Please, anyone, know of Universities/colleges with degrees that require no exams, but only coursework/assignment? Any degree program OK by me.
I have searched the forum with very limited findings. Many thanks.
Wesleyan’s College of Social Studies (CSS) is based on Oxford’s tutorial system where, basically, the student is given reading assignments and meets once a week in small groups to discuss the material. Grades (such as they are - that’s a whole different discussion) are based on the totality of the student’s performance, including weekly papers. It’s not for everyone, but it’s worth looking into. IIRC there’s a humanities degree called, the College of Letters (COL), that follows the same approach. The only exams I’ve heard of are oral exams administered by an outside team of academics at the end of senior year.
You should also look into Swarthmore’s Honors program.
One way or another, instructors need to evaluate your performance. Professors, parents, employers, and other stakeholders might have difficulty accepting an institution-wide “no exam” policy. Absent such a policy (which I’ve never heard of, anywhere), individual professors have considerable academic freedom to determine their own grading standards and practices.
^At liberal arts colleges (LACs), “finals” often consist of a written 10-15 page paper that is graded by the professor. Some people avoid such courses like the plague, preferring sit-down, written exams that are over in an instant, to the prospect of agonizing for weeks over a polished, heavily footnoted, finished product. The OP, I’m assuming, prefers the latter…
It’s relatively rare, but there are a few schools (e.g. Sarah Lawrence) that have virtually eliminated exams and traditional grades.
Yep. It’s not unusual for classes in the the arts and humanities to base grades almost entirely on papers rather than exams. Upper-level classes in other disciplines sometimes forgo exams as well. There’s no escaping exams in introductory STEM classes at most schools, though.
Professors are especially willing to accommodate students who have documented disabilities – provide extended time for exams, offer alternative forms of assessment, etc. I usually have at least a couple of students each semester who have testing accommodations.
@circuitrider, CSS and COL are only majors, though, and the OP will still have to take classes with tests to graduate from Wesleyan. In fact, they would almost certainly have to take a couple of econ classes with tests to even get in to CSS.
@PurpleTitan - I’m interpreting “degree program” as synonymous with major:
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I got an M.A. in philosophy from U of Toronto a while back. Eight classes, involving 7 oral presentations & 9 research papers. Zero exams.
Hampshire, NCF, Sarah Lawrence.
Not sure: St John’s/Maryland and st John’s new Mexico.
Run the NPC.
@MYOS1634 New College certainly does have exams. Not sure why you thought it didn’t. It just doesn’t use grades. But exams can be and frequently are used to determine whether or not you know the material well enough to pass.