<p>Yurtle, I liked what you said about Knox-- the ‘real human being’ who wrote the letter. I think that’s the essential thing anywhere-- is there a flexibility so that real human students can find what they’re looking for. D is lucky to go to a public high school that is very responsive to student interests – that has made all the difference, and I want to be sure she finds a school where she can continue full-throttle in the things she loves.</p>
<p>Keil- I don’t know. I could be wrong. Haha. </p>
<p>I consider “needs math/quantatative” as a core class. </p>
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<p><em>cough</em> I actually admitted in that interview that I had a lick test, in which I would lick my finger and rub the signature to see if the ink was real or not. </p>
<p>My interviewer thought this was hilarious…if not strange. </p>
<p>Conn didn’t pass this test until I got an acceptance with a small note. Cornell College (One course at a time, may be ‘flexible’?) passed, and incidentally both Knox and Cornell College use purple ink. Purple/blue are most often ‘real’ inks. </p>
<p>…I also used to see if the paper had custom made watermarks for the school- which UChi did a few times on nice paper, and then would just print the seal outright every once in awhile. I was being a big graphic design nerd last year though, so you can’t blame me. </p>
<p>I digress. If I could find the requirements for a degree, Cornell might count, but is exceptional with their one course at a time thing. You’d either love it or hate it.</p>
<p><a href=“http://cornellcollege.edu/[/url]”>http://cornellcollege.edu/</a></p>
<p>Cornell College: [Bachelor</a> of Arts - Course Catalogue - Cornell College](<a href=“http://www.cornellcollege.edu/catalogue/2009/degree-professional-programs/bachelor-of-arts.shtml]Bachelor”>http://www.cornellcollege.edu/catalogue/2009/degree-professional-programs/bachelor-of-arts.shtml)</p>
<p>I felt really bad about not applying to Knox, because I honestly liked it a lot. I even drove two hours to Baltimore to interview. But my parents adamantly refused to pay for it even with merit aid (too “low” for oh-so-precious me… they care about prestige) and Knox doesn’t offer full rides.</p>
<p>well, you are kind of precious! You and yurtle should have a college admissions radio show.</p>
<p>Hollins- My aunt’s Alma Mater. (Even though it’s a women’s college, she met my uncle there- he was a grad student!) </p>
<p>[Hollins</a> University: Academics](<a href=“http://hollins.edu/academics/esp/index.shtml]Hollins”>http://hollins.edu/academics/esp/index.shtml)</p>
<p>A talk show would be awesome.</p>
<p>Many schools (even some schools with seemingly strict core or distribution requirements) offer numerous interdisciplinary majors. Area studies, architectural studies, and environmental studies are examples of majors that usually give you the flexibility to combine courses from several conventional departments in various ways. </p>
<p>Other fields associated with a single department are nevertheless inherently interdisciplinary. Anthropology, for example, can be studied from a biological, cultural, or linguistic perspective. A good history department might support a history of science focus, history of ideas with a strong philosophical orientation, social history, etc.</p>
<p>So if you are flexible about what you mean by “flexible”, you are bound to find flexibility in places you might not expect.</p>
<p>I love interdisciplinary studies and may well end up in an extremely interdisciplinary major (cogsci), but it is a different matter entirely than core/distribution requirements. Let’s say Student A is really interested in both English and Computer Science (aka me two years ago). There is no interdisciplinary major that combines literature and code, and it’d be rather implausible to design one. The two are very different; linguistics and CS would combine neatly, but the study of language is fundamentally different from the study of literature. </p>
<p>At Scripps, where a student once wrote a chemistry and French dual thesis, I was told that English/CS dual thesis would probably not be allowed because the fields are not very compatible.</p>
<p>Scripps girls wrote a LOT of Dance/random science thesis papers. </p>
<p>Obviously majors themselves can be interdisciplinary, but we’re looking at the cores because those are less controllable. Many schools allow students to create their own majors, which is a whole nother level of flexible…</p>
<p>You ought to be asking yourself, too, whether you don’t want some layer of quality control over your program choices. Even the better Open Curriculum schools, I would think, are likely to have a little dragon at the door that allows you to take nothing but sociology courses for 4 years.</p>
<p>A good cogsci major does need some breathing room, for sure. But, don’t overlook the fact that many courses that satisfy your cogsci major requirements (needs, wants) may well overlap with your core or distribution requirements.</p>
<p>I’m not trying to argue in these posts that some rational concentrations would not be fairly hard to do at some colleges. I think for example that a dual Chinese-Japanese major, with an emphasis on language and literature, might be a little hard to pull off at Chicago. This is ironic, because Chicago has some wonderful opportunities in Asian studies. However, the standard undergraduate Asia program is “East Asian Languages and Civilizations”, which has its own program requirements on top of the extensive Core requirements. It leaves room for maybe 1 year-long sequence in the second language. So, without extra summer school work or the academic equivalent of a Papal Dispensation, I imagine it would be hard to build up very high from that foundation concurrently in both languages.</p>
<p>Too funny about the ink…I was just thinking of the prose! I would think 7 core classes out of 32 would be plenty-- some colleges barely leave room to go in depth into one major, never mind two! If a school was flexible with core req’s and would excuse a student from some req’s under certain circumstances, that would help too. Some students need more direction from above than others.</p>
<p>What about places like Hampshire and Evergreen State that practically leave you to design your own major with no curricular interference, to the point where you don’t need to major in a broad discipline or subject area at all?</p>
<p>Oberlin has a very flexible Gen. Ed. requirement.</p>
<p>Okay I feel stupid. I didn’t read the non-existent bit, but yes, for what it’s worth, Hampshire/Evergreen State/Bennington etc. go a step further than Brown and its open curriculum kin.</p>
<p>Gettysburg and Macalester also have fairly loose distribution requirements.</p>
<p>Maybe this comes down to the definition of ‘flexible’ again, but Macalester’s requirements don’t fit the bill for me : 8 semester credits in designated courses in the social sciences, 8 in natsci/math, 12 in Humanities and Fine Arts. [Macalester</a> College Catalog](<a href=“http://www.macalester.edu/academic/catalog/ap2.html]Macalester”>http://www.macalester.edu/academic/catalog/ap2.html). </p>
<p>This is a VERY useful thread - I’ve been trawling through online catalogues, looking at descriptions of the required courses. Some colleges make it much more difficult than others - have had to email with questions in some cases. Am off now to look at U Conn - thanks!</p>
<p>^2 socsci, 2 natsci/math, 3 hum/fine arts is a fairly typical “3-4 criteria” distribution. The other generalized version is e.g. 1 history, 1 philosophy, 1 literature, 1 fine arts, 1 natsci, 1 math, 1 labsci, 1 non-Western culture. My personal opinion is that the former distribution is more flexible because specializing in multiple broad fields overlaps well with the core.</p>
<p>But definitely you should investigate for yourself!</p>
<p>Its the math or the quantitative reasoning requirement were zeroing in on , having a very lopsided student like GwenFairfaxs D. Some of the required courses in this area are straight math courses, others, as Keilexandra notes, may be filled by psych or logic or computer science courses its the latter were after. Interestingly, so far its the most elite unis which seem to offer these softer math courses, eg. Fat Chance at Harvard which assumes no knowledge beyond highschool algebra ([HERS</a> Output](<a href=“http://webdocs.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/courses/EmpiricalandMathematicalReasoning.html]HERS”>http://webdocs.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/courses/EmpiricalandMathematicalReasoning.html)). Im someone who fulfilled my nat sci gen ed requirement (Harvard in the 70s) with an ethnographic film course its that type of loose distribution requirements were seeking.</p>
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<p>Er…:S I don’t know if you’re talking about the school I mentioned or not. I wouldn’t know about UConn which is a state school/public. The college I linked to is Conn Coll and private/liberal arts. </p>
<p>Anyways…</p>
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<p>Yes, a lot of these are elite libarts colleges- Mainly because Keil and I really honed in on those schools in our own searches, I should think. Especially since I’m lopsided myself, more so than Keilexandra. </p>
<p>However not every school is impossible to get into, here’s some of the rates off the top of collegeboard:</p>
<p>Goucher acceptance: 46%
Hollins: 90%
Knox: 74%
Bates: 27%
Conn Coll: 36%
Gettysburg: 40%
Oberlin: 34%
Cornell College: 44%
Kalamazoo: 48%
Swarthmore: 17%</p>
<p>I’m not doing all of them, but many are probably great matches for the students who are lopsided anyways- some are tougher to get into others, no doubt.</p>
<p>That said, I’d put forth Kenyon as extremely flexible: [Requirements</a> for the Degree - Academics - Kenyon College](<a href=“http://www.kenyon.edu/x11770#x42546]Requirements”>http://www.kenyon.edu/x11770#x42546)</p>
<p>You only need to earn one credit in each of the four divisions of the school, plus take a quantative reasoning class- only .5 of a credit is needed to fufill it, and a language. </p>
<p>Acceptance rate is: 39%</p>
<p>Sorry, Yurtle - I meant Conn College. And thanks for your additional informative post!</p>