<p>...where would you put Stanford? Ok, let me elaborate. Brown has virtually no core classes and lets you do what you want, while Columbia has a very rigorous core that takes I believe almost two years to complete (from what I've heard). So if Brown is a 1 (most easygoing) and Columbia is a 10 (most strict) where would Stanford be? </p>
<p>I'm asking because in the off chance that I ever get accepted to Stanford and decide to enroll I want to know that outside of my major and gen ed that I can take other elective classes.<br>
Like for example, would an international relations major be able to take a robotics class just for the fun of it? Or maybe a physics major take a music theory class because he/she thought it was interesting? </p>
<p>What's the breakdown between gen ed, major requirements, and electives?</p>
<p>I had difficulty getting an answer from the Stanford website.</p>
<p>You really need to look specifically at your major in the course catalog which is available online. For instance an English major has only about 80 required credits as opposed to Product Design which has 120 (remember it is on the quarter system). So besides the GERs you will have much more room to explore if your are an English major than if you are in some sort of engineering field. While you are looking, check out how many credits and which requirements you will get from your APs or IBs. Not many at Stanford but some. This will give you more time also. Stanford does not require you to declare your major until after your second year so they encourage exploration. But the reality is that it depends on your major.<br>
By the way JHU has no core GE requirements. I found that quite amazing.</p>
<p>Kyledavd80-I’ve been to that page before. I know which courses I would need to take. However, there is no specific mention anywhere, as far as I’ve checked as to how much of my time at Stanford would be left over for me to pick any random class I might have an interest in, which was my original question. </p>
<p>I know Stanford has requirements, but what is the breakdown (percentage wise) of my classes between gen ed, my major, and electives?</p>
<p>To summarize the core requirements: You have four classes that you’re required to take freshman year and one sophomore year (3 quarters of IHUM and 2 of PWR), but for all of those you have several choices of what to take. Then beyond that, you need five subject-area requirements, at least one of which (and possibly two or more) you’ll pick up with classes in your major. Then you have to take two more classes (the EC requirements), but those can often double up with subject-area requirements.</p>
<p>So that’s 11 classes in the worst-case scenario, and about 8 in the best case.</p>
<p>Compare this to the average load of 3 or 4 serious classes per quarter (and the occaisional 5-class quarter if you’re masochistic), for a total of 48 to 64 classes total. Honestly, it’ll probably be closer to 64. So that gives you between 12.5% and 20% of your classes are GER’s. It doesn’t feel like that much, though.</p>
<p>I can’t tell you anything about major requirements because it varies a lot between departments. Engineering areas are known for being demanding in terms of number of units/classes required, for example. There’s also a fair bit of difference in how those requirements are distributed. To illustrate that, in physics, the requirement is a list of courses that you must take with one or maybe two electives. By contrast, in math, they really don’t care too much what you take as long as your advisor is satisfied that you’re covering all the different areas of math.</p>