Good resource for where school falls on open/core curriculum

EllieMom
Sat, 01 Sep 2018 13:15:54 +0000

@ucbalumnus At least one of Rochester’s clusters is automatically covered by coursework in a student’s major, and engineering students need only one cluster (3 courses) in addition to their major requirements.

My daughter is double majoring in microbiology and public health, so she, too, only had three additional humanities classes, which she chose herself, to take. It would be the same if she were minoring in something rather than double-majoring. There is no language requirement, which was a big deal to her when making her decision.

The combination of “choose your own” courses within the broader requirements and the practice of waiving cluster requirements for areas that are covered by majors and minors, really do make the requirements pretty minimal. And that was a HUGE plus to her when deciding among colleges.

Interestingly, while the lack of language requirement was a primary impetus for prioritizing schools with open curricula for my daughter, as a senior, she’s become interested in ASL and is taking those classes as electives. As was said above, an open curriculum doesn’t necessarily mean students don’t get a broad education, only that the student is in control of the twists and turns that educational journey takes.