Colleges that lean towards Humanities

[Anonymous]

I think of Princeton and Yale as being exceptionally robust unis for humanities, too.

[Anonymous]

What about Swarthmore?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yale
Brown
Duke
UChicago
Dartmouth
Williams
Amherst
Davidson
Middlebury

Pluck off Williams, and this is a great list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yale
Brown
Duke
UChicago
Dartmouth
Williams
Amherst
Davidson
Middlebury

Pluck off Williams, and this is a great list.

I’m old, but I have always looked at Williams to be a stronghold in certain humanities such as Art History. Are the students there not interested in the humanities anymore?

[Anonymous]

Columbia

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think of Princeton and Yale as being exceptionally robust unis for humanities, too.

Maybe add Columbia. If they had had early action instead of early decision, DC might have well ended up there. Was very attracted to the core curriculum. But is currently at one of the other two enjoying an embarrassment of riches in the humanities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yale
Brown
Duke
UChicago
Dartmouth
Williams
Amherst
Davidson
Middlebury

Pluck off Williams, and this is a great list.

I’m old, but I have always looked at Williams to be a stronghold in certain humanities such as Art History. Are the students there not interested in the humanities anymore?

Not at all. Even art history enrollment is collapsing under a new generation more fascinated by math and economics. It's a good school, but it is not the place for the kind of student who struggles with lack of community in the humanities. Amherst has played the game a lot better and gotten a more diverse profile of student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yale
Brown
Duke
UChicago
Dartmouth
Williams
Amherst
Davidson
Middlebury

Pluck off Williams, and this is a great list.

I’m old, but I have always looked at Williams to be a stronghold in certain humanities such as Art History. Are the students there not interested in the humanities anymore?

Not at all. Even art history enrollment is collapsing under a new generation more fascinated by math and economics. It's a good school, but it is not the place for the kind of student who struggles with lack of community in the humanities. Amherst has played the game a lot better and gotten a more diverse profile of student.

Williams is still great for art history. It’s just (with only slight exaggeration) every other kid is an econ or CS major, and every third kid is an econ major who is an athlete.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think of Princeton and Yale as being exceptionally robust unis for humanities, too.

Yale, maybe. But Princeton has basically turned into an engineering school…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yale
Brown
Duke
UChicago
Dartmouth
Williams
Amherst
Davidson
Middlebury

Pluck off Williams, and this is a great list.

Agree. Great list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about Swarthmore?

Way too STEM-y. Trending even more so with 30% first gens, which is laudable but first-gens disproportionately skew STEM+Econ.

[Anonymous]

An interesting amount of their faculty graduated from the Claremont Colleges, likely because Scripps and Pitzer are known for very strong arts programs.

Most top liberal arts colleges have a lot of arts resources and not enough students using them!

[Anonymous]

No engineering, agriculture, or med school at Indiana University-Bloomington. So if you are into the arts or humanities, you aren’t alone there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For flagships, look up the enrollment size of the liberal arts college. Compare it to the size of the engineering college and the size of the business college.

Look at humanities degrees awarded (and social sciences if you believe econ, psych, and poli sci major count to offset STEM-centricity).

I went to Penn State (Honors College) and transferred to Pitt after freshman year. Pitt was very humanities and social science focused, and I was happy there. At Penn State, Liberal Arts was the least prestigious college and there was little curriculum support for Honors College students in those majors.

My grad degree is in business from Michigan. Michigan has a large variety of majors in LSA. There are only a few graduates in some of them. But LSA is a great option for undergrads. My DC is there now and I'm envious every time I look through his course selection opportunities.

I would look at English major counts as a reasonable proxy for strength in the humanities. Also the number of foreign language majors summed across languages.

And then, consider the number of majors in your child's intended field.

I would use 30 to 50 degrees a year at a flagship as an indication of a somewhat intimate program. When there are only a handful, it's very important the school is a great fit and the faculty are a great fit. Online research usually gives faculty bios and links to publications.

My son is heading to Pitt for "Arts and Sciences". He is looking forward to it. Dietrich is the largest college at Pitt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:St John's. Then a miscellaney of small Christian schools. Liberal arts elsewhere have the name, but very little of the substance. Autoethnography abounds.

I agree with this. There's a substantial number of small Christian schools that care very much about the liberal arts as historically defined, and that means they value the humanities.