In my research, it looks like a great school for engineers and scientists, but how do english majors etc. fare? Would it put someone at an advantage if they let it be known they wanted to major in something obscure like philosophy? Is it socially more challenging if you’re not a STEM person? Thanks!
I don’t think anyone looks down on the humanities. It’s just a STEM-focused school, and by STEM I mean engineering and biology. The social sciences are fairly popular, and a lot of people double major in humanities fields. If you’re a biology major, your classes are huge and you always know you’re at a research university. If you’re a humanities major, it probably feels more like a liberal arts college. To some extent, the available humanities classes reflect the university’s interest in engineering and biology. I would recommend using the [schedule of classes](Class Search | University Registrar | Case Western Reserve University) to look at the course offerings in recent years.
The single-door policy means you can major in anything you want once you get there. It doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t consider intended major in their admissions process, but I’m guessing they don’t take it too seriously considering there wouldn’t be any consequences for someone who wrote down an obscure major they didn’t actually intend to pursue.
Recall that Case Western Reserve University was formed in 1968 from the union of Case Institute of Technology (STEM) and Western Reserve College (Liberal Arts)
My son is studying in the college Arts and Sciences, math major and really enjoying his philosophy class right now, with Professor Deepak Sarma. . If you look at what kids major in at CWRU, English is a popular major. CWRU is way more well rounded than a traditional techy school, and plenty of psychology, history, English and foreign language majors. Western Reserve U was a liberal arts college, from 1824. Only merged with Case Institute in 1967, so there were a lot of years of liberal arts being the focus of Western Reserve U. Art History is also strong, with the curators from Cleveland Art Museum on the CWRU faculty. Theatre and music, also very strong, with CIM on campus and joint ensembles. There is a strong liberal arts faculty.
Professor Deepak Sarma’s website: http://deepak-sarma.squarespace.com