<p>I want to major in neuroscience or cognitive science and while most other schools offer it as a distinct major, Princeton only offers neuroscience as a certificate program within the psychology or biology department. Why are there so few departments in the first place?
At least that’s what it looks like to me. Excuse me if I’m wrong, but I would appreciate some insight on this.</p>
<p>Are the departments equivalent to majors? Because I don’t see women’s studies or other more specific fields of study.The departments list looks like a high school curriculum.</p>
<p>Because there’s no good reason to have more than those departments.</p>
<p>You want to study Neuro? You can join the psych department and get a cert in neuro - you will have no disadvantage whatsoever when compared to others who majored in neuro, and you will know no less neuroscience than those who majored in neuroscience. </p>
<p>No one cares about women’s studies - that’s probably why Princeton doesn’t have a full department devoted to one.</p>
<p>I find it hilarious that UCLA offers a major for Scandinavian Languages and Cultures, both “Geophysics/Geophysics and Space Physics” and “Geophysics/Applied Geophysics” in addition to two types of geology majors, and 12 types of Linguistics majors. There is absolutely no point in that. You’re not going to get rejected from grad school/a job opportunity because you were a “Geophysics/Geophysics and Space Physics” major instead of a “Geophysics/Applied Geophysics” major. Instead, they could call one major “Geological sciences,” only have 3-4 required courses, and require 8-9 electives in whatever specialized geosciences they’re interested in.</p>
Damn, you figured it out. Princeton really is just high school for 4 years, though it is somehow disguised as arguably the top undergrad institution in the world. All it took was indiscriminately equating department to class, but my god is it revealing.</p>
<p>Princeton’s curricular pattern is to require a concentration (major) in an established discipline as represented by its departments. The various certificate programs usually address interdisciplinary fields. They are essentially equivalent to minors. </p>
<p>There are several rationales for this pattern. First, interdisciplinary majors often fail to establish a solid grounding in the theory and methods of any single discipline. Second, interdisciplinary majors often lack coherence and integration among the various courses taken in a number of different departments. Third, students in interdisciplinary majors often lack a “home” department. Fourth, the certificate programs offer a fair amount of flexibility in that they permit students from several different majors to bring the theory and methods of their disciplines to bear on the issues and problems on which the certificate focuses. Fourth, the overall course offerings are very much part of a liberal arts curriculum, which discourages premature/excessive specialization and a strictly vocational focus, promotes the likelihood of taking intermediate and advanced coursework in a variety of fields, even if a student is not a major in those fields; and, maintains a greater coherence/less duplication in course offerings. Since Princeton requires both junior and senior independent work, there are ample opportunities to focus on more specialized topics.</p>
<p>As a college of liberal arts and sciences within a university, there are very few departments that Princeton lacks, perhaps apart from the interdisciplinary field the OP mentioned (neuroscience) and which he feels should have departmental status. Are there other departments that the OP thinks Princeton lacks given the type of college that it is?
(BTW, contrary to the OP’s impression, Princeton does offer a certificate program in women’s/gender studies.)</p>