D24 is trying to figure out where she might want to ED, so she is doing some VERY deep dives into curriculum and requirements as well as restrictions. Vassar is her top choice right now, with Brown (where her sister attends), Northwestern, Princeton, and BU BFA coming in as very close ‘seconds’.
She would very much like to be a playwright - and is looking to study theatre and english/creative writing at undergrad heading towards an MFA in playwriting. I am well aware that this may not be what ends up happening, but she would like to be at a university/college where it is an option.
She showed me where Vassar has a restriction that no more than 17 of the 32 courses can be from one division. She would like to major in both Theatre (11 courses) and English w/Creative Writing (11 courses) - so that would be a total of 22 courses in the ARTS division. Are students at Vassar allowed to do this type of double major? Is it difficult to get approval?
Based on the site posted below, Vassar seems to be restrictive with respect to the number of courses within a single field of concentration, rather than within a single academic division:
If this information is current, then your daughter would encounter no inherent barriers at Vassar toward pursuing both of her intended majors.
In addition to Vassar, some of these colleges may be of interest for your daughter’s greater college list:
I think the 17 is per field not division. So no more than 17 theatre or 17 English. She is smart to understand the requirements at schools and for majors even if she changes her mind down the road.
@merc81@nc2020mom
Thanks so much for your second (& third) set of eyes reading that section - I believe that you are both correct and have since relayed the info to her. She is smiling again (despite cramming for APChem).
She has looked into Kenyon - complete with online visit/admission session and said that it was not for her. When we made her speak with a friend’s daughter (who is an alumnae and an editor in NYC) she felt even more certain that it was not the right place for her.
Thanks for the article - I am going to pass it on to her.
Hey! I’m a junior at Vassar, and happy to help with all your questions here! In short – yes, she would be fine and this is totally possible.
Here are details, maybe more than you all want:
She’d be fine to do this double major. We need 1/4 of our credits to be outside of the “category” that your major is in, so in this case, 8 credits outside of the Arts. She’d be able to major in both and do this if she gets 32 credits (22 required for major in arts, 8 outside, 2 more could be in arts)
Plus, one can take 4.5 credits per semester, and apply to overload with 5 credits per semester. So she may not end up with 32 credits anyways.
You can also transfer in 2 AP credits and up to 4 transfer credits from another college (as long as these weren’t used to satisfy high school requirements, there are sticky rules here). These can also change up percentages.
Also, Vassar considers the “Multidisciplinary Departments” to be a separate category. There are many classes that are cross listed between departments – for example, “Harlem Renaissance” is both an Africana Studies and English class. She could list it as AFRS on her transcript, so it would count towards the “Arts” category but would still be part of her English major. Vassar students are allowed to use up to 2 cross-listed courses for both majors. So, if she takes a class like “African American Literature,” which is team taught by an English prof and a Drama prof and is cross-listed in both ENGL and DRAM, she could count the course towards both majors (this was my gf’s favorite course at Vassar so far). “Shakespeare” is also cross listed in English and Drama. You can see all of the course catalogs online if you’re interested.
I’m happy to answer more questions? Vassar is a very different kind of experience than the other schools you listed. Better in some ways, not as good in others. I think she would get more attention here, but her options would be a little more limited just by the size of the school. There really are a ton of opportunities here though… has she read about everything that goes on with Powerhouse over the summer? (Vassar’s campus was where Hamilton was first debuted, in a summer workshop at the Powerhouse Theater… and many other plays).
I attended may moons ago, but I double majored and, IIRC, 24 of my 34 credits were in the sciences. So I don’t recall any restriction on the courses I could take. One can also design their own major, so that might be a way of incorporating/combining the interests. @Catcherinthetoast can you speak to this?
OP this seems to be the most up to date, detailed and accurate description of VCs requirements. It is consistent with my now recollections that are decades old.
My kid recently graduated from Brown and I have stayed active at Vassar so if I can help in any way please feel free to DM me.