History Major at Penn?

45_Percenter
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 20:22:45 +0000

@Cue7 Again, I think your position on this is a bit hyperbolic. Yes, interdisciplinary opportunities abound at Penn, to a degree not found anywhere else. But it is not REQUIRED–by rule, ethos, peer pressure, or otherwise–that the 6400 or so undergrads in the College all pursue an interdisciplinary education, and MANY do not. Interdisciplinary education at Penn is an available opportunity, not a REQUIREMENT. And even if an undergrad in the College takes advantage of an interdisciplinary opportunity or two–a course or two in the Law School, Wharton, or Nursing, for example–it doesn’t mean that interdisciplinary study dominates their curriculum or time at Penn, especially given that undergrads in the College take anywhere from 32 to 36 or more courses to complete their degrees.

And again, trust me on this, many if not most undergrads in the College do not engage in interdisciplinary study beyond maybe a class or two outside of the College, if even that much. Even the highly popular interdisciplinary majors in the College–BBB, PP&E, IR, etc.–are mostly, if not completely, centered in traditional liberal arts departments. So why would an undergrad who wants a traditional liberal arts education want to attend Penn? Because its traditional liberal arts programs and departments are among the best in the country, comparable to those at its peers. As I’ve indicated before, several of the departments in the College are regularly ranked among the top 10 in the country, and several more are ranked among the top 20. And the liberal arts departments in the College are well-equipped to support a strong traditional liberal arts education and major. For example:

1. Penn's Anthropology Department currently lists 16 full-time professors on its standing faculty; offers an undergraduate major that requires 14 classes, up to 3 of which can be non-Antrho classes, meaning that 11-14 classes will be ONLY in the Antrho Dept.; and offers 5 specialized tracks within the major, including General Anthropology, Archaeological Anthropology, Biological Anthropology, Cultural and Linguistic Anthropology, or Medical Anthropology and Global Health.

2. Penn's English Department currently lists 38 full-time professors on its standing faculty; offers an undergraduate major that requires 13 classes, most or all of which are in the English Department; and offers NINETEEN (19) possible concentrations within the major in addition to the standard major, including Africana Literature and Cultures, Celtic Literature and Cultures, Creative Writing, Early Literature to 1660, Law and Literature, Literary Theory and Cultural Studies, Medieval/Renaissance, The Novel, and Poetry and Poetics.

3. Penn's History Department currently lists 34 full-time professors on its standing faculty; offers an undergraduate major that requires 12 classes, at least 8 or which must be in the History Department, meaning that 8-12 classes will be ONLY in the History Department; and offers up to 8 possible concentrations in addition to the standard major, including American History, European History, World History, Diplomatic History, Economic History, Gender History, Intellectual History, and Jewish History.

4. Penn's Political Science Department currently lists 38 full-time professors on its standing faculty; offers an undergraduate major that requires 12 classes, at least 9 of which must be in the Political Science Department, meaning that 9-12 classes will be ONLY in the Political Science Department; and offers up to 5 possible concentrations in addition to the standard major, including American Politics, Comparative Politics, International Relations, Political Theory, and Political Economy.

5. Even Penn's Art History Department currently lists 11 full-time professors on its standing faculty (with an additional 5 cross-listed with other departments); and offers an undergraduate major that requires 13 classes, at least 10 of which must be in the Art History Department, meaning that 10-13 classes will be ONLY in the Art History Department.

So you can see, @Cue7, using these 5 departments as examples, the bulk of the classes in a major in the College are taken in THAT DEPARTMENT, let alone in the College of Arts and Sciences. And it’s very possible that ALL of the classes for a major will be taken in that department. Needless to say, the liberal arts departments in the College are generally quite self-sufficient and free-standing, as are the majors they offer.

So why would a “traditional” liberal arts student choose Penn over, say, Brown, Duke, or even Chicago, even if he doesn’t plan to take any classes outside of the College or pursue an interdisciplinary major? Because the undergraduate liberal arts program and departments at Penn, by themselves, are generally comparable to those at Penn’s peers. And given that parity, a liberal arts student might simply prefer the campus, location, social life, exposure to non-liberal arts students, and general feel and fit of Penn to any of its peers.

Penn’s robust interdisciplinary offerings and opportunities are merely the icing on the cake should a liberal arts undergrad want to take advantage of them. But for many undergrads in the College, the cake, alone, is more than enough.