D22 is very interested in interdisciplinary humanities majors and programs. So far she is focused on the Humanities major at Yale, the IPH major at WashU and the COL at Wesleyan. We have also found similar programs at Northwestern and UChicago. Did anyone experience any of those programs? Are there any similar ones of particular quality at other T100 colleges?
Kenyon’s IPHS would be excellent for this, especially since this integrated program extends from Kenyon’s superb programs in individual humanities (e.g., literature, history, classics).
https://www.kenyon.edu/academics/departments-and-majors/integrated-program-in-humane-studies/
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I knew lots of COL majors at Wesleyan back in the day. My impression is that in addition to the subject matter, the real draw was simply being able to rub elbows with some of the most compelling teachers anywhere on the planet. Matthew Wiener, writer/creator of Mad Men was a COL graduate and still talks about his experiences as a student.
Alumni Gather at Liberal Arts + Film and Storytelling Forum in Mumbai | News @ Wesleyan
I’m less familiar with the people there now, but the student newspaper had a recent article on recent changes in the method of declaring a major: The Wesleyan Argus | Addressing Ujamaa Demands, College of Letters Amends Major Declaration Process
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@circuitrider she is very interested in the program and the school. However, the limitation to 25 majors per class is a bit odd. One of the questions I have as parent about Wesleyan is whether it has the same resources for students as say the more undergrad-focused Ivies. I get the sense from student commentary that there might be real limitations on counseling, health center and other support. Any word on that? The school is otherwise very attractive at many levels to D22.
Those are all great options!
If she hasn’t already, your daughter should definitely check out Yale’s Directed Studies program, Stanford’s SLE, and Princeton’s humanities sequence.
Those all sound like great options. If you want a safety, there’s the Honors College at Baylor. The Honors College has two majors which may interest your D: University Scholars and Great Texts. Most students accepted into the UNSC major typically have a 1450+ on the SAT so it’s designed for top students. You don’t need to apply to Great Texts, but based on the content of the major, it typically attracts very intellectual students.
Great Texts is exactly as the name would suggest: it’s a study of the great texts of the Western canon. It definitely leans towards English, but also looks at a lot of the key works in philosophy, theology, classics, and politics, and important texts in history.
The University Scholars major is basically make your own major: you have 2-4 concentrations which can be anything that is offered as a major or a minor in the College of A&S, so your daughter could do classics, English, and philosophy or whatever your D is interested in. The great thing about being a UNSC major is that it makes you basically exempt from the core curriculum, giving you the space to take tons more humanities classes that you’re interested in. The only requirements outside UNSC are the requirements of the Honors Program (basically two Great texts classes and a certain number of honors classes) and the Christian Heritage and Christian Scriptures classes all Baylor students are required to take.
It’s not a T100 but the University of Oklahoma also has a major called Letters which is an interdisciplinary humanities major. You do 9 credits each in philosophy, English, and history and then do another 9 hours of whatever philosophy, English, and/or history classes you want. You also have to do a class in art history/fine arts and achieve proficiency in both a modern and an ancient language.
COL’s limit on the number of majors is very much a legacy of its genesis as an experimental program back in the 1950s. It’s close cousin, the College of Social Studies, has a similar limitation; they’ve been treated almost like honors programs throughout their sixty-plus years of existence - which may explain some of the pushback they’ve been getting lately from underrepresented groups.
I’ve not heard that about counseling programs at Wesleyan although there’s no question that there has been an uptick in demand for therapeutic resources. And there has been some turnover at the staffing level:
The Wesleyan Argus | CAPS, WesWell, and SHAPE Offices Undergo Staffing Changes
Odd.