Universities that don’t have distribution requirements tend to be of the highly selective sort where the students arrive with a bunch of APs and have already demonstrated a form of intellectual curiosity that garantees this freedom will result in their taking lots of liberal arts classes unrelated to their major, and not 100% major-related classes (think Brown, Amherst). Others have boundaries (ie. URochester has an open curriculum but requires “clusters”).
@"Erin’s Dad" re #19: “But I think there are probably some non-profit Us which also don’t have distribution requirements.”
That’s news to me – many things are – but I’m sure you’re right. However, I have no concern for the Brown or Amherst undergraduate; they get their “distribution requirements” from life, and especially life at schools like that. My worry is for the graduate from “an ITT Tech,” who may be considered as a “college graduate” – and, in fact, may be quite good at some technical skills – but who thinks McBeth is a new sandwich offered at the Golden Arches.
And we have a winner! @mikemac gets the answer correct!
(Not that I’m utterly cynical about the USN&WR rankings, no, not at all.)
What’s distribution requirement?
Some colleges and universities require that students take classes in each of several different categories in addition to the requirements for the major. For example: 1 history, 1 math, 1 natural science, 1 foreign language, 1 social science, 1 physical education, 1 art, 1 literature. Other places don’t have specific requirements other than the major, and the students can take any electives that they feel like.
Macbeth.
^ ^ ^
humor
The ratings are good to give you some idea of what peer schools are if you are looking at a college for which you have little knowledge. Even then, it can give the wrong idea. That Villanova is where it is listed, for example, is confusing, and the personal knowledge and how well that school is known in that area preempts its category. It is usually compared with like sized national universities by those who are familiar with it.