List of schools with little to no core curriculum, or have great flexibility with double majors

jellyjam123 · August 2017

When i write little core curriculum, i mean a curriculum that takes up less than a third of your time at the university/college. Also, please feel free to add schools that allow you to take classes outside a double major (aka the flexibility of a school's requirements)

Well, I'll start:

Brown
Wesleyan
John Hopkins

jellyjam123 · August 2017

University of Rochester
Amherst
Vassar
Grinnell
Smith

ucbalumnus · August 2017

In many cases, if you have majors in different general areas (e.g. one science and one social studies), you may find that they cover more of the general education requirements automatically compared to one major.

The number of colleges whose general education requirements make up one third or less of the course work needed to graduate is likely quite large.

merc81 · August 2017

This site lists colleges with notably flexible requirements or other innovative curricular aspects:

http://www.hercampus.com/life/9-most-flexible-colleges-country

Brown
CMU
Amherst
NYU Gallatin
Hamilton
UMass-Amherst
Smith
URochester
Vassar

Midwestmomofboys · August 2017

Kalamazoo College.

ucbalumnus · August 2017

Re: #3

Seems like most of these lists forget that Evergreen State exists.
http://www.evergreen.edu/registration/degrees

happy1 · August 2017

My D went to Lafayette College and there were.very flexible distribution requirements. Many students double majored.

dadof4kids · August 2017

I'm not an expert and haven't looked a that many, but I thought the distribution requirements at Williams looked pretty lax compared to others I have seen. S noticed that he could get away with no more foreign language, which bumped them up a few notches in his mind!

rosered55 · August 2017

Johnston Center for Integrative Studies, at the University of Redlands (Calif.).

MrSamford2014 · August 2017

Rice has no core (aside from a freshman writing requirement) and very flexible distribution requirements. That curricular flexibility is evidenced in the fact that around 40% of students double major, many in quite disparate disciplines.

merc81 · August 2017

@ucbalumnus wrote:

Seems like most of these lists forget that Evergreen State exists.

Then this one would be worth noting:

http://www.thecollegiateblog.org/2012/07/30/pros-and-cons-of-the-open-curriculum/

Fully Open

Amherst College
Bennington College
Brown University
Evergreen State College
Hamilton College
New College of Florida
Smith College
Wake Forest College of Wake Forest University

Minimal Requirements

Beloit College
Eugene Lang College of The New School
Grinnell College
Sarah Lawrence College
Vassar College
University of Rochester
Marlboro College

Midwestmomofboys · August 2017

Kalamazoo College requires only foreign language and two writing seminars plus a capstone or interdisciplinary project . It revised its curriculum within the last few years, so perhaps that is why it does not appear on some lists of open/flexible curriculum.

lvvcsf · August 2017

Not a university but Ohio University's Honors Tutorial College has no core curriculum. You do have a major but you kind of design your program. You can take grad level courses if approved and have a lot more flexibility in your curriculum.

suzyQ7 · August 2017

Northeastern University, Boston. (A LOT of combined majors - which removes the crossover courses/requirements in normal double major programs). Also, the core is not a set of required courses but competencies so there is so much flexibility in choosing courses in your major or that interest you to meet the competencies.

ucbalumnus · August 2017

Re: #10

Odd that Hamilton and Smith are in the "fully open" category but Grinnell is in the "minimal requirements" category. All three have a limitation the number of courses in one department that can be applied to the degree, which is their main requirement that enforces breadth.

jellyjam123 · August 2017

Nice list guys. I was at NYU earlier this summer and I heard that it's easy for students to double major with a minor or to even triple major (I'm not sure if this meant going over 4 years at NYU). And I read on Union's curriculum web page that it's easy to triple major -- so I guess the new question is where can we triple major with 'ease' and knock off some core requirements easily?

OHMomof2 · August 2017

@jellyjam123 an interesting opinion piece you might want to read:

http://amherststudent.amherst.edu/?q=article/2015/09/22/rethinking-double-major

jellyjam123 · September 2017

It is a very interesting article. ^

Hamilton is also open if you guys want to continue adding to the list.

List of schools with little to no core curriculum, or have great flexibility with double majors

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