Minimal distribution requirements.

[GapYear_d]

<p>I'm looking for schools with very few distribution requirements. So far I have:</p>

<p>Hampshire
Amherst
Brown
Sarah Lawrence
Macalester
Wesleyan
Bard</p>

<p>Can anyone else think of some school with very few distribution requirements?</p>

[hawkphoenix]

<p>Marlboro College</p>

[GapYear_d]

<p>Yes, Marlboro College and Bennington…neither give decent aid though.</p>

[Proud_Dad_1]

<p>I’m familiar with two of those schools and I guess minimal is relative. </p>

<p>Sarah Lawrence lists their degree requirements here:<a href=“http://www.slc.edu/undergraduate/program-guidelines.php[/url]”>http://www.slc.edu/undergraduate/program-guidelines.php&lt;/a&gt;

During their four years, students take course work in at least three of the four academic areas. Students are also asked to take two full-year lecture courses or the equivalent prior to their senior year.</p>

<pre><code>* Of the 120 credits required for the B.A. degree, up to 60 credits may be taken in the creative and performing arts, up to 80 in history and the social sciences, up to 80 in the humanities, and up to 80 in the natural sciences and mathematics.

• No more than 50 of the 120 credits may be earned in one discipline.
• First-year students select their courses from three different disciplines.

</code></pre>

<p>Bard may seem a little looser with their “moderation” program but they do have [distribution</a> requirements](<a href=“Undergraduate Curriculum”>Undergraduate Curriculum):

Choice, flexibility, and rigor are the hallmarks of the Bard education. Students are not expected to accept passively a rigid structure or prescribed plan of study, but rather are required by the way in which the curriculum is structured to create their education by making a series of active choices. Each student shapes the subject matter of his or her education by the exercise of imagination and intellectual engagement.</p>

<p>Distribution Requirements</p>

<p>The distribution requirements at Bard are a formal statement of the College’s desire to achieve an equilibrium between breadth and depth, between communication across disciplinary boundaries and rigor within a mode of thought. Distribution exposes the student to unfamiliar areas that might have remained unexplored. Investigating a range of academic areas and approaches may help students discover the field on which they want to focus, contribute to their specialized study by putting it in a wider perspective, and expand their intellectual horizons.</p>

<p>In order to introduce the student to a variety of intellectual and artistic experiences, and to foster student encounters with faculty members trained in a broad range of disciplines, each student is required to take one course in each of the nine categories listed below. The categories are based on fundamental subject areas that have been selected to promote intellectual breadth and versatility; they are not meant to provide a complete portrait of the current organization of academic fields of study or to be exclusively identified with a particular program or group of faculty. No more than two requirements may be fulfilled within a single disciplinary program. High school Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses may not be used to satisfy the requirements. Non-native speakers of English are exempted from the Foreign Language, Literature, and Culture requirement.</p>

<pre><code>* Science (A laboratory course in the physical or life sciences)

• Mathematics and Computing (A course in mathematics, computing, statistics or logic; all courses require passing the Q-test as a prerequisite)
• History (A course focused on historical analysis)
• Social Science (A course in the empirical social sciences other than history)
• Humanities (A course focused on the analysis of primary texts in philosophy, religion, or social thought)
• Foreign Language, Literature, and Culture (A course focused on language acquisition and/or the analysis of literature or culture via an engagement with a non-English language)
• Literature in English (A course focused on the literary analysis and explication of texts in English, either in the original or in translation)
• Practicing Arts (A studio course in the visual or performing arts, or creative writing)
• Analysis of Arts (A course in the analysis of nonverbal art)
  </code></pre>

<p>In addition, all students must fulfill a “Rethinking Difference” requirement. Courses with this designation focus on the study of difference in the context of larger social dynamics; they may consider the contexts of globalization, nationalism, and social justice, as well as differences of race, religion, ethnicity, class, gender, and/or sexuality. A single course may simultaneously fulfill both the “Rethinking Difference” requirement and another distribution requirement.

</p>

<p>My Ds at both are more than happy with the freedom the requirements allow and at the same time pleased with the chance/requirement to explore interesting courses outside their chosen interest. Of course SLC has no “majors” and Bard has its “moderation”. The main difference my oldest found is that SLC had no prerequisites that she ran into at her pre-transfer top-ranked USNews U which had her able to only take lower-level courses outside her major there without a lot of petitioning.</p>

[Chedva]

<p>University of Rochester
Vassar College</p>

[MADad]

<p>UR allows you to choose 3-course clusters (there are many, many possible combinations). The three schools are natural sciences, humanities, and social sciences. You do 2 clusters in the school that does NOT contain your major.</p>

[ricegal]

<p>Rice has distribution requirements similar to the schools mentioned.</p>