The CSS Major

Colleges and Universities A-Z Wesleyan University
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<p>During a tour at Wesleyan, my guide spoke about the College of Social Studies...I was really interested, because I was planning on double majoring in Economics and Government; Wesleyan's synthesis of these topics with history and philosophy seems amazing...</p>

<p>Still, a major reason why I am interested in Wesleyan is that it has such flexible academic requirements. I was wondering how much of this flexibility is taken away when one chooses (or is chosen for, I suppose) the CSS major.</p>

<p>My guide also explained how CSS sometimes stands for "College of Suicidal Sophomores." Does anyone have any feedback on how difficult the program is? I know its writing intensive...but how intensive is it, in a general sense? </p>

<p>Thank you =)</p>

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<p>It's pretty intensive. Beginning with sophomore year, you're only going to have time for one non-CSS course per avg semester. It's really a trade-off between some of the best teachers in the social sciences anywhere -- and flexibility.</p>

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<p>Actually, from what my friends in CSS say, it's only for Sophomore year that you have almost all of your classes as being specific CSS classes. After that, you have to continue to take a certain number of classes in the social sciences, but they can be from other departments. Basically, it’s really only super intense/specialized for sophomores, after that you are expected to take what you’ve learned and figure out your particular area of interest and pursue that, and you have a fair amount of flexibility in how you do that.</p>

<p>That said, it is a REALLY intense major sophomore year. Hundreds of pages of (hard) reading a week, plus papers. (Also, don’t overlook the fact that there is an econ component). That said, the people I know in it LOVE it.</p>

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<p>yeah. I'm struggling right now with whether I want to do that program or not, and my course choice for second semester is pretty much contingent on it (to take or not to take early modern europe(history)/intro to ethics (philosophy)/contemporary political systems (gov) if I'm pretty much going to be doing that stuff next year?). </p>

<p>Plus, like you said, one of the reasons I chose Wes was because of the flexibility in academic requirements. I dunno whether I want to do CSS or choose between (government or history) and East Asian studies. As it is, with all the CSS requirements and 3 years of Chinese (minimum) I'll be pretty limited in my course selection, at least in sophomore year (it'll be just CSS, chinese, and in spring, an econ course). And that doesn't leave any room for cool courses elsewhere, of which there are dozens. </p>

<p>That said, I think the benefits of CSS outweigh the limitations. Really the only year in which you can't take that many outside courses is sophomore year; this is due to the fact that of the 12 credits that make up CSS, 7 of them are taken sophomore year: 3 colloquiums (european history from the French Revolution onward + "topics in the history of economic thought" + "state and society in the modern age" [gov]), all of which are worth 2 credits each (they are not contiguous with the semester system - they operate on their own schedule), and one philosophy course, Modern Social Theory, worth 1 credit. You're only supposed to take 1 non-CSS course in the fall, though (I think) you're suggested to take 2 in the spring. </p>

<p>Thus 7 credits fall in sophomore year, and almost all of them are eurocentric. </p>

<p>But here's the outlook for junior and senior year: total of 2 credits one year and 3 credits the other (dunno what the exact breakdown is), so out the 16 credits available in junior/senior year, you take 11 non-CSS courses. This is enough to freakin' major in something else, if you DESPERATELY wanted to do that. But really there's plenty of space in 3rd and 4th year to take outside couses, non-Eurocentric courses, dance courses, art courses, physics courses, whatever. And you get until the end of junior year to satisfy Stage 1 of the Gen Ed requirements, so you have plenty of time to get those pesky NSM courses out the way (if you desire Phi Beta Kappa, honors on your diploma, etc.), so that works out well. </p>

<p>The program is modeled on a program at Oxford, which I actually looked up on the Intarweb the other day out of curiosity. The Oxford program is called PPE (Politics Philosophy and Economics), and it's a very old and distinguished program that is both very popular and excruciatingly rigorous. You think CSS limits the courses you can take? At Oxford, you take ALL PPE COURSES, ALL THE TIME, and freshman + soph year grades are decided on the basis of 1 gigantic exam at the end of sophomore year; senior year you write 8 large papers, including a thesis. So CSS is actually not too bad, if you think about it that way...</p>

<p>I hope that provides a good introduction to the program. The rationale for it/ more information can be found here: Wesleyan</a> University - College of Social Studies</p>

<p>Good luck in your college search!</p>