Williams College: A move from English to Comparative Literature

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Students are bored by reading nothing but Wordsworth and Shakespeare, and I don't blame them. There's more depth and research in literature.

What a gross misstatement about students' interests. If anything, they should be reading more classics such as Wordsworth and Shakespeare., which takes effort.

This type of narrow minded speaking is killing English as a major area of study.

+1, DS loves literature, but his college’s English department is all-out Hostile against offering non Renaissance/victorian or medieval literature. In a given semester, less than 3 American English courses are offered but British writers can’t be escaped.

English is bleeding students to other humanities social sciences, because it simply hasn’t adapted with the time. It used to be a fun radical study in close reading, but those students are leaving to black/queer/American studies. Comparative literature requires you to engage with international audiences in a way that English simply refuses.

I find it interesting that you are only talking about British v. American literature. It shows a limited understanding of what classes should be the basis of an English major. I guarantee that the school offers a wide variety of global classes or identity based classes.

I doubt anyone that responded has looked at the current course catalogs of SLACs. We have because my junior will be majoring in English. If anything, a Republican would call them "too woke" without enough "tradional" English classes.

My junior is looking at LAC and SLACs as an English major. We have yet to find a school like you describe.

[Anonymous]

None of you have ever actually looked at an English department's course catalog.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reflection towards the move of LAC to Science and Math Arts Colleges. These lacs should be embarrassed that their top majors are math, Econ, and Chemistry.

Math and Chem are both foundational to the liberal arts and I’ve found that most students studying them are passionate. Chem gets some pre-meds, but they are still good at LACs.

I agree with Econ. If done right, Econ can totally be part of a liberal arts college. However, most Econ programs at LACs now just serve as dumbed down pre-finance programs for dude bro athletes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reflection towards the move of LAC to Science and Math Arts Colleges. These lacs should be embarrassed that their top majors are math, Econ, and Chemistry.

That's nothing new. From a 1964 Amherst College admissions brochure:

"Since we seek diversification in terms of interest and achievements, candidates whose greatest strength is in mathematics or science (including medicine) face a more competitive admission situation than students in the non-sciences. About 70 per cent of our applicants seem to be tentatively headed for math-science majors, but we try to give about half the places in the class to men aiming for math-science areas and half to all other areas."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Students are bored by reading nothing but Wordsworth and Shakespeare, and I don't blame them. There's more depth and research in literature.

What a gross misstatement about students' interests. If anything, they should be reading more classics such as Wordsworth and Shakespeare., which takes effort.

This type of narrow minded speaking is killing English as a major area of study.

+1, DS loves literature, but his college’s English department is all-out Hostile against offering non Renaissance/victorian or medieval literature. In a given semester, less than 3 American English courses are offered but British writers can’t be escaped.

English is bleeding students to other humanities social sciences, because it simply hasn’t adapted with the time. It used to be a fun radical study in close reading, but those students are leaving to black/queer/American studies. Comparative literature requires you to engage with international audiences in a way that English simply refuses.

I find it interesting that you are only talking about British v. American literature. It shows a limited understanding of what classes should be the basis of an English major. I guarantee that the school offers a wide variety of global classes or identity based classes.

I doubt anyone that responded has looked at the current course catalogs of SLACs. We have because my junior will be majoring in English. If anything, a Republican would call them "too woke" without enough "tradional" English classes.

My junior is looking at LAC and SLACs as an English major. We have yet to find a school like you describe.

Mine goes the the Claremont colleges and there is hardly any “woke” English courses. There’s over 5 Shakespeare adjacent courses next year, multiple Wordsworth courses, and only a few demographic courses (Asian American lit)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Students are bored by reading nothing but Wordsworth and Shakespeare, and I don't blame them. There's more depth and research in literature.

No student is "reading nothing but Wordsworth and Shakespeare."

Let me guess: you haven't read a book in years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Students are bored by reading nothing but Wordsworth and Shakespeare, and I don't blame them. There's more depth and research in literature.

No student is "reading nothing but Wordsworth and Shakespeare."

Let me guess: you haven't read a book in years.

You definitely could: https://hyperschedule.io" target="_new" rel="nofollow"> https://hyperschedule.io Put English into the query and you can see how much of the curriculum is driven by traditional English topics and authors.

[Anonymous]

Williams had a wonderful English department when I attended during the 1990’s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Williams had a wonderful English department when I attended during the 1990’s.

Welcome to the 21st century, then. It's resoundingly mediocre.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the life of me...why does psychology continue to be such a popular major?

Like psychologists, students who major in psychology overwhelmingly suffer from one or more mental illnesses.

There is an epidemic of mental illness amongst American teens at present.

Hence, psychology is increasingly popular.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Students are bored by reading nothing but Wordsworth and Shakespeare, and I don't blame them. There's more depth and research in literature.

God our society could use some talent outside Shakespeare. He’s simply over studied and destroying students’ desire to read more advanced literature. DD has had required Shakespeare since 6th grade every year and has gained absolutely nothing from it.

Maybe put that in DD's college app. "I read Shakespeare every year and gained absolutely nothing from it." Would make DD stand out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reflection towards the move of LAC to Science and Math Arts Colleges. These lacs should be embarrassed that their top majors are math, Econ, and Chemistry.

Math and Chem are both foundational to the liberal arts and I’ve found that most students studying them are passionate. Chem gets some pre-meds, but they are still good at LACs.

I agree with Econ. If done right, Econ can totally be part of a liberal arts college. However, most Econ programs at LACs now just serve as dumbed down pre-finance programs for dude bro athletes.

I was an idiot con major at Williams, and Econ is definitely not a dumbed down program. Lots of the students you describe ended up majoring in psychology. One of the best parts about being an Econ major there is you can take classes at their center for developmental economics (a grad program that ends up with many finance ministers from developing countries). While requiring lots of work, the classes were fascinating and tied in nicely with political economy classes, too. Ironically, I did end up going into finance on wall st, but didn’t have that goal initially and hate when Econ majors get stereotyped to that. Econ is definitely not an easy major there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reflection towards the move of LAC to Science and Math Arts Colleges. These lacs should be embarrassed that their top majors are math, Econ, and Chemistry.

Math and Chem are both foundational to the liberal arts and I’ve found that most students studying them are passionate. Chem gets some pre-meds, but they are still good at LACs.

I agree with Econ. If done right, Econ can totally be part of a liberal arts college. However, most Econ programs at LACs now just serve as dumbed down pre-finance programs for dude bro athletes.

I was an idiot con major at Williams, and Econ is definitely not a dumbed down program. Lots of the students you describe ended up majoring in psychology. One of the best parts about being an Econ major there is you can take classes at their center for developmental economics (a grad program that ends up with many finance ministers from developing countries). While requiring lots of work, the classes were fascinating and tied in nicely with political economy classes, too. Ironically, I did end up going into finance on wall st, but didn’t have that goal initially and hate when Econ majors get stereotyped to that. Econ is definitely not an easy major there.

I don’t think they meant that Econ is a non-rigorous degree, but it really has stopped being a liberal arts one for many of these colleges.

The worst offender is Claremont McKenna College, which is a great institution, but essentially a trade business school that happens to dabble in other subjects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reflection towards the move of LAC to Science and Math Arts Colleges. These lacs should be embarrassed that their top majors are math, Econ, and Chemistry.

Math and Chem are both foundational to the liberal arts and I’ve found that most students studying them are passionate. Chem gets some pre-meds, but they are still good at LACs.

I agree with Econ. If done right, Econ can totally be part of a liberal arts college. However, most Econ programs at LACs now just serve as dumbed down pre-finance programs for dude bro athletes.

I was an idiot con major at Williams, and Econ is definitely not a dumbed down program. Lots of the students you describe ended up majoring in psychology. One of the best parts about being an Econ major there is you can take classes at their center for developmental economics (a grad program that ends up with many finance ministers from developing countries). While requiring lots of work, the classes were fascinating and tied in nicely with political economy classes, too. Ironically, I did end up going into finance on wall st, but didn’t have that goal initially and hate when Econ majors get stereotyped to that. Econ is definitely not an easy major there.

I don’t think they meant that Econ is a non-rigorous degree, but it really has stopped being a liberal arts one for many of these colleges.

The worst offender is Claremont McKenna College, which is a great institution, but essentially a trade business school that happens to dabble in other subjects.

claremont mckenna scores high on salaries and roi.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reflection towards the move of LAC to Science and Math Arts Colleges. These lacs should be embarrassed that their top majors are math, Econ, and Chemistry.

Math and Chem are both foundational to the liberal arts and I’ve found that most students studying them are passionate. Chem gets some pre-meds, but they are still good at LACs.

I agree with Econ. If done right, Econ can totally be part of a liberal arts college. However, most Econ programs at LACs now just serve as dumbed down pre-finance programs for dude bro athletes.

I was an idiot con major at Williams, and Econ is definitely not a dumbed down program. Lots of the students you describe ended up majoring in psychology. One of the best parts about being an Econ major there is you can take classes at their center for developmental economics (a grad program that ends up with many finance ministers from developing countries). While requiring lots of work, the classes were fascinating and tied in nicely with political economy classes, too. Ironically, I did end up going into finance on wall st, but didn’t have that goal initially and hate when Econ majors get stereotyped to that. Econ is definitely not an easy major there.

I don’t think they meant that Econ is a non-rigorous degree, but it really has stopped being a liberal arts one for many of these colleges.

The worst offender is Claremont McKenna College, which is a great institution, but essentially a trade business school that happens to dabble in other subjects.

claremont mckenna scores high on salaries and roi.

It's a great trade school.