<p>Does this exist? Son is interested in the open curriculum concept and has lately been intrigued by residential colleges. He has a 3.8w GPA (honors and AP classes), 710cr, 600m, 640w, 740 French SAT II, plays a couple of instruments. Any suggestions on where to look?</p>
<p>There are not that many open curriculum schools. For example:</p>
<p>Amherst (requires frosh seminar and a major)
Brown (requires two writing courses and a concentration/major)
Evergreen State (BA degree only; BS and BAS degrees require at least 72 quarter units of science)</p>
<p>There is a huge gap in selectivity between Amherst/Brown and Evergreen State.</p>
<p>Note that some commonly mentioned “open curriculum” schools effectively do have breadth requirements. For example:</p>
<p>Grinnell: no more than 48 credits in any one department or 92 credits in any one division (division = humanities, social studies, science)
Rochester: requires a major, minor, or cluster (3 related courses) in each of humanities, social studies, science
St. John’s College: the opposite of an open curriculum; it has a core curriculum that is the entire curriculum</p>
<p>Have a look at Hampshire College, part of a 5-college consortium that also includes UMass, Amherst College, Smith, and Mt. Holyoke. The consortium provides a much bigger selection of courses than you’d get at a more isolated LAC. </p>
<p>Other possibilities include Sarah Lawrence and Bennington. These (and most of the others we’re mentioning) are very expensive private schools. If that’s an issue, be aware that some are better than others at meeting financial need. Grinnell and Rochester are relatively strong in that respect. </p>
<p>A bunch of other CC threads already cover this subject.</p>
<p>Depending on the number AP credits earned, your son could effectively bypass gen eds at some schools which don’t limit the number of classes that APs can be used for.</p>
<p>I don’t know of any residential colleges that have open curriculum. He might examine the requirements of each of the residential colleges and see what is most flexible.</p>
<p>If you are in CA, UCSD has colleges that vary in distribution requirements. UCSC has a residential colleges communities that seem to have some individual college courses.</p>
<p>In addition to the colleges mentioned above, Hamilton does not have distribution requirements. Vassar has more flexible requirements, though not an open curriculum.</p>
<p>Hamilton requires 32 courses for graduation, but at most 15 of them may be in any one department, effectively requiring 17 of them to be “breadth”. It also requires three writing courses, one math, statistics, or logic course, and two physical education courses.</p>
<p>Is there more than one Hamilton?</p>
<p>[Academics</a> - Our Curriculum - Hamilton College](<a href=“http://www.hamilton.edu/academics/our-curriculum]Academics”>http://www.hamilton.edu/academics/our-curriculum)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Hamilton’s actual degree requirements are listed here:</p>
<p>[College</a> Catalogue - Academic Regulations - Hamilton College](<a href=“http://www.hamilton.edu/catalogue/academic-regulations]College”>http://www.hamilton.edu/catalogue/academic-regulations)</p>
<p>New College of Florida? I think students draw up contracts with advisors but I don’t think there are specific classes for all students to take.
Marlboro College also has something like that.</p>
<p>I definitely second the Hamilton suggestion. Also, since you play instruments, I have to recommend their music department. Their jazz band and orchestra sounded great the day we were there and the conductors were very friendly - one spent about 2 hours with S2 just talking about music. </p>
<p>Vassar is not less selective but may still be a good option - Extremely strong music and very few distribution requirements. Send in a music supplement to both of these schools for sure.</p>