Open curriculum colleges

[Anonymous]

Make sure she really is smarter than the school, and not just aimless. Schools aren't stupid, and offer a lot of majors and minors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:University of Rochester
https://www.rochester.edu/about/curriculum.html

+1

My kid loves the cluster/open curriculum---in engineering so not as much "openness" as a Arts&Sciences degree. But it is a place where kids truly take courses for the love of learning---and don't have to take a history course specifically for "core curriculum" unless it interests them.

[Anonymous]

If you want to focus on a concentration and not do distribution requirements, go to school in Europe where people get their PhDs 2+ years earlier than in the US because they did all their distribution requirements in high school.

[Anonymous]

Another possibility is to attend a school that's generous with AP/DE credits (usually your in-state public). My DD had most of her distribution requirements met before she started college, and only has a couple of classes left (freshman seminars and maybe 2 others).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bennington
St. Johns New Mexico

St. John’s is the opposite of open curriculum, lol. You have no elective and no ability to specialize/ choose a major.

I think you're think of St John's in MD

Same school, just two different campuses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone.
It still means she gets a degree with a concentration, correct? I am a biy worried of her employability.

Look at Vassar. DC just graduated from Vassar. Your DD should visit, based on what you describe!

Open curriculum: The only "general" requirements are (1) a quantitative course, (2) a first-year writing seminar and (3) language proficiency (which many students can test out of). The quantiative course does not necessarily mean math; it can apply to other courses like certain social sciences, for instance. The writing seminars are extremely wide-ranging. After those three highly flexible requirements, the student has wide choices.
https://offices.vassar.edu/educational-assessment/learning-goals-vassar-degree/
https://www.vassar.edu/admission/explore/academics/

When you say "a degree with a concentration" are you asking if there are majors? Absolutely. And in her major program your DD will have plenty of requirements so it's not as if students are taking whatever, willy-nilly. But it seemed to us (and DC agrees) that it's pretty common for students there have majors and also earn minors (called correlates). DC graduated with a major and two minors and knew several students who, for example, had a science major and an arts minor etc. Think, biochemistry major with a music composition minor, for instance. The open curriculum and lack general college requirements mean students have more flexibility to do minors across different disciplines.

East Coast. Very LGBTQ+ friendly. A lot of student organizations and plenty to do on campus at weekends etc. Not much off-campus life, as the part of the city near campus is quiet with just a handful of restauarants right by Vassar, but there are all the usual movie theaters, malls, etc. and the great historic stuff all over the Hudson Valley.

Also, if this matters to you, nearly 100 percent of students live on campus--there is just not really rental property anywhere near campus plus the lovely campus has sufficient housing. The big benefit is that there is none of the stressful business of having to fight to get a place to live off-campus after freshman or sophomore year like at some huge universities. Really reduced DC's stress, compared to DC's friends at some universities who were booking the next school year's apartments in October of their freshman year and so on. And Vassar housing includes various configurations of townhouses and houses, not just large dorms.

Post if you have any questions, OP, and we'll try to help if your DC is interested.

We are visiting Boston colleges this summer. We will find a way to swing by Vassar. It looks like it checks a lotmof her boxes. Thank you for the thoughtful answer.
Dd loves writing and theater but is looking for a way to indulge her passions and still have a plan B, so is thinking an open curriculum might be the answer. She goes to a smallish school. I wonder how she would fare at a larger college. She is also good at math and I haven’t given up hoping that she will embrace that other side of her.

Have her look at WPI as well as the other choices, since you are heading to Boston. My kid was similar, wanted open curriculum, theater but also had a math side, and WPI was a surprise fit along with other mentioned here.

[Anonymous]

second Wesleyan - my DC was a good,
but not great, high school student, who blossomed into an excellent student at Wes. Running just below a 3.9 GPA heading into senior year, albeit the beneficiary of the school’s rampant grade
inflation - but still a 3.9 is a 3.9. Mostly because he takes courses he likes - which do include hard classes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone.
It still means she gets a degree with a concentration, correct? I am a biy worried of her employability.

Look at Vassar. DC just graduated from Vassar. Your DD should visit, based on what you describe!

Open curriculum: The only "general" requirements are (1) a quantitative course, (2) a first-year writing seminar and (3) language proficiency (which many students can test out of). The quantiative course does not necessarily mean math; it can apply to other courses like certain social sciences, for instance. The writing seminars are extremely wide-ranging. After those three highly flexible requirements, the student has wide choices.
https://offices.vassar.edu/educational-assessment/learning-goals-vassar-degree/
https://www.vassar.edu/admission/explore/academics/

When you say "a degree with a concentration" are you asking if there are majors? Absolutely. And in her major program your DD will have plenty of requirements so it's not as if students are taking whatever, willy-nilly. But it seemed to us (and DC agrees) that it's pretty common for students there have majors and also earn minors (called correlates). DC graduated with a major and two minors and knew several students who, for example, had a science major and an arts minor etc. Think, biochemistry major with a music composition minor, for instance. The open curriculum and lack general college requirements mean students have more flexibility to do minors across different disciplines.

East Coast. Very LGBTQ+ friendly. A lot of student organizations and plenty to do on campus at weekends etc. Not much off-campus life, as the part of the city near campus is quiet with just a handful of restauarants right by Vassar, but there are all the usual movie theaters, malls, etc. and the great historic stuff all over the Hudson Valley.

Also, if this matters to you, nearly 100 percent of students live on campus--there is just not really rental property anywhere near campus plus the lovely campus has sufficient housing. The big benefit is that there is none of the stressful business of having to fight to get a place to live off-campus after freshman or sophomore year like at some huge universities. Really reduced DC's stress, compared to DC's friends at some universities who were booking the next school year's apartments in October of their freshman year and so on. And Vassar housing includes various configurations of townhouses and houses, not just large dorms.

Post if you have any questions, OP, and we'll try to help if your DC is interested.

We are visiting Boston colleges this summer. We will find a way to swing by Vassar. It looks like it checks a lotmof her boxes. Thank you for the thoughtful answer.
Dd loves writing and theater but is looking for a way to indulge her passions and still have a plan B, so is thinking an open curriculum might be the answer. She goes to a smallish school. I wonder how she would fare at a larger college. She is also good at math and I haven’t given up hoping that she will embrace that other side of her.

Have her look at WPI as well as the other choices, since you are heading to Boston. My kid was similar, wanted open curriculum, theater but also had a math side, and WPI was a surprise fit along with other mentioned here.

DP. I would not consider this if theatre is a key aspect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Make sure she really is smarter than the school, and not just aimless. Schools aren't stupid, and offer a lot of majors and minors.

I was actually wondering this... She truly can't decide yet what to focus on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone.
It still means she gets a degree with a concentration, correct? I am a biy worried of her employability.

Look at Vassar. DC just graduated from Vassar. Your DD should visit, based on what you describe!

Open curriculum: The only "general" requirements are (1) a quantitative course, (2) a first-year writing seminar and (3) language proficiency (which many students can test out of). The quantiative course does not necessarily mean math; it can apply to other courses like certain social sciences, for instance. The writing seminars are extremely wide-ranging. After those three highly flexible requirements, the student has wide choices.
https://offices.vassar.edu/educational-assessment/learning-goals-vassar-degree/
https://www.vassar.edu/admission/explore/academics/

When you say "a degree with a concentration" are you asking if there are majors? Absolutely. And in her major program your DD will have plenty of requirements so it's not as if students are taking whatever, willy-nilly. But it seemed to us (and DC agrees) that it's pretty common for students there have majors and also earn minors (called correlates). DC graduated with a major and two minors and knew several students who, for example, had a science major and an arts minor etc. Think, biochemistry major with a music composition minor, for instance. The open curriculum and lack general college requirements mean students have more flexibility to do minors across different disciplines.

East Coast. Very LGBTQ+ friendly. A lot of student organizations and plenty to do on campus at weekends etc. Not much off-campus life, as the part of the city near campus is quiet with just a handful of restauarants right by Vassar, but there are all the usual movie theaters, malls, etc. and the great historic stuff all over the Hudson Valley.

Also, if this matters to you, nearly 100 percent of students live on campus--there is just not really rental property anywhere near campus plus the lovely campus has sufficient housing. The big benefit is that there is none of the stressful business of having to fight to get a place to live off-campus after freshman or sophomore year like at some huge universities. Really reduced DC's stress, compared to DC's friends at some universities who were booking the next school year's apartments in October of their freshman year and so on. And Vassar housing includes various configurations of townhouses and houses, not just large dorms.

Post if you have any questions, OP, and we'll try to help if your DC is interested.

We are visiting Boston colleges this summer. We will find a way to swing by Vassar. It looks like it checks a lotmof her boxes. Thank you for the thoughtful answer.
Dd loves writing and theater but is looking for a way to indulge her passions and still have a plan B, so is thinking an open curriculum might be the answer. She goes to a smallish school. I wonder how she would fare at a larger college. She is also good at math and I haven’t given up hoping that she will embrace that other side of her.

Have her look at WPI as well as the other choices, since you are heading to Boston. My kid was similar, wanted open curriculum, theater but also had a math side, and WPI was a surprise fit along with other mentioned here.

DP. I would not consider this if theatre is a key aspect.

Theatre has been a god send to her, so yes a key aspect. I thought WPI was mainly a STEM school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want to focus on a concentration and not do distribution requirements, go to school in Europe where people get their PhDs 2+ years earlier than in the US because they did all their distribution requirements in high school.

I would love for her to attend school in Europe, but alas, not much positive reaction from her. I did undergrad in Europe and liked it a lot, plus it is cheaper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone.
It still means she gets a degree with a concentration, correct? I am a biy worried of her employability.

Open curriculum allows a student to focus more on a concentration with less distribution requirements. This is why people at brown are so happy.

That’s actually the opposite of the reason Brown does it. It’s so students can explore and the perfect brown student is a polymath who has widely varying interests. They tout how no one is in a class they don’t want to be in.

I imagine it’s the same reason other schools do it, but I only have experience with Brown.

Op here. I definitely think of dd as a polymath. How to demonstrate her varying interests beyond just good grades???

My kid is a polymath. I think it showed in his application with the varied classes and clubs. He also mentioned it in his essay. He was also looking for open curriculum schools. He'll be attending Grinnell. The good thing about Grinnell and possibly other open curriculum colleges is that while the curriculum is open when you get to a certain point they make you start limiting your focus with a focus on getting a job after college. My kid may have run the risk of just taking whatever sounded good that semester without thinking of the end game.

thanks!

[Anonymous]

How about Hampshire college?

[Anonymous]

Liberal education is great! But it can expensive to do that and then study something more specific later.

Steve Jobs sat in a calligraphy class in college and that's why Macs are great computers.

If you want to be a Heather Davis who gets kicked out of college after passing every course offered, and you can afford it, enjoy.

But (student), don't let your college opportunity pass you by and run the clock out before you figure out what's important to you to study to prepare for rest of your life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want to focus on a concentration and not do distribution requirements, go to school in Europe where people get their PhDs 2+ years earlier than in the US because they did all their distribution requirements in high school.

Or never did distribution requirements at all, as in the UK where they study only 3 subjects the last two years of high school.