Applications & Admissions

Potential applicants must submit a ten-part special concentrations application. The Commettee meets three times a year (September, January, and May) to review applications. In accepting students into the concentration the committee looks for evidence of the proposed plan's coherence and depth as a concentration and its adequacy as part of an undergraduate education in the liberal arts. Students must also provide certification from the department most closely related to their proposal that their plan of study cannot be pursued within an existing department.

Central to a successful proposal is the finding of a Faculty Adviser who can provide strong support for the student's plans. The Faculty Adviser should be willing to assume quasi-departmental responsibility for advising the student; tutoring him/her or finding a colleague willing to tutor him/her; discussing course selection and signing his/her study card each term; approving changes in his/her Plan of Study; arranging for thesis readings; setting and grading the general examination; and writing letters of recommendation. Ordinarily, the Faculty Adviser must be a voting member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and should be available for the duration of a student's career as a Special Concentrator.