Schools with flexible (but not nonexistent) core requirements

Yurtle
Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:31:07 +0000

This is a VERY useful thread - I’ve been trawling through online catalogues, looking at descriptions of the required courses. Some colleges make it much more difficult than others - have had to email with questions in some cases. Am off now to look at U Conn - thanks!



Er…:S I don’t know if you’re talking about the school I mentioned or not. I wouldn’t know about UConn which is a state school/public. The college I linked to is Conn Coll and private/liberal arts.

Anyways…



It’s the math or the quantitative reasoning requirement we’re zeroing in on , having a very lopsided student like GwenFairfax’s D. Some of the required courses in this area are straight math courses, others, as Keilexandra notes, may be filled by psych or logic or computer science courses – it’s the latter we’re after. Interestingly, so far it’s the most elite unis which seem to offer these ‘softer’ math courses, eg. “Fat Chance” at Harvard which assumes no knowledge beyond highschool algebra (HERS Output). I’m someone who fulfilled my nat sci gen ed requirement (Harvard in the 70s) with an ethnographic film course – it’s that type of ‘loose distribution requirements’ we’re seeking.



Yes, a lot of these are elite libarts colleges- Mainly because Keil and I really honed in on those schools in our own searches, I should think. Especially since I’m lopsided myself, more so than Keilexandra.

However not every school is impossible to get into, here’s some of the rates off the top of collegeboard:

Goucher acceptance: 46%
Hollins: 90%
Knox: 74%
Bates: 27%
Conn Coll: 36%
Gettysburg: 40%
Oberlin: 34%
Cornell College: 44%
Kalamazoo: 48%
Swarthmore: 17%

I’m not doing all of them, but many are probably great matches for the students who are lopsided anyways- some are tougher to get into others, no doubt.

That said, I’d put forth Kenyon as extremely flexible: [Requirements for the Degree - Academics - Kenyon College](http://www.kenyon.edu/x11770#x42546)

You only need to earn one credit in each of the four divisions of the school, plus take a quantative reasoning class- only .5 of a credit is needed to fufill it, and a language.

Acceptance rate is: 39%