Liberal Arts/Core Curriculum questions

Admiral
Mon, 12 Feb 2007 14:10:42 +0000

Hi smellymelly,

The core curriculum lays out courses that you have to take over the full four years, including two half courses in science, a half course in math, etc. You can find those requirements here:

http://webdocs.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/courses/core/

You often have to take multiple courses to fulfill each requirement listed on that page. For example, you must take a Science A course and a Science B course, a Literature and Arts A, B, and C course, and so on.

However, these are just requirements for courses that must be taken over the full four years- they do NOT insist that you take certain courses freshman or sophomore year. You can take them all senior year if you like, or get them out of the way early.

There are two exceptions- you must take one semester of Expository Writing 20 freshman year, and you must take two semesters of foreign language freshman year.

It is fairly easy to place out of the foreign language requirement- you can get a 5 in a language AP test, you can get above a 600 in a language SAT II, or you can pass a test given by one of Harvard’s language departments. However, you cannot place out of Expos 20.

A little more about Expos- at the beginning of the year, all freshmen take a writing test. The vast majority- about 1500 students- get into Expos 20, and therefore take only one semester. Students who have difficulty writing (often they come from other countries that teach essay writing differently from what Harvard expects) get into Expos 10, and are required to take Expos 10 in the fall and Expos 20 in the spring.

So, in short- there are very few requirements for what courses you must take your freshman and sophomore years. If you place out of your language requirement, you have a lot of freedom! I, for example, am taking a total of six science semesters, one math semester, and Expos 20 in my freshman year here. If you want to focus almost exclusively on history in your freshman year, you’re free to do so.

As a final note- Harvard is undergoing a curriculum change, so the requirements might well be different by the time you would be a student here. I can’t guarantee anything, although it’s still very unlikely that there will be requirements for particular years.

I hope I helped.