Colleges that prioritize the humanities side of liberal arts

[Anonymous]

You're frustrated with Pomona, because they didn't take you into a humanities seminar? I don't have any connection with it, but it certainly invests heavily in the humanities: Just from one google search https://www.pomona.edu/administration/humanities-studio
https://www.pomona.edu/museum/about
https://colleges.claremont.edu/thehive/
https://www.pomona.edu/arts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not either/or. There are many STEM types that have a deep and abiding interest in the humanities. From Einstein to Carl Sagan to Stephen Hawking and on and on. There's an old expression - God speaks in two languages: music and mathematics. A good university community will listen to both. A college that only pays attention to humanities is functionally deaf in one ear. But if that's their thing, maybe look into Bennington College. Or Hampshire College.

Those people have a roaming interest in the humanities at best. Einstein was interested in the complexities on what it means to be measured and existence, because it has a practical solution to analyzing physics. The Copenhagen Interpretation isn't some grand collaboration between humanities and physics; it is just physicists debating how their measurements matter in their own field. They had little actual training in philosophy, nor cared to learn beyond what physics taught them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is at one of those schools and has friends happily in humanities majors. Just because a school emphasizes the STEM offerings doesn't mean they're not strong for humanities.

NP. And just because a tour emphasizes STEM doesn't mean the college doesn't also have great depth in humanities .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Georgetown

Weird answer. A school best known for its foreign service, business, and health sciences offerings.

The College of Arts and Sciences is the largest school by far. English, history, government, international relations, religion/theology, philosophy, African-American Studies, theater—all strong and well-represented.

[Anonymous]

Oberlin, Reed, and Kenyon are your crowd. Stay far from Pomona and Williams- they are especially interested in STEM at the detriment of their humanities programs.

[Anonymous]

LACs often feel like they need to prove that they’re strong in STEM; people don’t understand that the liberal arts include most STEM disciplines (except for engineering), so the schools sometimes overcompensate on tours. And as another person mentioned, science buildings are often the shiniest and most impressive.

I would recommend doing deeper research into their humanities offerings before discarding these excellent schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Georgetown

Weird answer. A school best known for its foreign service, business, and health sciences offerings.

The College of Arts and Sciences is the largest school by far. English, history, government, international relations, religion/theology, philosophy, African-American Studies, theater—all strong and well-represented.

Largest, but not most prestigious or best-resourced.

[Anonymous]

Earlham, Kalamazoo, Wooster, Rhodes, Sewanee, Davidson, Grinnell

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Georgetown

Weird answer. A school best known for its foreign service, business, and health sciences offerings.

The College of Arts and Sciences is the largest school by far. English, history, government, international relations, religion/theology, philosophy, African-American Studies, theater—all strong and well-represented.

Largest, but not most prestigious or best-resourced.

I mean…the whole university is prestigious?

Anyway, OP, check this out, if you think your kid might be interested: https://humanities.georgetown.edu/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:LACs often feel like they need to prove that they’re strong in STEM; people don’t understand that the liberal arts include most STEM disciplines (except for engineering), so the schools sometimes overcompensate on tours. And as another person mentioned, science buildings are often the shiniest and most impressive.

I would recommend doing deeper research into their humanities offerings before discarding these excellent schools.

I think people are right in correcting op, but they aren’t totally wrong. As a grad of one of the institutions they mentioned, there’s so much more emphasis on science and math than the past. My Alma mater went from a very humanities heavy institution to a majority Econ-math college that just doesn’t reflect the college I went to.

It’s really disheartening to see how pre professional students are. I get consistent LinkedIn requests asking for coffee chats and career advice and this only started in the past 10 or so years.

[Anonymous]

Yale is a great idea for this student. You’ll have a lot more tailored humanities support at Yale compared to almost any lac.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LACs often feel like they need to prove that they’re strong in STEM; people don’t understand that the liberal arts include most STEM disciplines (except for engineering), so the schools sometimes overcompensate on tours. And as another person mentioned, science buildings are often the shiniest and most impressive.

I would recommend doing deeper research into their humanities offerings before discarding these excellent schools.

I think people are right in correcting op, but they aren’t totally wrong. As a grad of one of the institutions they mentioned, there’s so much more emphasis on science and math than the past. My Alma mater went from a very humanities heavy institution to a majority Econ-math college that just doesn’t reflect the college I went to.

It’s really disheartening to see how pre professional students are. I get consistent LinkedIn requests asking for coffee chats and career advice and this only started in the past 10 or so years.

Can totally see this.

Conversation I recently had with a Student at my Alma mater:
“How was the career center when you were a student”
“Career center? It didn’t exist? We probably would’ve laughed if anyone entered a career center back then”
“Well, how did you get jobs?”
“We just…did.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LACs often feel like they need to prove that they’re strong in STEM; people don’t understand that the liberal arts include most STEM disciplines (except for engineering), so the schools sometimes overcompensate on tours. And as another person mentioned, science buildings are often the shiniest and most impressive.

I would recommend doing deeper research into their humanities offerings before discarding these excellent schools.

I think people are right in correcting op, but they aren’t totally wrong. As a grad of one of the institutions they mentioned, there’s so much more emphasis on science and math than the past. My Alma mater went from a very humanities heavy institution to a majority Econ-math college that just doesn’t reflect the college I went to.

It’s really disheartening to see how pre professional students are. I get consistent LinkedIn requests asking for coffee chats and career advice and this only started in the past 10 or so years.

Can totally see this.

Conversation I recently had with a Student at my Alma mater:
“How was the career center when you were a student”
“Career center? It didn’t exist? We probably would’ve laughed if anyone entered a career center back then”
“Well, how did you get jobs?”
“We just…did.”

Ha! Totally relate. Kids these days are extremely rehearsed they freak out about the future in a way that young adult me would’ve been annoyed with. Get your degree first, and figure it out!

[Anonymous]

Those schools will still have great humanities - ignore the STEM sell

[Anonymous]

Be very careful when looking at smaller schools for the humanities. We learned the hard way. For majors such as history, where there is no set of required core courses in the major, the classes offered depend solely on the interest of the faculty. So if the department is small, odds are there will not be a lot of classes of interest until your student's interests match up really well with one or two of the professors'.