<p>My son and I saw a presentation last night from a number of schools. His primary takeaway was that he thought the "open curriculum" approach at Brown was attractive. He's a bright kid who isn't sure yet what he wants to study, which is why I think it appealed to him. Without regard to geography, are there other reasonably selective to highly selective schools -- whether universities or LACs -- that have a similar curriculum approach? I suspect that this is in part just a "brand" that Brown puts on an approach that other schools share, or at least offer, although I know there are also schools that have a more rigid curriculum.</p>
<p>My daughter is drawn to the “open” curriculum idea as well. Personally, I like the idea of having some distribution requirements. Colleges span the spectrum, from loose (like Brown) to really intense ( Columbia), which is known for its core. </p>
<p>I know Amherst and Wesleyan are pretty open in this regard, as is Vassar.</p>
<p>Grinnell has an ‘open curriculum’-meaning no core requirements. The one exception is a one semester freshman seminar-but you have a choice of 20 or so topics and the class size is 12 tops.</p>
<p>University of Rochester has one - one freshman writing seminar, similar to Grinnell’s. It has some minor distribution requirements: every course is considered humanities, social sciences or math & natural sciences. You major in one area and take a cluster of three related courses in the other two (a minor or a double major also works in place of the cluster). There are at least 15 different clusters in each area.</p>
<p>“University of Rochester has one - one freshman writing seminar, similar to Grinnell’s. It has some minor distribution requirements: every course is considered humanities, social sciences or math & natural sciences. You major in one area and take a cluster of three related courses in the other two (a minor or a double major also works in place of the cluster). There are at least 15 different clusters in each area.”</p>
<p>That is precisely what open curriculum schools got away from - distribution requirements. This is the antithesis of an open curriculum school.</p>
<p>The two extremes are open curriculum and core curriculum with distribution requirements in the middle. </p>
<p>Open curriculum means that that you can pretty much take whatever appeals to you – but you do still have to fulfill the requirements of your major and there may be college specific requirements. Brown, Smith, Amherst and a growing number of others are moving in this direction.</p>
<p>Core means that everyone takes the same set of college determined courses – usually for first and second year. Columbia and Chicago are examples.</p>
<p>Distribution requirements are usually fairly loosely structured. Williams for example requires three courses each of in three general categories: Humanities,/Language, Science/Math, Social Studies. I think you’ll find the majority of liberal arts programs – at small colleges and large universities – impose some version of distribution requirements, and that there is a considerable amount of variation in the rules from college to college.</p>
<p>Some colleges have additional specific requirements, even those with ostensibly “open” curriculums. Some examples are writing intensive, quantitative reasoning, cultural exposure, language proficiency. You have to read the fine print.</p>
<p>I once read about a study in which toddlers were given freedom to choose their own food. At first they gravitated to the sweets, but over a period of time, they loaded up on broccoli. </p>
<p>The argument for open curriculums is that college students as responsible adults will balance their learning experiences on their own. The argument for distribution requirements is that college students need a nudge to experiment with disciplines outside of their comfort level. The argument for core is that there is a canon of knowledge that everyone should study. Your kid should choose the one that suits his/her learning style.</p>