Recently I’ve fallen in love with the University of Chicago and one of the things that draws me to a place like that was the core class system. They cap core classes at 19 students and they’re Socratic seminar based discussions. Obviously the University of Chicago is far fetched for anyone so it’s a long shot that I get in so I was wondering if there’s other schools that offer similar intimate, discourse based core classes where I can also get a quality education not a 500 person liberal arts school where it’s hard to find a job with their degree.
You could look into Reed for its first-year curriculum, or, if that’s too intense for you, the St Olaf Great Conversation program. Graduates from both colleges do very well academically and professionally.
WashU has an elective core program in the “Great Books” tradition known as “Text and Tradition.” This core can grow into a minor or even a major (Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities). This program was a major reason that I was excited about the prospect of my daughter attending WashU (though she opted to attend a different school at the last minute).
I think that Baylor’s Honors College also offers a great books core. Samford University (smaller and with a more overt Christian focus) has its new “University Fellows” program; it offers a great books core . . . and includes a 4-year merit scholarship in the range of 18-20K per year.
Thank you I’ll look into those!
@drewharrahill FYI, Columbia–the school that first introduced a “Western Civ” core into American higher education–still retains a mandatory, comprehensive core program (as Chicago does). Yale and Princeton also have excellent elective core sequences, though they aren’t as comprehensive as those at Chicago or Columbia.
I didn’t mention these earlier because admission at those three schools is even more of a crap shoot than at U Chicago!