Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Reply to comment

sophomores' review

Submitted by lkuswanto on Tue, 12/08/2009 - 12:28pm.

1.   By sophomores:

Have the divisional requirements encouraged you to take classes you otherwise would not have?

2.     The divisional requirements...

3.       Would you be able to summarize the mission statement?

4.       How necessary do you think the mission statement is?

5.       Overall, has the curriculum been a positive or negative factor in your academic experience at Bryn Mawr?

6.       Any other comments you would like to share about the current curriculum?

-       Division II and Q are a huge pain to fulfill. Division I and III have a large overlap but there's no way to search for Q classes when creating a wish list. A science or math-oriented person can pass a Division I or III class with little effort since those divisions grade according to class participation and input as well as papers and such. With Division II and especially Q's, either you get or you don't.
Also, Q selection sucks. Either you have to take multiple classes to fulfill both II and Q or you're stuck taking Comp Sci or Calculus. The Lab/II/Q requirement combo is a pain. I don't need to take a lab and finding II/Q without the lab is troublesome. – Anonymous

-       The current construct of the curriculum strives to give a broad base of knowledge while still focusing on individual interests. It is the reason we are at a liberal arts college as opposed to a technical college or other more focused form of education. - Anonymous

7.       Do you think the college should re-write the curriculum?

8.       Do you have any suggestions for a new curriculum? What would you like to see?

-       Something more flexible. – Anonymous

-       I think they should ease up on II/lab/Q and make it two out of three and offer more variety for those of us not mathematically inclined. Tuition is so expensive that it sucks wasting money on classes we don't enjoy or won't be needing in our careers. I could be using those class hours to investigate possible majors/minors/concentrations.
It's bad enough many departments have been suffering from budget cuts. Last thing I need is to be taking sucky classes to fulfill requirements and then taking sucky classes for my major because I couldn't take the classes I wanted to because that part of my schedule was filled by classes I was forced to take.- Anonymous