A Student's Course of Study
The Middlebury College curriculum guides students towards a liberal arts ideal while also inspiring them to seek certain courses or areas of study. The curriculum is designed to ensure that each student’s education includes a certain breadth of experience, as well as in-depth study in one area defined by the major. Breadth is achieved through a set of distribution requirements that encompass seven academic categories and four courses in different cultures and civilizations. There are also other general requirements, which we see as opportunities, providing the chance to explore new areas of inquiry. In all of these areas students have a broad range of choices.
First-Year Seminar: Each student elects one seminar for first-year students during his or her first semester. These seminars are intimately sized, thematic courses designed to explore an area of intellectual inquiry from a perspective that makes connections among a number of traditional academic disciplines. They have an intensive writing component, and the instructors also serve as academic advisers for their seminar students, continuing in that function until students choose a major and major adviser in their second year.
College Writing Course: By the end of the sophomore year, every student must complete one course from among the College writing courses, offered in many different fields, to develop their writing skills further.
Physical Education Requirement: Middlebury has a physical education program that stresses lifetime sports—those sports that can be enjoyed long after one’s college days are past. Students are expected to participate in two seasons of lifetime sports through a program of instruction.
DISTRIBUTION REQUIREMENTS
Academic Categories: Each student must take at least one course in seven of the following eight categories: literature, the arts, philosophical and religious studies, historical studies, physical and life sciences, deductive reasoning and analytical processes, social analysis, and foreign languages.
Cultures and Civilizations: Students should have broad educational exposure to the variety of the world’s cultures and civilizations. Each student must take at least one course in each of the following four categories: Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean; Europe; northern America; and the process of comparison between and among cultures and civilizations, or the identity and experience of separable groups within cultures and civilizations.
Independent study courses do not qualify for distribution requirements.
THE MAJOR
Students must select a major by the end of their third semester. Most departmental majors have great flexibility and encourage interdisciplinary work. Students also may choose to undertake a second major. There are also established interdisciplinary programs, such as American studies, environmental studies, international politics and economics, international studies, and women’s and gender studies. Students may also design a joint major, which combines two fields of study. In addition, Middlebury has an independent scholar program for those students whose talents and interests clearly can best be developed through programs they design themselves.
There are 45 different established majors in all the academic departments and in the interdisciplinary programs. All majors require at least 10 courses and encourage or require independent work during the senior year. In addition, Middlebury offers special advising so that students may take the appropriate courses to prepare for graduate or professional school in architecture, business administration, dentistry, engineering, law, medicine, nursing, and veterinary medicine.
Minor: Students may elect to complete voluntary minors as another means of obtaining curricular breadth. A minor is crafted from five or more courses in a department or program, including at least one course at an advanced level. One minor may be elected when the student is undertaking an interdisciplinary or joint major, and up to two minors may be elected when undertaking a departmental major. However, no minors are allowed (except teacher education) when a student undertakes two majors. Although there is no major in teacher education, our education program provides a minor in either elementary (K–6) or secondary (7–12) education leading to licensure in the state of Vermont, which is also reciprocated in most other states. Our education program also offers a minor in education without licensure.
THE FOUR-ONE-FOUR CURRICULUM
The pattern of a single year at Middlebury consists of a fall semester of 13 weeks, ending in December at winter vacation; a winter term of 4 weeks in January; and a spring semester of 13 weeks, ending in mid-May. In the fall and spring semesters, the typical course load is four courses, but students may take three or, with permission, five courses in a semester. This allows students to vary their academic load in light of the overall pattern of their educational program. In the winter term, students take a single intensive course.
The winter term opens up special teaching and learning possibilities at the College. Faculty can try new ventures that do not fit easily into a fall or spring semester course structure, and students have the opportunity to explore new fields of study. New areas of a discipline, special interests, or unusual methodologies may be the focus of an experimental course. Each winter term, a number of courses are offered by visiting faculty who may be artists, professionals, or distinguished scholars from other institutions. Some Middlebury faculty members take advantage of the concentrated schedule by teaching off-campus winter term courses that take students abroad or elsewhere in the U.S. This intensely concentrated term allows students to gain great efficiency in learning as they study a single problem or body of material.
Options other than standard courses are also open to students during winter term. Extensive possibilities exist for qualified students to pursue independent study projects, either on campus or elsewhere. Students are also permitted to take ungraded internships for credit in various professional areas, including law, medicine, architecture, journalism, social work, and teaching. Internships may be local or away from Middlebury, but all involve significant exposure to the essential work of a profession. Student-led courses permit small groups of students to study under the guidance of one of their peers who has exhibited expertise in an area not included in regular semester programs.