<p>I am looking for a definitive list of top schools which don't have a core curriculum. If you want to clarify what the college has that would be great too (i.e., brown has no requirements, princeton has a requirement to take a course in various departments but not specific courses, etc.) I will edit this post to update the list.</p>
<p>Actually, it would be easier to list colleges who DO have a core requirement. </p>
<p>Among top 30 colleges only Chicago and Columbia still have a core. Most others have distribution requirements (Ivies +Stanford & MIT) except for Brown. For honors, even colleges with an open curriculum will still have some type of distribution requirement outside of the major.</p>
<p>You need to specify whether you mean colleges with only a Core (which would be a very small list indeed) or colleges with distribution requirements (which would be ‘everywhere but Brown and Williams’)</p>
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I think you mean Amherst.</p>
<p>Only Columbia among universities (and I believe Reed among LACs) has a true core curriculum in that the university has set courses that every student takes.</p>
<p>Chicago’s Core is essentially a stricter version of distribution requirements.</p>
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<p>Every student is required to take HUM, SOSC, CIV, Physical Sciences, Biology, etc. Although there are slightly more options to choose from in terms of which HUM/SOSC/CIV course to take, there are only a few of these - about 5, for each area. **In addition, each one is specifically designed as a Core sequence, so that every student will have been exposed to (standard) rigorous inquiry<a href=“ugh”>/b</a> by the time they graduate. This is what a Core is, and Chicago certainly has one.</p>
<p>In addition, good luck getting through HUM without getting in at least some Plato and SOSC without some Marx.</p>
<p>Grinnell, Smith, Hamilton, Wesleyan, and several others (to a lesser extent) have no requirements, distribution or otherwise.</p>
<p>Phuriku, I am of course familiar with Chicago’s requirements. My point was that Chicago’s Core incorporates flexibility, not that it is not a core curriculum. Admittedly I did not phrase this well. Put a different way, there is no one single course or sequence that every Chicago student takes. </p>
<p>This is different from Reed, which has a standard yearlong introduction to the humanities, or even less selective universities like UNC Asheville, which has a remarkably rigorous Core including a required 3 semester humanities sequence.</p>
<p>No core at Grinnell.</p>
<p>IBClass:</p>
<p>I think I understand what you’re trying to say, but I also think that a Core is much more than simply requiring every student to take the same course sequence. In my definition, it is a system in which every student must take courses that stress standard methods of analysis over a variety of fields, and in which said classes are specifically designed for Core students (so that the former goal may be tackled more easily). I know I’m being picky over definitions, but this is why I would say that Chicago has a Core.</p>
<p>“This is different from Reed, which has a standard yearlong introduction to the humanities”</p>
<p>To clarify, this is the only “core curriculum” course that everyone must take at Reed.</p>