses whose primary emphasis is on cultures whose origins lie outside the Western tradition (including various minority cultures in the United States);
or
- Courses whose primary emphasis is on methods of analyzing and interpreting cultural differences (e.g., differences of language, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, and class);
or
- Courses whose primary emphasis is on cultural pluralism within the Western tradition.
</code></pre>
<p>Additionally, all courses taught in a language other than English are designated CD.</p>
<p>Yes we are well aware of the catalog and the requirement. Was specifically asking about how study abroad would meet 9 credits required. Anyone know?</p>
<p>It’s impossible to answer this question without having specific information about the particular abroad program. Courses taken in a program in England or Ireland would be less apt to qualify for CD credit than courses taken in Japan, for instance. But they might if they focused on, say, issues of gender or ethnicity. There’s no blanket rule–this would need to be worked out with the advisor or department chairs.</p>
<p>Thanks dave72. My daughter is only a freshman so she does not know which program abroad she will ultimately do. As students are now planning for spring semester, she is not sure if she should plan one CD course per year to avoid a bottleneck as 9 units (approx. 3 courses) are required in cultural diversity. There are so many things she would like to take that another mandated requirement is difficult for her. Do other students find Oberlin’s requirements cumbersome?</p>
<p>Most students I know do not find the CD requirement cumbersome–they tend to fulfill it without even thinking much about it, since so many courses across the curriculum count towards it. The distribution requirements are actually pretty minimal. But I guess a student trying to complete more than one major in the sciences, for instance, might need to plan more carefully to fulfill CD.</p>
<p>Your daughter can get plenty of help in working out this issue, either from her advisor, from an Academic Ambassador (a trained peer advisor), or from the Dean of Studies’ office.</p>
<p>"Do other students find Oberlin’s requirements cumbersome? "</p>
<p>D1 found them to be no problem whatsoever. Actually I think she may have fulfilled a lot of its distribution requirements before she even set foot on campus. She had a lot of APs & college courses though.</p>
<p>I think they are very generous with their gen ed requirements. For the CD requirement specifically, it can be met with a class on Japanese animation from the East Asian studies department, or a class called the History of Rome in the Classics department. My son was ecstatic that he didn’t have to take a foreign language to fulfill the requirement.</p>
<p>Something like a third of courses here fulfill the CD requirement. (Which is kind of ridiculous, if you think about it - I met the requirement by taking Latin and ancient Greek, which probably defeats the purpose.) The only people that I know who’ve had trouble with CD are science majors who don’t want to take any courses outside the sciences.</p>
<p>Why would anyone at Oberlin even think that courses in Cultural Diversity are “cumbersome?” I could see most of the students at Lehigh with that kind of attitude…nevermind, I won’t go there. I’ll be nice.</p>
<p>Plainsman, I didn’t mean that the CD requirement was cumbersome. I was referring to all of Oberlin’s requirements (distribution requirements for humanities, social science, natural science, cultural diversity, quantitative and writing intensive, limits within a division, limits within a department, in addition to the requirements for a major). Not all equally challenging LACs have this many distribution requirements; although some certainly have far more. Some students need this type of structure, others less so. It depends on their own motivations to gain a broad yet in depth education. The goal is to foster intellectual curiosity and academic exploration. I personally feel that bright students at this age should be given more freedom to choose their own broad program with more flexible requirements.</p>
<p>As someone planning a possible humanities/science double major, I’ve looked very closely at distribution requirements. Oberlin’s are actually quite moderate among LACs–strict compared to Amherst or Vassar, of course, but look at Scripps or Barnard or Reed. Among elite universities, Princeton, Chicago, and Columbia also have much stricter curriculum requirements.</p>
<p>Yes there is quite a range out there. Good for you for thinking ahead about what type of student you are and what type of philosophy/approach will work best for you. Brown, Vassar are at one end of the extreme with no distribution requirements. Older daughter attended Wesleyan which falls somewhere in the middle – 3 humanities, social science and natural science are required for those students seeking honors (80% do this). And then there are those schools at the other end such as Columbia, Whitman with a core requirement. I was a bit surprised that a school as progressive as Oberlin has a rather traditional approach to requirements, but my freshman daughter will make it work as she is very happy with the school.</p>
<p>I believe Oberlin once allowed students to take an unlimited number of pass/fail courses–so there would be your progressive curriculum.</p>
<p>@Keilexandra: Oberlin still does.</p>
<p>I think the sheer number of requirements makes people think that they’re much more “cumbersome” than they really are. You can demonstrate writing and quantitative proficiency through AP, SAT, or ACT scores, and subject distribution requirements through AP scores as well. Most (all?) first-year seminars are writing-intensive. And many courses fall into multiple categories - e.g., an anthropology course may count for social sciences and cultural diversity.</p>
<p>I’m a first-semester sophomore, and I’ve filled all the requirements without even thinking about it. The only friends I know who are struggling with them are science majors who only want to take science courses, or humanities majors who are scared of math and science, and frankly, I don’t have a lot of sympathy 
We’re a liberal arts college; everyone should graduate with a well-rounded knowledge base. I think Oberlin’s requirements do a good job of enforcing that for students who wouldn’t ordinarily take courses outside their own fields, without creating unreasonable obstacles for everyone.</p>
<p>wow; I had no idea that students could take ALL courses pass/not pass. Even UCSC, which famously once had no grades, recently stopped its program of allowing all p/np. I wonder how many students choose that option. </p>
<p>The minimum GPA at Oberlin is also very low: 1.67.
[Academic</a> Policies - Oberlin College - acalog ACMS?](<a href=“Academic Policies - Oberlin College - Modern Campus Catalog™”>Academic Policies - Oberlin College - Modern Campus Catalog™)</p>
<p>The breadth requirements are not particularly onerous, especially for those with AP’s, which can be used to meet quantitative proficiency, etc. For example, it would be possible for someone to take no science courses at Oberlin if they’d taken AP Physics and Calculus with top scores. This is not true at many other schools, which use AP’s for placement and/or electives.</p>
<p>And Oberlin also has no lab science requirement, just natural science. (Thanks for the P/F correction.)</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the feedback which I will pass on to my daughter. I am sure she will be quite relieved.</p>