<p>I completely agree with you all, but I’m a person’s who’s interests naturally fulfill latin honors. I’m a Math major, so I have my math done. My FYS which I loved counted as literature. I took astronomy on a whim, and my have science requirement, and I’m huge on foreign language and have been taking Turkish and will be picking up Uzbek. I also have my social science through economics, another class I just loved. </p>
<p>I’m not changing my coursework to fulfill it, but if I naturally fulfill it, have a high GPA, and work really hard, why should my choice of study abroad hold me back from getting an honor like pbk? I’m not saying I’m striving for it, but if it happens all on it’s own and the only reason I don’t get it is because I went to Turkey, but a person who similarly qualified and goes to France gets it, that isn’t really fair now is it?</p>
<p>Well, I don’t know if it’s SO unfair, I mean it was your choice to go to Turkey, you could have chosen to go to a Smith program since you knew how the selection process works. But I understand how it seems unfair from your position. </p>
<p>At any rate, you’ll probably graduate with Latin Honors, so that’s a pretty good consolation.</p>
<p>^If R6L goes abroad to Turkey for a year and continues taking 5-College foreign language, without overloading, she WON’T graduate with Latin Honors even if she otherwise qualifies by GPA and distribution. I thought that was the whole point of her complaint.</p>
<p>My advice, as an outsider (whose school has an entirely different honors system): can you go abroad for only a semester, instead of a year?</p>
<p>I went to Smith back in the day when we were all subject to core curriculum requirements, although as I remember them they were never an issue; I graduated magna and PBK, and as far as I know not one person, ever, gave a damn about either honor. I was pleased, of course, and so was my mother, but once you’re applying for a job, it’s the fact that you graduated that seemed to matter most, not your GPA. Graduate school, of course, does care about your GPA–but laude? I doubt it. And as soon as you’re past your first job, the honors are entirely meaningless.</p>
<p>That said, I think they should either do away with the curriculum requirements, or not differentiate for Latin Honors; if the implication is that without the curriculum reqs the degree is somehow less “liberal,” then they need to deal with that, rather than to continue to straddle the fence.</p>
<p>When I was looking at colleges last year, I treated Smith as having de facto distribution requirements. I would hate to be barred from Latin honors for taking full advantage of the open curriculum and missing one or two distribution areas by accident.</p>
<p>My decision is that if I really feel strongly about a certain minor, then I will pursue it. I really fancy the idea of minoring in a humanity (something that deals with culture) in order to accentuate an engineering major.</p>
<p>Is it possible to somehow major and minor and come out to fulfilling latin honors?
It seems it, but I think it all depends on what you chose to major/minor in. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t do Latin Honors because it’s an honor, but because I love ALL of the humanities and can’t chose a specific minor.</p>
<p>Yes, you can major/minor and fulfill Latin Honors, pretty easily. You can major/major and spend one semester in a non-Smith program and fulfill Latin Honors though you need to plan carefully in that case.</p>
<p>I suspect the biggest challenges for Latin Honors are the mathophobes getting courses that qualify for Math/Science and some of the techies embracing an art or humanities course.</p>
<p>Btw, if I were hiring someone, the Engineering/Humanities combo would intrigue me. People with both demonstrated Quant and Writing skills are at a premium.</p>
<p>It’s not difficult to fulfill Latin Honors if you have broad interests. My daughter had finished hers by the end of sophomore fall. This happened naturally rather than by design. I think the two areas that hang up students are foreign language and quantitative.</p>
<p>It’s easy to fulfill most of your Latin Honors requirements. Half the time you do it without even thinking about it, becuase a broad range of classes qualify in abroad range of areas (and some classes may qualify in more than one area).</p>
<p>I think it’s perfectly true to the spirit of the open curriculum. Open curriculum means that you’re not required to take courses outside of those required for your major. There’s no requirement that you earn Latin Honors, it’s an option for those that wish to do it. Many do not bother.</p>
<p>Yes, to S&P above. Smith gives you a lot of freedom: freedom <em>from</em> distribution requirements or freedom to pursue Latin Honors via distribution if you choose that path. Nothing inconsistent about it.</p>