Curriculum Middlebury’s curriculum is designed to ensure that your education includes breadth of experience across many fields and disciplines, as well as in-depth study in one area defined by the major. An emphasis on writing in all disciplines sharpens students’ capacity for critical thinking and expression. go/requirements Majors/Minors: A major is the area of study in which you take the most courses—at least ten—and the area you explore in the greatest depth. Each department has designed its major to ensure that students not only learn key content, but that you learn the methodologies, languages, and modes of thinking and expression that characterize that discipline.You may also choose to pursue a minor area of study. Less comprehensive than a major, a minor is a cluster of courses designed to give you a basic level of proficiency in a particular field. It is
also possible to pursue a joint major that combines and synthesizes two areas of study, or to pursue two separate majors, but these paths require considerable planning with your advisor. Distribution Requirements: To ensure breadth of learning in our liberal arts curriculum, students must take classes in seven of eight different academic categories: literature; the arts; philosophical and religious studies; historical studies; physical and life sciences; deductive reasoning and analytical processes; social analysis; and foreign language. You are also required to complete one course in each of these four categories: Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and the Caribbean; Europe; North America; and a course comparing cultures and civilizations, or on the identity and experience of separable groups within cultures.
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